Introduction Famine is described by the Global Express Edition as a “crisis in which starvation from too little food results in a sharp amount of deaths in one place,”[1] and a crisis it is. In addition to war, famine is also one of the most common ways of which people are dieing in the sub-Saharan Africa region. Famine, on the other hand, is not as widely talked about, around the world, but leads to the same result, numerous amounts of deaths. Hundreds of thousands to millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa have died as a result of this crisis in different nations, such as Sudan, Ethiopia, (fill in different countries). However, famine is not something that happens overnight, and many factors lead to this major crisis.
There are many major factors that build up to the final occurrence of a famine in sub-Saharan Africa. The major causes of famine are droughts, war, economic issues, and food distribution. One of the five causes may lead to a major famine, however, when two or more of the causes “work together” to produce a famine, the situation may become hectic. For example, if a war happens to erupt during a drought, it becomes harder for a nation to prevent an all-out famine crisis rather than if their was just a drought.
It has become apparent that international and national intervention is needed to help prevent future famines from taking place. Organizations such as the United Nations (UN), Food Association Organization (FAO), United States Aid (USAID), World Food Production (WFP), Red Cross, etcetera. have been trying to be successful in preventing famines, but cannot succeed without national intervention from governments. Therefore, the many committees must work together in a major attempt to avoid such occurrences and get sub-Saharan Africa on the right track in developing their nations.
In order to reach any conclusions, it is necessary to explore the major famines that have occurred in sub-Saharan Africa. By analyzing the main causes of why the famines have been occurring and how they were dealt with, a conclusion can be reached regarding what needs to be done further in order to prevent future famines from taking place. Therefore, this essay will attempt to conclude that the many issues leading up to a famine can be prevented with the right intervention within a nation.
Drought and Famine
Drought, as noticed by many of the famines in the past, was the “most immediate reason”[2] that had led to the crisis. All the countries that are effected with famine are countries that are either undeveloped or still developing nations. Due to this fact much of the economy is based on agriculture and exporting foods, mainly grains. The problem with food exports in sub-Saharan Africa is the unpredictable rainy seasons, which most of the times, have led to droughts, and on the big scale, a famine crisis. A famine crisis occurs in this situation because there is not enough rain needed to grow the crops, mainly grain based in sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, there is not enough food to go around to the people and the economy drops sufficiently due to lack of exports of grains and other crops.
As an example, one of the worst hit nations of the famine crisis is Sudan, and during 1888/89 it experienced one of its worst famines due to “two consecutive years of severe drought [where] hundreds of thousands of people died.” Many droughts persisted after 1888, but were not as severe, where hundreds of thousands had died from lack of health, disease, and starvation. It was obvious that Sudan was in need of International aid, as its own government was occupied with wars that had erupted during the famines, which did not help the crisis situation. Countries such as India offered their help by importing corn and flour free of charge. Although this may have provided some relief until the Sudanese could get their farming back on track, but a solution was needed to prevent future droughts resulting into a famine.
Countries in sub-Saharan Africa have been receiving outside aid in cases of long periods of drought, and others have also learned from the situation and planned ahead. The USAID organization played an important role in the droughts of Kenya and Zimbabwe, by importing more than “1.5 million tons of food via commercial channels.”[3] It wasn’t only international policy makers that helped prevent a famine during a drought in both countries, but also national policy makers. The government’s immediate, “rapid, coordinated intervention at both national and international levels”[4] helped prevent only but a few people from starving. In Kenya’s drought the governments reaction was based on meteorological reports, which gave the country time to plan ahead, and eventually start storing food for a likely drought. This shows that famine is not inevitable in the case of a drought in sub-Saharan Africa. It is the reaction of government policies, both national and international, that can prevent anything terrible from happening. All in all, as sub-Saharan countries become more dependent upon themselves, countries should start saving up more of their cheapest or most common crops such as maize (a common crop in sub-Saharan Africa) during a good farming season in order to be prepared for a likely event of a famine.

Armed Conflict (war) and Famine
In the recent years, armed conflict has mainly been the cause of famine in sub-Saharan Africa. These wars have included wars between two countries, civil wars, or conflicts with political regimes, due to unsatisfied citizens within a country. With the unstable conditions that already exist in sub-Saharan Africa, such as agricultural conditions, unstable economies, poor food supply, war does not solve or help to prevent a famine. In order to notice the extent of the issue of war in sub-Saharan Africa, some numerical values would be needed. Between 1945 and 1992 Africa itself “accounted for one-quarter of all wars (48 wars: North Africa, 9; West Africa, 8; central Africa, 10; East Africa, 13; South Africa, 8).”[5] For a total of 48 wars, 32 of which had occurred in sub-Saharan Africa, there is an obvious reason to why this region is the most common area in the world with famine breakouts. Anywhere around the world, war is always a costly situation; however, there are many reasons as to why war can lead to other deadly situations, such as famine, in sub-Saharan Africa. First of all, the situation of a drought, as seen previously, is not helped when a war erupts. This is because of economic and agricultural issues. People who are already struggling to find food for themselves and their family in the event of a famine are put into a worse situations when their government is trying to resolve a war rather than feed the poor of their nation who are in desperate need of support. Another major problem that occurs when a war breaks out is that it is more likely for a nation to go into a state of famine. This happens when citizens of a country find the need to protect themselves, as they are in a state of fear, and therefore, buy weapons instead of using their money on a slower more probable way of being killed, through starvation. For example, in Sudan, war broke out during a drought, which eventually led to a major famine. A famine happens in this situation because people feel “the need to buy guns for self-defense”[6]; it becomes more of a priority than the need to buying food to feed themselves and their family.
