August 31, 2011

Source: The Economist

We received this interesting insight on the famine in the Horn of Africa from the head of DARA, an organisation that evaluates humanitarian aid operations:

SIR – Your article on the situation in the Horn of Africa is sadly correct: in effect the world failed to react to the warning signs that a famine was imminent in the region until images of emaciated children were on our television screens. In February we sent a team to Nairobi to assess the response to the drought in Kenya and the crisis in Somalia for the Humanitarian Response Index. All the representatives from donor governments, the UN and other aid agencies interviewed were concerned that the situation would worsen dramatically if the April seasonal rains did not come.

Even back in February there was a daily increase in the number of Somalis seeking access to refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia in large part due the severity of the drought, a clear indicator that the problems were getting worse. Clearly, it was not a lack of information that impeded the international community to take early action to prevent loss of lives and minimise suffering. So why did it take so long for the world to react?

One of the explanations for the delayed response is the highly politicised nature of the Somali crisis, where many of the different actors—al-Shabaab, the Transitional Federal Government, governments in neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia and donor governments—have too often let their own political objectives take precedence over meeting humanitarian needs. In this context, the warning signs of the impending famine may have been disregarded in favour of meeting other priorities, a case of not seeing the forest for the trees.

Thankfully, some of the most onerous and outrageous barriers to delivery of life-saving assistance, like the United States’ anti-terrorism legislation, which essentially criminalised aid agencies for attempting to meet humanitarian needs in al-Shabaab controlled areas, have been eased. But the famine has reached critical proportions, and it will take massive efforts to restore some sense of relief to the millions trapped in the crisis, much less restore livelihoods and resilience.

So, the more fundamental issue is the systematic failure of the international community to anticipate and respond in a timely manner to avert a major crisis like the famine in the Horn of Africa. According to recent figures, less than 1% of all humanitarian assistance and overseas development assistance is dedicated to preventing and mitigating the effects of crises like Somalia and building the resilience and coping capacity of local communities to respond to situations of stress and crisis.

The recent British policy shift in this direction is most welcome, but when will governments operationally recognise that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and begin to address the underlying causes of such vulnerability? Or will we always need the kind of horrific images supplied by Somalia to push us to action?

Ross Mountain
Director general
DARA
Madrid