The Contribution of the Relief and Development Institute to the Evolution of the Agenda on Famine and Emergency Relief

JOHN BORTON, EDWARD CLAY, JEREMY SHOHAM and NIGEL NICHOLDS

Since the late 1970s, the Relief and Development Institute (RDI), its pre- decessor the International Disaster Institute and the Food Emergencies Research Unit have contributed both to changes in the way famines are conceptualised and to conse- quent alterations in the design of famine early warning and monitoring systems. As announced in the June issue of Disasters, RDI has ceased to exist and its policy related research activities have been transferred to a new Relief and Disasters Policy Pro- gramme at the Overseas Development Institute. In this note, which is not intended to be a comprehensive review of the literature, we attempt to place the contri- bution of the RDI in context and to describe how thinking within it on famine and emer- gency relief issues has evolved over the past decade or so. (For reviews of the literature on the food shortagel”entit1ement” debate see Devreaux and Hay, 1986 and Dreze and Sen, 1989; for the early warning literature see Walker, 1989 and Davies et al., 1991).

FAMINE AS AN ENTITLEMENT FAILURE

From being perceived in the West, in the early 1970s, as primarily the product of supply-side failures, famines are now in-

creasingly viewed as the product of failures of effective demand and “entitlements”. This has had far-reaching implications for the information systems used by relief agencies and for the way they provide relief.

A number of separate strands contri- buted to this paradigm shift. A particularly important one was the work of historians such as Srinivasta (1968) in encouraging a wider appreciation of aspects of the practice developed in India in the late nineteenth century as set out in the Famine Codes of that period. Another strand was the Keynesian notion of limited effective demand as a constraint on economic growth and the need to stimulate purchasing power during downturns in the economic cycle. This was given renewed impetus in the 1960s, particularly through the work of the International Labour Office, and led directly to increased investment in public works schemes in South Asia. Another strand was the work of those involved in the area of food policy and the nascent subject of food security in the period after the World Food Crisis of the mid-1970s. This work involved a growing recognition, not only of the importance of effective demand, but also of the need to shift attention from aggregate national food security to individual and

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household food security (e.g. Clay, 1981). Yet another strand were the studies con- ducted during and after the famines of the mid-1970s in the African Sahel, Ethiopia and Bangladesh. Some of the individuals involved in establishing the International Disaster Institute had been involved in the relief efforts in Ethiopia and, as well as analysing the epidemiological lessons of that famine (Rivers, Holt, Seaman and Bowden, 1976), were developing a deeper understanding of the role of food markets and effective demand in the famine process (Seaman and Holt, 1980).

But the contribution which had the greatest impact and achieved the widest dissemination was undoubtedly Amartya Sen‘s Poverty and Famines, published in 1981. By bringing the various strands together and articulating them within a theoretical framework of ”entitlement relations” and then applying this to case studies of earlier famines, Sen ensured that governments and donor agencies could no longer view famines primarily as the result of supply side failures.

FAMINE EARLY WARNING INDICATORS

The realisation that famines may occur in situations where food is physically available but not accessible because of the erosion of people’s entitlements to food, challenged the traditional reliance of food aid donors and the governments of affected countries on information about production and imports within the framework of a national food balance sheet. If famines could occur in areas of a country which theoretically had sufficient stocks to feed everyone, then a new basis was needed on which to warn of approaching famines and judge the require- ment for food aid in the affected areas.

In 1982 the International Disaster Insti- tute (IDI) and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine established a cooperative research programme, the Food Emergency Research Unit (FERU), to

examine ways in which the national food balance sheet approach could be comple- mented by information on the status of entitlements in communities prone to food crisis and famine. Supported by grants principally from Shell (UK) and the Overseas Development Administration, the FERU’s work focussed upon ”socio- economic indicators” such as movements in relative prices of cereals and livestock, the incidence of “unusual” migrations and consumption of ”famine foods” (Cutler, 1984a; Cutler, 1984b; Cutler, 1985). Two seminars were held before the completion of the FERU programme in 1987 (Borton and York, 1987; Clay and York, 1987).

