Famine response 'too little, too late'
Sunday, July 23, 2006
NAIROBI, Kenya (Reuters) -- Food emergencies in Africa are occurring three times more often now than in the mid-1980s, but the global response to famine continues to be "too little, too late," the international aid agency Oxfam said on Monday.
Conflict, AIDS and climate change are all exacerbating food shortages for sub-Saharan Africa's 750 million people, with innovative solutions and massive long-term support needed to break the cycle, the British-based group added in a new report.
"It will cost the world far less to make a major investment now in tackling root causes of hunger than continuing the current cycle of too little, too late that has been the reality of famine relief in Africa for nearly half a century," Oxfam Britain's director Barbara Stocking said.
Billions of dollars of aid have been pumped into sub-Saharan Africa in recent decades, and its problems have received unprecedented international attention of late from grassroots campaigners and world leaders like Britain's Tony Blair.
But despite that, a "myopic, short-term" focus has prevailed, with emergency food aid still dominating international action on Africa, rather than long-term support of agriculture, infrastructure and social safety nets, Oxfam said....
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/07/23/africa.hunger.reut/index.html