IB HL Geog: Food and Health - Famine in the Horn of Africa 2011-2012

IB HL Geog: Food and Health - Famine in the Horn of Africa 2011-2012

1. 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

2. 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)

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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