‘Horrific' hunger crisis in Somalia being overlooked by Canadian donors — here’s why, according to fundraising experts

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Richard Morgan knew it was going to be a tough campaign. 

This past spring, Morgan, the executive director of the Humanitarian Coalition, an international development relief organization, was keeping tabs on the growing hunger crisis around the Horn of Africa; and the numbers he saw weren’t good. 

Spurred by climate change, East Africa was facing its worst drought in 40 years. In Somalia, four failed rainy seasons had sent hundreds of thousands from their homes, searching for food and water. In April, the United Nations released a statement, warning that nearly 40 percent of Somalia’s population faced acute levels of food insecurity and that six regions throughout the country were at risk of famine. 

A famine sounds grim, but it’s not just a term used only for rhetorical purposes. A formal declaration of famine by the United Nations means that more than one in five households face an extreme lack of food; that more than 30 percent of the population is significantly malnourished; and that more than two people or four children out of 10,000 are dying every day. 

It’s rare things get that bad — it’s happened just twice in the last ten years anywhere in the world. 

It’s also the case that by the time a famine is declared, the deaths of many people are already foretold, as data lags the situation occurring on the ground. The last time the UN issued a large-scale famine declaration was in 2011 in Somalia. But by the time they sounded the alarm, more than 130,000 people had already died from hunger or hunger-related illnesses — half of the total number who perished during the famine, according to Care International. 

Faced with the grim projections, Morgan spoke with staff from Humanitarian Coalition’s 12 member agencies, a group that includes Canadian global development heavyweights — Oxfam Canada, World Vision, Plan International, and others. 

The conversations, he says, were heartening. Members acknowledged the hunger crisis in Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti was getting overshadowed by media coverage of the war in Ukraine, but the group agreed they needed to mount a collective campaign. 

Following their discussions, the Coalition’s members began their group efforts in earnest, successfully lobbying the federal government to issue a commitment to match Canadians’ donations to the region of up to $5 million. 

During the normally-quiet summer fundraising season, the Coalition’s member charities hustled: emailing donor lists, blasting word of the campaign on social media, and working to try and get the media to pay attention. 

By late July, they met their goal, raising about $6.5 million from Canadians. Morgan says he was grateful Canadians chipped in; as were the coalition’s member organizations, but that he remained concerned, knowing the sum they raised paled in comparison to the growing need on the ground. 

Moreover, the sum pales in comparison to the funds Canadians donated to the Canadian Red Cross relief efforts for a concurrent crisis — the war in Ukraine; where, by contrast, Canadians have donated over $160 million. 

The pair of disasters are different: they involve different numbers of people, their root causes are distinct, and the relief aid required too, differs. However, international aid experts who spoke with Future of Good say the difference in private donations offered by Canadians to organizations fundraising for each of the crises, and many like them, highlights the challenge aid organizations face in fundraising for “protracted” crises — those with no easily-identifiable cause and no end in sight. 

The media, they say, is a significant driver of private donations to international disasters and often favours “spectacular” crises — floods, fires, earthquakes or surprising wars. 

To combat these challenges, development organizations are using a variety of creative strategies, including using Twitter and Facebook live events with in-country experts to raise awareness about low-profile crises, and making clear to donors that protracted crises aren’t inevitable, and can be ameliorated with their help.

Where media coverage goes, donations follow

On February 24, Canadians were glued to their smartphones, laptops and televisions, watching breaking news coverage of the first day of the war in Ukraine. 

That morning, in a televised address, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a “special military operation” in Ukraine. By day’s end, at least 70 people had died as a result of the invasion, according to Reuters, as Russian forces advanced on three regions of Ukraine. 

Donations from Canadians to support Ukranians swiftly followed. 

By March 22, Canadians had provided $82.5 million through the Red Cross, far exceeding the $10 million target that the federal government had committed to match, dollar-for-dollar back in February. Canadian corporations and foundations too, stepped up. By late March, more than 20 foundations had provided funds to support Ukraine, following a call for support from Philanthropic Foundations Canada; and several corporations had also donated, including Canadian banks, insurance and transportation companies. 

Morgan says that while some of the donation drivers were unique to Ukraine — a large Canadian diaspora, a fear the war could create significant geopolitical instability — the pattern of donations following ample media coverage is aligned with other disasters. 

Reyhana Patel, the director of communications for Islamic Relief Canada agrees. Patel says that this fall, media coverage of the floods in Pakistan helped bolster the organization’s fundraising campaign for the region, where more than 33 million people have been affected by flooding and landslides. Patel says more funds are still needed — but that the media’s attention provided them with a clear boost. 

By email, Jennifer Luedey, Oxfam Canada’s director of philanthropy, explains how media drives donations: “If people see the crisis in the news through pictures and on-site reporting, it makes a huge difference to inspire public mobilization.”

The trouble is, experts say, media coverage isn’t rational — and heavily favors “spectacular” crises over protracted, long-standing ones. 

[aesop_image img=”https://futureofgood.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/unnamed-2.jpg” panorama=”off” align=”center” lightbox=”on” captionsrc=”custom” caption=”Death by food shortage, cold wave, or drought is much less likely to receive coverage on American TV news, when compared with death by volcano, earthquake or fire, according to a 2007 study. (Source: Our World in Data). ” captionposition=”left” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]

The complexity of protracted crises can stymie donations

When it comes to disaster coverage, American TV news is all over volcanoes, earthquakes and fires. 

A 2007 study analyzing 700,000 news stories of over 5,000 natural disasters on major US national TV broadcast networks between 1968 and 2002 found the media offers scant coverage of protracted crises, like food shortages or droughts relative to the attention they pay to rapid-onset, weather-related disasters. 

