Hunger, Disaster, Hope: Rethinking Humanitarian Action in Africa

"Dawn, and as the sun breaks through the piercing chill of night on the plain outside Korem it lights up a biblical famine, now, in the Twentieth Century. This place, say workers here, is the closest thing to hell on earth."

Michael Buerk, BBC Correspondent, 24 October, 1984

Top-line messages:

- Vulnerable people must be the primary partners of humanitarian actors. Solutions that are imposed are rarely sustainable. The people themselves know the risks that they face; the role of humanitarians is to support and guide them.

- Intensified efforts to reduce disaster risk can dramatically lessen the impact of disasters and help avoid chronic hunger. Such an approach also protects developmental gains that can so easily be undermined by disasters and chronic hunger.

- Disaster risk reduction is cost effective. Much less money is required to increase agricultural productivity or to support people to prepare for disasters than to run relief operations.

- Emergency assistance will continue to play a crucial role, but it needs to improve. We need to be more proactive. We need to use early warnings that can inform decisive early action. Science can help us to do this - can help us link disaster response and risk reduction. Climatologists and meteorologists are already showing how.

- We urge the donor community to better support Red Cross Red Crescent efforts that are designed to bridge disaster response, recovery and development.

- Much more investment must be made tostrengthen people's capacity and initiate sustainable solutions. The International Federation calls on donors to dedicate a significant proportion of the funds they spend on disaster response to risk reduction and community-level development.

- Investment must also be made in strengthening local Red Cross Red Crescent and other civil society capacity. Stronger National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies - organizations that are able to creatively and proactively address and reduce vulnerability - are key allies in national efforts to alleviate poverty and drive development.