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World Humanitarian Day 2011

19 August 2011 by Archie Law | Comments closed

It is both tragic and ironic that World Humanitarian Day 2011 falls during the first famine in Africa in nearly 20 years.

On this World Humanitarian Day we must stand in solidarity with the people of East Africa fighting famine and the food crisis.  It is important to note that famine is not caused by drought or a lack of food to feed the world’s people. As Amartya Sen explained people go hungry when they cannot access food, because they are either too poor or because markets and governments fail.  Drought on its own does not cause famine.

The big issue that’s on my mind is today how can we enable poor and excluded people to build their resilience to an ever increasing range of shocks which include a lack of access to food and water. We know that there is a direct relationship between vulnerability and resilience and that we can do a lot to enable people to reduce their vulnerability and increase their resilience to shocks such as drought.

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More Deaths Expected as East African Famine Intensifies

9 August 2011 by Mark Chenery

By the UN’s count, the East African drought has already left 2 million infants malnourished and 30,000 people dead. And without much-needed attention from the international community, the crisis is only getting worse.

In a new report, the UN increased its estimate of the number of people currently at risk of starvation in East Africa to 13 million, from nine million just two weeks ago.

In Isiolo, an elder farmer stands in a field that hasn’t produced since 1997 because of drought. (Frederic Courbet/Panos Picures/ActionAid) Read the rest of this entry »

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UN Declares Famine in the Horn of Africa

25 July 2011 by Mark Chenery

The United Nations officially declared a famine in parts of Somalia Wednesday amid the worst drought in east Africa in more than 50 years.

Under the UN’s five-stage classification system, the “famine” designation means that at least two people per 10,000 are dying everyday and there are less than 7.5 litres of water available per person per day.

In a region already hit hard by rising global food prices, the African drought has devastated domestic farming and intensified price spikes. According to the BBC, the drought has already affected more than 10 million people across the Horn of Africa, and has sent tens of thousands of Somalis fleeing to neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia.

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What the FAO Election Means for Small-Holder Farmers

30 June 2011 by Archie Law

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization elected former Brazilian minister of food security José Graziano da Silva—a vocal supporter of small-holder farming—to its highest post on Monday.

Graziano da Silva has been recognised as a leader in the fight against hunger in his home country. In 2003, he spearheaded Brazil’s comprehensive Zero Hunger Initiative, which included direct money transfers to families, water infrastructure projects, and financial support for subsistence farmers.

In just eight years, Bolsa Familia—the initiative’s flagship programme—has lifted more than 12 million Brazilians out of poverty and alleviated hunger across the country.

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Polly has landed (at last)

23 June 2011 by Archie Law

Below is a guest post from Malcolm Wren, campaign coordinator at ActionAid Australia.

There’s a mix of excitement and relief around the ActionAid office in Sydney this week.

Excitement because on Saturday morning, Polly Apio, a small scale farmer from eastern Uganda, and Harriet Gimbo, women’s rights advisor for ActionAid Uganda, landed in Sydney after the long, long trip from Africa, to help take the message of our Fertile Ground campaign to the Australian public.

Polly and the team. From left to right: Emily, Me, Polly, Harriet

And relief because they have finally arrived! There has been lots of to’ing and fro’ing, planning and visa issues that led to a delay in their travel plans (Polly and Harriet were supposed to be guests of honour at our recent debate at Australian National University). So, it was a lovely moment when I saw them come through the arrival gates.

This week was spent getting to know each other better and preparing for the presentations Polly and Harriet will be conducting throughout regional Australia.

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Lost in Translation

23 June 2011 by Archie Law

Below is a guest post from ActionAid’s expert on global economic justice Soren Ambrose written following, what sounds like, a very frustrating meeting with the French Minister of Agriculture, Bruno Le Maire.

Yesterday, I went with a few other ActionAid staff and some French civil society groups to meet the host of the first gathering of G20 Agriculture Ministers later this week in Paris, French Minister of Agriculture, Bruno Le Maire. It was a cultural experience through and through – it turns out that French government and civil society routinely wear jeans instead of suits to meetings like this – but there was one mystery I couldn’t figure out.

Mr. Le Maire started with a hearty introduction about the challenge of food price volatility and the threat to food security that it poses… and even a bit about the importance of strong leadership by the G20 on this issue. I understood all of that. I have been thinking a lot about the food price volatility issue lately – and the 44 million people in the second half of last year that dipped into extreme poverty because of high food prices are living the impact at a much deeper level.

French Minister for Agriculture - Bruno Le Maire

But then the Minister insisted several times that the Action Plan coming out of the meeting on Thursday would be “ambitious” and that if it got watered down any more he would opt not to pass an agreement. He would allow it to fail rather than put forward a “meaningless” statement.

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What’s the best way to tackle hunger?

16 June 2011 by Mark Chenery

With almost  billion people going to bed hungry each night, the question of how we tackle hunger is one of the biggest facing the so-called aid and development community.

But what’s the answer?

At the 2009 G8 meeting in Italy, a group of the world’s richest nations pledged $22 billion in agricultural aid to help fight hunger and curb the threat of continuing food crises. These promises were very welcome, but how that money is spent is all important.

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Meet Polly: Ugandan farmer heads downunder

10 June 2011 by Mark Chenery

Meet Polly. She’s a smallholder farmer from Uganda working to promote sustainable agriculture and the status of women farmers in her country.

Next week, ActionAid Australia will welcome Polly for a two-week speaking tour for rural communities across New South Wales and Victoria.

Polly is scheduled to arrive in Sydney on 18 June, and will travel to Orange, Bellingen and Armidale before finishing her trip in Melbourne (no public events) at the end of the month. Read the rest of this entry »

Why the world cannot afford to stall on food aid commitments

1 June 2011 by Archie Law

With the G8 giving the Arab Spring top-billing at its annual meeting in Deauville, France last week, development experts are concerned that new aid commitments in Northern Africa and the Middle East will divert attention away from the resurgent global food crisis.

Ironically, those same  food shortages may have been key motivators behind this year’s uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. Read the rest of this entry »

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Watching Kevin Rudd in New York

20 September 2010 by Archie Law | 2 comments

We are doing a bunch of activities in Australia around the MDG Review Summit in New York this week and here’s some feedback on some of it.

Last week in Canberra we held our third policy dialogue in partnership with the Australian National University which featured our own Jean Kamau who is the ActionAid Country Director in Kenya, Richard Moore who is the Deputy Director General responsible for Asia at AusAID and Scott Wisor who is doing some wonderful research on development indicators at the ANU.

I had the privilege of moderating this discussion which one Panellist referred to as one of the best discussion panels they had participated in during their 20 year career in international development.

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