In fact, the study found that for every person killed in a volcano, nearly 39,000 people have to die of hunger to achieve the same probability of being covered by American TV news. 

“While from a moral imperative, I think we all value human life, the reality of how that’s transmitted to us through media, and what we absorb, shows a dramatic difference,” Morgan says, referencing the study. 

Luedey notes that Oxfam Canada has had to work harder to raise funds for Somalia and Yemen, where a brutal civil war has left nearly 24 million people in need of assistance, than for “rapid-onset crises,” like the floods in Pakistan, which has gotten more coverage.   

Andrea Longlade, a fundraiser with Save the Children says that the relative simplicity of the relief required by immediate-onset crises can make them more appealing to donors. 

When it comes to disasters like the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia or 2010 earthquake in Haiti, she says, donors are more easily able to visualize the impact their dollars could have — say, through rebuilding a school or providing immediate shelter to someone who has been put out of their home.

For a donor considering providing help for a protracted crisis, like the one affecting the Horn of Africa, however, she says, donors understand their dollars won’t cure malnutrition. “People know that the drivers of the crisis are complex and cyclical,” she says. “That’s where the fatigue comes in. [They wonder] ‘How am I going to make a difference?’”

Beyond the complexity, Richard Morgan says it can also be difficult for aid organizations to offer visuals that accompany donation appeals that are both compelling and offer dignity to people in crisis. 

“There isn’t a single photo that you can share that shows hunger in the way people can instinctively understand the way you can with a photo of a flood or an earthquake or a landslide,” he says. “And we also struggle with the challenge of: how do you show something like hunger — the fact that people are desperately needing food in some parts of the world — [while] at the same time trying to ensure that you’re showing and preserving the dignity of the people involved as well. It’s always a tough balance.” 

These challenges may compound in the coming years, too. Aid organizations project that with climate change, both protracted and immediate-onset disasters will continue to increase. 

A UN report on global disaster risk found that disaster events have increased dramatically in the past 20 years, nearly doubling from about 200 events per year in the 1980s to about 400 events per year in the 2010s. 

The report further notes that if current trends continue, the number of disasters may grow to about 560 per year by 2030, further stressing the capacity of international humanitarian relief organizations to raise funds for all types of crises. 

In the face of a sea of challenges, however, organizations like Humanitarian Coalition and their member charities aren’t backing down. 

Instead, these organizations are trying new, creative approaches to try and attract attention and boost gifts for communities facing great need.

[aesop_image img=”https://futureofgood.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/unnamed-3.jpg” panorama=”off” align=”center” lightbox=”on” captionsrc=”custom” caption=”Andy Harrington, executive director of Canadian Foodgrains Bank, speaks with a member of a team running a conservation agriculture project in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, during a Facebook Live event, hosted on July 12 as part of the organization’s fundraising campaign for the Horn of Africa.  ” captionposition=”left” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]

Clever solutions to raise funds for overlooked crises

For Richard Morgan’s team, social media is a key tool for reaching donors who aren’t getting the information they need about protracted crises through traditional media. 

During the Somalia appeal, Humanitarian Coalition and its member charities hosted a pair of live events on social media. On July 12, Andy Harrington, executive director of Canadian Foodgrains Bank, for instance, spoke to prospective donors and interested media during a Facebook Live event from Ethiopia. 

Morgan says one of their social media events was attended by Globe and Mail reporter Geoffery York, who authored one of the few detailed features about the hunger crisis in the Horn of Africa in the summer. 

Oxfam Canada and Save the Children, for their part, say they are also trying to shift the narratives around hunger — both to reduce apathy and to link the hunger crisis to issues donors may already be more passionate about. 

In May, the two charities released a report that said that while seasonal droughts may be an unavoidable natural phenomenon, they “need not, and should not lead to famine and other disasters.” The report outlined the global alert systems that can warn of an impending hunger crisis and provided straight-forward recommendations for both immediate action and to reduce the potential of repeat disasters. 

Save the Children’s Andrea Longlade also says it’s important to let donors know that their contributions can help set government aid priorities. By contributing to humanitarian relief, she says, donors show the federal government they should be boosting their support — that Canadians are watching. 

Further, Longlade says her work involves helping foundation donors make the link between hunger and areas of pre-existing interest, like climate change. Doing so, she says, can help foundations understand why humanitarian relief can fit within their existing funding targets or program pillars.

[aesop_image img=”https://futureofgood.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/unnamed-4.jpg” panorama=”off” align=”center” lightbox=”on” captionsrc=”custom” caption=”More than a million people in Somalia have been displaced by a historic drought, including more than nearly 200,000 in the summer months alone, according to data from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. ” captionposition=”left” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]

The months ahead

Last week, a spokesperson for UNICEF spoke to reporters from Somalia and clarified the situation on the ground. 

“When people speak of the crisis facing Somalia today, it has become common for frightful comparisons to be made with the famine of 2011, when 260,000 people died,” said James Elder, an organizational spokesman, according to Al Jazeera. “However, everything I am hearing on the ground – from nutritionists to pastoralists – is that things today actually look worse.”

In July, an additional 83,000 people were displaced in Somalia due to the drought, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, bringing the total to more than 1 million country-wide. As of mid-October, just 45 percent of the more than $2 billion the United Nations estimates is needed in aid to the region has been provided. 

Humanitarian Coalition and their partners are there, leveraging the funds they raised this summer to provide food, water and shelter. 

But Morgan knows it’s not enough: “The needs,” he says, “far outstrip the resources that are currently in play.”

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