Famine again is a problem in East Africa where poor rains and rising food prices have combined to cause acute shortages. Despite 25 years of western countries pouring aid into the region, the problem is not close to being solved.

The reason for the failure of the U.N. coordinated food effort is that East Africa has become a welfare state.

“Over time, sustained food aid creates dependence on handouts and shifts focus away from improving agricultural practices to increase local food supplies,” writes Alex Perry in Time magazine. “Ethiopia exemplifies the consequences of giving a starving man a fish instead of teaching him to catch his own.”

According to Time magazine, the U.N. predicts that 14 million people urgently need food aid, including 2.6 million in Somalia and more than 1 million in Kenya. In Ethiopia, 4.6 million people are at risk, and 75,000 children have severe acute malnutrition.

This year the U.S. will provide more than $800 million in aid to Ethiopia, $460 million for food, and $350 million for HIV/AIDS treatment. Some $7 million is going for agricultural development.

Nearly 25-years ago an international fund-raising effort, which was promoted by rock stars, produced millions of tons of food to save Ethiopia from famine. However, this very effort over the years has led to the country’s current problems.

Alex Perry writes: “Western governments are loath to halt programs that create a market for their farm surpluses, but for countries receiving their charity, long-term food aid can become addictive. Why bother with development when shortfalls are met by aid? Ethiopian farmers can't compete with free food, so they stop trying. Over time, there's a loss of key skills, and a country that doesn't have to feed itself soon becomes a country that can't. All too often, its rulers use resources elsewhere — Ethiopia has one of Africa's largest armies.”

A plan to get Ethiopians working in exchange for food has run into problems. “In 2005 a $1.4 billion five-year program identified 7.3 million Ethiopians unable to live without free food and gave them jobs in rural projects, such as roads and irrigation. The idea was to create livelihoods as well as to save lives,” writes Perry in Time. “A few thousand” had left the program and were making it on their own. Then came drought and soaring food prices. “Of the 7.3 million, 5.4 million suddenly needed extra food aid.”

As the world again comes to Ethiopia’s aid, we need to examine the kind of aid that is given. People given the means will find their own solutions. The U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia Donald Yamamoto says that “we’re not getting to the real problem.”

According to former South African President and Nobel Laureate F.W. de Klerk, fairer access to the world markets is better than aid. In the US $300 billion a year is paid to subsidize farmers, which is six times the amount spent in foreign aid. These agricultural subsidies (which are common in developed countries) make it impossible for farmers in developing countries to compete.