Oxfam: Radical reform needed to end hunger

Twenty-five years on from the Ethiopia famine, Oxfam has called for a radical shake-up of the aid system to break the country's cycle of hunger.

The international aid agency says there is often a 'knee-jerk reaction' to food crises, rather than looking for sustainable means to break the cyclical nature of famine.

In a report released by the charity today, 'Band Aids and Beyond', Oxfam says international donors need to adopt 'a new approach to humanitarian disasters which focuses on preparing communities to prevent and deal with disasters such as drought before they strike, rather than relying mainly on short-term emergency relief, such as imported food aid'.

Penny Lawrence, international director for Oxfam, who has just returned from visiting Oxfam projects in Ethiopia, said: 'We cannot make the rains come, but there is much more that we can do to break the cycle of drought driven disaster in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa.

'Food aid offers temporary relief and has kept people alive in countless situations, but does not tackle the underlying causes that continue to make people vulnerable to disaster year-after-year.'

Ethiopia was struck by one of the worst famines in its history 25 years ago, and an estimated one million people died and millions more suffered extreme hunger from the famine.

Oxfam said today, millions in Ethiopia and across east Africa are facing severe food and water shortages after years of poor rains.

Currently, 70 per cent of humanitarian aid to Ethiopia comes from the United States. Oxfam says out of the billions of dollars of US humanitarian assistance to Ethiopia since 1991, 94 per cent has been in the form of food aid – almost all of it sourced from within the US rather than purchased locally or regionally. Most US food aid has conditions applied to transport and packaging, which can cost up to $2 of US taxpayers' money to deliver $1 of food aid.

The charity says more must be done to ensure long-term solutions to guarantee people in Ethiopia do not go hungry anymore, and the issues linking climate change and famine must be urgently addressed.

Ms Lawrence said: 'Climate change makes the urgency of this approach greater than ever before. Ethiopians on the frontline of climate change cannot wait another 25 years for common sense to become common practice.'