Archetypes of famine and response

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7280671
AutoresPaul Howe (0000-0002-4723-5048, World Health Organization - Uganda, autor de correspondencia)
Año2009
Volumen34
Número1
Páginas30-54
Fecha de publicación2009-07-14
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaDisasters (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0361-3666 • E-ISSN: 1467-7717
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-7717.2009.01113.x
PMID19624703
OpenAlexW1968565691
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas14
Referencias citadas26

Famines have long been characterised by rapidly shifting dynamics: sudden price spirals, sharp increases in mortality, the media frenzy that often accompanies such spikes, the swift scaling up of aid flows, and a subsequent decline in interest. In arguing that these aspects of famine have been largely ignored in recent years due to attention to the ‘famine process’, this paper attempts to make these dynamics more explicit by applying systems thinking. It uses standard archetypes of systems thinking to explain six situations—watch, price spiral, aid magnet, media frenzy, overshoot, and peaks—that are present in many famine contexts. It illustrates their application with examples from crises in Ethiopia, Malawi, Niger, and Sudan. The paper contends that the systems approach offers a tool for analysing the larger patterns in famines and for pinpointing the most appropriate responses to them, based on an awareness of the dynamics of the crises

Archetype · Development economics · Economics · Famine · Overshoot (microwave communication · Telecommunications · Agricultural risk and resilience · Child Nutrition and Water Access · Computer Science · History