When will Ethiopia stop asking for food aid?
In 2003, 13 million Ethiopians required exceptional food assistance just to survive. Despite 30 years of food aid, the countrys food security has steadily worsened, and relief food aid has become an institutionalised response. Thus the common refrain: if food security is getting worse, is food aid the right way to address food insecurity in Ethiopia? The question is, however, flawed. We need instead to ask how food aid is being used. Relief food aid, while effective in saving lives and relieving short-term hunger, cannot achieve sustainable food security. Food aid, when well targeted and linked with other development inputs, can and is having sustainable impact. By 2002, WFPs development food aid programme in Ethiopia had reduced food shortages by 40% for 1.4m people in 800 communities. These communities were remarkably less vulnerable during the 2003 drought, maintaining their productive assets and emerging more resilient than communities with only relief assistance. However, contribu