Civil wars and wars in sub-Saharan Africa need to be stopped in order for countries to develop, or else many of the war-prone areas will not be able to succeed in sub-Saharan Africa. Looking at the situation in Sudan as an example, civil wars have been going on since 1984, and obviously the government cannot handle the situation. In this case, it should be that one of the super powers intervenes. The reason for this is because of the UN’s many unhelpful attempts in trying to calm the situation. With the assistance of a super power, however, rebel groups may retreat. A super power going to war with a famine-prone nation is not the proper solution, on the other hand, their presence in Sudan might be necessary if the violence escalates further. However, war will be the last resort, until the UN and other organizations have tried more attempts in cooling the situation. A resolution must be reached as Sudan has had the most famines in the sub-Saharan region in the past decade. AIDS and Famine
AIDS stands for Acquired immune Deficiency syndrome and is basically a sickness caused by a virus known as HIV (human immunodeficiency virus). A basic introduction to what this virus does is, it “attacks the immune system, the body's ‘security force’ that fights off infections,”[7] which can then lead into other sicknesses which ultimately lead death. HIV is merely the process to which leads to disease. Relating this to sub-Saharan Africa, it has the highest occurrences of HIV/AIDS in the world. There are many factors that lead up to AIDS, which may lead towards an all-out state of famine. The question is why would a disease lead up to such a major crisis such as famine, as there are many diseases all over the world; however, none of them make a nation go into a state of famine as it does in sub-Saharan Africa. The problem of disease in sub-Saharan Africa is another situation that governments need to deal with in addition to all the other problems such as economic issues, war, food distribution, etc. HIV/AIDS may be the result of all the other factors that lead to a famine. For example, when a war breaks out it is likely for people to spread the disease, such as by rape. How does this turn into a famine? Since most of sub-Saharan African country’s depend on agriculture for food and income, there will be less people working the fields and, therefore, a slower process of getting food. Also the income that a family may have will be spent on medicine which may help or cure the disease. This results in families not having enough money to buy food for themselves or their families. A good way of representing the issue relating AIDS and famine is the “dominoes effect”[8]. This gives a basic idea of how one situation leads to the other. For example, it is explained in the article that if the father is infected with the disease, there is no one to work the fields (agricultural based economy). This forces the mother to stay home from her work and take care of the father. Soon after the situation is uncontrollable, the children have to be pulled out of school in order to support the family by working in the fields. As noticed before, money is often spent on medicine rather than food, and the farm is not as productive as it used to be when the father was working in the fields. Therefore, families are at a high risk of starving. Many international committees have been dealing with the HIV/AIDS issue in order to resolve the on going problem.
It is obvious that AIDS/HIV is causing problems, such as the food crisis, around countries in sub-Saharan Africa. As AIDS becomes widely spread to people around nations, the less likely people have of supporting their families. As described in the “dominoes effect”[9] one disease can turn the direction of a family’s progress, to a decline in their success. International intervention, such as the UN, WHO, and the American Red Cross, have all been contributing to the crisis by providing aid to countries in the region. The problem that occurs is how the medicine gets distributed within a country. If the national governments force their citizens who are in great need of medical help to buy their medication, famine may become more likely, because sub-Saharan Africans would be spending the little money they have on medicine instead of food. As more and more people become infected with the virus, the more money they spend on medicines, until they have run out, and people have no money to buy food. This leads to an all out famine crisis within the nation. In this case, it would be necessary for international agencies to make sure that the medicine is being distributed within a country freely without charge. This way the people who are infected have enough money to spare for food.
