Chapter 6


2.3 Relief food aid

Relief food aid is provided on a grant basis and distributed to targeted beneficiaries to address
critical food needs arising from natural and man-made disasters. It accounted for 26 percent
of all 1993 food aid deliveries, and plays a particularly important role in Sub-Saharan Africa
which received about two third of the total relief aid deliveries.



Box 6.2: Famine Preparedness: A Conceptual Framework

Famine preparedness consists of institutional and material capacity building. This is pursued in recognition of
the fact that there are inherent problems that can trigger famine, and, therefore, there must be the capacity to
detect them as early as possible, position the necessary materials to make timely interventions, and effectively
deliver the assistance at the time of need.
Famine preparedness has a number of essential components. Different components can be considered in
different circumstances, depending on the nature of the disaster. On the basis of the Ethiopian experience, the
major components of drought-induced famine preparedness can be reduced into the following five components:
institutional framework, early warning system, planning, resource bases, and response mechanism.
1. Institutional framework: Institutional capacity is perhaps the corner-stone of an adequate disaster
 preparedness capacity. It is the basis on which to build other preparedness components. The institutional
 framework determines the centre of co-ordination and the evolution and execution of plan and projects.
 2. Early Warning System: This is the information base that permits continuous monitoring of the factors that
 cause a disaster, so that its likely occurrence can be detected with adequate lead time, and the magnitude of
 its likely effect as well as the areas and population groups at risk can be identified. It provides the basis for
 the plans that set in motion the intervention programme.
 3. Planning: This encompasses both pre- and post-disaster planning. Pre-disaster planning is preparedness
 planning in its true sense. It allows capacity building and identification of infrastructural needs. It helps in
 identifying measures that need to be taken prior to the advent of a disaster. The post-disaster plan triggers a
 response. Its data base is the early warning system. The post-disaster plan is set with an actual disaster on
 hand, and, hence, focuses on identification and positioning of resources needed to launch an emergency
 programme.
 4. Resource Bases: The purpose of disaster preparedness is to minimise the suffering of disaster victims.
 Hence, its effectiveness depends on the availability of resources such as relief items (food, medicine, and
 shelter materials) and the infrastructure to move and deliver them on time (roads, warehouses, transport
 system, and other logistical capacities).
 5. Response Mechanisms: These show how plans are translated into action, and they reflect how resources
 reach beneficiaries. They include, among others, determination of the circumstances under which food is to
 be delivered, how and to whom the food is to be distributed, and who does what during such an undertaking.

 Source: P. Webb et al (ed.), Famine and Drought Mitigation in Ethiopia in the 1990s, IFPRI, Washington 1992

 Typically, relief food is distributed to target groups through specifically established channels,
 with relatively high complementary infrastructural, logistical and managerial requirements.
 When emergencies arise, the necessary resources for relief assistance must be mobilised and
 the structures of relief distribution set up immediately, in order to reach the designated
 population in time. This is always difficult, and particularly hard to achieve if, as often
 occurs, the afflicted people live in remote and inaccessible areas.


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