Women, famine and the Millennium Development Goals: The Horn of Africa test

Abstract

abstract If the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) had been able to flag the signs of food insecurity and women's failure to access critical resources needed to sustain their livelihoods, could the 2011 Horn of Africa food crisis have been averted? This Open Forum asks this question against the logic of the MDGs as global targets set to track progress in the reduction of global hunger and poverty, disease, child and maternal mortality, gender inequality among men and women and parity in education, and to guard environmental sustainability. With no fore-warning and the failure to prevent starvation on such a wide scale, it could be argued that the MDGs Monitor in 2010 either gave a false picture or that the MDGs are not a reliable measure of progress by countries. Two countries concerned by the food crisis in 2011, Ethiopia and Kenya were cited as ‘success stories’ in 2010 at the MDG Summit, and as making substantial steps towards achieving Goal 2- Universal Primary Education, Goal 3- Promote gender equality and empower women, Goal 4- Reduce child mortality, and Goal 7- Ensure environmental sustainability. The Horn of Africa hunger-as it is also known-has so far claimed the lives of countless women and children and malnutrition and acute malnutrition continues to affect children under the age of 5 in all three countries. The progress towards meeting the MDGs is measured by a statistical indicator, the MDGs Monitor. While the MDGs themselves have been criticised for not being gender sensitive enough, the MDG Monitor itself has some weaknesses, which if addressed, could provide early-warning signals such that regions can act to prevent loss of household food security and national food sovereignty. It is time to revisit the MDG monitor and assess its actual relevance to the daily lives of African women.