Assessing emergency food needs in Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, there are no standard procedures to assess emergency situations. As a result, the information these assessments produce varies in quality and credibility. This can damage responses to food insecurity and humanitarian crises.

Food insecurity is increasing in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian government’sapproach to assessing food insecurity contrasts greatly with most internationalapproaches. Consequently, many food security programmes involve negotiationsbetween groups, rather than focusing on systematic and credible procedures to assessfood security needs. Conflicting interests within and between different organisationscan lead to problems being exaggerated or understated, depending on the interestsof each organisation.

Research commissioned by the World Food Programme, andimplemented by the Overseas Development Institute in the UK, reviews the practices usedto assess emergency needs in Ethiopia. The study distinguishes Emergency FoodNeeds Assessment (EFNA), Emergency Food Security Assessment (EFSA) and EmergencyNeeds Assessment (ENA).

EFNA considers the food needs of the population during acrisis and how food aid can meet these needs. EFSA examines the causes of foodinsecurity and how to reduce immediate problems whilst developing long-termfood security. ENA is an approach which considers the range of different needsin an emergency and responds with actions from different sectors.

The research shows:

• Although EFSA exists in Ethiopia, its technicalcredibility is questionable. This is because it is based on negotiationsbetween different teams and agencies.
• The EFSA system is open to biased opinions atcommunity, district, regional and national levels.
• All assessment procedures face the major challengesof distinguishing between chronic and transitory food insecurity, and assessingthe impacts of food aid.

Although large-scale famine in Ethiopia has been reduced in recentyears, it is still necessary to improve the quality and credibility of emergencyassessment procedures. Improving these procedures will ensure that adequatesystems are in place to detect food insecurity and prevent large-scale faminesin the future.

The researchers intend to use their findings to inform WorldFood Programme efforts to improve emergency assessment practices globally. Keypolicy lessons include:

• Assessors should be required to substantiate theirfindings to ensure that the information provided is credible.
• Rewarding and acknowledging good assessment practicewill help to improve and maintain standards and increase consistency inassessment techniques.
• Clarifying key indicators for monitoringemergencies, and reducing the number of these, will create a more manageable andreliable monitoring system.
• Policymakers must develop a wider understanding foodsecurity, based on food access, availability and how people use fooddifferently.