224 Environmental, Rural and Social Development March 2003 Findings occasionally reports on development initiatives not assisted by the World Bank. This article is one such effort. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the World Bank or IFPRI. http://www.worldbank.org/afr/findings Mitigating the Food Crisis in Southern Africa: From Relief to Development M ore than 10 million people in erate the greatest possible short- southern Africa--Lesotho, and long-term benefits. Described Malawi, Mozambique, here are policy approaches, that Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimba- IFPRI research in Africa has shown bwe--are currently threatened with to be effective in mitigating severe famine, with the crisis being par- food shortages and enabling devel- ticularly severe in Malawi, Zambia opment. and Zimbabwe. The immediate causes of the food shortage, namely Immediate relief: getting food to of maize, the region's staple crop, the hungry are drought, flooding, and low lev- els of planting. However, what has When a famine is already under- made these countries so vulnerable way, governments and aid agencies to famine is chronic poverty, inad- must work to prevent or minimize equate development policies and, in the mortality, dislocation, and des- some cases, poor governance. titution it produces. If grain re- Shocks such as drought bring col- serves exist, their release can pro- lapse only to systems that are al- vide the fastest relief by maintain- ready weakened by these factors. ing affordable food prices. But if The key to preventing food short- such reserves do not exist, food aid ages and possibly famine, there- distribution will be the only option. fore, is effective and appropriate Relief must go to the most severely food security policies and respon- affected regions, even if they are sible governance. difficult to reach. Policies for mitigating the effects Food should be distributed to of a critical food shortage or fam- people where they live and the for- ine lie on a spectrum ranging from mation of camps should be avoided immediate relief to recovery to ini- as much as possible. Hunger-in- tiating development. Preventing duced weakness may prevent future famines requires long-term people from traveling to food aid development policies. In address- sites. In addition, relocation to Findings ing the crisis, policymakers should camps undermines household sta- design measures that not only pro- bility, thus also impeding future vide relief, but which also lay the development. Furthermore, the foundations for development. Inter- poor sanitation and overcrowding ventions must be combined and in camps help to spread danger- sequenced with each other, depend- ous diseases, such as cholera. Fi- ing on a country's context, to gen- nally, weak camp management can leave the neediest unassisted and these characteristics. Otherwise, In sum, immediate relief inter- expose the vulnerable to exploita- large families, households headed ventions should be designed to save tion from more powerful residents. by a female or an elderly person and lives and prevent instability as rap- The most affected areas of the those that have no additional cop- idly as possible, so that further countries should be targeted first ing mechanisms will suffer. Mea- measures, for true recovery and since food shortages are more se- sures must also be taken to pre- development, can be implemented. vere in them owing to local envi- vent discrimination by ethnicity, ronmental calamity, remoteness or political affiliation and other char- Recovery: assessment, labor- other factors. In Lesotho, for ex- acteristics. Households discrimi- intensive employment programs, ample, poverty and malnutrition nated against in normal times are and public-private partnerships are particularly pronounced in frequently poorer to begin with. mountainous and difficult to reach Governments and aid organizations Once the crisis phase is over, an areas. In Mozambique, food short- must therefore use standardized, assessment of the vulnerability of ages are occurring in the south and formal and transparent rules for each area in the country could be central regions. A mitigation strat- distribution and enforce them to done. The results of such an exer- egy can be more effective in terms ensure that the most disadvan- cise could help determine what of cost and of achieving its aims if taged households receive the aid kinds of measures are needed. it targets food aid to the severely they need. Some household-level indicators affected areas and uses other pro- During the relief phase and the that might be useful are: food in- grams to address shortages else- subsequent recovery phase, gov- take, available food sources, cop- where. Criteria for ranking the se- ernments need to increase or main- ing capacity, link to markets and verity of hunger by district might tain public and clinical health ser- asset holdings. include crop production records, vices. Most of the deaths that oc- A program that can be highly ef- emigration numbers, and anthro- cur during a famine are in fact due fective for recovery and in areas pometric measures of nutritional to disease not starvation. Under- where the food shortage is not status, and reported mortality nutrition makes people more sus- acute is of labor-intensive public rates. ceptible to disease, and existing works projects for the poor. These Within areas, assistance should health services are often unable to programs offer short-term income be aimed at the neediest house- take on an added burden during a to the poor and serve as risk in- holds. Within targeted and non-tar- crisis. Some of the services that are surance. A public works program geted areas, households differ in particularly important are infant in operation in Zimbabwe in the size, wealth, composition, and cop- care and nutrition, sanitation and 1980s has in fact been regarded as ing capacity. Food must be distrib- those for people with AIDS. a factor that prevented a famine in uted to households according to Findings Findings can be accessed via the World Bank Group's website at http://www.worldbank.org/ Click on Publications, then Periodicals. Or, Findings would also be of interest to: click on Countries and Regions, then Africa Name Institution Letters, comments, and requests for publications not Address available at the World Bank Bookstore should be addressed to: Editor, Findings Operational Quality and Knowledge Services Africa Region, The World Bank 1818 H Street NW, Room J-5-055 Washington, D.C. 20433 e-mail: pmohan@worldbank.org 1991. Where such schemes already development. Furthermore, in ar- labor available. New inputs or as- exist, they should be expanded. eas prone to food shortages, popu- sets should be easy to use, require These schemes also create assets lations may require food aid for sev- little training and need little main- by developing or improving public