This Brief provides some answers as to why famines continue to torment humankind here in the
21st century despite all our progress in food production logistics information dissemination
and relief work. Contemporary famines are inherently political and so the interesting question
is not how famines can be prevented but why they are allowed to develop in the first place
only by understanding the latter is there hope to eradicate major famines. The Brief assesses
the various analytical approaches to the understanding of famine from the classical approaches
inspired by Thomas Malthus to the newer economic approaches based on Amartya Sen. While all
approaches contribute with important insights on famine dynamics they also struggle to capture
the political dimension of contemporary famines. The Brief develops a political approach
capable of addressing this important but messy political dimension of contemporary famines. The
approach builds on principles of humanitarian accountability (the moral responsibility to
alleviate suffering from famine) as well as political accountability (the interests and power
relations involved in famine outcomes).
