Latest news with #FEWSNet
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Opinion - The Trump funding cuts will backfire if they are not stopped
As the U.S. Agency for International Development was fed into the 'wood chipper' this month, so was our ability to predict and prevent the worst effects of the next humanitarian crisis. One of the casualties of suspending funding for USAID programs and threatening to shut the agency down has been FEWS NET, the global Famine Early Warning System, which I helped create 40 years ago and initially directed. FEWS NET monitors 30 countries across Africa, Central America, the Caribbean and South Asia, collecting data on weather patterns, agricultural production, market prices and conflict trends in order to predict and guide responses to food crises before they escalate into full-blown famine. Known as 'the gold standard of famine-warning systems,' it has allowed governments and international organizations to save millions of lives by sharpening the focus and cutting the costs of emergency aid. FEWS Net forecasting also enabled the U.S. agriculture and shipping industries to send aid where and when it was needed most, helping alleviate global food insecurity and saving even more lives. But now, due to attacks on USAID, FEWS NET is offline. As a result, humanitarian relief organizations around the world (not just the U.S.) are flying blind, without important data to guide them on when, where and how to deploy aid. This may be a good time to recall where the original impetus for FEWS NET came from. Was it the brainchild of tax-and-spend liberals looking for a way to waste money on a woke agenda? No — it was the Reagan administration and the National Security Council, who understood the U.S. interest in preventing famines. In 1984, they and the country had been shocked by images of Ethiopian children dying in a famine that had gripped the Sahel countries. Reagan took a personal interest, creating a special $50 million presidential fund to allow more a flexible response to severe food emergencies and a task force to provide better forecasting of food shortages. Then congressional leaders, both Republicans and Democrats, charged USAID with developing a way to inform political decision-makers about the location and probability of potential famine events that could impact U.S. security. At the time, I was at Tulane University working on a computerized health information system for the country of Niger. USAID contacted me, and within a few months we built a rudimentary system to monitor food security conditions across the Sahel region using early portable computers, a ham radio, and a forerunner to the Internet called Mango Net. This was the 1.0 version of the system that grew into the global FEWS NET. As its first director, I pushed to expand the project's scope to incorporate infectious disease and other data, so the system could also provide early warning for preventable crises like global pandemics, and to assess progress on other key issues, such as climate change adaptation, all of which could make aid more efficient. The great irony of shutting down FEWS NET is that it goes against the Trump administration's stated rationale of slashing bureaucracy and ceasing to waste money on ineffective programs that aren't in U.S. interests. I have long been a vocal critic of USAID's overly bureaucratized management and lack of sensible monitoring and impact evaluation. Critics who complained USAID programs were often managed by inexperienced personnel stuck in their silos re-inventing the wheel aren't wrong. I was one of them. But that's no argument for shutting the agency down. On the contrary, it's an argument for working it harder and smarter — doing the monitoring and evaluation, busting the silos, increasing the efficiency, and setting performance indicators for USAID programs in terms of achieving U.S. objectives. If the goal is to make federal spending efficient and serve U.S. national interests, then FEWS NET shouldn't be dismantled; it should be expanded. We need a data-driven approach to deploy limited resources effectively and prevent famine and disease before they spread. Data-driven early warning systems like FEWS NET enable aid providers to head off famines by giving them time to stockpile food. For example, FEWS NET is credited with preventing famine in Ethiopia in 2016, thereby also heading off the downstream economic and security losses that famines incur. And it costs a tiny fraction of what it would cost to respond to a full-blown famine. Responding to humanitarian crises ineffectively, with too little, too late — or failing to respond at all — is self-defeating and will hurt the U.S. It is profoundly in our interest to prevent famine and reduce food insecurity worldwide. Climate change, supply chain disruptions, pandemics and conflicts are multipliers that increasingly intensify food crises. Hunger and famine make people desperate, drive migration and often fuel terrorism. If we want to further U.S. goals like fighting terrorism and easing growing migration pressures, while making the most efficient use of our resources, we not only need to reinstate data-driven tools like FEWS NET, we need to upgrade them. Modern monitoring systems can incorporate AI advances and new analytical thinking, and measure progress on various aspects of sustainable development. You can't manage what you can't measure. By measuring and managing humanitarian crisis risk with modern data-driven tools, we can achieve the kind of efficiency the Trump administration wants and serve our national interests while helping humanity. Dr. William E. Bertrand is the Emeritus Wisner Professor of Public Health at Tulane University, known for his work in technology-driven international development and environmental and institutional sustainability. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