Food security/food distribution and Famine Poor food security seems to be an unreasonable situation that would lead to a famine. Since agriculture would be the first economic way of making an income, it should be that there is enough food to go around for everyone. However, this is not the case in sub-Saharan Africa, as many key factors lead to a decrease in the amount of food per house hold. When this happens, a famine cannot be prevented as people have a shortage and an inability to obtain food. There are many key factors that lead up to a famine when talking about food security and food distribution. As was discussed earlier, weather conditions in sub-Saharan Africa are unpredictable and droughts are common. Droughts cause extremely low food production, and there are few resources which leads to the failure of growing or buying food in sub-Saharan Africa. Since many of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa have a poor economy, buying food becomes a problem and in many cases, international intervention is needed. Also an undeveloped or developing nation in sub-Saharan Africa depend on exports that make up much of the economy. Even when there is help from countries outside sub-Saharan Africa food distribution and food security becomes a problem. For example, food may only be distributed to the middle or upper class of a nation, rather than the rural lower class people, who are the ones in need of food aid, as it often occurs under a corrupted government. There needs to be a resolution for issues involving food security and distribution around countries in sub-Saharan Africa in times that can lead up to a hunger crisis. When food aid arrives to a country not all the food gets distributed within all the areas of the country that need it. Therefore, people end up starving and the country may become in a state of famine. Causes to this may be to corrupt governments. There needs to be a system where food can be efficiently spread within a country. This could be done by organizations, such as the UN, who can monitor the flow of food aid within countries of sub-Saharan Africa.
Economy and Famine Every nation needs an economical status in the world to be successful as a country. In order to grow a successful economy, a nation must start by using raw materials (oil, wood, farming, etc.) that are available in a nation. In the case of sub-Saharan Africa, most of the economies are based mainly on agriculture and exporting foods. Many of the sub-Saharan African countries have failed, however, in succeeding to build a good economical status around the world. Because of this low economic status, compared to other countries in the world, sub-Saharan African countries have been more vulnerable to going into a state of famine and harder for them to get out of it. There are many factors that have lead to these economical issues and eventually a famine. As countries around the world have started to build stable economies, sub-Saharan African countries have been very slowly developing due to many problems, and this slow development of an economical status in the world caused the countries to be affected with food crises. It can be argued that the reason why these economic issues have started is because countries in sub-Saharan Africa have always been affected by outside intervention in a negative way, such as slavery. The Europeans control over the control made slaves work to build a nation overseas. By the time the people had gained their independence from the Europeans/Americans, they had to start developing their own country. Since they had started late in the process they were behind in technological advances and issues became worse. Nations, therefore, resulted in using agriculture and exporting foods as their main way of making money. This was an issue, however, due to droughts and unpredictable weather. Also, with an unstable economy, countries are unable to use money to import foods, and people are often left to starve.
Conclusion
Countries of sub-Saharan Africa were, and many still are, in a time where people of the nations are in a state of extreme hunger, which can be defined as a famine. Famine is not something that can happen overnight, and there are many factors that lead to this food crisis. Factors such as drought, war, economic stability, food distribution, and the AIDS/HIV virus all have major contributions that can lead to an all out famine. Each of these factors all have “sub-factors” that build up to the causes of famine. Issues can be interrelated, for example, war and drought can both happen at the same time, therefore, causing a high increase in the amount of people starving. Changes are needed in countries south of the Sahara before issues escalate any farther. In the case of sub-Saharan countries, it is not accurate to say that governments within the region should do more to resolve the issue; however, international intervention is also needed. Many countries have proved this by preventing a famine by the right reactions seen by national and international agencies. This was seen in countries such as Kenya and Zimbabwe where a food crisis was prevented even during the time of drought due to immediate reactions by government policies both national and international. All the factors - droughts, war, economic stability, food distribution, AIDS/HIV - can all be resolved. In conclusion, both national and international governments or agencies are needed to resolve the famine food crisis.

Bibliography BBC News. “Africa’s Famine: Country by country.” Famine in Africa. Date: November 11, 2002. July 21, 2004 Drèze, Jean, Amartya Sen. The Political economy of hunger. Oxford [England] : Clarendon Press ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1990-1991 Harsch, Ernest. “Famine spreads across Africa.” Africa Recovery. Date: Feb. 2003. July 5, 2004 Lautze, Sue, Yacob Aklilu, Angela Raven-Roberts, Helen Young, Girma Kebede, Jennifer Leaning. Risk and Vulnerability in Ethiopia. America: Feinstein International Famine Center, 2003. Patel, Raj. “Southern Africa’s Long Decade of Hunger.” Backgrounder. Date: Fall 2002. July 7, 2004 Talbot, Chris. “Famine spreads across southern Africa.” World Socialist Web Site Date: May 18, 2002. July 15, 2004 Von Braun, Joachim, Tesfaye Teklu. Famine in Africa. Baltimore, Md. : Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. Harman, Dana. “How AIDS brings famine nearer.” The Christian Science Monitor. Date: November 15, 2002. October 3, 2004 Unknown. “Sub-Saharan Africa Maps” African Maps. Date: December 15, 2004 http://www.tulane.edu/~mock/Maps/africamaps.htm#Conflict%20Only Unknown. “What is AIDS and HIV?” AIDSMEDS. Date: May 22, 2004. October 4, 2004