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Research Question: To what extent are NGOs successful in reducing the impacts of the food shortage in the Yemeni Famine Crisis? (GPC of health)
In 2011, the Houthi rebel group took advantage of instability in Yemen and tried to take control of the country, which was then under the control of Abdrabbuh Hadi. Saudi Arabia along with 8 other countries were concerned this rebel group were backed militarily by regional Iranian Shia, and attempted to bring Hadi back to power in coalition with the UK, USA and France. The coalition placed a blockade on Yemen to halt the rebels smuggling weapons, but this led to increased prices of food and fuel. In 2017, they further launched airstrikes on the Houthi near the Red Sea city of Hudaydah, whose port supports two-thirds of Yemen’s population, and damaged them substantially. So what has caused this political issue to gain global significance? 16 million people being in desperate need of food, more than 22.2 million are in need of humanitarian assistance and 5 million are in severe famine. Considering that 70% of the population is starving, the United Nations has said that this crisis could be the “world’s worst famine in 100 years”. This links to my political issue- ‘do conflicts have an impact on the health of a population?’, and raises the Global political challenge of Health.
This question has wider global significance as can been seen through several other cases. For instance, recently in Kashmir, tend of thousands of soldiers and policemen have enforced a 24-hour curfew and suspended all telephone and internet connections due to the India-Pakistan conflict. This leads to a severe shortage of access to food, leaving the poor especially vulnerable to being malnourished. In fact, only 23.5% of children in Kashmir currently receive adequate dietary provisions. The mortality rate under 5 years is 38 per thousand live births. Due to these restrictions, situations in Kashmir have been worsening and civilians report of having no means of survival due to the lockdown. Secondly, the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa which causes individuals to become immunodeficient has led to 310,000 deaths in 2018 and affected 20.6 million people, which is over half the population of Africa. During the civil war in Uganda, Africa, there were widespread human rights abuses including rape and torture by soldiers. Furthermore, the war led to restrictions on mobility, curfews, and roadblocks as well as blockage of information by the government. This intensified the spread of HIV, especially in poor countries including Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Mozambique where people were forced to become sex workers to gain a livelihood. Uganda took 4 to introduce an AIDS Control program after being aware of the significance of the problem because the country was busy with the civil war. Health depicts aspects such as access to food, clean water, sustainable and sanitary environments, necessary infrastructure, etc. – all which allow for a good quality of life. Conflict is the process of actual or perceived opposition between individuals or groups over positions, values or interests. These case studies mainly depict how conflict is a substantial barrier to health as it prevents authorities from meeting the needs of individuals and communities. Therefore, to explore this Global political challenge, I will be addressing the research question ‘To what extent are NGO’s successful in reducing the impacts of the food shortage in the Yemeni Famine Crisis?’
Firstly, direct and structural violence created on a local level of analysis due to the dispute between the Houthi rebels and the Saudi-coalition is a key reason as to why the NGOs are unable to provide food for the Yemenis. The coalition have targeted farms, food storages sites and transportation networks with airstrikes. Moreover, World Food Program provides 12 million people with monthly food assistance for rations of wheat, pulses, salt, sugar, etc. Yet, these have halted since the coalition has placed restrictions on imports enough to feed 3.7 million, due to suspicions of the rebels facilitating an arms trade, hinting a possible political cause for the issue. The deliberate attacks and diversion of resources show structural violence- harm through the functioning, exercising or operating of governments or other groups of power (a concept created by Johan Galtung), leading to a worsening famine. The authorities are allowing the conflict to worsen the inequity of resources in society, despite having the capabilities to diminish the food shortage. Secondly, The Houthi rebels have also killed and arbitrarily arrested civilians which have led to restrictions as to how NGO workers can provide humanitarian relief. This violence has forced people to flee to rural areas, which makes providing them with resources even harder for NGOs. This is a social consequence of the issue. Direct violence, individuals or group is physically or mentally harmed through direct action, is visible in this situation. The actors are actively trying to gain power, thereby displaying an offensive realistic view, in order to achieve their aims to talking control of Yemen. That are sacrificing the lives and health of citizens to achieve the goals, indicating desired to achieve a ‘means of an end’.