eral years. tenance. Technology transfer goods important for future food se- Along with government mea- schemes should also have flexibil- curity, such as infrastructure and sures, greater private-sector par- ity to deal with temporary ob- the natural resource base. How- ticipation in distributing food could stacles, such as unfavorable ever, if the capacity for such pro- help alleviate local food shortages weather. grams is not present, food and and lower prices. Although poor in- The governments also need to other schemes may be preferable. frastructure may prevent the inter- implement macroeconomic policies Governments could also encourage regional transportation of food, that provide small farmers with the the commercial agriculture sector availability within regions could be incentive to produce staple food through incentives to implement improved. For example, govern- crops. If small farmers believe that employment schemes for the rural ment food marketing systems, such commercial crops will bring higher poor. Tobacco estates in Malawi as Malawi's ADMARC, could have incomes and involve less risk, they and commercial farms in Zambia private sellers supply government- may not plant staple crops. If this could temporarily employ rural purchased grain in areas that it scenario occurs, food shortages will people. does not serve. Such public-private continue into the following year. During recovery, when food is still partnerships could also create the These policies, however, should not expensive, payment in both public basis for preventing famine in the place an undue burden on the pub- works programs and private farm future. While the recovery mea- lic sector. schemes could be in the form of sures discussed above are interme- Finally, there is a need to develop food. This would also work well in diary steps in famine mitigation, institutions to improve farmers' areas with poor infrastructure or they can, if planned correctly, make access to and use of new inputs and far from markets. Cash wages are critical contributions for achieving assets. Strengthening private mar- most appropriate in urban areas food security in the long-term. kets for agricultural inputs would where food is available but incomes help to meet the demand of small have declined and in rural areas Initiating development: farmers, reduce the responsibility where food markets function well. technology, policy and institutions of the public sector, and create the As with food aid distribution, basis for long-term development. public works programs should em- On the spectrum of interventions, Affordable credit programs for the ploy standardized and formal cri- what are required after some sta- rural poor should also be estab- teria to target those suffering most. bility has been achieved are short- lished where informal and inexpen- These programs can also reach term agricultural development sive borrowing does not exist. more poor than nonpoor people if measures. Southern Africa's vul- Credit would allow households to wages are set relatively low or the nerability to famine stems largely purchase inputs, buy emergency food supplied is rationed. To ensure from low agricultural productivity, food, or replenish assets such as that the benefits of projects are dis- mainly owing to soil degradation livestock, which are currently be- tributed across poor households, and low fertilizer application. Pro- ing sold at high levels in the region administrators could set minimum viding small farmers with basic to buy food. Finally, agricultural quotas for female participants or agricultural technologies, such as extension systems oriented to small limit the number of participants per fertilizer, seeds, or equipment, for farmers must be improved to en- household. the next season could help increase sure that technology and credit in- However, food aid distribution agricultural production in the near puts are used productively. will need to be continued for desti- and long-term future, as these tute households. Many households, farmers generally lack these inputs. Broader policy needs for crisis especially those headed by females Free "starter packs" of fertilizer, mitigation and long-term food or the elderly, or in which work- seeds and legumes could be distrib- security ing-age adults have AIDS, do not uted to small farmers as Malawi did have an adult who can go out to in 1998­99. In planning a mitigation strategy, work in public works schemes. A The agricultural technology in- no single type of intervention can lack of food distribution or other puts must be introduced at the be expected to achieve relief, recov- programs for these households, right time in the year and appro- ery or the initiation of development. especially for their children, would priate for the agroecological condi- Planners must formulate the right lead to a significant decline in hu- tions, farming practices, and the combination and sequence of poli- man and social capital for future household's knowledge, skills and cies and programs, within the con- text of their countries, to provide · Governments need to imple- relief in the short-term and food se- ment policies for long-term food curity in the long-term. It helps to security. Famines signal the fail- This article is based on a Policy understand that generally, the ure of institutions, organizations, Brief, "Fighting Famine in more immediate the effect of an in- and policies. Without long-term Southern Africa: Steps Out of tervention is, the smaller the mag- policies a country will remain vul- the Crisis," prepared by the nitude of its effect and the less sus- nerable to famines. Such policies International Food Policy Research tainable the intervention is over must encourage agricultural Institute for policymakers in time. growth among small farmers, in- southern Africa. The brief can be To mitigate the crisis in south- frastructure development, environ- obtained at . the future, two major steps need effective markets. Well-developed For additional information, please to be taken: famine early warning systems and contact Suresh Babu · Governments, NGOs, the pri- emergency mitigation measures (s.babu@cgiar.org) Ashwin vate sector, and donors must rec- must also be in place. Along with Bhouraskar ognize and draw upon each other's these policies, countries must de- (a.bhouraskar@cgiar.org) of the capacities and strengthen their co- velop the institutional capacity to Communications Division, IFPRI. operation. Countries also need to design and implement the appro- improve coordination among their priate policies and programs. own different public agencies. Sound governance is equally es- sential. Without transparency, ac- countability and participation in governance, investments in relief and development will have little impact. At this time, the govern- ments of the region will have to place the well-being of their respec- tive people as their overriding goal.