Goats and Soda : NPR

On July 13, 1985, Live AID organized concerts of services in London and Philadelphia which collected much more than $ 100 million to tackle famine in Ethiopia – and the United States created a system called Net son to collect data and alerts governments and groups of assistance on possible future families. Above: Artists on stage for the grand finale of the British event.

Daily Mirror / Mirrorpix / Via Getty Images

hide

tilting legend

Daily Mirror / Mirrorpix / Via Getty Images

In the summer of 1985, images of children emaciated in Ethiopia shocked the world and prompted one of the biggest charities of all time: Live help. Megastars like Paul McCartney and Lionel Richie, Madonna and Queen went on stage in London and Philadelphia. Tina Turner and Mick Jagger attracted an audience that had more than a billion people who looked in person and broadcast. All together, the event collected much over $ 100 million for the relief of famine in Africa.

Celebrities were not the only ones to respond to famine, the US government did it too.

A nurse distributes supplies during the famine that struck Ethiopia in the mid -80s.

Gavin Kent / Mirrorpix / Via Getty Images

hide

tilting legend

Gavin Kent / Mirrorpix / Via Getty Images

The same year, he created a system aimed at avoiding future famines. The United States has launched Son Net, the first network of early alert systems in the world. The combination of data from a wide range of sources – from commercial dynamics to meteorological data, from culture reports to migration information – it began to produce detailed and timely reports on where and when hunger could strike.

For decades, governments and help organizations around the world have relied on this system to predict and prevent food crises. It was sudden in January. The early alert system was offline Following President Trump’s work orders. He was part of the American agency for international development, which Trump dismantled.

Now Net Son is coming back online. This news has been greeted with both enthusiasm and caution by the world of humanitarian aid, because food security specialists warn that questions remain on the quality of the relaunched system and its power to prevent famine.

The “lighthouse”

Fews Net – funded by the American government and managed by entrepreneurs – is the work of data of data based in more than 20 countries, from Haiti to Somalia. They pore on information to set up detailed predictions of hot stories, providing for what will happen eight months, then update them regularly. This allows help groups and governments to adjust policies and position food so that it comes at the right time and in the right place to avoid a food crisis.

“We are working to collect information, to analyze the information, to validate this information on the field,” explains Luis Ramirez, who is part of the Net Sons team in Latin America and the Caribbean. Based in Guatemala, it is the regional technical example.

He considers that a net threads as a lighthouse. “This lighthouse which helps to guide through this sea where ships should go to help people,” said Ramirez.

The objective is to avoid human suffering, but his work also prevents mass migration and helps ensure stability. In addition, Son Net had an economic meaning, explains Alex de Waal, professor at TUFTS University who studies famines and is head of the school World Peace Foundation.

“It is far, much cheaper from preventing a disaster than relieving suffering when a disaster takes place,” he said.

The value of the thread net was obvious in 2016, he said, when she helped the world to a massive drought in Ethiopia. Six months before the devastation, the Ethiopians and the Americans began to move a food aid in place.

The impact of this early warning was, by all the accounts, extraordinary. “It was the greatest number of people never affected by a food crisis in Ethiopia, probably throughout Africa. And not only nobody died, but we did not have migration, destitution. It was really a model,” said Waal.

This type of change made him think that famine could belong to the past. “For most of my career, I said to myself:” Okay, I study something that is being sent to history, “said Waal.

‘Turn it off’

But famines have not disappeared. And Son Net continued to work to avoid a disaster until the Proverbial Ramirez lighthouse is dark in late January when President Trump interrupted most of the foreign aid.

“It was pretty much as,” okay, get up, turn it off and move away “”, remembers Ramirez.

The cessation of work orders and aid disturbances is paralyzed from the net operation.

“It was the first and the only time we were offline,” said Tanya Boudreau, who works for net son in Washington, DC, she heads the team responsible for joining all the information collected worldwide, then analyzing and sharing the results.

Then, halfway until April, the net elements started to return. At the end of June, the website was back. And, in October – Boudreau says – there will be reports in all the countries in which the agency worked before and a global perspective with an eight month prediction.

The State Department did not respond to NPR requests to comment on its decision to end, then restart Fews Net. Nor did he answer questions about the budget and the scope of the system in the future.

However, the decision to take up the net of a few is considered a good sign by those on the ground. “It told me that there were people inside the American government who understood the importance of this information that we provide, not only for ourselves but for each country of the world,” said Welsh CaitlinThe Director of the World Food Safety and Water Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The impact of the closure

Boudreau says that they always assess the impact of the multi-house close. But, she says, one thing is clear: “There has been a gap in the information that decision-makers must plan.”

De Waal fears that Ethiopia can once again highlight the impact of the thread net, this time highlighting the effect of the temporary closure. The government has expelled a parallel system from the United Nations for the detection of famines, called IPC or the integrated classification of the food security phase. It happened in 2021After the UN warned against artificial famine in Ethiopia and the government accused the officials of mingling with the country’s domestic affairs.

Today, Ethiopia is “on the verge of a major food crisis,” said Waal. “But in the absence of the IPC and in the absence of a net fets, we do not have enough data and intelligence. It is actually very frightening.”

He maintains that the son net is essential even in countries where the IPC is functional. Indeed, the IPC is part of the United Nations system and is thus based on the host government. “And that means that if this country, let’s say Sudan or Ethiopia, wants to hide a famine, it is easy for them to manipulate the information available for the UN agencies,” he said. For this reason, he says, many countries are counting on net independence. This made the closure of this year even more important.

“When it was put out of line, there have been reverberations in the world because so many people were counting on this information,” said Welsh.

The light of the lighthouse returns

When Ramirer learned that he could reapply his old work, he was delighted. His wife too. During her interviews in June, she listened to the door of her office. “When they said to me:” Okay, Luis, we want to continue. “She was like:” Yes! “Ramirez remembers.

Boudreau called people like Ramirez to verify them and help make sure they have everything they need to make the Filss fillet work.

She says that part of the reason why Net son was able to “go back to work really, very quickly” is because many staff members – some with three decades of experience on the project – have returned. “Surprisingly, we have lost very few people,” said Boudreau. This is essential because, she says, a new rental needs about six months of training.

What is even more surprised to Boudreau is that even if the project was suspended, many staff members continued to work informally – keeping an eye on the situation of famine in their country.

“One of the most comforting things is the way our staff is engaged in this project,” she said. “And so although there was a gap in reports, there was no gap in surveillance, in many cases.”

She recognizes that there are still great unknowns, especially if Sons Net will follow pre-trump plans to add to the 20 and more countries where the system currently works.

From Waal, Tufts University, also says that he has a lot of questions.

“Will information still be gathered with the same rigor and the same speed?” he said. “And, if you have the information, will you act on it?

His concern is that a solid response could be lacking because the United States and a number of European countries have reduced a large part of their humanitarian aid.

This modified attitude is also reflected in the inheritance of this other Famine Landmark Famine event in 1985: Live Aid. For the 40th anniversary of the concert, the Rock Star Bob Geldof, which created this historic event, went around the interview. In a conversation on Cnn With Geldof, journalist Bill Weir noted how “cool” in 1985 was to express support for hungry children around the world – and “how much we seem to be today”. And the geldof has reflected in a New York Times Interview, “We are now in a radically different world.”