ABSTRACT
According to the FAO, one person in three in sub-Saharan Africa suffers from malnutrition, and one in seven is in danger of dying of starvation. 1 After the famines of 1972 to 1974 and 1983/84 the FAO again sounded the alarm in 1990: unless massive food aid was immediately forthcoming, 30 million people had no chance of surviving. In early 1992 the situation came to a head in many sub-Saharan African countries, despite the additional aid provided by international donors. The EC spoke of an unprecedented famine, threatening 60 million people in Africa with starvation (Commission of the European Communities 1992). Disasters seem to be recurring at ever shorter intervals and claiming more and more victims, and disaster relief and humanitarian aid appear to be becoming an increasingly important facet of development cooperation with the continent of Africa. The time between disasters seems barely to suffice for longer-term development programmes and food security policies to be implemented.
