Humanitarian aid (shelter, food, clean water) is needed to save lives at times of crisis, such as a natural disaster or civil war. In contrast, development aid has the longer-term focus of creating the conditions for sustainable livelihoods, economic growth and improved wellbeing. Although this distinction can be made, it is also important to recognise that poorly delivered humanitarian aid can damage longer-term development plans once a crisis is past. In both cases, aid can be provided by multinational organisations, national governments or non-governmental organisations.
According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), as of June 2017, 37 countries were in need of external food aid. In most places this was because of food insecurity (insufficient safe and nutritious food to meet dietary needs and food preferences), but in some locations famine conditions had set in. Famine is classified in the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system as extreme food insecurity, high levels of malnutrition and death from starvation. In some places suffering food insecurity, such as Djibouti, Ethiopia and Malawi, the causes were poor growing conditions due to drought, or variable rains. In others, conflict and economic crisis were the key causes. These differences create varying challenges in providing emergency humanitarian food aid.
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