Famine and the Aid Response: Evidence from the Announcement of Famine-Like Conditions in the Republic of Yemen

Abstract

Using a high-frequency mobile phone survey of food security conducted by the World Food Programme, this paper investigates how food assistance and access to food changed following the announcement of famine-like conditions in the Republic of Yemen. Among the mobile phone–using population, the share of households receiving food assistance more than doubled following the announcement. The increases were largely targeted at regions identified in the announcement as being closer to famine in the original announcement, and there was improvement in access to food in regions that received the most food assistance relative to the rest of the country. Although the survey misses struggling households that do not have access to a mobile phone and are potentially more at risk of famine, the results raise questions about the need for better quality data in food emergencies that are updated more regularly for better targeting of food assistance.