BOX 4
Humanitarian Aid: How Can We Do Better? Steven Were Omamo, World Food Programme
D
rought, conflict, and high food and fuel prices affected the lives of more
than 13 million people in the Horn of Africa region—Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and Uganda—in 2011. Working closely with governments and other part- ners, the World Food Programme (WFP) targeted 11 million people affected by the crisis. By December, employing a range of interventions, including direct food transfers, cash, and vouchers, WFP had reached almost 8 million people across the region, providing a critical lifeline to vulnerable Somalis within Somalia in particular, and also to Somali refugees fleeing to Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Kenya. The bulk of WFP’s food assistance reached drought-affected populations in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda. However, insecurity and poor infrastructure within Somalia prevented WFP from reaching all targeted populations. Despite falling short of its goal, an
important lesson for WFP emerged. Investments by national governments and other partners in improved land-use man- agement and other resilience-enhancing measures ensured that populations that required food assistance during previous droughts did not need such support in
2011, in particular in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda. For WFP, investments in enhanced
preparedness also paid off, especially decisions to use a newly created advance- purchasing facility to acquire and pre- position food in areas likely to require food assistance. Preliminary analysis by WFP, the African Union, and other part- ners suggests operation of regional emer- gency food reserves and expanded use of weather-index insurance could further improve preparedness in situations such as the one in the Horn of Africa.1 Looking ahead, key policy challenges
facing WFP and other humanitarian actors center on how to strengthen the resiliency of communities living in drought-prone areas, using humanitarian assistance to help farmers and pastoralists adapt to changes in weather patterns. To that end, agencies must find ways to
• better integrate relief efforts into lon- ger-term solutions that build resilience among communities in drought-prone areas, expanding scope for recovery and rehabilitation;
• protect productive assets of affected populations, with a special focus on
meeting the nutritional needs of the weakest members of society by provid- ing highly nutritious supplementary food products;
• strengthen the capacity of national governments to develop institutional arrangements and mechanisms to address crises, with an emphasis on approaches that balance short-term interventions with medium- and long- term investments that address low productivity and other causes of food and nutrition insecurity; and
• support the African Union Commission and the Intergovernmental Authority for Development in creating a process to address critical regional policy and institutional gaps, especially by more effectively linking assessment and early warning alerts with timely and effective action.
These actions can limit the negative
effects of a natural or human-caused crisis, which will reduce suffering and increase the impact of humanitarian aid.
look for alternative forms of income.5 Unbundling the exact relationships between drought, conflict, and food insecurity is difficult, but it seems likely that conflict is both a cause and consequence of food insecurity. Conflict is an obvious socioeconomic explana-
tion of food insecurity in the Horn, but it is by no means the only one. Many studies of the Horn— particularly outside Somalia—have focused on the
declining resilience of pastoralists and ex-pastoral- ists.6 Households’ resilience is chiefly a function of their assets (livestock, education, land) and their coping mechanisms (mobility, income diversifica- tion). Livestock is the largest economic sector in the Horn, and for many households, it is the most important asset and an important source of income and milk and other products for their own con- sumption. Given the region’s abundant land and
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