As the mainstream media fails to provide coherent and regular reporting on important world events that are not easily "marketable", lives go on in many places we rarely hear about. The struggles and concerns that shape the lives of so many, are all too often ignored by the few large news agencies that provide 50 to 95 % of what we get to hear and see in the media. One continent that is by-passed in all too many ways is Africa. The gladiators of globalization, the so-called G7 (or G8 if one can really count all members of this self righteous club) are too pre-occupied with themselves and with their agendas to drive the course of globalization in their favour. With the "festive" season now upon us, do we have the nerve and indeed interest to read or hear about the less fortunate in faraway places? With new millions being spent daily on improving safety, security and defense, few of us seem to wonder whose millions are being spent on whose safety and why. Couldn't reducing hunger and food crisis around the world be contemplated as a global human security effort? That there is a blatant need for such an effort is clear to anyone who chooses to look beyond the Christmas lights in the shopping malls. Let's spend a few moments looking at the ongoing food crisis in Africa.
The food crisis that started in the Southern Africa region has now extended to the Horn of Africa, a region frequently plagued by droughts and food insecurities. There is a tendency to explain away the reasons behind recurring food crisis or to be inclined to accept them as regrettable natural disasters. If one agrees that that knowledge of nature's calamities in drought-prone regions is not strikingly unexpected news, then the question arises why aren't affected countries and their international partners better prepared to act when disaster hits? For one thing, droughts and food insecurities are rarely sudden events, they gradually develop and early warning signs do exist. Why aren't these recognized in time and pre-emptive actions taken before malnutrition and hunger among large populations set in?
Once questions like these are asked, a bewildering range of answers and suggestions arise from scores of publications, abundance of conference reports and series of policy debates and academic discourse. Few experts can stay on top of this information tide and anybody involved in food policy and food security matters would be very hard pressed to provide a plain answer on how ordinary farmers, rural laborers or any other group of people affected by food insecurities can draw a practical conclusion or two, best three or four out of the mountain of knowledge and advice. There is a genuine need to summarize relevant knowledge and to share positive coping experiences with local people living in regions prone to food crisis. Once a crisis has begun, little more than emergency relief and crisis management seems possible. As one witnesses how food crises are unfolding in one region after the other across the African continent, it is obvious that preparedness and contingency planning has been neglected, poorly implemented or completely failed. Why so? Is this a household failing or the result of incompetent as well as inappropriate managerial responses, at all levels, nationally and internationally? Should one expect and surely demand genuine political commitment to tackle supply fluctuations and other uncertainties?
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