The news that a significant percentage of food aid in Africa is wasted every year is very disturbing I believe (see link at the end). Given that aid can help tremendously people and countries -if administered efficiently- makes the above-described situation even more appalling, for it is not only food that is wasted, but human lives as well. And we do not seem to care about neither enough.
According to CARE International UK three are the factors for the food waste:
a) money is given late;
b) money is given for short period;
c) money is spent on wrong things.
Clearly, there is something wrong in the coordination efforts and whatever this is, it must be tackled in order to smoothen the relief process and assist effectively the communities in Africa and elsewhere in the world. While it is easy for all of us not directly involved in the relief process to point our finger to the mistakes, we cannot remain oblivious to the hearing of such news.
We cannot remain ignorant of the fact that 840 million people are malnourished (source: CARE) or of the fact that 44% of people in Sub-saharan Africa live with under $1 per day at least until 2002 (source: UN Millennium Development Goals Report 2006). And still, such percentages rarely make the news. While the contain the necessary dose of drama, they are neither fresh nor original nor vibrant for the media.
Do we see a metastasis of such 'attitude of indifference' among every day people too? This is too dangerous a question to answer on the spot. Can the UN and NGO efforts along with the perceptions statistics make a compelling case against the thesis of indifference? Or are we to fear that an amalgam of powerlessness and disinterest has already permeated our societies, making us all aloof observers at best, if not cynic arrogants?
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References
"Report: Africans starve because billions in aid is wasted": http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/10/03/africa.aid.ap/index.html#
CARE International: http://www.care.org/campaigns/world-hunger/facts.asp
UN Millennium Development Goals 2006 Report: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/mdg/Resources/Static/Products/Progress2006/
MDGReport2006.pdf
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Care about CARE!
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1 comment:
Very well researched article Anastasia.I don't know what you think but in the end we come back to discuss about apathy and indiference.A topic that spreads throughout modern society.
Its amazing that in 2006 people in Africa are still malnurished and die from diseases that are caused by food or unsuitable water.I hope CARE and other organisations can coordinate their effords so that aid is not wasted.Wasted food means wasted lives.The help is limited its a crime to be wasted.
As for the indifference education is the key.Even the smallest think can make a change and can increase awareness.Also political pressure is needeed on a global scale.What is the world going to become if we become mere observers?
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