How is the HIV/AIDS pandemic affecting food security in Lesotho, Malawi and Mozambique? How can humanitarian agencies speed up their response to hunger crisis in Africa? These are just two of many questions emerging from an independent evaluation of the 2002-2003 Disasters Emergency Committee Southern Africa Crisis Appeal.

Going hungry is all too common in Malawi. Farming families suffer annual food shortages during the October to February ‘hungry season’. But in 2001, abnormal rains led to flooding and water logging, substantially reducing maize production. Unable to store maize, farmers were forced to sell at low prices early in the season, and buy back at inflated prices later. The food crisis situation in Malawi - combined with chronic poverty, HIV/AIDS, poor governance, political instability, and misguided market reforms of neighboring countries – led to catastrophe throughout the region.

In July 2002, the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), a group of twelve British humanitarian non-governmental organisations, launched an appeal for Southern Africa. DEC estimated that 14 million people – in Angola, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe – needed food. Within four months, the appeal raised UK £15 million. This was distributed amongst DEC member agencies. 

How well was the money spent? Were interventions successful? An independent evaluation by Valid International concludes that the appeal was justified – prolonging life and preventing suffering. The evaluators highlight many examples of good practice. But they note that interventions varied in quality – between countries and agencies. Their report observes that:

• There was more participation from the people affected in this crisis than previous ones (although limited to project implementation, not design).
• Work by DEC agencies (such as a nutrition survey by Save the Children) helped attract international attention to the crisis.
• Agencies were sensitive to cultural norms and supported local skills training.
• Programmes were in areas where agencies already had development programmes, meaning programmes were often appropriate to the problems faced by communities. In some cases there was a lack of deep community understanding (underestimating the role of remittances in Zimbabwe and wild food in Zambia, for example).
• Links between HIV/AIDS, coping strategies and food security were not well understood.
• The humanitarian community, including the DEC agencies, lacked a working model for the crisis – overstating the threat of famine but understating the roots of the problem.

Examples of good practice include ActionAid’s integrated advocacy programme, Care International’s goat distribution programme in Zambia, and Oxfam’s community-based distribution model. But there were inappropriate interventions, such as feeding programmes operated by World Vision and Save the Children outside of the hungry season. And there was a general lack of preparedness amongst agencies.

The evaluators offer 28 recommendations to the Disasters Emergency Committee. These include suggestions that member agencies:

• jointly investigate links between HIV, coping strategies and food security
• review how to improve understanding of the contexts in which they work
• make food assistance packages proportionate to family size
• study why gender and generational analyses are so weak
• review arrangements for partnership in emergencies
• review emergency preparedness planning in Southern Africa.

They advise DEC to hold two meetings in response - one to decide which recommendations are accepted, and another a year later to discuss progress – and to post the results on the DEC website.

Source(s):
'A Stitch in Time? Independent Evaluation of the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Southern Africa Crisis Appeal July 2002 to June 2003', Valid International 2004

Funded by: Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC)

id21 Research Highlight: 1 November 2005

Further Information:
Simon Starling
Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC)
15 Warren Mews
London W1T 6AZ
UK

Tel: +44 (0)207 387 0200
Contact the contributor: info@dec.org

Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC)

Other related links:
'Humanitarianism as a duty: defending people’s right to food'

'Food aid: how effective is it?'

'Responding to drought and food insecurity'

'Seeds for survival - supplying seeds in an emergency'

'Agriculture, food systems and the Millennium Development Goals'

'Fighting hunger with free agricultural inputs: the experience of Starter Packs in Malawi'

'Changing agricultural support services to improve food security'