ESSAY 7
In essay 5, we mentioned the importance of enabling people to become
more resilient to outside shocks. People in poor countries often need exceptional flexibility and creativity just to secure the very basics. To be truly resilient in the difficult conditions they face, the poorest people may need not
only a “plan B,” but a “plan C,” a “plan D,” and the ability to combine plans
as necessary.
With no possibility of putting money aside for emergencies, families are extremely vulnerable. A minor injury or illness, an increase in food prices, the death
of a sheep or goat—any of these may force a family to cut back on food, take
children out of school, and sell anything of value. Some
possible ways of earning more money—perhaps by buying a sewing machine or taking a training course—are
now out of the question. For these families, even a “minor” drought or flood is beyond catastrophic. Life may
become literally impossible.
The 2011 Horn of Africa hunger crisis made headlines here. It was immediately followed by a drought
that received far less Western media coverage—even
though it led to serious food shortages for 18 million
people in the Sahel, the region that borders Africa’s Sahara Desert. It was the Sahel’s third drought in four
years.
How can the cycles of one emergency after another
be interrupted? The 2012 U.N. High-Level Meeting on
the Sahel Crisis concluded that the first order of business is to establish social safety nets, particularly for women and children.
A way to get help before children become severely malnourished would save
lives, suffering, and money.
People need to have their present-day needs met before they can put energy
into a future goal such as preventing next year’s crisis. Safety net programs are
thus a key part of building resilience since they enable people to keep assets
such as livestock and to pause long enough to consider how they can diversify
the ways they earn a living.
Even during an acute hunger crisis, some emergency programs can simultaneously help make the next crisis less severe. A program called “food for work”
is just what it sounds like: everyone in need receives food, and in exchange,
Jean-Philippe Debus/Catholic Relief Services
In Search of Options
Women carrying home water in Miel, Abala district, Niger, where Catholic Relief
Services is helping improve the village
wells.
3
Years out of the past four that the Sahel
region has suffered a severe drought.
18 Million
Map: Baptist Global Response
People at risk in nine
African Sahel countries in early 2012.
www.bread.org/institute
n
Development Works 41