Malnutrition and Mortality During Recent Famines in Ethiopia: Implications for Food Aid and Rehabilitation

The 1972-73 and 1984-85 famines varied significantly among different populations within famine areas at the regional, community and household levels. Political and social factors were crucial in this pattern. Evidence from both pastoral and farming areas indicates that the development of community-based resources may be less disruptive socially and economically and result in less morbidity and mortality than dependence on relief shelters. Areas needing further study are identified.     

Food Security in Protracted Crises: Building More Effective Policy Frameworks

This paper considers the principal elements that underpin policy frameworks for supporting food security in protracted crisis contexts. It argues that maintaining the food entitlements of crisis-affected populations must extend beyond interventions to ensure immediate human survival. A 'policy gap' exists in that capacities for formulating policy responses to tackle the different dimensions of food insecurity in complex, fluid crisis situations tend to be weak. As a result, standardised, short-term intervention designs are created that fall short of meeting the priority needs of affected populations in the short and long term and only partially exploit the range of policy options available. The paper discusses key attributes of agency frameworks that could support more effective policy processes to address longer term as well as immediate food security needs. Additionally, it points to some main challenges likely to be encountered in developing such frameworks and, with the participation of beneficiaries, translating them into effective action.     

Children's Experience of Conflict Related Emergencies: Some Implications for Relief Policy and Practice

This paper challenges the limited models of childhood, conflict and relief which determine most humanitarian interventions targeting children in conflict related emergencies. In particular, it notes the tendency of relief programmes to focus on "spectacular" groups of children (orphans, child combatants and refugees) at the expense of larger child populations indirectly affected by conflict. This relief bias is attributed to an inappropriate 'apocalypse model' of conflict which sees relief interventions only as repair. The bias also lies in a mistakenly universalist model of childhood and a medical paradigm which pathologizes children's experience in conflict and characterizes children as passive victims rather than active survivors. The paper argues for greater recognition of the wider social experience of children in conflict, and for relief practice which takes account of childhood resilience and children's different roles and capacities in coping with conflict. Appropriate interventions must engage with the wide variety of indigenous coping mechanisms involving children and not simply replicate a standard package of relief interventions in every emergency, based on simplistic and universalist interpretations of children's experience of conflict.     

Food Security in Complex Emergencies: Enhancing Food System Resilience

This paper explores linkages between food security and crisis in different contexts, outlining the policy and institutional conditions needed to manage food security during a crisis and to rebuild the resilience of food systems in periods of relative peace. The paper reviews experiences over the past decade of countries in protracted crisis and draws lessons for national and international policy. It assesses the different alternatives on offer in fragile countries to address, for example, the disruption of institutional mechanisms and the decreasing level of support offered by international donors with respect to longer-term expectations. It proposes a Twin Track Approach to enhance food security resilience through specific policies for protracted crises that link immediate hunger relief interventions with a long-term strategy for sustainable growth. Finally, the article analyses policy options and the implications for both short- and longer-term responses vis-à-vis the three dimensions of food security: availability; access; and stability.     

Food Crises, Crisis Response and Emergency Preparedness: The Sudan Case

Food security problems should be seen as "normal" in and endemic to subsistence agricultural groups in semi-arid zones of developing countries. Natural, popular response mechanisms exist that address these problems when they are at "normal" levels. All response mechanisms in developing countries can be expected to be swamped in times of a major food emergency. During major crises international relief assistance will continue to play a crucial role. Attempts at imposing centralized, institutional social security systems that address the normal "pockets of need" syndrome will be extremely expensive, not self-sustaining, and prone to failure. In that these efforts may undermine natural response mechanisms and draw scarce resources away from more logical, decentralized relief agencies these efforts may prove dangerously counter-productive.     

Crop Failure in Dalocha, Ethiopia: A Participatory Emergency Response

This case study of an NGO's response to a food crisis due to crop failure focuses on the extent of active community participation at each stage of the project. With the current debate on the relationship between relief and development, and in particular the focus on encouraging more active community participation in relief responses, this study has relevance both in the Ethiopian context and beyond.
In this example the participation process was greatly facilitated by the prior relationship between the international NGO and the communities, and also by the high level of staff input into the project. Where resources or conditions are less favourable, as might be the case in similar responses by local NGOs or government agencies, the paper suggests that the participatory approach can be adapted or partially implemented and still result in a more effective and locally relevant operation.     

Developing Decentralized Capacity for Disaster Prevention: Lessons from Food Security and Nutrition Monitoring in Malawi

Lack of sufficient analytical capacity in most of the countries of sub-Saharan Africa has been frequently mentioned as a major factor limiting the effectiveness of drought management interventions. In this article we describe an approach used in Malawi for the past three years to develop a decentralized capacity to analyse drought management and disaster prevention programmes. A conceptual framework is presented which identifies the areas in which capacity strengthening is required and lessons from the Malawi experience are presented. Various issues relating to the efficiency of capacity building programmes are discussed. We argue that continuous dialogue between development researchers and decision-makers, and between trainers in academic institutions and donor agencies, is essential for achieving the goals of improved capacity for drought management and disaster prevention.     

Towards a Redefinition of Security in Central America: The Case of Natural Disasters

Over the past 25 years Central America has suffered a number of major disasters: the Managua Earthquake (1972), Hurricane Fifi (1974), the Guatemalan Earthquake (1976), the San Salvador Earthquake (1986) and Hurricane Joan (1988). These events are briefly described, with special reference to their political aspects and implications. Recognition of the political importance of disasters in Central America leads to a questioning of the traditional notion that security is essentially a matter of defending the state from outside aggression. It is suggested that the analysis of disasters should be part of the debate that is currently underway in international relations about redefining the concept of security in the post-Cold War world.     

