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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 April - 3 May 2000 Issue No. 479 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 April - 3 May 2000 Issue No. 479
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Special Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Too little, too late
By Mohamed KhaledAlarm bells were sounded in March: 16 million people in the Horn of Africa are at risk of starvation -- an estimated eight million of them in Ethiopia alone. By early April, 100,000 in Djibouti, 367,000 in Eritrea, 1.5 million in Somalia and 1.7 million in Sudan were also affected. Vulnerable population groups, such as refugees and internally displaced people in northern Kenya, Uganda and Burundi are also threatened by starvation.
Yet despite the early-warning mechanisms and international calls for efficient disaster-preparedness programmes, wealthy nations have failed to come to the rescue. In Ethiopia, the worst-hit country, an effective early-warning system has been operating for more than 10 years. The Ethiopian government and Ethiopian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) noted the imminence of famine due to drought conditions several months ago. Even as early as July 1999, warnings of an impending food shortage led to appeals for international aid to supplement the grain reserves. Sporadic reports by international media and aid groups voiced fears about a looming disaster, but few resources trickled in.
According to relief workers, food supplies need to be in place within the next 10 weeks in order to address conditions later this year. Ironically, if the long summer rains do arrive, the roads will become impassable and rural areas will be inaccessible. The matter has again raised the issue of a missing link between early-warning systems and actual early response. It seems that the world has to see skeletons on their screens before international aid starts pouring in. But some observers say that internal politics have contributed to the slow response, particularly in the case of Ethiopia.
Linking the famine to Ethiopia's war with Eritrea has become an issue in itself -- and a many-faceted one at that. Western donor-nations have expressed concern about humanitarian aid being diverted to the war effort, although international agencies have affirmed that the conflict is contained at the border and that no aid has been misused.
Ethiopian officials suspect that Western protests against the war with Eritrea are an excuse to cover a slow response to the crisis. Observers contend that it is important not to make too much of the conflict, particularly at the expense of aid, since at present there is no fighting going on. Although the situation remains tense, the Ethiopian government is spending only a third of what it once was on the war effort.
Ethiopian President Negasso Gidada appealed to the international community and aid agencies to refrain from "politicising" the drought, asking them instead to focus on a solution to the problem at hand. "Our government is giving special attention to the immediate task of addressing the needs of our drought-affected people and containing the spread of [this] emergency situation."
But a sceptical and idle international community is not the whole story; internal factors and complications have also taken their toll. "Due to management and logistical problems, urgently needed food sometimes takes eight weeks to get to the starving of drought-stricken Ethiopia," said Judith Lewis, director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Ethiopia.
NGOs face lengthy procedures for obtaining permits and are hampered by restrictions on the number of authorised vehicles and communication facilities. Air links are problematic and overland trips are usually lengthy and dangerous over poor roads. Moreover, relief workers often have difficulties tracking down nomads in need. "We don't even know where they live; they just move from one place to the other until they come to a site where assistance is available. Only then can we start getting our arms around what their needs are," said Lewis.
Apart from bureaucratic and logistical problems, security remains the major concern, with two armed separatist movements -- the Ogaden National Liberation Front and the Al-Ittihad Al-Islami (Islamic Union) -- in the area. After the kidnapping last year of a relief worker and an attack in February on a relief agency convoy, authorities have been limiting the movement of aid workers.
Drought in developed countries rarely turns into a disaster, but in the case of Africa, most of the inhabitants live at a precarious subsistence level and can be pushed over the edge by the smallest crisis. The process of containing the situation under a relief emergency programme -- primarily the distribution of food aid -- is only the first stage. Traditional recovery programmes usually entail a second phase, called draught recovery, which includes replacing lost livestock and distributing seeds and tools. After this, international agencies tend to move on, without helping to implement the necessary systems that would avert further disasters.
A comprehensive, long-term development programme means addressing improved techniques of water and resource management and a more stable infrastructure. But as President Gidada has pointed out, the essential control of water resources through construction of dams and irrigation projects requires foreign loans. Unnecessarily strict preconditions for borrowing has made it impossible for poor countries to secure such loans.
"Those forces who wish our country to be spared the drought disaster and to achieve food self-sufficiency must put pressure on those lending organisations," Gidada said.