The FERU programme coincided with the African Food Crisis of the mid-1980s and widespread famine in several countries (Borton and Clay, 1986). As well as resulting in the provision of unprecedented levels of resources for relief, the Crisis also saw a substantial increase in the level of interest and investment in early warning systems (EWS) by bilateral donors, multilateral agencies, governments and NGOs. The need for such systems to monitor social and economic indicators of changes in entitle- ment levels such as grain and livestock prices, the incidence of wild food con- sumption and household migration had been widely recognised. By the end of 1986, a study commissioned by the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS, 1987), identified no fewer than 39 different EWSs in the Sahel alone, of which 14 were engaged in primary data collection and 25 were recycling infor- mation from these and other sources. Thus, over a comparatively short space of time it became accepted wisdom that famine EWSs should incorporate, if not focus upon, entitlement indicators. A good example of one of the newly created national systems was the Systemes d’Alerte Precoce (SAP) in Mali, supported by the EC Commission, which has been well documented by Autier et al. (1989).

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This is not to say that the paradigm shift was complete or wholly accepted. A major problem with socio-economic data is that coping strategies differ between societies and regions and it is necessary to under- stand the local coping strategies before selecting appropriate early warning indi- cators. Few anthropological studies have been carried out during famines and this limits the ability of outsiders to select sensi- tive indicators. One of the few examples of such a study is that by de Waal (1989) during the 1985-86 relief operations in Darfur, Sudan. On the basis of this study he argued, more broadly, that early warn- ing systems based upon socio-economic indictors are not cost effective and donors should instead strengthen the supply side data analysis capacity and improve primary health care services in famine prone areas (de Waal, 1988). His conclusions are being questioned, however, by others who are also familiar with Darfur (Buchanan-Smith and Young, forthcoming).

It is difficult for donors, who have to make resource allocation decisions between competing demands, to use information which is not comparable between countries. Many food aid donors therefore remain cautious about the weight they should attach to socio-economic indicators and some continue to rely largely on food balance sheet information, such as that disseminated by FAO’s Global Information and Early Warning System (Clay and York, 1987).

A secondary theme in the discussion of famine indicators in this period (and in more recent work on targeting methods) was the role of nutritional surveillance. This involves the weighing and measuring of children and the comparison of the results against international growth standards. In the mid-1980s there was a tendency to reject a role for nutritional data in early warning because signs of deteriorating nutritional status were considered to be late, or even “terminal”, in the famine process. An

attempt to defend the potential role of nutritional surveillance information was a paper by Shoham (1987), a member of the FERU group and an Associate of RDI.

Whatever the utility of nutritional sur- veillance information in an early warning context, Shoham and others take a sceptical position regarding the use of nutritional surveillance information in resource allo- cation decisions by donors. Donors often attach more importance than is justified to nutritional information. It continues to be poorly appreciated by non-nutritionists that malnutrition may be caused by factors un- related to, or interacting with, food intake. Despite this, and the numerous technical problems involved in carrying out accurate surveys of nutritional status, anthropo- metric data continue to have an air of technical respectability which appeals to those involved in resource allocation decisions (Borton and Shoham, 1989).

THE TARGETING PROBLEM IN EMERGENCY FOOD OPERATIONS

Around 1987 a number of factors contri- buted to a shift in the focus of research at RDI from the role of socio-economic and nutritional surveillance in early warning systems per se to the way in which agencies select areas and populations to receive assistance and how they decide upon the size of ration to be provided - i.e. the way they target relief assistance. Among the factors contributing to this shift of attention were the following:

1. Many institutional problems have to be faced in establishing and institutionalis- ing EWSs. The output of those EWSs located at the national level, for example, is prone to be influenced by the govern- ment, even when they are not located within a government department. There is also the difficulty of sustaining funding in the period after a crisis, as was shown by the disappearance of a significant pro-

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portion of the EWSs following the African Food Crisis.

