EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Today, famine and drought is most widespread in Sub-Saharan Africa, but with exhaustion of food resources, over drafting of groundwater, wars, internal struggles, and economic failure, famine continues to be a worldwide problem with hundreds of millions of people suffering. These famines cause widespread malnutrition and impoverishment; The famine in Ethiopia in the 1980s had an immense death toll, although Asian famines of the 20th century have also produced extensive death tolls. Modern African famines are characterized by widespread destitution and malnutrition, with heightened mortality confined to young children.“However, the crisis is not over,” he added. “It can only be resolved with a combination of rains and continued, coordinated, long-term actions that build up the resilience of local populations and link relief with development.”A severe drought ravaged the Horn of Africa last year, causing food shortages that claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people in Somalia and led to the declaration of famine by the UN in six areas of the country. At the height of the crisis, 750,000 people in the Horn of Africa were at risk of death.A famine is declared when the following measures of mortality, malnutrition and hunger are met: at least 20 per cent of households in an area face extreme food shortages with a limited ability to cope; acute malnutrition rates exceed 30 per cent; and the death rate exceeds two persons per day per 10,000 persons.

The number of people still requiring emergency assistance in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti, according to FAO, stands at 9.5 million – down from 13.3 million in September last year.“While sustained humanitarian efforts and a good harvest have helped to mitigate the crisis, we must not forget that the progress made is fragile,” warnedUN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos.“Without continued and generous support from the international community, these gains could be reversed. Continued conflict and lack of access to people in need remain major operational challenges,” added Ms. Amos, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator.“We also need to focus on building up people’s ability to cope better with future droughts and food crises. We must keep our attention firmly focused on Somalia and ensure that we do not fail the most vulnerable.”

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

> To study the causes of disaster called famine and

drought .

> To analyse the disaster situation faced by

various african parts.

> To find out that how famines and drought

situation can be prevented.

> To find out if so happened famines and drought

can be cured.

> To study the help and relief measure provided to

Africa.

> To have a clear and logical approach to deal with

disaster.

> To give focus for disaster related training.

> To provide clear allocation of responsibilities.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

There is a wide scope of the study as it helps to analyse the cause of disaster. The response measure are usually those which are taken immediately prior to disaster impact. To know recovery measure by which the communities and the nation are assisted.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The research methodology adopted for this study is basically collected from secondary sources for collecting data. The information so collected has been classified, tabulated and analysed as per the objectives of the study.

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO DISASTER

A disaster is a serious disruption of the functioningof a community or a society involving widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses andimpacts, which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources.In contemporary academia, disasters are seen as the consequence of inappropriately managed risk. These risks are the product of a combination of both hazards and vulnerability. Hazards that strike in areas with low vulnerability will never become disasters, as is the case in uninhabited regions. Developing countries suffer the greatest costs when adisaster hits – more than 95 percent of all deaths caused by hazards occur in developing countries, and losses due to natural hazards are 20 times greater (as a percentage of GDP) in developing countries thanin industrialized countries.

CLASSIFICATION OF DISASTER

Researchers have been studying disasters for more than a century, and for more than forty years disaster research. The studies reflect a commonopinion when they argue that all disasters can be seen as being human-made, their reasoning being that human actions before the strike of the hazard can prevent it developing into a disaster. All disasters are hence the result of human failure to introduce appropriate disaster management measures. Hazards are

routinely divided into natural or human-made, although complex disasters, where there is no single root cause, are more common in developing countries. A specific disaster may spawn a secondary disaster that increases the impact. A classic example is an earthquake that causes a tsunami, resulting in coastal flooding.

Natural hazardA natural hazard is a natural process or phenomenon that may cause loss of life, injury or other health impacts, property damage, loss of livelihoods and services, social and economic disruption, or environmental damage.Various phenomena like earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, tsunamis, and cyclones are all natural hazards that kill thousands of people and destroy billions of dollars of habitat and property each year. However, the rapid growth of the world's population and its increased concentration often in hazardous environments has escalated both the frequency and severity of disasters.

With the tropical climate and unstable land forms, coupled with deforestation, unplanned growth proliferation, non-engineered constructions which make the disaster-prone areas more vulnerable, tardy communication, and poor or no budgetary allocation for disaster prevention, developing countries suffer more or less chronically from natural

disasters. Asia tops the list of casualties caused bynatural hazards.

Airplane crashes and terrorist attacks are examples of man-made disasters: they cause pollution, kill people, and damage property. This example is the September 11 attacks in 2001 at the World Trade Centre in New York.

