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Ethiopia

Food aid in Ethiopia

© Anna Kåri

”Our life deserves to be rescued too”, is one of the quotes from a village in Ethiopia that receives food aid.

This justification has proved crucial for securing a constantly growing inflow of food aid to Ethiopia that is ravaged by drought, increase in population and serious changes in climate as a consequence of deforestation, among other things.

During twenty years from 1984–2003, Ethiopia has been hit by drought ten times. In 2006 drought has hit the Southern part of Ethiopia in particular. The organisation PANE , Poverty Action Network Ethiopia, has carried out an extensive Study with support from DanChurchAid on Food Aid and Its Impact in Ethiopia.

The PANE study involves interviews from drought stricken areas of Amhara, Oromiya, Tigray, Somali, Afar og SNNPR. And it turns out that the local population in many cases was not aware of or does not agree with the criteria for distribution of food aid applied by authorities and NGOs.

In some cases distribution of food aid does not take into account the special needs of the vulnerable groups such as diseases, the aged people, disabled, children and women whose husbands have migrated. There are examples where women have had to work in towns for less than two Birr. per day.

On the contrary, in some woredas long-term food aid led to dependency, even for better off groups. In stead of building up stocks of seeds, raising cattle and cultivating drought resistant crops such as enset, more and more people started to rely on food aid.

Many people receive “Food-for-Work” and participate in maintenance work on roads or canals. But very often the paid work does not take into account that people should also attend to their fields when the rains come.

The study shows that food aid has had a positive impact when it comes to stopping migration. And where food production locally is very limited, food aid does not seem to affect markets or prices negatively.

The study does not supply any clear answers concerning the impact of food aid on the environment though hunger does have a major toll in the form of cutting down of trees and cultivation of marginal lands. Probably food aid does have a positive impact in this connection.

In general, the results from all over Ethiopia show that it is difficult to ensure a just distribution of food aid. Many people criticize “Food-for-Work”, among other things because the most vulnerable groups are often incapable of working and gaining access to food for work.

On basis of the study, PANE establishes that people in all of the areas examined make an effort to produce their own food and also buy from markets. But in order to improve their food security it is important to support ”their productive capacity rather than letting them always wait for food handouts year after year”.

Stine Leth-Nissen ( stine@dca.dk )