From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

FROM POVERTY TO POWERfailure, notably the poor record of the ‘safety nets’ introduced to softenthe impact of structural adjustment programmes and other shocks inthe 1980s and 1990s. These typically reached only a portion of theirtarget groups, and could not be introduced fast enough to deal withunexpected crises such as the Asian financial crash of 1998.At the same time, it became increasingly clear that emergencyrelief such as food aid, designed to deal with short-term shortfalls infood supply, was obscuring the real nature of chronic (i.e. nearpermanent)hunger and vulnerability in many countries. Between1994 and 2003, for example, an average of five million Ethiopians weredeclared ‘at risk’ and in need of emergency assistance every year, andsince 1998 the numbers of food aid beneficiaries in Ethiopia havefluctuated between five and 14 million. Hunger is the norm, not an‘emergency’.The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations(FAO) estimates that chronic hunger lies at the root of 90 per cent offood insecurity worldwide, leaving just 10 per cent attributable toshocks or humanitarian crises. 17 Avoidable deaths associated withmalnutrition in six countries in Southern Africa are estimated atbetween 100,000 and 200,000 every year, compared with the estimated45,000 who died in the drought-induced hunger of 2001–02. 18Chronic malnutrition is a far bigger problem than acute malnutrition,and yet it receives far less attention.A maturing understanding of the nature of poverty, with its growingattention to issues of rights, dignity, and empowerment, and therecognition that inequality and social exclusion are not just damagingin themselves but hold back economic progress, have also played apart in this process. Progressive political leaders in countries such asSouth Africa and Brazil have seen how popular social protectionpolicies can be, addressing directly the need for the state and others toguarantee basic human rights and to include less active groups, suchas elderly or disabled people, who are often sidelined in developmentpolicies that focus solely on economic growth.210