Food insecurity in Africa's Sahel

Isobel Coleman, senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and director of the Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy Initiative, examines the "massive food crisis ... brewing in Africa's Sahel" in this post on CFR's "Democracy in Development" blog. She writes, "The hunger crisis is most immediately tied to inadequate rainfall, small crop yields, and high food prices, but conflict makes the situation all the more severe," and goes on to highlight the situations in Mali and Niger. She says ending the "'buy American' tied aid policy," implementing longer-term solutions other than food aid, and providing additional funding for relief efforts would help alleviate the situation in the Sahel (7/4).