East Africa: delay was deadly
Quicker response to drought could have saved thousands
of lives
Thousands of people could have been saved from starving to death
in east Africa last year if the rest of the world had reacted more
quickly.
That's what two major charities, Oxfam and Save the Children,
have said.
Between 50,000 and 100,000 people died between April and August
2011 after severe drought hit parts of Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and
Djibouti. More than half of the victims were children under the age
of five.
Aid organisations knew that a major emergency was on its way
months before people started to die from hunger. But they didn't
have enough money to do anything about it until it was too late and
the disaster had already struck.
Governments, aid organisations and members of the public need to
be ready to react more quickly to make sure a crisis like last
year's never happens again, the charities say.
"We can no longer allow this grotesque situation to continue;
where the world knows an emergency is coming but ignores it until
confronted with TV pictures of desperately malnourished children."
said Justin Forsyth, the boss of Save the Children.
"The warning signs were clear and with more money when it really
mattered, the suffering of thousands of children would have been
avoided."
The criticism comes as another food crisis is looming in west
Africa, putting millions of people at risk. Save the Children say
that families in the worst hit areas of Niger are already
struggling with around one third less food, money and fuel than is
necessary to survive.
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East Africa: delay was deadly
We need to talk about the F-word.
Yes, famine. A report out yesterday from two of the UK's
biggest aid agencies admitted their part in the bungled response to
the 2011 east African famine in which between 50,000 and 100,000
people died needlessly.
"We all bear responsibility for the dangerous delay that cost
lives," confesses Judith Robertson, head of Oxfam Scotland.
Here's the rub. The long rains never came in northern Kenya or
southern Ethiopia and Somalia in autumn 2010. By the time the short
rains of March 2011 also failed, satellite imagery and distress
calls from aid staff on the ground made it clear that trouble
loomed.
But the agencies hesitated and so did the Kenyan and Ethiopian
governments. (Somalia doesn't really have one, which was part of
the problem.) Nobody wanted to call it a crisis, let alone use the
F-word, in case the rains arrived late, the crisis dissipated and
they ended up being accused of crying wolf.
The UN, the African Union, the EU and the US all continued to
describe the famine as a drought until 18 July. Yet by that time up
to 80,000 had died of starvation and dehydration. A technical
definition of famine that leaves the outside world oblivious to the
emerging calamity is profoundly unhelpful.
Now famine threatens large parts of west Africa and unless
local, national and international communities can learn the lesson
of last year, the same will happen there. The lesson is that aid
agencies need to shout louder earlier and we need to respond
accordingly.
The Scottish public did contribute to the £8.8m raised by the
Disasters Emergency Committee, as well as £336,345 from the
Celtic-Manchester United Legends match and £100,000 from the
Scottish Government. But though all this undoubtedly saved lives,
it arrived too late to save many others, predominantly women and
small children.
It isn't about money. It's about how it's spent. It's about
spending a few quid keeping a herder's goats alive, rather than six
times more helping him restock. It's about Oxfam spending £600,000
to rehabilitate water schemes in Ethiopia, so it doesn't have to
spend more than £2m trucking in enough water to keep 80,000 thirsty
people alive. It's about building resilience. It's about shifting
the balance from emergency response to long-term development.
We don't wait for a car crash before considering how to pay for
repairs. We take out insurance. That's how we should approach
international aid. Do we have to ask the mothers of Mali and Niger
to wait until their children are walking skeletons before we help
them? We have the knowledge. We have the means. All we lack is the
will.
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