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In 1999–2000 and again in 2002–2003, Ethiopia suffered wide-scale humanitarian crises, triggered in part by drought but ultimately caused by a variety of factors, both domestic and international. Whether these crises constituted ‘famines’ or not was hotly debated by practitioners and policymakers at the time. In retrospect there is little doubt that both these crises were famines, although the magnitude of human suffering or loss of life was not as extensive as during the famine of 1984–1985. Though the television images in 1999–2000 were more dramatic, the 2002–2003 crisis was more widespread.

While the international community was slow to respond in 1999–2000, the 2002–2003 crisis was met with a more timely response, particularly in terms of emergency food assistance from the Ethiopian and US Governments. The reasons for the improved humanitarian response in 2002–2003 are not simply that the lessons from 1999–2000 were well learned. Some of the lessons from emergency responses in Ethiopia and elsewhere have yet to be taken on board by the Government of Ethiopia (GoE), the donors or the operational agencies, especially with respect to basic emergency non-food interventions. The very differing responses to the two crises are better explained by relations between donors and the Ethiopian Government than they are by humanitarian response capacity at the times of the crises.