Once again, hunger crisis stalks Ethiopia

Hawa Hassan is weak. Her mouth is parched. Her children are sick. Her livestock have all died of hunger. Nineteen years ago, Ms. Hassan's mother survived a famine to raise her, the youngest daughter of six. But Hassan is not sure there was much point.

"Hunger is happening again," she says. "It happens all the time." Proud, angry, and pleading all at once, she adds: "Help us."

This year, 11 million to 14 million Ethiopians face severe food shortages, according to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP). Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said recently that if the 1984 famine here, in which close to 1 million people died, was a "nightmare," then the hunger this year, if not addressed, "will be too ghastly to contemplate."

With one food crisis after another hitting this country within the past few decades, some ask whether famine in Ethiopia is not only inevitable but perhaps unresolvable.

Experts argue not. But if there is a way to break the cycle, it is through development, not emergency aid, they say. Investing in such things as education, health, agricul- ture, and trade will, over time, make the real difference by giving people the ability and means to help themselves during droughts in years to come, they say. The question, however, is where the development money will come from.

"If we had similar resources in development as in emergency, we could turn around this picture," argues Al Kehler, development coordinator for the WFP in Ethiopia. "We are screaming this message, but it is not being heard."

Mr. Kehler's sentiments are shared by many working in the aid community. Robert Luneburg, an aid worker with 20 years of experience in the field who is today a consultant to the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in Ethiopia, has personally overseen the distribution of 2 million tons of food aid worldwide during his career. "[Emergency aid] does not work," he says. "We know that. People need development."

Andrew Natsios, the chief administrator of USAID, was in Ethiopia this week, stressing development projects. At rural schools throughout the drought-hit Oromiya region, for example, where 40 children fill single classrooms without chairs or pens, USAID is supporting a variety of initiatives to help girls stay in school and improve the quality of teaching.

"These children can grow up and be better able to keep their children alive," says Mr. Natsios. "It is crucial to get girls to the classroom, where, alongside the ABCs, they learn about hygiene, family planning, HIV ... and voting - and in the future will run their households, livestock, and even country, better."

But despite the general recognition of the importance of development, funding for it falls far below funding for emergencies. Ethiopia is the largest recipient of emergency aid per capita in the world. But at the same time, it receives the least per capita in development aid.

This imbalance in emergency funding rather than development funding evident all over the world as budgets continue to be slashed. In 1993, for example, the WFP collected $661.5 million earmarked for development work worldwide. Last year it got $203 million, most of which went to projects already under way, leaving scant room for new ones. Emergency aid, meanwhile, continues to be relatively responsive to the ever growing needs.

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