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GB001599 (1) © Guillaume Binet pour Action contre la Faim

Headline

Health

Famine : understanding the causes and consequences

When this situation persists and affects a whole country’s population, this is a famine: a critical situation that leads to the death of thousands of people.

Though it is rare, populations in certain countries are currently on the brink of famine.

World hunger and famine are caused by various closely linked factors that fuel each other. Conflict, food crises, inequality and repeated natural disasters all increase the risk of famine.

The definition of the term ‘famine’ is widely disputed and therefore used for a range of very different situations. The problem with the lack of precise definition for the word is that many governments take advantage of the term’s opacity in order to avoid declaring serious health situations in their countries.

 

DEFINITION: WHAT IS FAMINE AND HOW IS IT MEASURED?

 

Famine is a state of serious food shortage where a significant portion of the population of a country has no access to food for a prolonged period, leading to death among the populations concerned. However, there is no internationally accepted definition of famine.

Many organisations are trying to define the term because, to be able to fight a situation, it is important to be able to define and name it. Famine is an exceptional situation where a large number of people cannot feed themselves properly. This may be due to a lack of physical access to food or a lack of financial access. For example, the price of basic products may become exorbitant due to inflation, to such an extent that the population cannot afford them. Though exceptional, famine has existed for centuries and has made its mark on history a number of times.

Various studies have shown that famine is generally not the result of food shortage as such, but rather of political and social problems that affect the distribution of existing food stocks.

A famine is only declared in the worst cases; people die of hunger long before this point.

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WHAT IS FOOD INSECURITY? A DEFINITION

 

The FAO and the WFP define food insecurity as a situation where a group of people does not have lasting physical or economic access to sufficient nutritious food.

 

FOOD INSECURITY AND FAMINE: KEY FIGURES

 

Food insecurity has been on the rise in the last three years, according to data from a FAO and WFP report. In 2020, 155 million people – 20 million more than in 2019 – in some 55 countries were considered to be facing severe food insecurity. This trend continued in 2021. In total, 41 million people all over the world are at risk of famine if nothing is done.

 

WHAT ARE THE MAIN CAUSES OF FAMINE?

 

Conflicts remain the main cause of food insecurity in the world, followed by economic shocks (including the one caused by the Covid-19 pandemic) and climate change.

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on food systems across the world. The lockdown measures required to protect the population have led to loss of harvest and income, thus thrusting millions into a state of precarity. The crisis is far from over, but we need to prepare for what happens next, as one pandemic can hide another; in other words, if we do not rethink our current food systems, we could face a hunger pandemic.

 

WHICH COUNTRY IS MOST AFFECTED BY FAMINE?

 

Over the course of more than 40 years of fighting against hunger, we have been there to respond to many crises that are often forgotten by the media.

 

YEMEN ON THE BRINK OF FAMINE

In countries like Yemen, shaken by endless conflict, our activity is all the more crucial. War is depriving the civilian population of access to food, drinking water and medical care. This combined with population displacement due to the conflict, the effects of climate change and the country’s economic collapse have put Yemen on the verge of famine. If no joint international action is taken, huge numbers of people could starve, especially children.

We are working tirelessly on our advocacy activity and in the field, particularly to improve access to water, which is currently too limited to fulfil the needs of the entire population. The UN has warned of the seriousness and urgency of the situation several times, calling it the worst humanitarian crisis we face today.

 

REPEATED CRISES IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is also in danger; a series of crises causing population movement and violence has put the inhabitants of the Kasai region – and, more recently, the Ituri Province – in a critical situation in terms of health and nutrition. In 2018, we deployed an emergency operation in Kasai to assist populations on the brink of famine who no longer had access to food or means of production. Some 400,000 people, most of whom were children, were in a state of serious food insecurity and needed humanitarian aid to survive.

Conflict and the resulting displacement keep populations in a precarious situation characterised by serious food insecurity.

 

LIST OF COUNTRIES FACING FOOD INSECURITY IN 2023

 

Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen remain at the highest alert level according to the FAO’s latest Hunger Hotspots report (October 2022–January 2023). All of these countries have populations that face or risk facing famine. In total, 45 million people living in 37 countries are experiencing critical levels of food insecurity (IPC 4 and above).

In Ethiopia, the situation is concerning in the Tigray region, due to the intense fighting occurring there and the lack of humanitarian access. In Nigeria, acute food insecurity has reached record highs: 19.5 million people are at crisis level or worse.

South Sudan, Yemen and Nigeria continue to face extremely worrying levels of food insecurity. According to the report, other countries are also experiencing alarming food insecurity levels, including Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Somalia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Honduras, Pakistan and Syria. The causes of this insecurity include climate change and its consequences (floods, droughts, storms, etc.), economic shocks and political instability.

