Ethiopia: Chronic Food Insecurity and the Dilemma of Food Aid

... food charity must be progressively abandoned in favour of "help to stand up" policy or help for self assistance. According to Wade, instead of food handouts, Africa needs fertilisers, pesticides, irrigation equipments; tractors, technology, and access to global market place on equal standing, for sale of its products (Garrett, May 2008). If the rich countries fail to immediately address such real concerns of the poor countries of the world, their continued aid would not be viewed differently from a crocodile tears. While such aid programmes save lives temporarily they perpetuate dependency and kill many more lives in the future. If rich countries are really concerned about the chronic food insecurity of poor countries, the aid should focus on increasing the local agricultural production capacity and bring an end to dependency on food aid. The food aid should not be seen as an end in itself. It should serve as a means to bring sustainable solution to poverty and food insecurity in poor countries. [Read More]

Rethinking Food Security in Humanitarian Response [Report]

Humanitarian crises with food security dimensions are increasing in frequency, scope and complexity. There is a growing reservoir of vulnerable states, characterized by fragile economies and by livelihoods pursued by economically and physiologically vulnerable people. Shocks are not independent drivers of food crises—they are part of the underlying problems to be resolved in the development process. Coping capacities continue to be eroded through the combined effects of ill health, undernutrition and deep poverty which lay communities open to vagaries of climate, global market conditions, epidemics or the traumas linked with contested ownership of natural and other resources.

The drivers of future crises will not all be the same as in the past. Even if fewer people are dying in emergencies than a decade ago, a growing number are affected, and this links to chronic food insecurity and impaired development. The rising scale of impacts is linked to the concentration of poor people in vulnerable locations. In addition, new challenges arise. Climate change is likely to aggravate existing production and consumption constraints in food insecure countries. Shifts in ecosystems, increased climatic shocks, and the emergence of new or renewed crop, livestock and human diseases all pose threats to food supply, marketing (cross-border trade), and rural income streams. Current food (and fuel) prices are cause for concern, requiring attention to resource constraints for humanitarian action, appropriate policy and programmatic responses to new populations in need, and planning for a future in which many more people may have inadequate consumption. [Read More]

GOAL responds to Ethiopia food crisis

GOAL works in three areas in Sidama, where the rains were due in February, but to date there has been zero rainfall and there is no clear timeline as to when the next rainfall will arrive. The government has supplied 3 water tankers but 2 are not working due to mechanical problems. There are 100's of people queuing for up to 18 hours per day for water tankered in by the government vehicles. [Read more]

Coffee in Ethiopia

COFFEE prices are the highest they have been for a decade. As consumers in India and China develop a taste for the drink, prices are likely to keep rising. Meanwhile something new is happening in developed markets. Europeans, Americans and Japanese are switching to higher-quality coffee. Discerning consumers now demand authenticity: they want stories about where their coffee beans come from. So the best coffees will increasingly be differentiated, like fine wines and spirits, and sold at previously unthinkable prices. [Read more]

IMF slashes world growth forecast

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that the world economy will grow much more slowly in the next two years as a result of the credit crunch. In its latest economic forecast, the IMF says that world economic growth will slow to 3.7% in 2008 and 2009, 1.25% lower than growth in 2007. The downturn will be led by the US, which the IMF believes will go into a "mild recession" this year. [Read More].

What lessons have donors and policymakers learnt from the famines in Ethiopia?

(Source: ID_21)

Ethiopia experienced periods of famine in 1999-2000 and 2002-2003. While droughts triggered these crises, many other factors contributed. However, there is little agreement about how to address the long-term causes of famine; emergency food aid remains the primary response by the government and donors.

Researchers from Tufts University in the USA examine how people in different regions of Ethiopia have responded to persistent famines. In the highlands of Ethiopia, the risk of famine is recognised and early warning systems (EWS) are now in place to track food availability and rainfall.

.... Donors have also focussed on providing food aid during acute crises, with less attention on longer-term development efforts. Furthermore, pastoralists and other minority groups have little political influence: areas of strong government support have received more attention and assistance.

.... While donors have committed to supporting short-term relief programmes during crises, there is little funding for rural development so that people can become self-sufficient again. The underlying causes of famine, and the political marginalisation of vulnerable groups, are not being addressed by donors or the government. [Read More]

Is Kenya heading to a genocide?

Kenya's history has been plagued by politics and ethnicity being closely intertwined and one particular trouble - ethnic hatred. And it seems every regime that comes wants to exploit this weird relationship to maintain power. If there existed tribal or ethnic differences in pre-colonial days, the British came to entrench them and this they did at Kenya's independence in 1963 by influencing the constitution for self-government along ethnic lines. [Read More]

New Sidama Music Release

Fichchee - Sidama's New Year

Fichchee, Sidama's New Year will be celebrated as of Monday night (8 October 2007). Canbalaalla will be celebrated for weeks starting Tuesday morning. Sidamas in diaspora and Sidamaland are expected to celebrate Fichchee event based on a unique lunar calendar. [Read More]

There are no people called “Sidamo”: stop the use of “Sidamo” misnomer

Time and again the Sidama people have rejected the use of the derogatory term “Sidamo”. The term was a deliberate fabrication by the invading Abyssinian soldiers of King Minelik as part of the campaign to humiliate, undermine and subjugate the newly conquered territories in the South of the country. [Read More]

Sidamaland - Coffee Economics, Politics and Poverty

Over the last two centuries many countries of the world have developed at a breakneck speed. However, after half a century of decolonization, Africa still remains the darkest continent and the majority of its people still live under abject poverty. Half of the 800 million people on the African continent live on less than US$1 per day while the mortality rate of children under five years of age is 140 per 1000. Only 58 percent of the population had access to safe water. The rate of illiteracy for people over 15 is 41 percent and there are only 18 mainline telephones per 1000 people compared with 146 for the world and 567 for developed countries (NEPAD, 2001). [Read More]