Millions are at risk of starvation as a result of flawed emergency funding, warns CARE International

3 October 2006

October 3, 2006 – More than 120 million people in Africa are living permanently on the edge of emergency because of a flawed and failing system of funding emergency responses, according to a new report from CARE International today.

CARE is calling for a drastic overhaul of the international community’s funding of emergencies which crucially saves lives, but does little more, sometimes leaving people worse off than they were before. The report says the trend of increasingly frequent and severe emergencies can be reversed but only if the world ends its record of funding late, short-term and inappropriate responses. By 2020, £165 billion will have been spent on emergencies, some of which could be prevented.

“It is a disgrace that money is still given too late and for such short periods, then spent on the wrong things to truly fight emergencies,” said Geoffrey Dennis, Chief Executive of CARE International UK. “There is no excuse, when by spending money more intelligently, we can bring an end to all but the most unpredictable food crises.”

According to the report it is rarely a lack of food that creates emergencies, rather a host of underlying problems like HIV, lack of local markets, climate change and lack of cash that make people so vulnerable to emergencies. It is these problems that must be addressed in order to end hunger.

Despite this evidence, the report highlights:

Ethiopia has reported itself to be in food crisis 93% of the time from 1986 to 2004, yet US spending on long-term aid in Ethiopia is less than 1 percent of emergency aid.
By responding early to the Niger emergency in 2005 it would have cost $1 a day to prevent malnutrition among children. Instead by the peak of the emergency it was costing $80 to save a malnourished child’s life.
In Kenya in 2006, 83% of funding applications for non-food aid responses were turned down. These responses could have prevented deterioration of the emergency by keeping people’s livestock - their major source of food and income – alive.

The report calls for policy changes as well as a new approach in practice. Recommendations include:

A fundamental shift to more sustainable and predictable funding of emergencies by donor governments and institutions so they improve lives as well as save lives
Higher priority on the ground to recovery and prevention programmes like seed distribution and improved veterinary services
Investing in training for those whose traditional ways of lives are no longer viable.

Dennis continued: “Emergencies need not be a bottomless pit of money and millions of people need not live on the edge. The international community must be much more ambitious about what can be achieved. The changes we are demanding – and particularly our call for more funding for recovery programmes – really can pull people far enough back from the edge to prevent future emergencies. “

He warned: “Continued failure to tackle these leaves people in a downward spiral, becoming increasingly susceptible as they fall in and out of emergency.”

The report says that international donors, governments, aid agencies, media and the public must change their short-term view of emergencies and instead consider the long-term nature of crisis at the heart of their response. The alternative is mounting hunger and starvation, more emergencies, deepening poverty, conflict and rapid urbanisation as people fall over the edge into destitution.

About CARE International: CARE is one of the world’s largest aid agencies, working 70 countries to fight poverty and helping more than 48 million people every year. Our long-term programmes tackle the deep-seated causes of poverty and we are always among the first to respond when disaster strikes. We remain with communities to help them rebuild their lives long after the cameras have gone. For more information, visit www.careinternational.org.uk

For interviews or more information, please contact:

Amber Meikle, , 0207 9349348 or 07867 585879

Or Sophie Kummer, , 0207 9349347 or 07917 699153