2. It is difficult to carry research on EWSs into the important area of the way infor- mation is actually used in donor decision- making in the allocation of relief resources. Awareness of these difficulties stemmed from RDI's involvement in a number of evaluations of the response by donor organisations and relief agencies to the African Food Crisis (Rorton et al., 1988). Most observers agree on the need to strengthen the links between early warning and response. It is hard, however, to see how this can be achieved by external researchers examining what is a politically sensitive area which typically involves a complex of decisions based on political judgements as well as pragmatic assessments of need.

3. The response to the African Emergency of the mid-1980s differed from the Sahelien Drought of the mid-1970s in that a much greater proportion of the beneficiaries received food distributions in their homes and villages rather than in feeding camps. This situation forced relief agencies, particularly non- governmental organisations (NGOs), which had played an unprecedented role in distributing emergency food aid during the response, into situations of which they had limited previous experi- ence and inadequate practical and policy guidance.

This change in focus led to a study which reviewed the methods used by NGOs in 13 separate relief programmes in Sudan, Ethiopia, Chad and Niger to dif- ferentiate and quantify need for food relief between affected areas and populations. The study also developed a typology of the methods employed and identified the agenda for future research and the develop- ment of guidance material (Shoham and Borton, 1989; Borton and Shoham, 1989; Shoham and Clay, 1989).

Once again it was apparent that many agencies had attempted to modify their practice to take account of the paradigm shift. Aware of the limitations of traditional nutritional surveillance methods for assess- ing need for food relief and the need to incorporate indicators of the entitlement status of the affected populations, many agencies had sought to complement nutrition surveys with socio-economic surveys, or had relied entirely on socio- economic surveys. In a context of extreme pressure on time and limited resources, many NGOs had devised methods that were innovative and potentially of wider use amongst government and donor agencies involved in the provision of emer- gency food aid, as well as by other NGOs. One of the most innovative methods, based on a scoring system devised by MSF- Belgium in Chad, is described in Autier (1988).

The study also found, however, that the assumptions upon which some of the methods were based required further test- ing. It was also found that few NGOs give adequate attention to the need to docu- ment, evaluate and share their experiences to ensure that lessons are learnt and institutionalised.

THE FUTURE

Although the contribution of RDI, ID1 and FERU has been substantive, much remains to be done. The debate on the appropriate mix of indicators in early warning and targeting continues, though in a rather sporadic fashion. Our understanding of the "need" for food within affected populations and how this might be related to "socio- economic" or nutritional indicators is still very limited. The issue of how "objective" indicators relate to the perceptions of the affected population has hardly begun to be addressed.

A theme that runs through the work described above is the dearth of field studies

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carried out during relief operations. It is extremely difficult to coordinate the funding of such studies with relief operations and to carry out the fieldwork at a time when a society and its physical infrastructure is under stress. Where such studies have been carried out, often by chance rather than design, their impact on the literature has often been out of proportion to what would be expected in other areas of professional discourse. Part of the problem stems from the attitude of many within the relief agencies (government, donor and NGO), towards studies not directly related to their own operations. Further exploration of the implications of the paradigm shift and the answering of remaining questions will be greatly assisted by a more positive attitude towards applied research on relief issues.

This note is not intended to be an epitaph on the work of RDI and IDI, since much of RDI’s policy-related research, par- ticularly on the targeting of relief assistance, will be continued by the new Relief and Disasters Policy Programme within ODI. We hope that this reorganisation will sustain and enhance the calibre and impact of the earlier work.

References

Autier, P. (1988) Nutritional Assessment Through the Use of a Nutritional Scoring System. Disasters 12, 70-80.

Autier, P. et al. (1989) The Food and Nutrition Surveillance Systems of Chad and Mali: The “SAP“ after Two Years. Disasters 13, 9-29.

Borton, J. and Clay, E.J. (1986) The African Food Crisis of 1982-1986: A provisional assessment. Disasters 10, 258-272.

Borton, J. and York, S. (1987) Experiences of the Collection and Use of Micro-level Data in Disaster Preparedness and Managing Emer- gency Operations. Disasters 11, 173-181.

Borton, J . et al. (1988) Evaluation of ODA’s Provision of Emergency Aid to Africa 1983-86. Evaluation Report No. EV425. Overseas Development Administration, London.

