Food Aid Reaching Ethiopia's Needy

By David Snyder

To watch it on television, often in the midst of a disaster somewhere in the world, the process of distributing food or emergency supplies looks easy. A plane lands or a vehicle pulls up, the food is dispensed, and the hungry are fed.

But the logistics required to move hundreds of tons of food around the world are anything but simple, especially as countries such as Ethiopia face a spiraling global food crisis compounded by drought. In the past few months, food prices have reached record highs because of doubling fuel prices, record-low food stocks and increasing world demand for food.

Nevertheless, as logistics manager for Catholic Relief Services in Ethiopia, a country reliant upon international food aid to help support as many as 8 million of its 77 million citizens each year, Yigezu Tamrat is the man who makes sure incoming shipments reach their targets.

The process begins in the United States, where surplus food—most often corn, wheat, soy and lentils—is loaded onto cargo ships to be sent abroad for use in projects identified by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). In the case of food bound for Ethiopia, those ships head to the country of Djibouti in the Horn of Africa. The journey across the ocean takes about six weeks.

The current drought and soaring food prices, Tamrat explains, mean more families now need rations. The drought has hit thousands of families in agricultural regions that are normally self-sufficient. In June 2008, the number of Ethiopians who didn't have enough to eat rose by more than 50 percent compared to February.

The Second Journey

In the months of July and August 2008 alone, more than 75,125 metric tons of USAID-provided emergency food aid were planned to arrive at the ports of Djibouti.

When the supplies arrive, Tamrat's work begins in earnest.

"We check that the food has arrived safely, to see that our port agents are there, and to see that the unloading is done in a way that doesn't damage the commodities," Tamrat says.

He or a deputy travels from Addis Ababa to Djibouti to make sure the food is in good condition when it arrives. The trip—about 350 miles each way—may be required as often as four times a year during an emergency.

After CRS secures duty-free exemptions for the food from the governments of both Djibouti and Ethiopia, the food is trucked down to Ethiopia, where it is stored in one of two large warehouses CRS maintains in the country. Each is capable of holding up to 9,000 metric tons of food. In times of emergency when more is needed, CRS will rent additional warehouse space.

The warehouse managers then learn which CRS projects require the food, how much they require, what types of food they require and when they require it.

A Massive Undertaking

Flipping through his calendar, Tamrat looks forward to September and October of 2008—when CRS and six of our local partners will provide food to almost 3 million people in five of Ethiopia's most severely impacted regions: Amhara; Oromia; Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples; Somali; and Tigray. It is a massive undertaking planned to help ensure that families affected by drought have enough to eat.

Often the most difficult part of the process is preventing losses from pests, looting and vehicle accidents. Despite the hazards, Tamrat says, CRS Ethiopia has an extremely high success rate when it comes to moving food, typically losing less than 1 percent—and often much less—of the tons and tons of foodstuffs transported. In 2007 alone, CRS helped to deliver 16,928 metric tons of food aid to those in need in Ethiopia.

The last step in the process—making sure those who need the food are the ones receiving it—is the most rewarding, says Tamrat. "We have monitors who go to every distribution site to see the distribution, and check the rations and the beneficiary list to make sure those are correct," he explains.

For Tamrat, who was hired by CRS during Ethiopia's 1985 famine, this is the point where he sees the fruits of his labor.

"It's a challenging job," Tamrat says. "But seeing the end results, that's what really keeps me going."

David Snyder is a photojournalist who has traveled to more than 30 countries with CRS. Most recently, David visited country programs in southern and eastern Africa, including Uganda.