Human-instigated disasters

Human-instigated disasters are the consequence of technological hazards. Examples include stampedes, fires, transport accidents, industrial accidents, oilspills and nuclear explosions/radiation. War and deliberate attacks may also be put in this category. As with natural hazards, man-made hazards are events that have not happened—for instance, terrorism. Man-made disasters are examples of specific cases where man-made hazards have become reality in an event.

CHAPTER:2 TWO MAIN DISASTER DISCUSS IN THE STUDY

2.1) What is famine?

The UN uses a five-step scale, called the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), developed with NGOs including Oxfam, to assess a country’s food

security. Stage 5 – “famine/humanitarian catastrophe”– requires that more than two people per 10,000 die each day, acute malnutrition rates are above 30 percent, all livestock is dead, and there is less than 2,100 kilocalories of food and 4 liters of wateravailable per person per day

In October 2009 Oxfam published a paper on Ethiopia and neighbouring regions asking “what can bedone to prevent the next drought from becoming a disaster?” We acknowledged that food aid saved lives but that it was not cost-effective and did not alone help people to withstand the next shock.

By the time the UN calls a famine it is already a signal of large-scale loss of life. We can only ensure now that aid comes quickly and appropriately to prevent an even worse-case scenario. We must also resolve not why this famine happened but why again? And how to prevent the next one?

The causes of famine

Famines result from a combination “triple failure”:

1.Production failure: In Somalia, a two-year drought – which is phenomenal in now being the driest year in the last 60 – has caused record food inflation, particularly in the expectation of the next harvest being 50% of normal. Somalia already had levels of malnutrition and premature mortality so high as to bein a “normalized” state of permanent emergency. This is true too in pockets across the entire region.

2.Access failure: The drought has killed off the pastoralists’ prime livestock assets (up to 90% animal mortality in some areas), slashing further

their purchasing power. In addition Somalia severe internal conflict has made development almost impossible to achieve and data difficult to access both accurately and credibly.

3.Response failure: Underlying it all has been the inability of Somalia’s government and donors to tackle the country’s chronic poverty, which has marginalized vulnerable people and fundamentally weakened their ability to cope. There’s been a lack of investment in social services and basic infrastructure and lack of good governance. Meanwhiledonors have reacted too late and too cautiously. The overall international donor response to this humanitarian crisis has been slow and inadequate. According to UN figures, $1 billion is required to meet immediate needs. So far donors have committed less than $200m, leaving an $800 million black hole.

What needs to be done?

The 21st Century is the first time in human history that we have the capacity to eradicate famine. To do so, we must address the underlying problems:

1.Production solutions: We must accelerate investment in African food production. There are regions in Africa we know have always faced chronic food shortages, where even small blips in harvests can have terrible consequences. We need more support for small-holder farmers and pastoralists (e.g. hardier crops, cheaper inputs, disaster risk management).

2.Access solutions: We must alleviate rural African poverty. More aid and budgetary investment into physical infrastructure (roads, communications etc) and allowing public intervention to correct market failures until markets are stronger (e.g. grain reserves to stop price volatility).

3.Response solutions: We need to move away from discretionary assistance to guaranteed social protection e.g. such as social assistance to the poorhouseholds to access food throughout the year and insurances, so that support can be triggered automatically in times of crisis. In some contexts cash transfers can be more appropriate than food aid,where availability of food is not a problem.

Emergency aid is vital right now, but we also need toask why this has happened, and how we can stop it ever happening again. The warning signs have been seen for months, and the world has been slow to act. Much greater long-term investment is needed in food production and basic development to help people cope with poor rains and ensure that this is the last famine in the region.

FAMINE PREVENTION

Food security

Long term measures to improve food security, include investment in modern agriculture techniques, such as fertilizers and irrigation, but can also include strategic national food storage. In addition, recent work has indicated that the entire human population could be fed in the event of global catastrophe if alternative foods were used .

World Bank strictures restrict government subsidies for farmers, and increasing use of fertilizers is opposed by some environmental groups because of its unintended consequences: adverse effects on water supplies and habitat.[141][145]

Norman Borlaug, father of the Green Revolution, is often credited with saving over a billion people worldwide from starvation.

The effort to bring modern agricultural techniques found in the Western world, such as nitrogen fertilizers and pesticides, to Asia, called the Green Revolution, resulted in decreases inmalnutrition similar to those seen earlier in Westernnations. This was possible because of existing infrastructure and institutions that are in short supply in Africa, such as a system of roads or public  seed  companies that made seeds available.

