Food Scarcity and Famine: Assessment and Response

Over the years Oxfam has been involved in a wide variety of health-related projects. The Practical Health Guides draw on this experience to put forward ideas on best practice in the provision of health care and services in developing countries. Where people are suffering from food scarcity or famine, the obvious response seems to be food aid. This may indeed be necessary, but handing out food may not be the best solution, and other actions could be equally urgent, such as public health or income support measures. This book provides a new approach to assessing and responding to situations of food scarcity and gives a comprehensive explanation of how to assess these situations in order to judge which interventions will be most effective. This book offers advice on carrying out initial assessments and nutrition surveys, and emphasises the importance of finding out the underlying causes of food scarcity by seeking out the views of those affected. Food distribution, and how to target the people who need it most, supplementary and therapeutic feeding programmes, are also covered.