Johanne Sekkenes, the mission head of MSF which is mounting the biggest emergency exercise in its history in Niger, says the current emergency could have been avoided. "This is not a famine, in the Somalian way," she said. "The harvest was bad in 2004 and the millet granaries are empty. Yet there is food on the markets. The trouble is that the price of the food is beyond anyone's reach. "Given this situation, it was criminal of the UN this year to tackle the emergency in a gingerly way, putting 'moderately priced' cereals on the market. The UN should have immediately organised free food distribution." Ms Sekkenes said the International Monetary Fund and the European Union had pressed Niger too hard to implement a structural adjustment programme. "No sooner had the government been re-elected [this year] than it was obliged to introduce 19 per cent VAT on basic foodstuffs. At the same time, as part of the policy, emergency grain reserves were abolished."
Ms Sekkenes said the International Monetary Fund and the European Union had pressed Niger too hard to implement a structural adjustment programme. "No sooner had the government been re-elected [this year] than it was obliged to introduce 19 per cent VAT on basic foodstuffs. At the same time, as part of the policy, emergency grain reserves were abolished."
From another article on the same famine:
MSF: Plenty of food - yet the poor are starving
The starvation in Niger is not the inevitable consequence of poverty, or simply the fault of locusts or drought. It is also the result of a belief that the free market can solve the problems of one of the world's poorest countries. ...The last harvest was only 11% below the five-yearly average. Prices have been rising also because traders in Niger have been exporting grain to wealthier neighbouring countries, including Nigeria and Ghana. Niger, the second-poorest country in the world, relies heavily on donors such as the EU and France, which favour free-market solutions to African poverty. So the Niger government declined to hand out free food to the starving. Instead, it offered millet at subsidised prices. But the poorest could still not afford to buy. ...Last month around 2,000 protesters marched through the streets of the capital, Niamey, demanding free food. The government refused. The same month, G8 finance ministers agreed to write off the country's $2bn (?1.3bn) debt.
...The last harvest was only 11% below the five-yearly average. Prices have been rising also because traders in Niger have been exporting grain to wealthier neighbouring countries, including Nigeria and Ghana.
Niger, the second-poorest country in the world, relies heavily on donors such as the EU and France, which favour free-market solutions to African poverty. So the Niger government declined to hand out free food to the starving. Instead, it offered millet at subsidised prices. But the poorest could still not afford to buy.
...Last month around 2,000 protesters marched through the streets of the capital, Niamey, demanding free food. The government refused. The same month, G8 finance ministers agreed to write off the country's $2bn (?1.3bn) debt.
The human side:
In Tahoua market, there is no sign that times are hard. Instead, there are piles of red onions, bundles of glistening spinach, and pumpkins sliced into orange shards. There are plastic bags of rice, pasta and manioc flour, and the sound of butchers' knives whistling as they are sharpened before hacking apart joints of goat and beef. A few minutes' drive from the market, along muddy streets filled with puddles of rainwater, there is the more familiar face of Niger. Under canvas tents, aid workers coax babies with spidery limbs to take sips of milk, or the smallest dabs of high-protein paste. Wasted infants are wrapped in gold foil to keep them warm. There is the sound of children wailing, or coughing in machine-gun bursts. "I cannot afford to buy millet in the market, so I have no food, and there is no milk to give my baby," says Fatou, a mother cradling her son Alhassan. Though he is 12 months old he weighs just 3.3kg (around 7lbs).
In Tahoua market, there is no sign that times are hard. Instead, there are piles of red onions, bundles of glistening spinach, and pumpkins sliced into orange shards. There are plastic bags of rice, pasta and manioc flour, and the sound of butchers' knives whistling as they are sharpened before hacking apart joints of goat and beef.
A few minutes' drive from the market, along muddy streets filled with puddles of rainwater, there is the more familiar face of Niger. Under canvas tents, aid workers coax babies with spidery limbs to take sips of milk, or the smallest dabs of high-protein paste.
Wasted infants are wrapped in gold foil to keep them warm. There is the sound of children wailing, or coughing in machine-gun bursts. "I cannot afford to buy millet in the market, so I have no food, and there is no milk to give my baby," says Fatou, a mother cradling her son Alhassan. Though he is 12 months old he weighs just 3.3kg (around 7lbs).
Meanwhile, in many instances the President has a string of Mercedes, a private plane, and a Swiss Bank account, and his officials are creaming off the aid budget... As I said earlier, often there are failures of political leadership at both local and international levels and the development of good representative, educational, infrastructural, and economic structures at local level is a better long term solution than ever greater dependency on external aid budgets. "It's a mystery to me - the game commences, For the usual fee - plus expenses, Confidential information - it's in my diary..."
