ABSTRACT
In this chapter we pull together a number of the findings of earlier chapters about 'counter-famine' strategies and assess the capacity of governments and other agencies such as non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to carry them out or to select suitable strategies. The success stories from Botswana and Gujarat (see Ch. 5) have a common emphasis upon the importance for famine avoidance of administrative capacity, sound finance, and democratic institutions. The chapters on emergency measures, livestock, and technology (see Chs 6-8) tend to assume a similar framework as the norm within which particular prescriptions can be developed. Yet, as our studies of trends in the Sudan and in Ethiopia illustrate (see Chs 3 and 4, respectively), in most countries one is dealing with a complex and often rapidly changing scene. Many countries do not share the governmental characteristics of Botswana or Gujarat, and there is clearly no point in simply prescribing them as a sine qua non of famine-proof development.