 

WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES OF WORLD HUNGER AND FAMINE?

 

Famine leads to a sharp increase in chronic malnutrition rates in the affected region.
Malnutrition has awful effects on the population concerned. Apart from the fact that it can cause death in the most severe cases if it is not treated, in children, the damage from malnutrition is lasting. A child suffering from malnutrition before the age of five is more likely to experience stunted growth, illness or brain damage, which often entails developmental delays, poor performance at school and, therefore, lower income in adulthood, thus continuing the vicious circle of hunger.

 

CHILDREN: THE MAIN VICTIMS OF FAMINE

 

In the collective imaginary, famine is often represented by people in an emaciated state, mainly children. During a famine, the whole population is affected, but especially the most vulnerable, such as children aged under 5, whose health is fragile.

Due to conflict or population displacement, children may be separated from their parents, thus ending up defenceless and unable to find food or feed themselves. Their poor health, made fragile by a lack of essential nutrients, can stunt their growth, cause developmental delays and make them more likely to suffer from illness. Without medical supervision, these children may die.

According to the WHO, 45% of deaths of children under the age of 5 are linked to malnutrition and childhood diseases that malnourished children are too weak to fight.

 

HUNGER, FAMINE OR MALNUTRITION? WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE? SYNONYMS OF FAMINE

 

Famine has political connotations. Today, it is difficult to draw attention to a critical food situation if the government of the country has not declared a famine. Synonyms like ‘food crisis’ or ‘hunger’ are broader and less charged, but also less appropriate in a serious situation.

Food crises and hunger actually refer to food insecurity. This is a situation where a population does not have regular access to food of good enough nutritional quality to ensure that children develop properly and adults stay in good health.

Food crises can be characterised by food shortages, and may only appear in certain regions of a country or a continent without affecting a whole country.

There are currently a number of food crises ongoing all over the world. This hunger is usually down to four factors: conflict, inequality, climate change and economic shocks.

 

 

FAMINE: HISTORICAL CASES

 

Over the course of history, famine has struck populations across the world. It is often linked to conflict, epidemics, inadequate economic or agricultural policies or simply poor harvests.

 

EUROPE AND FAMINE: THE CASE OF IRELAND

The Great Famine ravaged Ireland from 1845 until 1849. It marked the country’s history, causing around a million deaths and almost the same number of displacements. The famine occurred due to various factors, including fifty years of deficient agricultural policies and the emergence of a disease that devastated potato crops, which constituted the population’s main food source at the time.

 

FAMINE IN AFRICA: THE CASE OF ETHIOPIA

The history of Ethiopia is blighted by famines all the way back to the ninth century. The country’s economy is based on agriculture; today, over 70% of the population work in this sector. But due to climate change, Ethiopia and its inhabitants are increasingly threatened by and vulnerable to extreme climate events, like droughts. A failing main industry wreaks havoc on the whole country.

In Ethiopia, the worst famine of the twenty-first century struck in 1983, and photos of the catastrophe travelled around the world. The outcome was just as serious as that of the Irish famine, if not more. A million people died and over 2.5 million were forced into displacement, either within the country or to neighbouring countries.

GB001537 (1) © Guillaume Binet pour Action contre la Faim

HOW CAN WE SOLVE THE PROBLEM OF FAMINE?

 

Despite the urgency of the situation and the persistence of climate change, poverty, war and inequality, there are ways to fight hunger. We develop access to water, sanitation and hygiene programmes to educate populations and prevent the spread of diseases like cholera, which leads to malnutrition.

In the countries in which we operate, we encourage people to create gardens, often in displacement or refugee camps, so that those who have lost everything can build their lives back up, feed themselves and find stability in situations of crisis. We adopt a host of environmentally friendly techniques, such as agroecology, to produce food of better quality and protect the environment in the communities where we operate. In countries like Ethiopia that face the double scourge of drought and food crises, we implement hydroponics systems to grow crops without soil in order to feed livestock and families in agricultural communities.

We strengthen the resilience of communities with few resources by distributing cash to boost the local economies and markets and to help the people we support to fulfil their families’ needs. We encourage solidarity saving initiatives among community members, as this promotes mutual aid and mitigates the problem of a lack of funds.

We screen people for malnutrition every day and offer them access to care, even in the most isolated areas, thanks to the work of the community volunteers we train.

 

 

All in all, the fight against hunger must take on an approach that provides a multisectoral response, as this would help to alleviate various problems through programmes and initiatives that complement each other. This is what we have been doing for 40 years now in our bid to come together to try to build a world without hunger.

In total, these activities have assisted 28 million people in nearly 55 different countries.

We want to do more. And we can do more, but only with your help.

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