- © 2007 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors
Aid organization CARE International says with 120 million Africans living “on the edge of emergency” due to hunger, donor agencies need to review their response to these emergencies, or billions of dollars of aid monies will continue being squandered.
In a report issued in October, CARE projected the world will have spent $309 billion fighting emergencies in Africa by 2020 but asserted that $247 billion, spent differently, could successfully halve hunger on the continent by 2015. CARE spokesman Amber Meikle argued in an interview with CMAJ that by funnelling monies into programs that help people recover from emergencies, “we could put a stop to the emergencies altogether.”
The report contends that the solution lies in increased funding for, and more emphasis on, long-term development projects that help people recover from emergencies and prevent them from arising again.
Rarely is a lack of food the underlying cause of emergency, the report says. Rather, the root of the problem relates to issues such as HIV infection rates, weaknesses in the local markets, climate change, or even a simple lack of cash that makes people vulnerable to emergencies. The only way to truly alleviate hunger is to resolve those underlying problems, the report's authors argued.
Douglas Kilama of Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief's Ugandan operation noted that it's often the case that food aid coming from donor countries is far more costly than food that is available in recipient countries, yet agencies have often declined to buy locally.
Some relief agencies have advocated that aid should come earlier and in the form of cash, so that the hungry can buy their food locally and thereby, boost local markets. Such assistance would have to come well before the local food shortage reaches emergency levels. Yet, aid money spent on agriculture to sub-Saharan Africa has declined by 43% between 1990–92 and 2000–02.
“It is a disgrace that money is still given too late and for such short periods, then spent on the wrong things to truly fight emergencies,” said Geoffrey Dennis, head of CARE International UK. “There is no excuse, when by spending money more intelligently, we can bring an end to all but the most unpredictable food crises.”
While Ethiopia has been in food crisis 93% of the time from 1986 to 2004, US spending on long-term aid in the country is less than 1% of emergency aid. And by responding early to the Niger emergency in 2005, it would have cost $1 a day to prevent malnutrition among children. Instead, by the peak of the emergency, it cost $80 to save a malnourished child's life.
In Kenya in 2006, 83% of funding applications for non-food aid responses were rejected, CARE said. Yet, positive responses could have allowed people to keep their livestock — their major source of food and income — alive and thus have prevented the situation from deteriorating into an emergency.