Last updated on July 20, 2011
“The causes of the famine are complex, and FEWS-NET reviews them in the link above. Please note that FEWS-NET’s passing reference to ‘significant limitations on humanitarian access have further exacerbated the situation’ is probably the single biggest problem we have right now — delivering aid to a stateless place causes all sorts of problems. You cannot imagine the legal and logistical nightmare that we are trying to negotiate at the moment (and are trying to negotiate for the NGOs that want to help as well) — and that is all I am able to say about that.
We are trying — and we are all frustrated at how slowly our response is moving. FEWS-NET’s efforts have been herculean, from data collection to the organization of reports and data — I am seeing emails from these guys at 3am. I was impressed with them before I got here. I am even more impressed with them now. FEWS is just one part of the equation, though. There are a lot of people who are not sleeping right now, and even more who have dropped everything else they are doing to support this effort. We are trying.
Please follow developments at FEWS-NET’s site for this emergency here. There is no better resource on this anywhere.”
That is Ed Carr, in a post yesterday. Over the last year or so, Ed has been on leave at USAID, where he is Climate Change Coordinator. This gives him very good insights about the policy-making process.