Famine & Poverty and Famines Essay

The phenomenon of famine has been widely described and analyzed in socio-political literature. The topic has been considered a controversial one in terms of its comment and its definitive features. In a recent re view of the concept of famine, Poverty and Famines,Amartya Sen retains trigger off of classical vision on famine offered by Malthus, distinguishing regular starvation, which is a normal feature in many parts of the world, from violentoutbursts of famine, a particularly virulent determine of starvation causing widespreaddeath (Sen, 38-39). USAID defines famine as a catastrophic food crisis that results in widespread acute malnutrition and mass mortality (USAID, 2002). Proper definition of famine matters not only in terms of labeling an event after the fact, but also in terms of how humanitarian organizations and governments respond to crises as they be happening. Maxwell points out that this is in large part because of the emotional weight the term famine has come to carr y (Maxwell, 49).Humanitarian workers spent a abundant amount of time arguing about whether or not to call the 2002-2003 crisis in Ethiopia, ostensibly affecting over 13 million people, a famine. trade it a famine would have stepped up the international response, but it might also be perceived as crying wolf, which would have a injurious effect on organizations abilities to obtain resources for emergency responses in the long run. Aid agencies want to avoid using the term famine too often because they have-to doe with about compassion fatigue or donor fatigue essentially that donors will be less likely to support emergency efforts if there argon too many emergencies. there are also political implications for using the term famine, as can be seen in the case of the 2005 crisis in Niger, which chair Mamadou Tandja insisted was a fabrication of relief agencies to obtain more funding (Sengupta, 2005). Aid agencies likewise were reluctant to apply the term famine, and referred inste ad to pockets of severe malnutrition, in part because they didnt want to alienate Tandja (Sengupta, 2005).The general discussion in literature indicates that number of deaths, scale, intensity and time frame were main considerations for when to call something a famine. There also is a consensus that lack of access to food had to be the main problem, to distinguish a famine from other types of humanitarian crises.For instance, the 1984/85 famine in Ethiopia was unanimously considered a famine. Iraq in the 1990s was not, mainly because the time-frame was too long for a famine and many deaths were the result of a health crisis, not calorie-related (IDS, 3). Ethiopia in 1999/2000 was probably a famine, but Malawi in 2002 represented a famine-threat, rather than a true famine because too few people died (IDS, 3). In the latter(prenominal) case, the mortality was estimated between 500 and 3,000, and estimates were complicated by the prevalence of HIV/AIDS thus, it was difficult to attribu te deaths specifically to hunger and hunger-related diseases.WORKS CITEDInstitute of breeding Studies. Report on Operational Definition of Famine Workshop.Sussex, UK Institute of Development Studies, March 14, 2003Maxwell, D. Why do famines persist? A brief review of Ethiopia 1999-2000. IDS Bulletin,33 (4), 48-54, 2002Sen, A. Poverty and famines An essay on entitlement and deprivation. Oxford ClarendonPress, 1981Sengupta, K. President Tandja The people of Niger look well fed, as you can see. TheIndependent, August 10, 2005United States Agency for International Development. USAID background piece Famine.Washington, DC USAID, 2002. Retrieved July 8, 2009, fromhttp//www.usaid.gov/press/releases/2002/02fs_famine.html