Supporting farmers in areas of food insecurity, through such measures as free or subsidized fertilizers and seeds, increases food harvest and reduces food prices.The World Bank and some rich nations press nations that depend on them for aid to cut back or eliminate subsidized agricultural inputs such as fertilizer, inthe name of privatization even as the United States and Europe extensively subsidized their own farmers.Relief

There is a growing realization among aid groups that giving cash or cash vouchers instead of food is a cheaper, faster, and more efficient way to deliver

help to the hungry, particularly in areas where food is available but unaffordable. The United Nations' World Food Program(WFP), the biggest non-governmental distributor of food, announced that it will begin distributing cash and vouchers instead of food in some areas, which Josette Sheeran, the WFP's executive director, described as a "revolution" in food aid. The aid agency Concern Worldwide is piloting a method through amobile phone operator, Safaricom, which runs a money transfer program that allows cash to be sent from one part of the country to another.

2.2) What is Drought?

Drought is an extended period when a region receives a deficiency in its water supply, whether atmospheric, surface or ground water. A drought can last for months or years, or may be declared after asfew as 15 days.  Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. Itcan have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region.Although droughts can persist for several years, evena short, intense drought can cause significant damage and harm to the local economy.

 Annual dry seasons in the tropics significantly increase the chances of a drought developing and subsequent bush fires. Periods of heat can significantly worsen drought conditions by hastening evaporation of water vapour.Many plant species, such as those in the family Cactaceae or cacti, have adaptations like reduced leaf area and waxy cuticles to enhance their ability to tolerate drought. Some others survive dry periods as buried seeds. Semi-permanent drought produces arid biomes such as deserts and grasslands.  Prolonged droughts have caused mass migrations and humanitarian crises. Most arid ecosystems have inherently low productivity.

Types

As a drought persists, the conditions surrounding it gradually worsen and its impact on the local population gradually increases. People tend to define droughts in three main ways: 

1.Meteorological  drought is brought about when there is a prolonged period with less than average precipitation. Meteorological drought usually precedes the other kinds of drought.

2.Agricultural  droughts are droughts that effect crop production or the ecology of the range. Thiscondition can also arise independently from any change in precipitation levels when soil conditions and erosion triggered by poorly planned agricultural endeavors cause a shortfall in water available to the crops. However, in a traditional drought, it is caused by an extended period of below average precipitation.

3.Hydrological  drought is brought about when the water reserves available in sources such as aquifers, lakes and reservoirs fall below the statistical average. Hydrological drought tends to show up more slowly because it involves stored water that is used but not replenished. Like an agricultural drought, this can be triggered by more than just a loss of rainfall. For instance, Kazakhstanwas recently awarded a

large amount of money by the World Bank to restore water that had been diverted to other nations from the Aral Sea under Soviet rule. Similar circumstances alsoplace their largest lake, Balkhash, at risk of completely drying out.

Consequences

A Mongolian gazelle dead due to drought.

A livestock carcass in Marsabit, in northern Kenya, which has suffered prolonged drought.

Periods of droughts can have significant environmental, agricultural, health, economic and social consequences. The effect varies according to vulnerability. For example, subsistence farmers are more likely to migrate during drought because they donot have alternative food sources. Areas with populations that depend on water sources as a major food source are more vulnerable to famine.Drought can also reduce water quality, because lower water flows reduce dilution of pollutants and increase contamination of remaining water sources. Common consequences of drought include:

Diminished crop growth or yield productions and carrying capacity for livestock

Dust bowls , themselves a sign of erosion, which further erode the landscape

Dust storms , when drought hits an area suffering from desertification and erosion

Famine  due to lack of water for irrigation Habitat  damage, affecting

both terrestrial and aquatic wildlife[42]

Hunger , drought provides too little water to support food crops.

Malnutrition , dehydration and related diseases Mass migration , resulting in internal

displacement and international refugees Reduced electricity production due to reduced water

flow through hydroelectric dams Shortages of water for industrial users Snake  migration, which results in snakebites Social unrest War  over natural resources, including water and

food Wildfires , such as Australian bushfires, are more

common during times of drought and even death of people.

Exposure and oxidation of acid sulfate soils due tofalling surface and groundwater levels.

Protection, mitigation and relief

Succulent plants are well-adapted to survive long periods of drought.

Water distribution onMarshall Islands during El Niño.

