ODI On... Famine in Somalia

Drought and starvation in the Horn of Africa have raised questions about the effectiveness of the humanitarian response and why aid organisations did not respond more quickly.  Critics have levelled blame at humanitarian organisations themselves saying that they are acting out of 'self interest' and competing with each other in order to secure funding from a lucrative 'aid industry'.  One such critic, Linda Polman, debates these issues with HPG Research Fellow,

This week, yet again, the spectre of famine in the Horn of Africa has reappeared on our television screens and in our newspapers. Across large parts of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, livestock are dying in huge numbers because they cannot get water and pasture. Ominously, no rains are due until September, so even if the next rainy season is a good one pasture won’t recover until October at the earliest. Until then things can only get worse, and the cruellest irony of all is that the first rains bring a cold shock that many of the undernourished surviving animals won’t be able to survive.