Famine déjà vue!

 Enough food is produced in the world to feed the global population and yet over 12 million people suffer from hunger in the Horn of Africa. Too little rain, too many conflicts and instability combined with fragile infrastructures, poor governance and lack of political will, have all contributed to the crises in this region. Four countries are, again, facing an extremely severe drought driving millions of people into starvation and displacement (See map).

To make matters worse, international aid flows have decreased considerably and humanitarian aid agencies find it increasingly difficult to reach key areas in Somalia because of the rebel movement Al Shabab.

At the same time, the image of a malnourished African child dying of starvation is such a painful, dire and complex reality to face that it seems like this problem simply cannot be fixed and therefore not worth investing more effort or resources into it. In addition, images of starving people are becoming politically incorrect as Africa strives to rebrand itself in a positive light away from poverty, hunger and despair which reflect continuous government failure, corruption, and misallocated funds. It’s time to find a better way to re-sensitize the world to the problem of famine.  So how can we portray the crisis in order to mobilize support and call for aid?

Effectively mobilizing resources to tackle the famine and its structural underlying causes would not only help those suffering from starvation but would show that the system works. It would reveal that donors, multilateral organizations, NGO’s and African governments can deliver.

This is why the African Union’s move to convene the institution’s first pledging conference to raise resources to bridge the funding gap for the Horn of Africa, is an important demonstration of regional solidarity. It sets a significant precedent of forging African solutions to African problems.

Looking ahead, if Africans take the lead, reaching out to the rest of the world for support takes on a new face.