24-02-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
The Trump funding cuts will backfire if they are not stopped
As the U.S. Agency for International Development was fed into the ' wood chipper ' this month, so was our ability to predict and prevent the worst effects of the next humanitarian crisis. One of the casualties of suspending funding for USAID programs and threatening to shut the agency down has been FEWS NET, the global Famine Early Warning System, which I helped create 40 years ago and initially directed. FEWS NET monitors 30 countries across Africa, Central America, the Caribbean and South Asia, collecting data on weather patterns, agricultural production, market prices and conflict trends in order to predict and guide responses to food crises before they escalate into full-blown famine. Known as ' the gold standard of famine-warning systems,' it has allowed governments and international organizations to save millions of lives by sharpening the focus and cutting the costs of emergency aid. FEWS Net forecasting also enabled the U.S. agriculture and shipping industries to send aid where and when it was needed most, helping alleviate global food insecurity and saving even more lives. But now, due to attacks on USAID, FEWS NET is offline. As a result, humanitarian relief organizations around the world (not just the U.S.) are flying blind, without important data to guide them on when, where and how to deploy aid. This may be a good time to recall where the original impetus for FEWS NET came from. Was it the brainchild of tax-and-spend liberals looking for a way to waste money on a woke agenda? No — it was the Reagan administration and the National Security Council, who understood the U.S. interest in preventing famines. In 1984, they and the country had been shocked by images of Ethiopian children dying in a famine that had gripped the Sahel countries. Reagan took a personal interest, creating a special $50 million presidential fund to allow more a flexible response to severe food emergencies and a task force to provide better forecasting of food shortages. Then congressional leaders, both Republicans and Democrats, charged USAID with developing a way to inform political decision-makers about the location and probability of potential famine events that could impact U.S. security. At the time, I was at Tulane University working on a computerized health information system for the country of Niger. USAID contacted me, and within a few months we built a rudimentary system to monitor food security conditions across the Sahel region using early portable computers, a ham radio, and a forerunner to the Internet called Mango Net. This was the 1.0 version of the system that grew into the global FEWS NET. As its first director, I pushed to expand the project's scope to incorporate infectious disease and other data, so the system could also provide early warning for preventable crises like global pandemics, and to assess progress on other key issues, such as climate change adaptation, all of which could make aid more efficient. The great irony of shutting down FEWS NET is that it goes against the Trump administration's stated rationale of slashing bureaucracy and ceasing to waste money on ineffective programs that aren't in U.S. interests. I have long been a vocal critic of USAID's overly bureaucratized management and lack of sensible monitoring and impact evaluation. Critics who complained USAID programs were often managed by inexperienced personnel stuck in their silos re-inventing the wheel aren't wrong. I was one of them. But that's no argument for shutting the agency down. On the contrary, it's an argument for working it harder and smarter — doing the monitoring and evaluation, busting the silos, increasing the efficiency, and setting performance indicators for USAID programs in terms of achieving U.S. objectives. If the goal is to make federal spending efficient and serve U.S. national interests, then FEWS NET shouldn't be dismantled; it should be expanded. We need a data-driven approach to deploy limited resources effectively and prevent famine and disease before they spread. Data-driven early warning systems like FEWS NET enable aid providers to head off famines by giving them time to stockpile food. For example, FEWS NET is credited with preventing famine in Ethiopia in 2016, thereby also heading off the downstream economic and security losses that famines incur. And it costs a tiny fraction of what it would cost to respond to a full-blown famine. Responding to humanitarian crises ineffectively, with too little, too late — or failing to respond at all — is self-defeating and will hurt the U.S. It is profoundly in our interest to prevent famine and reduce food insecurity worldwide. Climate change, supply chain disruptions, pandemics and conflicts are multipliers that increasingly intensify food crises. Hunger and famine make people desperate, drive migration and often fuel terrorism. If we want to further U.S. goals like fighting terrorism and easing growing migration pressures, while making the most efficient use of our resources, we not only need to reinstate data-driven tools like FEWS NET, we need to upgrade them. Modern monitoring systems can incorporate AI advances and new analytical thinking, and measure progress on various aspects of sustainable development. You can't manage what you can't measure. By measuring and managing humanitarian crisis risk with modern data-driven tools, we can achieve the kind of efficiency the Trump administration wants and serve our national interests while helping humanity. Dr. William E. Bertrand is the Emeritus Wisner Professor of Public Health at Tulane University, known for his work in technology-driven international development and environmental and institutional sustainability.
