Christopher Todd McDougall
“Waking up to an African famine”
Food shortages in Africa are leading to thousands of
deaths. The United States are realizing
that they need to help aid Africa with millions of tons of food to avoid
international disaster.
The bureaucracy, represented by the Agency for
International Administration has ran out of money. The Administration has $500 million to spread out over the next
five years to meet Africa’s growing food needs. This amount is not nearly sufficient to make ends meet. There are many problems that the United
States needs to respond too. The lack
of information, there is little coordination among international government and
private donors are not assisting enough.
The Food Agriculture Organization prepared a set of figures that claim
that Africa needs 5 million tons of imported food. There is an assumption that these countries will import 2 million
tons. Therefore the food aid is set at
3 million tons. In Mauritania, Ghana,
Ethiopia and Mozambique deaths are occurring due to a lack of aid. Livestock populations are being decimated,
massive movements of population are taking place and water shortages are
increasing.
AID and FAO have a very patchy view of the
real problem. They rely too heavily on
local government estimates. Most
estimates seem to be based on extrapolations of current studies or historical
data. There is a three to six month gap
between the pledge and actual delivery to the needy. The FAO reports that as of January 9th only 600,000
tons have been delivered in Africa.
Why
doesn’t the president of the United States, recognizing the scale of disaster,
help prevent deaths in Africa and mobilize a coordinated effort from the
international community? No one will
ask for 300 million but the Department of State is mounting a major effort to
obtain $10 billion from Congress for Latin America. It is clear to people all around the world that there is a
disaster in several African countries and the number continues to grow. However there is not co-ordination among
donors. There is not central body of
current information of needs, pledges, shipments, and deliveries. The United States, being a super-power,
should use its wealth and technical capacity to aid Africa. The voices of Africa have yet to be heard
on Capital Hill and elsewhere in the world.
The powerful are accessible in the United States and they are not being
notified and probably informed of the bad situation in Africa.