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FEWS NET HISTORY
The Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) is an activity
of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) that
provides timely food security information for 17 countries of
Sub-Saharan Africa. Analyses identify vulnerable populations
and hazards that threaten their livelihoods, leading to early
warning of potential food security emergencies. The activity
dates back to the mid-1980s and makes extensive use of geographical
methods to characterize populations, food economies, and hydroclimatology.
Strengthening the ability of African institutions to perform
these analyses is a major goal of FEWS NET. The U.S. Geological
Survey (USGS) has been an implementing partner of USAID from
the beginning.
Famine associated with drought is a slow onset disaster that
presents a variety of early climatic and socioeconomic signs
that dire conditions could take shape. Nonetheless, the drought
of the early 1970s was responsible for 100,000 deaths in the
Sahel and 200,000 deaths in Ethiopia, and was soon followed
by drought in 1983-1985 that saw deaths in Ethiopia estimated
from 400,000 to 1 million. These large-scale famines shocked
the world and pointed up the tragic lack of timely information
that might have served to head off human suffering of huge
proportions. Responding to the concern of the American people,
the U.S. Congress called on USAID to create the Famine Early
Warning System (FEWS) in 1985. USGS and NASA were engaged
as scientific implementing partners in recognition of the
importance of remote sensing to the monitoring task in Sub-Saharan
Africa. This is because conventional climatic data collection
networks are sparse and subject to significant reporting delays.
Vegetation index images were employed to reveal anomalous
patterns of dry conditions threatening subsistence agriculture.
Geographic information system (GIS) technology was also adopted
for efficient integration of climatic, agricultural, market
price, and demographic indicators.
FEWS has been implemented in roughly 5-year phases since
its inception. The prime contract for implementation in each
phase is awarded by USAID to a private sector firm through
a competitive procurement process. Support in the form of
remote sensing, modeling, forecasting, GIS, data archive,
training, and product dissemination is provided by U.S. Government
science agencies: USGS, NASA, and NOAA. They are engaged through
interagency agreements with USAID. FEWS has steadily evolved
away from being a Washington-based activity with a few expatriates
in the field to one that is primarily African-based, with
African professionals comprising the majority of the staff.
The latest phase of the activity places an emphasis on networking
among individuals and institutions (governmental, inter-governmental,
and non-governmental) across disciplines at the local, national,
regional, and continental levels, hence the new name: FEWS
NET. The current prime contractor is Chemonics International,
Inc.
USGS participation has evolved in step with the overall shift
to African-based analyses. Regional scientists have been recruited
for West Africa, the Greater Horn of Africa (GHA), and Southern
Africa. They are African nationals with expertise in drought
monitoring, remote sensing, and GIS. A regional flood hydrologist
for the GHA has also been hired. These scientists work closely
with FEWS NET (Chemonics) food security analysts, and network
partners, to interpret the nature of drought and flood threats
to livelihood systems (especially subsistence agriculture)
and articulate their findings in bulletins and reports disseminated
to the international community. The field scientists devote
significant time to technical capacity building through formal
and informal training on remote sensing, GIS, hydrology, agroclimatology,
and other topics. They work with the following African regional
institutions: Agronomy-Hydrology-Meteorology (AGRHYMET) Regional
Center in Niamey, Niger; Drought Monitoring Center in Nairobi,
Kenya; Regional Center for Mapping for Resource Development
in Nairobi, Kenya; and the Southern Africa Development Community’s
Regional Remote Sensing Unit in Harare, Zimbabwe. They play
a central role in research to improve techniques, algorithms,
and methods of geospatial hydroclimatology. They are well
positioned to provide scientific insights and local data that
complement the work of U.S.-based colleagues. They also have
invaluable links to African institutions of higher education.
In 2002, USAID reorganized and moved FEWS NET out of the
Bureau for Africa and into the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict,
and Humanitarian Assistance. The scope of activity was expanded
beyond Africa to include Afghanistan, Haiti, and four countries
of Central America.
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