Ethiopia: How A Gendered Lens Can Help Food Aid Distribution
On November 14, 2023, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced its decision to partially resume a year-long food assistance trial period in Ethiopia after a months-long pause. U.S. food aid to Ethiopia was paused in June after a coordinated plan by the Ethiopian government came to light: government officials had been stealing and selling roughly 7,000 tons of food on the market. Ethiopian officials misreported the number of recipients on beneficiary lists and claimed armed actors had been stealing food from warehouses in an attempt to get more food aid that could then be sold for profit. Examining how women and girls uniquely experience the challenge of accessing food aid distribution can highlight ways to mitigate these potential challenges.
Political Background
State and non-state actors have long used food supplies — for soldiers and civilians alike — as leverage in armed conflict. In the recent Tigray War (2020-2022), both the Ethiopian federal government and the non-state Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) are accused of weaponizing food against civilians – destroying farmland and crops and attacking food shipments — thus exacerbating the existing humanitarian crisis in the country.
The TPLF began in 1975 as a Marxist-Leninist insurgent group that rapidly gained strength during the 1980s, eventually overthrowing the Ethiopian government in 1991 and remaining in power until 2018. When Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was democratically elected in 2018, he released thousands of political prisoners, achieved gender parity in his cabinet, and worked to resolve a border conflict with Eritrea — an achievement that won him the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize. Tensions between PM Ahmed’s administration and the TPLF flared in 2020 after the House of Federation postponed elections due to the pandemic. The Tigray State Council went against the state’s guidance by holding elections, and TPLF arose as the most popular party within the Tigray region.
Shortly after the election results, the Prime Minister ordered a military offensive in the Tigray region in response to an attack on federal army camps. While the TPLF denied that they were responsible for the attack, the government-led military offensive led to the outbreak of the 2020 Ethiopian civil war.
During the war, both the federal government and the TPLF were accused of stealing and weaponizing food, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis. While the weaponization of food is happening throughout Ethiopia, the Tigray region was hit especially hard when a civil war between the Ethiopian government and the TPLF erupted. Since then, Eritrean soldiers reportedly aided the Ethiopian state military in turning away food convoys, threatening violence against farmers who try to plow their fields, and widespread food aid theft. The civil war lasted until November 2022 when the federal government and the TPLF agreed to a ceasefire.
Ethiopian Government Officials and Insurgents Exacerbate Rampant Food Insecurity
In April 2023, reports of Ethiopian government officials and Eritrean soldiers stealing approximately 15 million pounds of food from the northern Tigrayan region prompted the World Food Programme (WFP) and USAID to pause aid distribution in northern Tigray. Shortly after in June 2023, WFP and USAID both suspended aid to all of Ethiopia after USAID concluded food had been diverted from the civilians. Instead of feeding the millions of civilians as intended, the Ethiopian government distributed the stolen food to feed members of Ethiopia’s military, while other portions of the food were sold for profit on the open market.
As the second-most populated country in Africa, Ethiopia’s experiences with a civil war, influx of refugees from Sudan, and long-lasting drought effects in the Horn of Africa have led to approximately 20.1 million civilians in need of food aid.
Resumption of Aid
USAID has yet to release a detailed report on how they intend to prevent food aid from being diverted from starving civilians. However, there are two best practices for aid distribution that USAID is likely to follow or adapt as they resume operations, two practices that rely on a gender-focused approach to best tailor food distribution to the needs of each community.
1. Ensure Female-Headed Households Are Included in Food Distribution Lists
One study found that female-headed households in Ethiopia are 200% more likely to be food insecure than households headed by men. While there are multiple reasons for this discrepancy, the study found that cultural and economic factors are the most common barriers to food security in female-headed households. For example, women are barred from working in certain professions that are considered hazardous by the Ministry of Health, such as spraying pesticides — a decision that limits economic opportunities for women. Geography and social status compound food insecurity in female-headed households; for example, households with more “social connections” (e.g. women who have connections to someone of high status in urban areas) are more likely to participate in food aid programs. Conversely, people living in rural areas face greater hurdles due to numerous compounding factors, such as lack of information and far distance from the nearest distribution center.
One way that aid organizations can prevent female-headed households from slipping through the proverbial cracks is by registering households using more than one data source. Typically, aid organizations use the information given to them by local government officials to make beneficiary lists. However, since the Ethiopian government is accused of inflating beneficiary lists to get more aid than necessary, and thus allowing government officials to steal the extra food, aid organizations confront intersecting challenges of widespread gender disparity and government corruption. One potential solution is to cross-check government-made beneficiary lists with existing demographic data that is collected by the government, United Nations, or other aid organizations to make sure that the estimated number of aid-eligible people is properly registered. This will allow food aid organizations to examine potential beneficiary list inflation while ensuring that female-headed households are accounted for.
2. Ensure Safety of Vulnerable Populations During Distribution
Before pausing aid, WFP had over 3,000 distribution points in Ethiopia where beneficiaries could receive food aid. As organizations resume operations, they should assess if the distribution center locations are still viable for beneficiaries. For a country that spans roughly 472,000 square miles, needing to travel to reach a distribution point can be especially challenging for women, people with disabilities, and caretakers with young children in tow. While CARE International recommends that food distribution points be within 3-6 miles of recipients, this best practice is not always implemented.
Further, aid distribution needs to happen early enough in the day to allow recipients to get home before dark. This is especially important in locations with high rates of sexual violence. Ethiopia saw over 100,000 reports of sexual assault against women and girls during the two-year civil war, with Tigrayan women suffering particularly harshly through sustained and organized sexual violence. With this in mind, aid organizations should consult with and include vulnerable groups, like women, girls, and people with disabilities, to plan local distribution centers. Appreciating how gender impacts access to aid distribution will better account for the risks and challenges the individuals may face during travel.
Food aid organizations face an uphill battle in resuming aid in Ethiopia. With over 20 million people needing assistance, organizations need to balance operations efficiency with securing food from corrupt government officials and non-state militants. Organizations must prioritize and include women in the planning of aid distribution to realize a more equitable aid distribution in Ethiopia.
Views expressed are the author’s own and do not represent the views of GSSR, Georgetown University, or any other entity. Image Credit: United Nations via Flickr