The principal objectives of the evaluation were as follows: Assess the timeliness, appropriateness, and impact of emergency food aid programs in Africa and suggest ways they can be improved; Assist USAID Missions, private voluntary organizations (PVOs), host governments, and other donors in the programming of future emergency, rehabilitation, and disaster prevention activities; Provide AID and the donor community with lessons learned regarding the planning, design, implementation, and evaluation of emergency aid programs, with emphasis on how they can more effectively foster long-term development initiatives and contribute to increased food security.

The book outlines four problem areas exemplified in the response to each crisis: the external nature of famine relief, the relationship between relief activities and endemic problems, the coordination of such activities, and the ambivalence of the results. The authors identify the many difficulties inherent in providing emergency relief to populations caught in circumstances of life-threatening famine. They show how such famine emergencies reflect the most extreme breakdown of social order and present the most compelling imperatives for international action. Deng and Minear also discuss how the international community, alerted by the media and mobilized by the Ethiopian famine, moved in to fill the moral void left by the government and how outside organizations worked together to pressure Sudan's political authorities to be more responsive to these tragedies. Looking ahead, the authors highlight the implications for future involvement in humanitarian initiatives in a new world order.