UN: 'Famine has Ended'

About a week ago the United Nations declared the famine in the Horn of Africa was ‘over’. They were implying that the short rains from November-December had returned to non-emergency levels producing new harvest for many.

My field visits so far interacting with recipients of various development and disaster response projects have told a very different story. Communities unanimously insisted that they are still struggling with water and are still need food and other types of assistance. Indeed, I believe much of is a plea to continue getting food aid which can distort the reality of the situation. Yet I believe it also attests to the fact that food insecurity is not 'over'. The reality is that, while rains have returned, they will again fail.

In the past dozen years the UN has declared famine twice and droughts have been even more frequent. I do not believe this is ‘crying wolf’ on behalf of communities or international institutions. Many Kenyans face challenges with food security from year to year, and these are very real. It was explained to me once that "going to bed hungry isn't that big of a deal here" (certainly not something I can relate well to). In fact that has, in some cases, become the new normal.

So what happens when drought becomes the new normal? Will a drought continue to be an 'emergency'? Or just business-as-usual? And how should different organizations and governments respond to this; what should interventions look like?

Studies have been done that show in areas where drough occurred every seven to eight years, are now occurring every one to two years. There is an emerging shift in climate patterns that exasperate communities' and households' abilities to be more secure.

To me this indicates the earths already changing climate. Climate scientists have long agreed that the climate is changing, in many ways they are predicting disasters in the furutre: rising sea levels, resource conflicts, failed harvest and increase in the spread of certain diseases, and a whole host of other consequences. But in my view, the effects of climate change are already clearly being seen and experienced by many. Those in already insecure positions of poverty and of the highest vulnerability in adapting to these changes. And these effects are already taking their toll on human health, finances, and general security especially in the area of water.

With that being said, droughts are directly attributed the lack of rains; overall famines and the severity of them often have to do with political, economics, and other factors (see this post). The nobel peace prize economist, Amartya Sen, noted this in his essay "Poverty and Famines" and it certainly resounds today: the issue here is one of justice, of accessibility and equality, not simply availability or the existence of food. 


While I certainly don't have solutions for thus it has been in my thoughts and mind during my work here. It certainly has a lot to say of the role of relief, importance of development and policy work and for new types of innovation and thinking. I find it a privilege to work with an organization that is looking at innovation in their interventions, but I am often challenged by the needs for donors, governments and NGOs alike to begin re-thinking food security.

 *All photos were taken by Bethany Duffield during a goat re-distribution in a Masai community (recipients of relief from previous years had bred and shared the offspring of their goats with new beneficiaries).

First glimpse of food distributions in Mbeere

I spend most of this past week in Mbeere attending food distributions and speaking with beneficiaries in about five communities along with project managers, a few survey enumerators and an engineer. It was a challenging but also in many ways heart-warming experience. Every community we met greeted me and other CRWRC staff with songs, dancing and plenty of smiles. Many even gave us gifts of food from seed that had been given to them; in fact, we received so many green-grams that they were at times literally spilling out of our vehicles. It was ironic that our trips focus was food distributions when we also drove away as 'recipients'. As someone who had just joined CRWRC it was extremely humbling to receive such heartfelt thanks. One elderly man had been so moved that someone like me (white) had come all the way to see how they were doing. Not only did we in North America give money for them, but we didn't forget about them and came even to see how they are now.  This experience also allowed me to wrap my head around the realities of relief projects and the current situation as Kenya emerges from the recent famine. Perhaps I can share some of my knowledge with you.

Food being prepared for distribution

The food distributions are in response to the failed rains in the summer of last year. In response to the failure of crops and death of many livestock, CRWRC has worked through their partner organization, the Anglican Church of Kenya's Christian Community Services (CCS), to identify the most vulnerable people in certain communities. I soon realized this most often meant women: single mothers, widows and grandmothers some sick, weak and others caring for orphaned children. 

Just four of the many recipients

I had the opportunity to meet with many of these women, sit down with them in a focus group or in an interview or just sit with them in the shade to avoid the blazing sun. Many households shared their hardships with me. The drought had been so severe that many reported facing hunger and being extremely weak. Some of the elderly men and women said they couldn't leave the home they were so frail. Those who had enough strength would have to scrounge to find any available work to generate some income to buy food often taking them away from working in their own fields. Some had to take their children out of school to work or simply because they weren't able to pay school fees anymore. Moreover, many saw their animals die; in Mbeere most are agro-pastoralists--depending on both their crops and animals for survival. Thus, the death of their animals often means a huge loss of their financial 'savings'. 