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Netanyahu arrest warrant relied on ‘implausible' claims of famine in Gaza, report claims
The International Criminal Court's (ICC) arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu was based on 'implausible' claims of famine, a UK charity has said. A new report by UK Lawyers for Israel Charitable Trust (UKLFI) alleges that 'alarming projections' of a famine were in fact based on 'significant errors, methodological flaws, and misrepresentations'. The claim of imminent famine in Gaza formed a central plank of the ICC arrest warrant issued against the Israeli prime minister and Yoav Gallant, the former defence minister, last year. When setting out the grounds for the ICC's warrant Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor, said: 'Famine is present in some areas of Gaza and is imminent in other areas.' He went on to accuse Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant of having 'a common plan to use starvation as a method of war'. The statement was based partly on reports of imminent famine by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net), a body established by the United States Agency for International Development (USAid) to keep track of food insecurity across the world. FEWS Net has now gone offline following the freezing of USAid activities by the Trump administration. UKLFI's report criticises FEWS Net's findings and argues: 'The term famine is a scientific classification based on standards, evidence, and technical consensus, not a rhetorical or emotive term.' The technical definition of famine was developed for use in Somalia in 2004 by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). The UKLFI report said: 'While the humanitarian situation in Gaza is undoubtedly serious, the evidence does not support claims of famine or emergency as defined by the IPC. 'Future assessments should strive for greater accuracy and objectivity to ensure that international responses are proportionate and based on factual realities.' The report calls for 'clearer communication of the differences between current assessments, projections, and worst-case scenarios' and 'increased scrutiny of famine reports by courts, policy makers and media before using them as a basis for decision-making or reporting'. Jonathan Turner, executive director of UKLFI, said: 'Warrants for the arrest of Netanyahu and Gallant have been issued by the ICC on the false ground that Israel deliberately used starvation as a method of war. 'UKLFI's latest review shows that reports of famine on which the prosecutor relied were not plausible and were based on inaccurate and anomalous data regarding food supplies and malnutrition.' 'Persisting in these allegations is liable to further undermine the ICC's reputation and to strengthen opposition to its activities.' This week, Mr Khan was barred from entering the US by Donald Trump and on Monday the White House issued sanctions against the chief prosecutor for his role in the ICC decision to issue an arrest warrant against Mr Netanyahu. Mr Trump's executive order sanctioning the ICC accused the court of 'illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel'. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
15-02-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Netanyahu arrest warrant relied on ‘implausible' claims of famine in Gaza, report claims
The International Criminal Court's (ICC) arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu was based on 'implausible' claims of famine, a UK charity has said. A new report by UK Lawyers for Israel Charitable Trust (UKLFI) alleges that 'alarming projections' of a famine were in fact based on 'significant errors, methodological flaws, and misrepresentations'. The claim of imminent famine in Gaza formed a central plank of the ICC arrest warrant issued against the Israeli prime minister and Yoav Gallant, the former defence minister, last year. When setting out the grounds for the ICC's warrant Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor, said: ' Famine is present in some areas of Gaza and is imminent in other areas.' He went on to accuse Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant of having 'a common plan to use starvation as a method of war'. The statement was based partly on reports of imminent famine by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net), a body established by the United States Agency for International Development (USAid) to keep track of food insecurity across the world. FEWS Net has now gone offline following the freezing of USAid activities by the Trump administration. UKLFI's report criticises FEWS Net's findings and argues: 'The term famine is a scientific classification based on standards, evidence, and technical consensus, not a rhetorical or emotive term.' The technical definition of famine was developed for use in Somalia in 2004 by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). The UKLFI report said: 'While the humanitarian situation in Gaza is undoubtedly serious, the evidence does not support claims of famine or emergency as defined by the IPC. 'Future assessments should strive for greater accuracy and objectivity to ensure that international responses are proportionate and based on factual realities.' The report calls for 'clearer communication of the differences between current assessments, projections, and worst-case scenarios' and 'increased scrutiny of famine reports by courts, policy makers and media before using them as a basis for decision-making or reporting'. Jonathan Turner, executive director of UKLFI, said: 'Warrants for the arrest of Netanyahu and Gallant have been issued by the ICC on the false ground that Israel deliberately used starvation as a method of war. 'UKLFI's latest review shows that reports of famine on which the prosecutor relied were not plausible and were based on inaccurate and anomalous data regarding food supplies and malnutrition.' 'Persisting in these allegations is liable to further undermine the ICC's reputation and to strengthen opposition to its activities.' This week, Mr Khan was barred from entering the US by Donald Trump and on Monday the White House issued sanctions against the chief prosecutor for his role in the ICC decision to issue an arrest warrant against Mr Netanyahu. Mr Trump's executive order sanctioning the ICC accused the court of 'illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel'.
