Commentary: Barriers Lowered For Helping To Ease Famine

You can see a famine coming. Thanks to data gathered months, sometimes years, in advance, the slow unfolding of mass starvation has humanitarian nonprofits and United Nations agencies trying to get the world’s attention.

We know why famines happen and how to prevent catastrophic hunger from ever occurring. All you need is enough time, unimpeded access to where at-risk people need help, and the necessary resources. Under the right conditions we can prevent a famine.

Sadly, efforts that prevent large scale starvation are often constrained by the ability of humanitarian organizations to access at-risk populations. Violence and conflict remain the biggest barrier, but other constraints are closer to home. They are political.

This month, thanks to more than a decade of effective advocacy, the Biden administration successfully removed major political barriers that limited and stopped humanitarian access. These impediments were an unintended consequence of the war on terror and its sanctions. Brave decisions by the administration and U.N. Security Council to change longstanding counter-terror norms will now save lives.

For years, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have faced constraints, including the impact of sanctions on designated terrorist groups, that limited their ability to respond. NGOs need to access at-risk populations who are living in areas controlled by groups that have been sanctioned by the U.S. and United Nations. In response to sanctions, banks stop the transfer of money, including the movement of official humanitarian assistance, and NGOs avoid working in areas controlled by sanctioned terrorist groups. People starve.

In 2010, InterAction first raised concerns about the unintended consequences of anti-terror regulations on humanitarian responses. Our focus was Somalia and a looming famine in areas run by the designated terrorist group Al-Shabaab. Facing multiple droughts, people living in Al-Shabaab-controlled areas began to starve in large numbers, and, as U.S. NGOs, our hands were tied. We were constrained by counter-terror regulations that would hold an NGO accountable for any contact with Al-Shabaab, especially if any resources might be diverted.

Working with InterAction, major humanitarian NGOs raised the alarm that children were already starving. We eventually got the attention of the White House, and a decision was made to try to save lives. Exemptions through the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Controls (OFAC) became available, but these licenses were cumbersome, limited, and they came too late. The Somalia famine in 2011 would kill an estimated 260,000 people, primarily children.

Today, more than a decade later, climate change has caused multiple failed crop seasons, and another famine is looming in Somalia. Children and families are starving, and some humanitarians say that a famine should already be declared. And things will likely only get worse. The year 2023 might be a year where we face mass starvations in several places, from Somalia to Afghanistan.

That is all the more reason to celebrate a courageous policy change. The U.S. government through the U.S. Department of the Treasury and U.S. Mission to United Nations pushed for humanitarian safeguards at the United Nations and helped deliver on December 9^th a successful U.N. Security Council vote (UNSC 2664) to minimize the impact of sanctions on humanitarian actions. These resolutions create humanitarian safeguards that will allow donors and NGOs to rapidly respond in areas controlled by designated terrorist groups. They will limit human suffering and save lives.

The Biden administration recently took a major step by removing another impediment to U.S. humanitarian NGOs. According to the U.S. Department of Treasury, their Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) “took historic steps to further enable the flow of legitimate humanitarian assistance supporting the basic human needs of vulnerable populations.” A new General License was issued that covers humanitarian, poverty alleviation, peace building, and democracy programs.

The U.S. Agency for International Development recognizes that these “actions will mitigate the legal risks our partners face when working in conflict-plagued regions and will provide assurance to financial institutions and other private sector actors that they can continue supporting legitimate humanitarian programs without fear of running afoul of U.S. sanctions.” The U.S. will continue to have controls that stop assistance from reaching bad actors and ensure assistance reaches at-risk populations.

For over a decade we advocated for and fought for these changes. I celebrate Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo’s efforts to shape the decision by the U.S. Department of Treasury and National Security Council. Above all, I celebrate a group of advocates within InterAction and key staff in Save the Children U.S., CARE, Catholic Relief Services, Mercy Corps, among other organizations, who, despite being told that anti-terror regulations cannot change, they kept up the pressure. We provided research on the harm these regulations caused and helped make the political case that changes were possible and would save lives. We never stopped telling our story over years of negotiating and advocacy.

Next year’s famines still loom, children are already starving, and responding in war zones continues to carry enormous risk. Thankfully, the barriers humanitarian NGOs face to help starving people are a notch lower.  

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Samuel Worthington is the former president and chief executive of InterAction.