Yet, NGOs have trained specialist, experience and the necessary expertise needed to aid and support those suffering from the famine. For instance, The international rescue committee provides medical training and needed supplies such as drugs and medicines to Yemeni hospitals, due to their knowledge of health crisis management. They have provided two hundred and fifty thousand people with health and sanitisation services. Zakat Foundation of America has trained hundreds of local farmers to utilise their scarce resources and provide food for themselves. This allows them to free from the poverty cycle, and is a social consequence of the problem. Therefore, one can see NGOs upholding human rights- the doctrine stating the basic rights and entitlements one should be able to claim by virtue of being a human being, specifically article 25 and article 5, which prevent humans undergoing degrading treatment and ability to self-provide food and medical care. Through the use of the specialised abilities in providing such service, NGOs are trying to induce certain human rights in attempts to alleviate the standard of living of the Yemenis. These NGOs actions can be viewed as a liberal perspective, a philosophy introduced by John Locke and based around interdependence of actors in a globalising world to provide mutual benefit to one another. Liberalists are firm believers of human rights, as they provide peace and harmony, a condition with is achievable and should be a primary aim. These ideologies can be seen being displayed by the NGO’s aims to provide better living standards for the famine-struck people.
On an international level, media restrictions by the coalition and the rebels are another factor that restricts the NGOs from reducing the impacts of the famine, because of their lacking cyber power. Power is the ability to influence others and achieve desired goal, and cyber power implies this ability in context to social media influence, availability of news, hacking for information exploitation, etc. Both actors have greater levels of cyber power than NGOs, and are using it to assume their self-interest- namely avoid international critique since the West is selling ammunition to the rebels (an economic cause of the issue), and the Houthis are conducting gross Human Rights abuses to gain power (a social cause of the issue). Foreign journalists are blocked from entering the country due to the blockage and journalists are detained through dismissals and intimidations. Reporters without borders documented that 20 reporters who tried to cover the area were killed and ten journalists were taken hostage by the Houthis in 2015 and faced death sentences. This disallows NGOs to cite actions of either of the actors and consequently denies the world an unbiased view of the situation. NGOs significantly rely on donations from individuals to operate their projects. The lack of awareness and ability to rouse international attentions about the severity of the famine hampers the amount of funding received by the organizations, in-turn reducing their ability to provide food to the victims. The power held by the Coalition and Houthis is a severe barrier for the NGOs to propagate the importance of their humanitarian aid to the world.
NGOs have international acclaim and acceptance due to their legitimacy as actors in global politics, and this allows them to reduce the food shortage in Yemen. In global governance, there is increasing acceptance of Human Rights, further legitimizing the goals of IGOs. Several NGOs such as the Red Crescent Movement and Red Cross have collaborated with IGOs such as the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (OCHA) to start the ‘The Yemen Humanitarian Fund’. The OCHA collects donation and distributes them amongst the NGOs in order to support their initiatives. Secondly, NGOs such as OXFAM, CARE, etc. have jointly spoken on the 74th UN General Assembly to pressurize nations into allowing unhindered humanitarian access of essential food and equipment through Yemen, implementing a nationwide ceasefire, and halting end all violations of international humanitarian law. Thus, one can see that other actors acknowledging and collaborating with the NGOs proves they have high levels of legitimacy, actors or actions considered acceptable. This enables them to influence other actors into decisions favourable to themselves, and allows them to allows food and medical aid to reach the Yemenis.
In conclusion, one can argue that NGOs while have been able to support the Yemeni to an extent, they have largely failed in stopping the famine. The famine can be seen worsening, and is primarily controlled by the Houthi rebels and the coalition. Conflict imposes a major barrier to sufficient heal provision in the Yemeni Famine, rendering the actions of NGOs futile.
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