AFRICA: Drought, donor fatigue and conflict conspire to keep 43 million hungry, writes Paul Cullen
Africa is facing its latest and arguably most complex food supply crisis in decades, with hunger confronting millions in the south, east and west of the continent, according to aid workers.
Some 36 of the 50 countries in Africa are currently affected by drought or on the brink of it, figures compiled by the World Food Programme show. It says the severe food shortages already experienced by 43 million people will worsen unless the rains return or more aid is provided.
Individual reports by Irish aid workers returning from the continent confirm the severity of the problems faced by countries such as Malawi, where almost five million people are short of food, and the Horn of Africa, where an estimated 11 million, or 40 per cent of the population, are under threat.
The root causes of the problem vary from region to region, although drought is a common factor. Efforts by international agencies to deal with the crisis are being hampered by the reluctance of donors to commit funds and a general lack of media interest in the story.
Africa has seen bigger emergencies that the present one, but often these were concentrated in a particular region or country. This was the case, for example, in Biafra in the 1960s or Ethiopia in the mid-1980s. Because of its scale, the current crisis is stretching the ability of agencies to cope to breaking point, says Greg Barrow of the WFP.
"This is a continent-wide crisis from the west of Africa to the east, and then down to the south. The common theme throughout this area is drought or erratic rains in countries that depend almost entirely on rain-fed agriculture," he explains.
While all the affected countries are poor and therefore badly-equipped to cope with climatic vicissitudes, some factors are specific to particular regions. "In southern Africa, for example, incredibly high levels of HIV/Aids are killing off a generation of agriculturalists. There's simply no one left to harvest the crops," says Barrow.
Meanwhile, he adds, the food shortages experienced in Niger and other west African states have been exacerbated by trade and economic factors.
In some cases, structural adjustment programmes imposed by the West have weakened African states' ability to cope, while food supplies have been moved away from needy areas because of low prices.
In the worst-affected parts of the Horn, where the rains failed twice last year, cattle-herding pastoralists have borne the brunt of the crisis.
A shortage of water has robbed them of grazing material, forcing many to sell their animals. "Animals are traditionally used to buy other foodstuffs, so if they're gone or they die, it's like emptying your bank account."
Sheila Garry of World Vision Ireland, who has just returned from a three-week visit to southern Somalia, describes the situation there as "the worst it's been for a very long time."
"All the warning signs are there. With no grazing, people are offloading their cattle. Others are moving their herds down to the main rivers, where they are coming into contact with crop farmers. Meanwhile, food prices are going up, and in one area flash floods have washed away vital seed stores."
Somalia has long since ceased to be a functioning state, so the burden of delivering relief rests entirely with international organisations and aid agencies.
But even in countries with governments, war and other forms of conflict make the delivery of aid a perilous business.
Sudan, where conflicts rage in Darfur and in parts of the south and east, is the biggest drain on resources; of WFP's $1.8 billion budget in Africa, it alone consumes $1 billion yearly.
As Barrow points out, international organisations struggle to keep the rest of the world interested in Africa's complex emergencies.
WFP feeds twice as many Africans today as it did a decade ago, and the number of hungry Africans rose by 33 million between 1992 and 2002.
Even Darfur, where hundreds of thousands of people have died in recent years, is failing to receive the attention many feel it deserves. "But just because something reaches a static point of awfulness, that doesn't mean everything is okay," he points out.
It isn't just the media that has averted its eyes; donors, too, seem fatigued. By last month, the International Red Cross had received only 20 per cent of the $25 million it appealed for in October to help 1.5 million people in southern Africa.
The WFP says it will run out of food aid for 2.5 million people in Kenya within weeks unless it receives new donations.
The complexity of the problems and the frequency of their recurrence are the likely reasons for such indifference. Food aid is a "sticking-plaster" solution that has to be reapplied whenever the weather misbehaves. "The answer is always a combination of doing something now to save lives and longer-term measures to make African countries more resilient," says Barrow.
This is still a long way off, in spite of the progress made on debt relief and trade liberalisation. The poorer a country is, the less varied its economy is and the less well-equipped it is to counteract the effects of drought and other climatic challenges.
The likelihood, therefore, is that we will continue to hear (or maybe not) about threats of famine in Africa.