SAHIMS offers an extensive compilation of essential reports and documentation on various humanitarian and disaster management issues. The document centre aims to serve a wide humanitarian and disaster management community as a reference and institutional memory.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Food Security in Southern Africa: Changing the Trend? Review of lessons learnt on recent responses to chronic and transitory hunger and vulnerability

"The 2001/3 southern Africa crisis has highlighted the long term decline in livelihoods, which provides the context for the rapid development of an acute crisis. The livelihoods crisis has exposed the limitations of a humanitarian response, which is more attuned to managing a traditional food crisis. Consequently a widely shared consensus has emerged on the need for new, and more appropriate, intervention models. This review examines the progress made since the 2001-03 crisis in addressing widespread chronic food insecurity. This involves an assessment of changes at sequential levels; changes in understanding of the problem, how this has been incorporated into policy, and how programming has changed to align with the stated policy objectives and the underlying analysis. This study does not evaluate the adequacy or effectiveness of the overall food security response, but rather identifies significant changes, and significant failures to change. The lessons that emerge from this reflection are intended to inform the refinement of food security policies and programmes by all stakeholders, including national governments."

Regional Documents