A symposium: famine in Ethiopia: learning from the past to prepare for the future

Abstract

In 1973/74 Ethiopia fell victim to a major famine, which is estimated to have cost some 200.000 lives. Although famines have been recurring phenomena in Ethiopia’s long history. That particular famine proved to be fateful, having contributed in no small measure to the overthrow of the Haile Selassie regime. Which had ruled the country for close to a half-century. The objectives of the symposium were to: review recent Ethiopian famines and their various consequences; deliberate on the immediate and underlying causes of the famines; examine the role of governments, the public, the international and regional actors in 1984/85 famine; review experiences of other countries with a view to drawing lessons for Ethiopia; and make recommendations for future action.