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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Fri Jul 15 2011 - 09:12:02 EDT
Agencies Seek Immediate, Long-Term Solutions for Horn of Africa
Mariama Diallo | Washington
July 15, 2011
The Horn of Africa is facing its worst drought in decades and aid agencies
are appealing to the international community for immediate help to save
hundreds of thousands of people at risk of starvation. Relief experts also
say long-term solutions are needed to address underlying problems with
African agriculture.
Kaltun Nur fled her home in western Somalia to seek help in Mogadishu. "We
endured hunger and we waited for the rains. Our livestock died and we had a
farm we were forced to sell so we can travel to Mogadishu. By that time we
were eating grass," Kaltun Nur said.
Fardosa Farah walked for 25 days to get to the Dadaab camp in neighboring
Kenya. "This drought wiped out everything we had. If there's anybody willing
to remain there, then I think it is just attempted suicide," Farah said.
Farah and Nur are among many Africans who've sought shelter and food at
refugee camps in recent weeks. And as thousands more cross the border into
Kenya, aid agencies are sounding the alarm. United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees Antonio Guterres.
"I have no doubt that Somalia is today the worst humanitarian disaster we
face in the world. Here in the outskirts of the Somali refugee camp of
Dadaab, we have the most vulnerable of the vulnerable in the world,"
Guterres said.
Mofatt Ngugi is a climate change adviser with the Bureau for Food Security
at the U.S. Agency for International Development. He says one of the
problems in East Africa is that people rely mostly on pastoralism.
"In the Western African region, a lot of the production systems there are
much more integrated in terms of agro-pastoralism. That is not the case in
regions of the Horn of Africa where people are purely pastoralists. So they
are dependent entirely on livestock system," Ngugi said.
Melinda Kimble, vice-president at the U.N. Foundation, says there is an even
deeper issue. "I think the underlying problem gets to governance and
probably to a large extent the inability of the public sector to invest in
both the infrastructure, research and science innovation that's needed to
change the approach," Kimble said.
Kimble says African farmers have been going through a rough time for years.
"In the mid-70s, we saw a lot of cycles that caused a lot of hardship. In
the mid-80s, we had the Ethiopian crisis, and we had recurring crisis from
1980s to 1998 in Somalia, Eritrea and the Horn of Africa. All these areas
are fragile lands," Kimble said.
But Mofatt Ngugi says there are no quick fixes. So, in June, the U.S.
launched a new program - <http://www.feedthefuture.gov/> Feed the Future -
aimed at fighting food insecurities.
"Within Feed the Future, there is explicit geographic focus on what is
appropriate for particular regions. The other approach that is being pursued
is one that develops markets, a value-chain approach that facilitates not
only increased sustainable production but also availing markets to these
communities. So they can not only produce for their own use but also engage
in the larger economy," Mofatt said.
Melinda Kimble says the general lack of rain, and frequent droughts, will
continue to plague East African agriculture, but there are still ways to
improve production.
"You can do more water harvesting and more water conservation or identify
better crops. // You need to invest more in the lost crops of Africa like
cow peas and yams which are highly nutritive but not produced in big
volume," Kimble said.
The United Nations says more than two million children in East Africa are
malnourished, and a half million are in need of urgent life-saving actions.
Also needed: more effective early warning systems, FEWSNET for example, to
forecast droughts.
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