The two main aspects covered in post-war intergovernmental studies and resolutions on international famine relief were (a) procedures for detection and appeal; and (b) the possibility of creating a world emergency food reserve to be drawn on when international assistance was requested. In defining a situation in which international relief would be called for, the UN and FAO distinguished between causes and circumstances. A UN General Assembly resolution of 1952, which called for the establishment of procedures to deal with famine emergencies arising from natural causes, referred to ‘emergency famines created by crop failure due to plague, drought, flood, blight, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and similar accidents of a natural character’ (UN, 1952a). The UN secretary-general, in a report to ECOSOC in the same year, commented that famine emergencies arising from the aftermath of war and civil disturbances were excluded from the resolution. The FAO Conference and Council endorsed these definitions in principle but suggested some degree of flexibility in applying them, as in situations where an emergency was exacerbated by the lethal combination of war and natural causes such as drought. A working party was appointed by the FAO Council in 1952 ‘to study and explore suitable ways and means whereby an emergency food reserve can be established and made available promptly to member states threatened or affected by serious food shortages or famine’ (FAO, 1951). The working party concluded that it would be advantageous to reconsider the definition based on further study of the origin of famines and of the relative importance of different causes. Regarding the definition of circumstances requiring international relief action, since famine was most likely to occur in countries where there was much chronic under-nourishment, it might at first sight appear difficult to define the criteria for distinguishing between famine and chronic under-nourishment. Neither physiological nor economic criteria would be sufficient in themselves, or in combination, to define the circumstances requiring international emergency relief action. The working party noted that through the operation of the Indian Famine Code, a distinction was made between chronic malnutrition and emergency famine by common sense administrative methods.
World Food Reserve and Global Action against Hunger