Monitoring Local Food Security and Coping Strategies: Lessons from Information Collection and Analysis in Mopti, Mali

Save the Children Fund (UK) established a local food security monitoring project in the Mopti region of Mali, which was operational between 1987 and 1993. This article describes some of the lessons learnt from this experience of monitoring food security and coping strategies. It illustrates how coping strategies can be an important element in tracking vulnerability in the Sahel, but that interpretation is complex and there are limitations to their use. Secondly, consideration must be given to the institutional context in which information systems are set up. Information providers must be linked institutionally to response mechanisms, to ensure that data are fed systematically into the design, implementation and monitoring of appropriate response.     

Development of a Computer Workstation for Famine Early Warning and Food Security

Beginning in 1990, the University of Arizona, Arizona Remote Sensing Center (ARSC) has been involved in a collaborative effort with the Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS) and the Remote Sensing Center of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in designing and developing an integrated computer workstation for famine early warning. The goal of the project is to provide food security analysts with a set of computer tools to manage a very large and diverse set of data for predicting the onset of food security emergencies for every country on Earth. The initial stage of the project involved the conceptual definition of system elements and the development of overall system architecture. We are now developing an open, flexible, and portable system designed to significantly assist the work of the analysts. System architecture provides a task-specific and user-friendly graphic user interface (GUI) within a Windows environment that will link image processing, geographic information system (GIS), spreadsheet, text, and graphics software packages into a single operational environment. A relational database management system (RDBMS) is serving as the back-end of the workstation to facilitate data storage and retrieval and as a means to preserve analysis methodologies.     

Awareness, Preparedness and Adjustment Measures of River-bank Erosion-prone People: A Case Study

People prone to the effects of river-bank erosion are well aware of the hazard they face, but see it as an unavoidable evil. Communities' lack of success in combating erosion can be attributed to their poverty and to their not knowing about any means to mitigate its effects. Households in safer areas have reduced their dependency on agriculture and developed more scope for non-farm activities, however, this is often difficult given the limited development of local enterprise. The major parameters that influence the adjustment measures after erosion are the education, skills, occupation and financial state of those affected. Those most vulnerable are households very much dependent on agriculture: for them resettlement to distant urban areas is not an option.     

自然灾害社会脆弱性评估研究——以上海市为例

基于投影寻踪聚类模型(PPC),结合基于实数编码的加速遗传算法(RAGA),对上海市进行了自然灾害社会脆弱性评估的尝试。结果表明:①灾害社会脆弱性最高的为崇明县,其次为宝山区和金山区;②灾害社会脆弱性最低的是黄埔区,其次是徐汇区和静安区;③总体而言,灾害脆弱性较低的地区集中于上海城市中心区,而城市边缘区的社会脆弱性一般较高。     

基于信息扩散与自助法的旱灾风险评估模型──以安徽为例

旱灾风险管理是抗旱减灾的科学手段、干旱及旱灾研究的重要方向,定量评估旱灾风险是旱灾风险管理的核心内容。为降低各种不确定性因素影响下旱灾风险评估结果的误差,提高结果的可靠性,提出运用信息扩散法估计旱灾损失的超越概率,结合自助法的区间估计算法,建立基于信息扩散与自助法的灾害风险评估模型,用不同置信水平下旱灾损失对应超越概率的置信区间来反映旱灾风险。将该模型运用于安徽省农业易旱地区干旱灾害风险评估,计算并确定在置信水平为0.75时安徽省易旱地区的旱灾风险区间评估结果合理、可靠,可为抗旱规划提供科学的决策依据。     

Local Institutional Development and Relief in Ethiopia: A Kire–based Seed Distribution Programme in North Wollo

Highlighted here is the important role played by community-based organisations in relief supply operations. In the context of an emergency seed supply project in northern Ethiopia in 1995, it examines the participation of burial societies, known as kires , in targeting, distribution and management. The paper illustrates that factors of local institutional legitimacy, transparency and accountability are central, both to the effective representation of community views and to long-term partnerships between local institutions and non-governmental organisations.     

中国水安全问题及其策略研究

第四届世界水论坛提出了“从展望到行动”的主题,水安全问题已成为国内外广泛关注和研究的热点。通过对水安全概念演进的分析,给出了水安全概念新见解：认为水安全是一个“旧的平衡解体、新的平衡建立”交替作用的动态过程。其内容包括：水资源安全、水生态环境安全、水质安全、水量安全和水灾害安全等。在分析中国水安全存在问题及其表现形式以及研究进展的基础上,提出了确保我国社会经济可持续发展的9条水安全策略。     

Why Aid Agencies Need Better Understanding of the Communities They Assist: The Experience of Food Aid in Rwandan Refugee Camps

Refugee views on food aid reveal the ignorance of the international community regarding Rwandan culture, economy and politics. This ignorance carries a number of costs. On one level, the main cost is that a professional service is not carried out to the best of one's ability. Ignorance of Rwanda's North–South divide, for instance, has caused agencies to be insensitive to in-camp discrimination based upon regional identity and its impact on programme activities. On a deeper level, agency ignorance about Rwandan culture, economy and the dynamics of camp politics, reduces refugee confidence in humanitarian agencies and workers. Better information would not only result in the greater likelihood of appropriate responses to specific needs, but would also encourage greater credibility in the political arena where the ultimate stake is to see lasting peace and a dignified return of refugees to their homes.