To help make sense of the crisis, the Record spoke with Mark Gordon who works for the UN’s World Food Programme. Specifically, Gordon works with the cluster responsible for coordinating the food response inside Somalia. He provides a common information source for the 26 aid and relief organizations currently active in Somalia.
Gordon noted that, “although the world seemed to only become aware of the crisis in Somalia after the declaration of famine, the WFP (and other organizations) had indicated as far back as November 2010 that we were potentially heading into another crisis (similar to 2008, 2006 and 2001) for the Horn of Africa … unfortunately, our prediction was correct.”
Presbyterian Record: The famine is happening in what has traditionally been called Africa’s breadbasket. What has been happening to seemingly eliminate this characteristic?
Mark Gordon: The main drivers of the crisis in 2011 were a combination of drought and below normal rainfall, high food, fuel and input prices, and conflict. While it is important to note that the 2011 crisis was preceded by two good seasons, the two good seasons were preceded in 2008/2009 with three consecutive poor rains and an ensuing food crisis in the Horn. The drivers of the current crisis recurring after only two seasons of good rains meant that there was not a sufficient amount of time for households to recover or develop the reserves to endure two successive rain failures.
Into the end of the first quarter of 2011, commercial cereals prices began to increase substantially. Not so much in the major producing areas, but in remote non – agricultural areas where households purchase or barter livestock for cereals, price increases of up to almost 200 per cent were recorded. Consequently, households required more money to buy the same amount of grain. For example, the barter price of a 50 kg sack of maize increased from one to two goats, to three to four goats. This was exacerbated by deteriorating livestock conditions and death due to a lack of water and fodder, meaning the pastoralists and agro – pastoralists had fewer goats to barter and the goats had little market value.
Conflict (both political and resource – based) tends to be an acute factor that causes immediate displacement and loss of household means to access food. But the impact conflict has on trade and the flow of basic food items further exacerbates consumer market prices.
… The current crisis is not a single event that ends when the rains come. A determined commitment needs to be made not only to saving the lives of millions of people that are in crisis, but to restoring and rebuilding the economic livelihoods of the people in crisis … [and] looking at ways in which appropriate and people – centred technology can be used to make sure that affected populations are able to adapt and cope with the next two to three seasons of failed rains.
PR: Your role in Somalia is to coordinate aid efforts and disseminate information so that NGOs aren’t overlapping in their work. Donors are increasingly concerned that their money is being used wisely; how does the UN/WFP help ensure that’s the case?
MG: To ensure that assistance is effectively used, coordination and the exchange of information is critical. Within the UN, humanitarian system clusters are formed to act as a forum for the information to be compiled and analyzed, looking at areas of under humanitarian coverage (gaps). The cluster leaders also act as facilitators between donors such as the Canadian government and agencies on the ground that are providing food assistance to see if agency support can be increased in these gap areas. At the same time, coordination allows different responses to become complementary.
The exchange of information in complex emergencies is sensitive and the cluster tries to promote an environment of confidentially while still allowing detailed response information to be exchanged. It is not an easy compromise and has daily challenges.
