Ending Hunger in America, 2014 Hunger Report Full Report | Page 175

CHAPTER 5
Resilience and Sustainability
Food emergencies can occur suddenly or slowly. What makes them unmanageable is
the political response, or lack thereof. This was starkly apparent in Somalia during the
2010-2011 food emergency, which later crossed the threshold into famine. For months, the
Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET) pointed to an impending famine.
Crops dried up, livestock died, and desperation spread. But the humanitarian system did
not mobilize until the window of opportunity to prevent the
“Preparing to feed
worst had closed. Women carrying skeletal babies for hun9 billion people in
dreds of miles to find food in refugee camps were a telling
sign that the early warning system had failed for lack of swift
a sustainable way
response. There is still no accurate count of how many died
requires our urgent
but they include tens of thousands of young children.
attention now, not
Sudden, dramatic spikes in staple food prices affect poor
when all 9 billion of us
families worst of all because they spend up to 70 percent of
are already here.”
their incomes on food. Prices spiked in 2007-2008, and then
fell somewhat in 2009. The cycle was repeated in 2010-2011, again creating an urgent need
to help people most vulnerable to hunger. The worst-affected countries were net food
importers, where hunger and malnutrition rates soared. In the majority of these countries,
households with children younger than 2 were found to be consuming significantly fewer
calories than before the rapid price increases began.37
Figure 5.4 2011 Somalia Consolidated Appeal and Selected Early Warnings
1,200 –

Substantial assistqnce and
large-scale contingency
planning needed

1,000 –

Famine declared
Famine possible
if April-June
rains fail

$ millions

Poor April-June rains are
800 – possible and would result

Worst-case
scenario is being
realized

in an extreme crisis

600 –
400 –
200 –
0–
0

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