Who cries “famine” and for what purpose? What is the best definition of “famine”? Who is entitled to decide?
Today, the concept of “famine” is the focus of intense controversy. Calling out famine is politically sensitive, and the governments that preside over starvation—or cause it—are keen to control the narrative and suppress uncomfortable facts and alternative opinions. Politicians, aid technocrats, lawyers, and activists all use the word “famine” to mean different things—and to demand different kinds of action or inaction. Social anthropologists, social nutritionists, and memory scholars drawing on their work with affected communities, draw upon rich and subtle vocabularies for acute hunger, starvation, famine and catastrophe. The least-heard voices—but the most important ones—are those of the survivors themselves.
The “famine voices” project brings together people with diverse viewpoints and experiences on the issue. We provide a platform for a wide range of people to share experiences and perspectives, bringing people from affected communities, social scientists and historians, food security specialists, lawyers and policymakers into conversation. We hope to inform the UN-accredited Integrated food security Phase Classification (IPC) initiative, the legal definition of starvation crimes, and the wider public debate on famine and how to prevent it.
