Famine is a large problem not only among the poor but also among the developing countries. Many countries in Africa had suffered through numerous famine and how best to alleviate these events has been hotly debated. Let's start by making an outline with references.

Introduction
-Your introduction should contain background information and statistics about the famine.
Some general references include:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_-_1985_famine_in_Ethiopia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_famine
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/ethiopia/
http://www.worldpress.org/Africa/948.cfm

-You will also want a sentence of two that touches on the general areas your paper will be discussion namely the social, political, and environmental conditions that contributed to the famine in whole or in part, a description of the extent of the famine, efforts that were made to alleviate human suffering and the extent to which they were successful.

Causes of famine (social, political and environmental)
-Social causes include: an agriculture-based economy, fighting amongst factions severely disrupted the economy,
-Political causes include: the constant civil war among insurgents and the ruling force of the Dreg, delivered food was diverted to troops,
-Environmental causes include: a history of severe drought, a major drought even in 1984,

References
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/703958.stm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_-_1985_famine_in_Ethiopia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_famine
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/ethiopia/covering_famine.html
http://www.christian-aid.org.uk/indepth/0004ethi/ethiopia.htm

Extent of the famine
-how many people were affected, how many died, were discplaced etc. Basically the stats.
Reference:
http://www.christian-aid.org.uk/indepth/0004ethi/ethiopia.htm
http://countrystudies.us/ethiopia/46.htm
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=2291104&dopt=Abstract

Efforts and success of relief efforts
-What efforts were done
-The effect of those efforts (like food distribution within the country was a problem due to a corrupt government)
References:
http://www.answers.com/topic/tears-are-not-enough
http://www.answers.com/topic/live-aid
http://worldviews.igc.org/awpguide/foodaid.html
http://www.africa.upenn.edu/faminefood/index.htm

Discussion
-Summary of what you've presented (generally 1-2 sentence for every main body paragraph)
-Write about how famine is still a problem
Additional reference:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2448331.stm
http://www.christian-aid.org.uk/indepth/0004ethi/ethiopia.htm

-Write about how famines should be dealt with and the importance of worldwide relief as well as other lessons learned from the 1984 famine.