Borton, J . and Shoham, J. (1989) Experiences of

Non-Governmental Organisations in the Targeting of Emergency Food Aid: A Report on a Workshop. Disasters 13, 74-90.

Buchanan-Smith, M. and Young, H. forthcoming Recent Developments in Gathering and Using Early Warning Information in Darfur, Sudan. IDS, Sussex.

CILSS (1986) La Prevision des situations alimenfaires critiques duns les pays du Sahel: systemes et moyens d‘alerfe precoce. OECD, Paris.

Clay, E. (1981) Food Policy lssues in Low-lncome Countries. World Bank Staff Working Paper No. 473, Washington, D.C.

Clay, E. and York, S. (eds) (1987) lnformation and Emergencies: A Report on the 5th IDS Food Aid Seminar 21 -24 April 1987. Discussion Paper 236, Institute of Development Studies, Sussex.

Cutler, P. (1985) The Use of Economic and Social Znfomation in Famine Prediction and Response. A Report for the Overseas Development Administration, London.

Cutler, P. (1984a) Food Crisis Detection: Going Beyond the Food Balance Sheet. Food Policy 9:4.

Cutler, P. (1984b) Famine Forecasting: Prices and Peasant Behaviour in Northerm Ethiopia. Disasters 8, 48-56.

Davies, S. et al. (1991) State of the Ar t of Early Warning in the Sahel and Horn of Afnca: A reuiew of the literafure. IDS, Sussex.

Devreaux, S. and Hay, R. (1986) Origins of Famine: A Review of the Literature. Food Studies Group, Oxford.

de Waal, A. (1988) Famine Early Warning Systems and the Use of Socio-Economic Data. Disasters 12, 81-91.

de Waal, A. (1989) Famine that Kills: Darfur Sudan 1984-85. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Dreze, J . and Sen, A. (1989) Hunger and Public Action. Clarendon Press, Oxford.

Rivers, J., Holt, J., Seaman, J. and Bowden, M. (1976) Lessons for Epidemiology from the Ethiopian Famine. Annales de la Societe Belge de Medecine Tropicale, 56.

Seaman, J . and Holt, J . (1980) Markets and Famines in the Third World. Disasters 4,

Sen, A. (1981) Poverty and Famines: an essay on entitlement and deprivation. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Shoham, J. (1987) Does Nutritional Surveillance

283-297.

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have a role to play in early warning of food crisis and in the management of relief operations? Disasters 11, 282-285.

Shoham, J. and Borton, J . (1989) Targeting Emergency Food Aid: Methods Used by NGOs During the Response to the African Food Crisis of 2983-86. RDI, London.

Shoham, J. and Clay, E.J. (1989) The Role of Socio-Economic Data in Food Needs Assess- ment and Monitoring. Disasters 13, 41-57.

Srinivasta, H.S. (1968) History of Zndian Famines mid Development of Famine Policy 1858-1918. Sri Ram Mehra and Co., Agra.

Walker, P. (1989) Famine Early Warning Systems: victims and destitution. Earthscan, London.

John Borton Edward Clay Nigel Nicholds Relief and Disasters Policy Programme Overseas Development Institute Regent’s College Inner Circle Regent’s Park London, NW14NS UK

Jeremy Shoham Centre for Human Nutrition London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine 2, Taviton Street London, WC1 UK

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE PHYSICAL CAUSES OF DROUGHT AND DESERTIFICATION

9-13 December 1991 Melbourne University

Large scale droughts can be quite realistically simulated with global circulation models and the possibility of timely drought prediction for certain regions is encouraging. A number of climatic aspects of desertification have been identified, and some have been quantified by appropriate studies. Given the importance of drought and desertification and their mutual interactions, it is necessary to enhance research on these topics. Particular attention needs to be focused on the underlying mechanisms and causes, with the ultimate aim of developing predictive tools so that the impact of these events can be minimised. It is hoped that this Conference will materially assist progress in these aims. For further information contact Ms Val Jemmeson, CSIRO, Division of Atmospheric Research, PMB No. 1, Mordialloc, Vic. 3195, Australia.

DISASTERS VOLUME 15 NUMBER 4