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Systemic Failure or Natural disaster?
Charity or Justice?
By Chris Rowan
The
continually deepening food crisis in Africa is causing the peoples
of the first world and those of Africa to continue to examine the
problems, realise what the causes are and to search for what the
solutions might be.
It
must be remembered, in this examination, that Africa is a large
continent, not a single country, and that the reasons for the food
shortages differ from state to state and from region to region.
There are countries in conflict, or emerging from conflict and
trying to rebuild their capacity, for instance Uganda, Burundi and
the Democratic Republic of Congo. There are regions and countries
that are frustrated by environmental challenges and compounded by
population growth, such as Ethiopia and Somalia. The regions of
Eastern and Southern Africa are ravaged by the HIV Aids epidemic
that in turn affects the agricultural work force and cuts farm
productivity. Internationally, trade barriers are having a damaging
effect on agricultural production especially in areas already
anxious and strained by the structural adjustment imposed during the
1980’s. There is also the issue of weak governance in many of the
areas that have suffered and are continuing to suffer food
shortages.
The
suggestion that African food problems are the result of natural
disasters can be illustrated by the current situation related to the
failure of the rains in and around the Horn of Africa. According to
the BBC news site of March 31, the United Nations World Food
Programme (WFP) said in January that more than 30 million people are
going hungry across Africa. The Horn of Africa is especially badly
hit with Somalia, north-eastern Kenya and Ethiopia suffering and
around 11 million people in need of food aid after poor rains. At
least half of the 11 million are on the brink of starvation and in
dire need of help. In March the WFP expressed gratitude to the
European Commission for donating over 5 million Euros in cash to
provide food aid and on their website noted that this was the quick,
flexible response needed as the drought worsens.
Tesema Negash, the country director for the WFP
commented, “I am very glad that the European Commission has stepped
forward at this very difficult time of need for Kenya”, and went on
to hope that other new donors would also step forward.
The WFP says it needs US$225 million to feed 3.5
million people from February 2006 until February 2007. To date,
including the EU contribution, the agency has received US$74.6
million, leaving a 66.9 percent shortfall. The WFP list the
countries below as having offered help.
US:
US$29 million
Kenya:
US$13.7 million
UK Dept for International
Development: US$19 million
Australia:
US$1.46 million
Ireland:
US$1.45 million
Denmark:
US$1.3 million
Austria:
US$700,000
Belgium:
US$604,595
Italy:
US$606,000
Luxembourg:
US$296,000
New Zealand:
US$274,000
Turkey:
US$200,000
Private:
US$22,600
Israel:
US$17,000
Linked to the problem of poor rains is the problem
of soil degradation recognised in a report from the International
Centre for Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development (IFDC) which
has tracked the health of African Soil, between 1980 and 2004. The
report shows that African farm land is quickly becoming barren and
noted that over 80% of the farm land in Sub-Saharan Africa suffers
from severe degradation,. This obviously causes major problems for
an already hungry population and will create a situation that will
be exacerbated by population growth. Traditionally farmers cleared
land, grew crops but then moved on or cleared new land which left
the original land fallow and able to recover. However the increasing
pressures of population growth have meant that the same piece of
land is used time after time, extracting all the nutrients out of
the soil and giving no time for soil recovery. Other factors such as
wind and water erosion of the soil cause the loss of nitrogen and
phosphorous; The IFDC notes Guinea, Congo, Angola, Rwanda, Burundi
and Uganda as states with the highest rates of soil depletion This
situation is compounded by the fact that very little is put back
into the soil as fertiliser use in Africa is the lowest in the
world. The BBC news internet site (31.03.2006) suggests that African
fertiliser use is less than 10% of the world average and adds that
according to the IFDC report, African farmers are put off by the
costs. The report does however call for investment to make mineral
and organic fertilisers more available. Whilst in the United States,
President Obasanjo of Nigeria drew attention to the problem after
the release of the IFDC report and similar stories are carried in
the Independent newspaper and the Toronto Star.