In the Irish Famine c. 1845-52 c. 1 Million died and one 1 million emigrated at a time when grain and cattle were being exported to England. 500,000 were evicted from their lands for not paying the rent. The colonial and landlord class structure was as much responsible for the toll as the potato blight, if not more so. Famine was indeed the market and colonial solution to Irish rebelliousness and population growth.
Ultimately. political independence was only partly the solution. Economic independence (or at least an interdependence of near equals) did not come until much later - arguably mid 1990's. Before that emigration was still the historic norm, and the population continued to decline until the 1960's despite high birth rates.
It's a long hard road, and there is no easy solution. Debt forgiveness and economic aid is part of that solution, but ultimately the political and economic development can only be done by the people themselves. "It's a mystery to me - the game commences, For the usual fee - plus expenses, Confidential information - it's in my diary..."
You don't have to comment on the specifics, you just have to relate them to the big picture you draw. I say there is lack of coherence.
Debt forgiveness and economic aid is part of that solution, but ultimately the political and economic development can only be done by the people themselves.
The articles I quoted give an example when debt forgiveness is made conditional on the local government abolishing what has been in place before: grain stocks, price controls, free distribution; and set free processess that made the situation worse: trading of agricultural products to the highest bidder (exporting it to neighbouring countries); and all that at a time when the overall production shortage was not in any way catastrophic: a mere 11% below average. None of this you can blame on the locals and lack of development -- this is the 'development' we prescribe to them. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
If Niger is still exporting food - what is the income derived being used for? Is there an internal tribal/class/elite structure whereby some starve and some are relatively well off? Are their huge internal inefficiencies, waste, corruption, and lack of planning? Are there projects in train which can improve the overall productive capacity and income distribution of the economy?
I'm afraid the specifics ARE very important, and blanket assertions that "its all the West's fault" don't really help to resolve the problem because "the West" is never going to take 100% responsibility for resolving the problems, and the whole point of development is to devolve responsibility, power and capability to the the local polity. "It's a mystery to me - the game commences, For the usual fee - plus expenses, Confidential information - it's in my diary..."
That's nice words. In effect, it turned out to be about giving Western companies better access to local markets, capitalising on legacy dependency. But whatever the reasoning, the lethal effect on local population is the same.
If Niger is still exporting food
Not Niger, traders. (If the specifics are important, let's read with precision.) You understand, private enterprise.
- what is the income derived being used for?
That's irrelevant. Whether that income is turned back into the economy or spent on luxury (which means that ultimately the money goes back to us in the West) or gets lost in corruption, people will starve. (Unless you use money from selling food to buy food for food distribution, which doesn't make any sense.)
Is there an internal tribal/class/elite structure whereby some starve and some are relatively well off?
I refer you back to the article. The problem is that the poorest can't afford food at market prices, even subsidized prices.
Are their huge internal inefficiencies, waste, corruption, and lack of planning?
That's again irrelevant. As I said, upon Western demands, planning already in place was abolished.
Are there projects in train which can improve the overall productive capacity and income distribution of the economy?
That's again irrelevant. Wait, no: if such projects would not be in place, Western demands of neoliberal reform are knowingly putting locals at risk.
blanket assertions that "its all the West's fault"
You saw no such blanket assertion above, neither from me nor in the quoted articles. You saw quite specific points based on a real-world example. Meanwhile, what I saw from you were blanket assertions (or at least the insinuation of blanket assertions in the form of questions) without any use of evidence.
help to resolve the problem
I'm talking about a problem caused by the West, a minor shortage that wouldn't have turned into a famine without Western intervention, all this while ostensibly working on resolving earlier problems - at their own terms.
the whole point of development is to devolve responsibility, power and capability to the the local polity.
Prescribing economic policy is no devolution of responsibility, power and capability. It's the seizure of them. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
When people are starving there is only one humanitarian solution, and that is to give them food as quickly as possible. However that can also have the effect of rendering local agricultural activity uneconomic, and thus depressing local production still further.
Purely because Western(TM) "development aid" is and has always been industrial subsidies in drag. If "we" were serious about the aid in question, we'd distribute free food, and buy whatever food the local farmers could produce. Shorter transportation times, money into the local economy rather than big agribiz, and you don't destroy the local agricultural sector, thus not setting the stage for a replay next year.
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
