A4: Humanitarian Issues in Ethiopia

The humanitarian aid issue revolving around Ethiopia is not only complex but requires large amounts of monetary and political adjustment in order to correct the large issues it currently faces. Ethiopia since 1991 has seen a large growth in its private business sector, credibility as professional media associations, and academic freedom. However, despite this, the amount of local NGO’s dedicated toward improving the issues of extreme poverty, child malnutrition, and various other proponents of a developing nation is not in place. From The World Bank in Ethiopia it reported that out of the 310 NGO’s officially registered with the government, only 120 were locally run and operated by Ethiopians (CS.PDF). The figures provided highlight much of what we have gone over in class in regards to the humanitarian imperative, although there are a large number of organizations in place in Ethiopia, in relation to its surrounding nations, there is a divide between whether they are receiving proper aid or simply making matters worse.

In my research on NGO’s operating within Ethiopia, specifically catered towards child malnutrition, I came across the organization Concern. The Concern Group is an NGO located in the United Kingdom that serves across three continents providing aid for not only malnourished children but also HIV/AIDS, education programs, and emergency relief. When delving into their efforts to attempt to end child malnourishment in Ethiopia, roughly 48% of children in Ethiopia suffer from malnourishment, I was astounded to see how accurate the humanitarian aid imperative was. Directly from the Concern website on efforts within Ethiopia to improve malnourishment rates they state, “We do this by informing mothers about better feeding practices and ways to help children recover more quickly from illness. We train communities in seven essential subjects including breastfeeding and when to introduce solid foods” (Concern). I found this to be rather baffling in regards to how I thought they could actually cause an impact within such a desperate community. Although education and informing mothers for generations to come does cause a ripple effect, if these women and families do not have the proper access to healthy foods nor the means to even purchase them due to extreme poverty leads me to find Concerns “humanitarian aid” to fall directly under the rationalization of an imperative. Despite this, NGO’s within Ethiopia have recently developed a,”shift in emphasis from relief to long-term development on the part of NGOs has increased their relevance and, significantly, acceptance by the government” (CSPDF). Through political empowerment and government support hopefully, it can one day cause a large shift in the humanitarian aid system within Ethiopia.

One of the main issues surrounding extreme poverty, and subsequently the humanitarian aid effort, in Ethiopia, relies on the coffee trade. For countless years Ethiopia has been a global provider of some of the best coffee beans the world has seen with each different regional and elevational change giving a different and distinct flavor to each farmer’s beans. Prior to 1989 the United States, along with several other nations, were apart of the International Coffee Agreement which set a fixed price for the average kilo of coffee beans being exported out of any producing nation. This gave the Ethiopian coffee farmers enough money to supply food for their children and even send them to some form of education. However, in 1989 the United States along with Britain pulled out of the agreement causing the price per kilo of coffee beans to almost be cut in half. These farmers could no longer afford to provide enough food for their families nor even send a single child to primary school. In the documentary, Black Gold which I have linked below, the hardships and brutal truth of the coffee trade after the price drops are depicted. Following this, Tadesse Maskela, an Ethiopian native who represents a cooperative which fights for even prices for his farmers coffee outlines the major issues surrounding the coffee trade and its efforts against poor nations like Ethiopia. In 2002 during the World Trade Organization talks the African nations were vastly outnumbered by the number of delegates causing them to be largely outnumbered and unheard in stating their opinions of trade policy. The talks ended in the African nations refusing to negotiate due to the policies set forth which promoted the larger wealthier nations economies and demoted those like Ethiopia. In the documentary is stated a simple rise of 1% in Ethiopia’s GDP would create enough wealth to fund the amount of humanitarian aid needed every year five times over again.

To conclude this lengthy and technical post I’d like to note that Ethiopia is on track to becoming an independent and strong nation. However, through humanitarian aid not catered towards the actual needs of the people and a global economy set forth on the principles of neoliberalism and self-promotion that have caused African countries to be the only in the world who have seen a decline in GDP growth then there is still a long way to go.

Black Gold Trailer:

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=uiWDjObe_fs

Works Cited:

“Https://Www.concern.org.uk/About.” Concern Worldwide, www.concern.org.uk/about.

Class Lecture: Humanitarian Aid/ Neoliberalism

“Fighting Malnutrition in Ethiopia.” Concern Worldwide, www.concern.org.uk/news-blogs/concern-blog/fighting-malnutrition-ethiopia.

Francis, Marc, and Nick Francis. Black Gold. London, Eng: Fulcrum Productions, 2006.

World Banks Ethiopian Snapshot (CSPDF) (can’t cite a pdf, here’s link):

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTRANETSOCIALDEVELOPMENT/873204-1111663470099/20489508/CSandDevEthiopiaSnapshotView.pdf