Agriculturally, people can effectively mitigate much of the impact of drought through irrigation and crop rotation. Failure to develop adequate drought mitigation strategies carries a grave human cost in the modern era, exacerbated by ever-increasing population densities. President Roosevelt on April 27, 1935, signed documents creating the SoilConservation Service (SCS)—now the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Models of the law were sent to each state where they were enacted. These were the first enduring practical programs to curtailfuture susceptibility to draught, creating agencies that first began to stress soil conservation measuresto protect farm lands today. It was not until the 1950s that there was an importance placed on water conservation was put into the existing laws (NRCS 2014).

Aerosols over the Amazon each September for four burning seasons (2005 through 2008) during the Amazonbasin drought. The aerosol scale (yellow to dark

reddish-brown) indicates the relative amount of particles that absorb sunlight.

Strategies for drought protection, mitigation or relief include:

Dams  - many dams and their associated reservoirs supply additional water in times of drought.

Cloud seeding  - a form of intentional weather modification to induce rainfall. This remains a hotly debated topic, as the United States National Research Council released a report in 2004 stating that to date, there is still no convincing scientific proof of the efficacy of intentional weather modification.

Desalination  - of sea water for irrigation or consumption.

Drought monitoring - Continuous observation of rainfall levels and comparisons with current usage levels can help prevent man-made drought. For instance, analysis of water usage in Yemen has revealed that their water table (underground water level) is put at grave risk by over-use to fertilize their Khat crop . Careful monitoring of moisture levels can also help predict increased risk for wildfires, using such metrics as the Keetch-Byram Drought Index  or Palmer Drought Index.

Land use - Carefully planned crop rotation can helpto minimize erosion and allow farmers to plant lesswater-dependent crops in drier years.

Outdoor water-use restriction  - Regulating the use of sprinklers, hoses or buckets on outdoor plants, filling pools, and other water-intensive home maintenance tasks. Xeriscaping yards can

significantly reduce unnecessary water use by residents of towns and cities.

Rainwater harvesting  - Collection and storage of rainwater from roofs or other suitable catchments.

Recycled water  - Former wastewater (sewage) that has been treated and purified for reuse.

Transvasement  - Building canals or redirecting rivers as massive attempts at irrigation in drought-prone areas

CHAPTER: 3 MAIN BODY OF THE STUDY

2011 EAST AFRICA DROUGHT

Between July 2011 and mid-2012, a severe drought affected the entire East Africa region.  Said to be "the worst in 60 years", the drought caused a severe food crisis across Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya that threatened the livelihood of 9.5 million people. Many refugees from southern Somalia fled to neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia, where crowded, unsanitary conditions together with severe malnutrition led to a large number of deaths. Other countries in East Africa, including Sudan, South Sudan and parts of Uganda, were also affected by a food crisis. According to FAO-Somalia, the food crisis in Somalia primarily affected farmers in the south rather than the northern pastoralists. HRW consequently noted that most of the displaced persons belonged to the agro-pastoral Rahanweynclan and the agricultural Bantu ethnic minority group. On 20 July,the United Nations officially declared famine in two regions in the southern part of the country (IPC Phase 5), the first time a famine had been declared in the region by the UN in nearly thirty years. Tens of thousands of people are believed to have died in southern Somalia before famine was declared. Although fighting disrupted aid delivery in some areas, a scaling up of relief operations in mid-November had unexpectedly significantly reduced

malnutrition and mortality rates in southern Somalia,prompting the UN to downgrade the humanitarian situation in the Bay, Bakool and Lower Shabele regions from famine to emergency levels. According tothe Lutheran World Federation, military activities inthe country's southern conflict zones had also by early December 2011 greatly reduced the movement of migrants. By February 2012, several thousand people had also begun returning to their homes and farms. In addition, humanitarian access to rebel-controlledareas had improved and rainfall had surpassed expectations, improving the prospects of a good harvest in early 2012. By January 2012, the food crisis in southern Somalia was no longer at emergency levels according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Although security restrictions precluded the collection of updated information in December/Januaryfor a few regions in southern Somalia, the UN indicated in February 2012 that indirect data from health and relief centres pointed to improved generalconditions from August 2011. The UN also announced that the famine in southern Somalia was over. However, FEWS NET indicated that Emergency (IPC Phase 4) levels of food insecurity persisted through March in the southern riverine parts of the Juba and Gedo regions, the south-centralagropastoral zones of Hiran and Middle Shebele, the southeast pastoral sections of Shebele and Juba, and the north-central Coastal Deeh on account of crop flooding and ongoing military operations in these

