• Food in emergencies
• Causes of food crises
• Early warning systems
• Food aid between countries

Food in emergencies

This study reviews the practice of Emergency Needs Assessment (ENA) in Ethiopia as it relates to food security, with a view to informing efforts by the World Food Programme (WFP) to improve ENA practice globally. It considers the question of overall rigour in needs estimation, and explores the ability of assessments to analyse the role of markets, non-food response options, chronic and transitory needs and the impact of food aid.

The report finds that all actors - the Government of Ethiopia, donors, implementing agencies and beneficiaries - should demand evidence and sound analysis to inform decisions about food security policies and appropriate forms of intervention. It is argued that they should be prepared to challenge assessment findings on the grounds of technical rigour. In this regard, the process would benefit from incentive/disincentive mechanisms that acknowledge and reward sound practice. Without this consistent pressure and demand for sound analysis, it is argued that even the most credible, evidence-based methodologies will be easily sidelined.

The key opportunities for strengthening emergency food security assistance identified within the study include the following:

Concepts, analysis and indicators:

• clarify the key indicators for monitoring, to provide the basis for a manageable, reliable monitoring system that permits livelihoods-based analysis
• promote understanding and awareness among all actors to broaden thinking from the current ‘food availability’ focus towards operationalising a broader understanding of food security based on access, availability and utilisation
• incorporate structural analysis into the current operational definition of chronic vulnerability for the PSNP

Assessment approaches and methodology:

• explicitly and systematically incorporate an ‘evidence-based’ approach to all assessment work
• incorporate quantitative field methods where appropriate to complement current field practice, which is mostly qualitative
• develop improved, relevant and geographically expanded baseline information on livelihoods
• explicitly explore the possibilities of market interventions to mitigate food insecurity for a particular emergency

Systems, structures and linkages:

• strategically and explicitly integrate EFSA within an overall humanitarian/food security information system
• place greater emphasis on regional-based analysis
• make explicit linkages between the WFP-led chronic vulnerability index (CVI) and the identification of
  chronically food-insecure beneficiaries for the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP).

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