Zusammenfassung der Ressource
IB HL Geog: Food and Health -
Famine in the Horn of Africa
2011-2012
- Background
- Food security
- "exists when all people, at all times have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious
food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy
life."
- Famine
- “a situation where acute malnutrition rates among children exceed 30%, more than 2 people per 10
000 die per day, and people are not able to access food and other basic necessities.”
- Sub-Saharan Africa has highest prevalence of malnutrition: 265mn
- 67mn population
- 87% live in rural areas
- Relies on subsistence agriculture
- 50% absolute poverty
- Social
- Development
- Lack resources/resilience to deal with drought
- Rebels
- Al-Shabaab group in southern Somalia compounded drought
- Expended resources + infrastructural damage
- Refugees
- Somalia to Dadaab refugee camp
- Additional burden on lacking food stocks
- Health
- Lack of food
- Decreased immunity
- Exposure to diseases
- Malaria (8mn)
- Cholera (5mn)
- Environmental
- Drought
- Unusually strong La Niña
- Interrupted seasonal rains for two consecutive seasons
- Precip. rate during rainy season: <30% average of 1995-2010
- Lack of vegetation + dry topsoil = prone to wind
erosion
- Year before famine: driest in Horn of Africa for 60
years
- Crop failure + loss of livestock
- 40-60% in some areas
- Aridity
- Latitude = Hadley cells
- Rain shadow of Northern Ethiopian mountains
- Demographic
- Population rising higher (3.2%) in rural areas
- Higher yield required from subsistence farming to support population
- Puts unsustainable strain on carrying capacity of land
- Political
- Land Tenure
- Ethiopian citizens do not own the land
- Distributed according to family size
- Less responsibility over desertified land
- Socialist country
- Encourages food aid
- Lack of food aid from USA
- Now supplies half of Africa's food aid
- Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam
- Provides 1,800mW of electricity
- Double current Ethiopian generating capacity
- Deprives water and sediment for fields downstream
- Lack of crops
- Exacerbates famine
- Expected to lead to a significant change in the fishery
- Could result in a reduction of food
- Relocates 20,000 people
- Al-Shabaab militia
- Banned 16 humanitarian agencies including UNHCR from operating in its territory
- Economic
- Drop in labour demand
- Reduced household income
- Loss of capital
- Livestock deaths
- Poor harvest
- Rise in cereal prices
- Reduction in purchasing power across region
- Livestock prices and wages fell
- Livestock = 5% GDP
- Government intervention
- Lack of investment in infrastructure
- Ineffective food distribution
- Buys food from farmers at fixed prices
- Often below market equilibrium
- Excess demand
- Debt repayment
- Need for foreign currency reserves
- Need for cash crops as exports
- Reduction in amount of food available to locals