This paper explores the usefulness and feasibility of using emergency aid and food aid to stimulate development processes during periods of famine in Africa. The proposition that relief aid can be utilised in creative ways that directly benefit individual households by increasing the value of their assets is made in a forceful way. Diversified sources of rural income resulting from this strategy reinforce the capacity of the most vulnerable households to protect themselves against the effects of future drought. This may seem a somewhat ambitious objective. However, even under considerable personal stress people have a tremendous will to survive and to invest in their future if given the chance. If this is true, then the bulk of emergency food aid supplied to African countries is used inefficiently because it does not offer families this possibility.
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