Thus CRWRC's distributions brought has significant and immediate change to their lives.  Through monthly distributions certain households have been given 50kg of maize and 10kg of split peas (all Kenyan grown food). The visit I made was the last distribution for each of the communities and therefore the last time they would receive food. The recent rains over November and December were much more successful than earlier that year and as a result some were beginning to harvest. Many women said the biggest change was that the schools were more full, while others highlighted the regaining of their health and strength bringing productive work and happiness to their lives.

CRWRC's food program however is part of a larger Food-For-Asset (FFA) program, where in exchange for food, recipients participate in the creation and ownership of productive assets such as water pans, demo farms (displaying drought resistant crops), terracing and tree planting. FFA programs are designed to enhance longer-term resilience against drought by assisting communities to increase food, water and livestock security, while also meeting their immediate and more pressing needs of hunger. It was encouraging to see that some women were adopting new crops into their homes from the demo farms, trees being planted and tended to, and goats drinking from water pans still holding water.


While they were thankful for helping get them through the most difficult times, some also looked hesitantly towards to future and asked earnestly to not forget about them. In the Horn of Africa, droughts are reoccurring. While last year's drought is said to be one of the worst in decades, it is also the third time in a decade that Kenya has declared a national emergency. While food-aid is a band-aid response, I am realizing it is also very necessary at times. And with programs like FFA, the hand-outs of food can also entice communities to make strides towards more imagining and realizing sustainable solutions. 

This woman was determined to teach me to weave, this
attracted the attention of dozen of laughing women.
I was also convinced to buy it afterwards.

Sitting down with 9 women and 1 lonely man in a group discussion

Back in Kenya

I arrived just this past weekend in Nairobi to start a new assignment with the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee. CRWRC has been doing both relief and development work throughout the world since 1962, making this year the 50^th anniversary. However, according to the United Nations this year also marks one of the worst droughts in East Africa in the past 50 years. Climate change and the effects of human induced environmental degradation are taking its toll on many regions of the Horn of Africa and specifically in Kenya.

Due to the severity of the drought this year and inflow of funds, CRWRC has expanded their relief projects with the aid of donors from churches and consortiums like the Canadian Food Grains Bank. My work will be specifically cooperating with the International Disaster Response (IDR) arm of CRWRC and will consist of a mix of different research projects and support roles. Along with assisting communications and reporting, I am also working on a report to document best-practices for the organization as in times of rapid change and disaster, lessons can often and easily be forgotten.

I will also be researching some of the more alternative modes of relief and humanitarian intervention work. Here, CRWRC is engaged in a large mix of projects which touch on four key themes: food security, water supply, livestock assistance, and conflict management. Each of these four areas look quite different depending on each project and region. (The relief work of CRWRC includes many regions including Kilifi and Taita Taveta near the coast, Turkana and Isiolo in the north, Narok and Kajiado in the south, and others.) My research will be specifically examining different asset and work programs, which includes food for assets programs (where, in exchange for food supplies, food insecure households participate to build a water pan, plant trees, or other disaster risk reduction activities), or in other cases goats for work, cash for work, and similar voucher programs.

For more details you can watch this video (a first of four parts):

I joined in a meeting at the start of this week with over twenty staff members from both the relief and development branches of CRWRC. The far majority are Kenyans who are both skilled and motivated in the work they are doing ranging from veterinary work, engineering and more. Over the next few months I will be joining with many of these individuals on their projects and learning more about the communities who are benefiting from these programs .


So far it has been a bit overwhelming at first to wrap my head around all of the diverse projects and keep track of the staff coming in and out of the office to go to their field sites, but this will certainly be an eye opening experience. Disaster response differs from development in a number of ways, and is fundamentally a fast paced and quickly changing environment. I will already be visiting a food distribution a few hours from Nairobi early next week. I am looking forward to contributing to the widely skilled group of people here in CRWRC's response to the famine and drought which is affecting millions here in Kenya.