The unpredictable rains and the poor condition of
the soil have definitely contributed to the current food crisis in
Africa and thus natural disaster can be said to be a part of the
explanation for the crisis. However, other factors are also
involved. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation has
warned that 27 sub-Saharan countries need help and that around 200
million people are malnourished. The FAO highlights such issues as
civil strife, refugee movements, wars, and coups and suggests that
these issues are responsible for more hunger than natural problems.
Nobel Prize winning economist Amartya Sen has said that no democracy
has ever suffered from a famine and the political issues in Zimbabwe
illustrate this point. Democracy is clearly suffering in Zimbabwe,
the seizure of previously productive farms has added to food
shortages and the political use of food as a weapon, distributed to
government supporters and withheld from opposition areas. contribute
further. The BBC Africa analyst, Martin Plaut, has suggested that
there are four critical issues to consider. The first issue
contributing to the systemic problem is that of years of
underinvestment in rural areas, because these areas have little
political clout. African elites, if they respond to political
pressure, respond to political pressure from cities and towns and
compound this inequality with corruption and mismanagement, or what
is currently called ‘lack of good governance’ by aid donors. A
statement from the International Food Policy Research Institute
notes, “Poor governance is a major issue in many African countries,
and one that has serious repercussions for long-term food security.”
Martin Plaut agrees with the FAO and lists wars and political
conflict, leading to refugees and instability as a major issue. It
is worth noting that in 2004 the chairman of the African Union
Commission, Alpha Oumar Konare reminded an African summit that the
continent had suffered from 186 coups and 26 major wars in the past
50 years. It is also estimated that there are over 16 million
refugees and displaced persons in Africa. Plaut goes on to note that
HIV/Aids is depriving African societies of lots of their productive
labour but despite this he states that the fourth issue to consider
is the unchecked population growth. The United Nations Population
Fund has said “Sub-Saharan Africa’s population has grown faster than
any region over the past 30 years, despite the millions of deaths
from the Aids pandemic. Between 1975 and 2005 the population more
than doubled going from 335 to 751 million.
The issue of mismanagement and poor governance was
also noted by Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem the director of Justice Africa
in a debate with Nicholas Crawford of the World Food Programme, when
he said, “No African country has ever refused to go to war (many of
them unjust ones) because the IMF/World Bank, Western NGO’s or the
so-called donors say there is no money. It is only when it comes to
feeding our peoples, educating our children, building roads and
hospitals, creating jobs and looking after the welfare of our
peoples that our governments plead lack of resources.” Mr Abdul-Raheem
believes that empowering the peoples of Africa through the idea of
Pan-Africanism will allow Africa to deal with its own problems
without relying on the ever-present aid donors and the system of aid
that continues to promote attitudes of superiority and inferiority
and creates an aid addiction and a situation that lets such states
as Ethiopia and Eritrea spend fortunes on border wars but also
allows them to rely on outside aid providers such as the World Food
Programme, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and other
NGO’s to feed the peoples of these countries.
The consequences of the natural disasters or the
mismanagement is that a continent that was more than self sufficient
in food 50 years ago, around the time of independence for many
African states, is now a massive importer of food. The book, ‘The
African Food Crisis’ says that in 1966-70 net exports were about 1.3
million tons of food a year but that by the mid 1980’s imports of
food were around 10 million tons.
Thus Mr Abdul-Raheem’s dream of a united Pan Africa.
He believes that charity from The West or First World is supporting
a system that is not allowing Africa people to dream of managing
their own affairs and seizing their own destiny and as he says, “Let
me spell it out clearly: Africa does not need aid or armies of
bleeding heart liberals to feed its people, clothe them, educate
them, if we have responsive and responsible leadership.” He clearly
seems to believe that colonialism can no longer be blamed and that
if fingers need to pointed they must be pointed endogenously rather
than exogenously. All must be engaged from the elites to the
ordinary Africans who must hold their politicians to account if
needs be. Thus to quote the Justice Africa web site (03/04/2006),
“many more individuals, organisations and governments (must) share
in our dreams that Africa matters, it matters to Africans and should
matter to the rest of humanity.” |
June 2006