Threat of large emergencies still looming, UN

It was a response of unparalleled magnitude. As more than 13 million people faced starvation in Ethiopia, an enormous relief operation was mounted. However, according to a United Nations report released on Monday, Ethiopia is threatened by larger emergencies because of growing vulnerability in the country. The 67-page study warns that many of the root causes of this increasing vulnerability and destitution are still going unchecked today. "Efforts to address some of these issues are already underway," the report said, which is an evaluation of the response to the 2002-2003 crisis. "However many of the issues are not being addressed at all or with such low investments that negative trends are not likely to be reversed." Without urgent action on subjects like population growth, large-scale environmental degradation and existing land policies, the potential for situations to spiral out of control will persist. "A failure to address these issues will only guarantee the continued need to respond to future droughts and crisis in an emergency mode with ever increasing resource requirement," it said. "There is no guarantee that the high level of donor assistance will be repeated in future crises," the study further warned. "As population pressures continue to build on the available agricultural and pastoral land resources, per capita production is declining and food insecurity increasing." Over 1.5 million mt of food aid was shipped into Ethiopia during an 18-month crisis, which the UN said was the largest food-relief effort undertaken on the continent ever. The report, compiled by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in conjunction with the government, added: "This was not an unprecedented drought. Yet more than 13 million people were in need of urgent humanitarian assistance". The study made 87 recommendations. Among them are strengthening government health and water ministries, while at the same time ensuring a national nutrition policy. Ethiopia is one of the poorest nations on earth. While in the last 20 years the population has almost doubled to 70 million people – and continues to grow by two million a year – per capita incomes were cut in half. The country is straddled by massive debt. The population of mainly subsistence farmers, who live outside of urban centres, are dependent on rain-fed agriculture. Even in good years and bumper harvests, five million people remain dependent on western aid. OCHA said the pressure on dwindling farm plots is now at a breaking point. "Alternative livelihood strategies must be found for many of the rural poor, including out-of-area employment opportunities," OCHA said. "Urgent strategies are needed for planned and supported small town development and ultimately urbanisation and industrialisation. “This is required because of the decline in per capital food production from peasant agriculture and increasing levels of rural destitution,” it added. “The limits of household food security may have been reached in many subsistence-farming communities." The Food and Agriculture Organisation said earlier this year that the country recorded a 13 million mt bumper harvest, yet seven million people still remained dependent on food aid handouts. Weak internal markets in the country often mean surplus-producing areas cannot sell foodstuffs to parts of the country where there are shortages. Martti Ahtisaari, the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Special Envoy for the Humanitarian Crisis in the Horn of Africa, told IRIN on Sunday that the key issues must addressed as soon as possible. "You have to look at the other factors that are contributing to dependency," he said during a two-day trip to Ethiopia, where the report was unveiled. "I think we need to worry because we are talking about millions of human lives." "This is not a short term position, we have to take a long term view," he told IRIN. The government has already launched the US $3.2 billion, five-year New Coalition for Food Security strategy that aims to end hunger for up to 15 million people. There is a new approach within the coalition towards using food aid to boost development by encouraging people to work, rather than just rely on handouts. Called productive safety nets, the government plans to launch the scheme for five million people in January. Ahtisaari praised initiatives by the government, adding that current donor government relationships ensured better and more effective use of aid. He also pointed out that the sophisticated relief systems put in place by the government had averted millions of deaths by ensuring aid got to those in need. But, he stressed, food aid alone will not help. The report said despite the successes of the relief effort in 2002/2203, there was no room for complacency. "No one wants to be dependent forever," Ahtisaari said. "But sustainable development takes time - it also takes a long time to recover from the 1984/85 famine. It leaves marks for a long time." The report can be found at: www.reliefweb.int