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