Why donors hesitate to give aid

Although the startling images of starvation that emerged from the Ethiopian famine in the late 1980s shocked the world, aid workers say that crisis created an unhealthy image of what a famine looks like.

The goal of the aid community is to intervene before a situation becomes a crisis, but in the post-Ethiopia era no one will believe that a crisis exists until the deaths begin.

"It's hard to convince donors of the situation without pictures of starving children, and we didn't have those in February," when the WFP first began saying this would be a major crisis, said Chris Conrad, regional director for CARE.

Another reason for the slow response, experts say, is a skepticism by donor nations about the governments receiving aid. While natural factors such as flood and drought have played some role in the current Southern African food crisis, political instability, war, and government incompetence has made what might just have been a bad year for crops into a humanitarian disaster.

Zimbabwe, one of the worst hit countries, used to be a net exporter of grain and a country to which less prosperous neighbors turned in time of need. But more than two years of land seizures by government-backed squatters have devastated the country's commercial agriculture sector and human-rights groups have repeatedly alleged that food aid is denied to supporters of the opposition party.

The governments of Zambia, Malawi, and Lesotho are considered corrupt and nontransparent, and Angola recently endedthree decades of civil war. Although Zambia and Lesotho both recently held elections that have boosted international confidence in them, all four countries have been governed by long-standing regimes considered more interested in increasing their own wealth than in helping their people. Angola, for example, is an oil rich country and one of the continent's wealthiest nations.

Although this attitude generally affects development aid more than disaster-relief funds, privately, donors acknowledge that they are concerned their aid will line the pockets of the elite rather than the stomachs of the poor.

"There's not the same kind of sympathy as when the crisis is attributed to natural factors," says Dr. Mlay.

Ultimately, however, aid workers and experts say the roots of the current crisis go far deeper than the international community's inability to mobilize rapidly in times of crisis. Much of the problem lies in the world's failure to support development efforts between crises. Mr. Conrad, of CARE, says that the current crisis can be seen in part as a failure on the part of the international community to help the region recover fully from its last food shortage in 1992.

"The problem with our response to Africa is that it's like treating a patient with a small dose," said Dr. Mlay. "It's just enough to keep the patient alive, but not enough to make it better."

Page: 1 | 2