Famines Flashcards
Today’s famines are all caused by political decisions
De Waal (2017)
Distinguishes between FAD and entitlements approach
Sen (1981)
Great Bengal Famine
1943
Starvation is a matter of some people not having enough food to eat, and not a matter of there not being enough food to eat.
Sen (1981)
Production-based entitlements (growing food)
Trade-based entitlements (buying food)
Own-labour entitlements (working for food)
Inheritance and transfer entitlements (being given food by others)
Sen (1981)
argues that people who suffered malnutrition in Darfur “were not ‘choosing to starve’, with its implication of choosing to risk death. Instead, under enormous stress, they were choosing to suffer hunger in order to preserve their way of life”
De Waal (1989)
finds an association between occupation status and mortality risk during Bengal famine of 1943 and 1974, with low-paid occupations such as landless labourers suffering the highest rates of destitution and death.
Sen (1981)
found that indicators of poverty had no evident relation to mortality in Darfur in 1985 in poorest households mortality was not significantly higher than in others. Concluded that mortality risk was closely associated with patterns of migration and exposure to new disease vectors than with relative wealth and access to food.
De Waal (1989)
There is no such thing as an apolitical food problem
Sen 1982
• The famine in Africa are best understood by considering the wider economic and political process
Snowdon (1985)
How many deaths in Great Bengal famine
3 million
How much higher food availability in 1943 than 1941
9%
Ultimately solution to famine in Ethiopia must come from Ethiopians themselves
Snowdon (1985)
“No famine has ever taken place in the history of the world in a functioning democracy”
Sen (1999)
“Great Leap forward” and China’s famine
1959-61, 30 million, 5% of population
