Understanding Famine in Ethiopia: Poverty, Politics and Human Rights

Abstract

This paper mainly covers the period after 1993 and it explores the extent to which human rights, democracy, and political contracts can be useful to provide the major explanations of – and prevention approaches to – famine in Ethiopia. The main argument presented in this paper is that despite enormous external challenges, countries even as poor as Ethiopia can and should prevent famine. Famine cannot be explained exclusively in terms of resource shortage; politics is no less important.