The 2015–2016 famine threat in Ethiopia: a study of the relevance of famine archetypes (original) (raw)
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In 2017, the UN raised the alarm on famines in North-east Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen. Starvation has been used as a weapon of war in Syria, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo currently has among the largest numbers of severely food-insecure people of any country assessed by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system. Each of these sites of mass starvation or famine can be understood as a ‘political marketplace’. They are characterised by the dominance of transactional politics over public institutions, and elite politics is conducted for factional or personal political advantage, on the basis of monetised patronage. This paper examines the relationship between these systems of transactional politics and famine and other forms of mass starvation, and outlines the implications of the political marketplace framework for humanitarian action. It argues that both transactional politics and mass starvation emerge from particular political-economic con...
Environment and Planning A
This article takes the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) scale and its use in the declaration of famine in Somalia in July 2011 as a site for examining how the spatial imaginary and emplaced, affective registers of emergency are implicated in marking situations as spaces of humanitarian emergency, or not. The IPC scale is described and its role in removing the affective registers of crisis discussed in relation to the normalisation of the conditions constituting a classification of IPC Phase 4, ‘Humanitarian Emergency’, in Somalia. This is contrasted to the urgent mobilisation of humanitarian action following the reclassification of Somalia’s food insecurity situation to IPC Phase 5, ‘Famine’. It is argued that the IPC phase reclassification, by enacting a moment of rupture, led the normalised space of food insecurity to be seen as a space of humanitarian emergency, thereby triggering the rapid mobilisation of humanitarian action in response to crisis.
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Ethiopia was brought to the edge of a major disaster, with some 10 million people estimated to be in need of food assistance at the height of the crisis. A repeat of the catastrophic famine of 1984-5 was avoided, but the numbers of people affected, the loss of life and the destruction of livelihoods made this one of the most serious crises in the Horn of Africa in the past 15 years. The humanitarian community has been slow to recognise the lessons of 1999-2000, and there have been surprisingly few attempts to conduct a serious, post-event evaluation of the overall crisis and response. The label 'famine averted' seems to summarise the crisis to the satisfaction of most parties involved.
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Ethiopia has recently resurfaced in international headlines, in light of yet another looming apocalyptic scale famine. The numbers are once again staggering and overwhelming, leading many to proclaim that this is evidence of “history repeating itself”. Hence, underlying the current appeals for international aid are the latter historic experiences with endemic and cyclical bouts of drought and famine in the region. Arguably, then the Ethiopian government is deliberately trying to control the narrative of this current crisis, in light of what has been characterized as the “psychological hangover” from the previous era of Ethiopian famine relief. With headlines made by the engagement of ordinary citizens in the abatement of the tragedy unfolding during the 1984 crisis, and the ensuing memorable steps of the federal government in the allocation of those same resources, it is no wonder that 1984 becomes the modern parable for African famine. For within Canadian consciousness, 1984 continues to serve as the last harbinger of hope. A hope that was the impetus to mobilize many across the world into action to effect a positive, and what was widely believed to be a permanent change.
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disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory, 2015
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2020
This research paper could not have been completed without the help of many people who provided their guidance, time and support. I would like to thank my advisors, Dr. Patricia Perkins and Dr. Anna Zalik, who guided me through the first year and a half of the MES program. I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Nirupama Agrawa, who has been extremely supportive in the direction of my research focus. Her extensive expertise in disaster management, guidance and feedback has made navigating unfamiliar concepts much easier. I would like to give thanks to my family in Ottawa, Ontario that encouraged me to travel across the world to conduct research. Furthermore, I extend this thanks to my family in Ethiopia who provided me a place to stay, cooked for me, and drove me around in Addis Ababa. I thank my partner, Kelsey Curtis, who has been supporting my completion of the MES program by editing my papers over the last two years. Lastly, I thank all the people and institutional staff who helped me access archival data in Ethiopia, without you, it would have been more difficult process. vi
famine and food aid-final draft.docx
Assignment, 2018
This essay will look closely at the different socio-economic problems that are closely associated with giving food aid and cash as famine relief particularly and solely in Africa on a macro-level scale to the micro level scale. Africa, one way or the other depends on food and cash aid from foreign donors but this aid has been discovered to have done much harm to Africa than the intended help. Problems differ from one type of food aid to the other, the place at which the transaction takes place and whether it be food access problem or availability problem. Such problems include negative effects on commercial food trade, nutritional status of recipients, negative effects local food markets, national economic development and the political system. The examples may include reduction of growth in local market, crowding out, increased conflicts, uneven distribution of resources, failure to achieve sustainability, embezzlement of funds, negative price effect on goods, delay in shipment and delivery, reduction in staple foods, moral hazard and so much more.