As the world geared up to provide fourteen million Ethiopians with the food aid needed to guarantee their survival, the question remains – why is there still such widespread hunger in Ethiopia? Have donors and the Ethiopian Government failed to address the root causes of the country’s perennial food insecurity?

A Christian Aid report, ‘Nothing to fall back on: Why Ethiopians are still short of food and cash’, gets behind the climatic explanation of Ethiopia’s food crisis to show that the international community has failed to invest sufficiently in addressing the underlying causes of poverty and famine. Ethiopia’s problem is a structural one that cannot be solved by food aid. It is the decline in people’s assets, collapse of livelihoods and lack of infrastructure – and not simply drought – which creates vulnerability to starvation.

The scale of the problem is enormous. About 42 per cent of Ethiopians were malnourished in 1999-2000. The under-fives mortality rate has grown worse – from 166 per thousand in 1997 to 179 per thousand in 2000. Ethiopia faces the challenges of eliminating import dependence, matching the annual population growth of 2.8 per cent and absorbing an increase of 15 per cent in food demand due to under-nutrition.

The Government’s cornerstone Agricultural Development Led Industrialisation policy seeks to boost high yielding crop varieties in high potential areas but pays little regard to the needs of food insecure regions. The report challenges some donors’ claims that the ban on ownership of land is a disincentive to farmer investment. It endorses the Government’s view that a land market would risk undermining the asset base of thousands of small farmers. Limited state capacity and community participation limits delivery of food aid through effective employment generation schemes.

The report also notes that:

• Ethiopia has vast, under-utilised water resources: only five per cent of Ethiopia’s irrigable land has been cultivated.
• Ethiopia produces a higher proportion of its own food than European countries do.
• Lack of investment in roads means that three-quarters of farmers still face a walk of more than half a day to the nearest market.
• Collapse in the price of coffee – Ethiopia’s main export – is pushing coffee farmers, previously more insulated against crises, into chronic poverty.
• While the European Union and the UK have begun to change tack, the USA – Ethiopia’s biggest donor – still focuses on providing food and is slowest to abandon the surplus-dumping inspiration for food aid.
• There are remarkable inter-regional and intra-household differences found in nutrition outcomes.

For poor Ethiopians, restricted by loss of assets and purchasing power, livelihood support is the solution and cash may be the best fertiliser. Christian Aid calls for moving away from the annual food appeals which have become the main mechanism for providing international assistance. Instead of belated responses to impending famine, Ethiopia needs:

• cash-supported programmes to stimulate recovery in rural communities: cash for work, rather than food for work, would provide a more dynamic kick start to rural development
• help to build storage and transport capacity so that surpluses in good years can be distributed to food-scarce regions
• investment in small-scale irrigation schemes
• restocking of pastoralist communities and improved marketing of processed meat and dairy products
• enhancement of women’s access to and control over resources and assets and roles in decision-making
• protection against liberalisation for developing industries
• an improved culture of dialogue and co-operation among state, non-state and donor partners in Ethiopia’s development.

Source(s):
‘Nothing to fall back on: Why Ethiopians are still short of food and cash’, Christian Aid, by Clive Robinson, January 2003 Full document.

Funded by: Christian Aid

id21 Research Highlight: 23 July 2003

Further Information:
Judith Melby
Christian Aid
PO Box 100
London SE1 7RT
UK

Tel: +44 (0)20 7523 2408
Fax: +44 (0)20 7620 0719
Contact the contributor: info@christian-aid.org

Christian Aid

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'Forever facing famine? Rethinking food insecurity in Africa'

'Highland Ethiopia: permanent basket-case?'

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'Food aid: how effective is it?'