areas, which restricted humanitarian access, trade and movement. The UN also warned that, in a worst-case scenario of poor rains and price instability, conditions would remain at crisis level for about 31% of the population in limited-access areas until the August harvest season. In the most-likely scenario, the FSNAU and FEWS NET expected the April–June rains to be average. Ameliorated food security outcomes were also expected on account of the start of the Deyr harvest, which reached 200% of the post-war mean and was predicted to be significantly higher than usual. With the exception of some coastal areas, the abundant rainfall in most parts of central and northern Somalia replenished pastureland and also further boosted the purchasing power of local herders. With the benefit of the current harvest expected to ebb in May, the UN stressed that continued multi-sectoral response was necessary to secure the gains made,  and that general humanitarianneeds requiring international assistance would persist until at least September 2012. Aid agencies subsequently shifted their emphasis to recovery efforts, including digging irrigation canalsand distributing plant seeds. Long-term strategies bynational governments in conjunction with development agencies were said to offer the most sustainable results.

3.1) Background of the study

Carcasses of sheep and goats amidst a severe drought in Waridaad in the Somaliland region

Weather conditions over the Pacific, including an unusually strong La Niña, have interrupted seasonal rains for two consecutive seasons. The rains failed in 2011 in Kenya and Ethiopia, and for the previous two years in Somalia. In many areas, the precipitation rate during the main rainy season from April to June, the primary season, was less than30% of the average of 1995–2010. The lack of rain led to crop failure and widespread loss of livestock, as high as 40%–60% in some areas, which decreased milk production as well as exacerbating a poor harvest. As a result, cereal prices rose to record levels while livestock prices and wages fell, reducing purchasing power across the region. Rains were also not expected to return until September of the year. The crisis is compounded by rebel activity around southern Somalia from the Al-Shabaab group. The head of the United States Agency for International Development, Rajiv Shah, stated that climate change contributed to the severity of the crisis. "There's no question that hotter and drier growing conditions in sub-Saharan Africa have reduced the resiliency of these communities." On the other hand, two experts with the International

Livestock Research Institute suggested that it was premature to blame climate change for the drought. While there is consensus that a particularly strong La Niña contributed to the intensity of the drought, the relationship between La Niña and climatechange is not well-established. The failure of the international community to heed the early warning system was criticized for leading to a worsening of the crisis. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network, financed by U.S.A.I.D., anticipated the crisis as early as August 2010, and by January 2011, the American ambassador to Kenya declared a disaster and called for urgent assistance.On 7 June 2011, FEWS NET declared that the crisis was"the most severe food security emergency in the worldtoday, and the current humanitarian response is inadequate to prevent further deterioration". The UN later announced on 28 June that 12 million people in the East Africa region were affected by thedrought and that some areas were on the brink of famine, with many displaced in search of water and food. Oxfam's humanitarian director Jane Cocking stated that “This is a preventable disaster and solutions are possible.” Suzanne Dvorak, the chief executive of Save the Children, wrote that "politicians and policymakers in rich countries are often skeptical about taking preventative action because they think aid agencies are inflating the problem. Developing country governments are embarrassed about being seen as unable to feed their people these children are wasting away in a disaster that we could

—and should—have prevented." Soon after a famine was declared in parts of southern Somalia. Oxfam also charged several European governments of "wilful neglect" over the crisis. It issued a statement saying that "The warning signs have been seen for months, and the world has been slow to act. Much greater long-term investment is needed in food production and basic development to help people cope with poor rains and ensure that this is the last famine in the region."

3.2) Humanitarian situation

On 20 July 2011, the UN declared a famine in the Lower Shabelle and Bakool, two regions of southern Somalia. On 3 August, famine was further declared in the Balcad andCadale districts in Middle Shabelle as well as the IDP settlements in Mogadishu and Afgooye in response to data from theUN's food security and nutrition analysis unit. According to the UN, famine would spread to all eightregions of southern Somalia in four to six weeks due to inadequate humanitarian response caused both by ongoing access restrictions and funding gaps.

 The Economist also reported that widespread famine would soon occur across the entire Horn of Africa, "asituation...not seen for 25 years". Rainfall levels in the larger East Africa region from 1995-2011.According to Luca Alivoni, the head of FAO-

Somalia, the food crisis in Somalia has primarily affected farmers in the south rather than the northern pastoralists since farmers often stay behindon their land plots to "protect their crops", while herders move with their livestock to pastureland.

On July 20, 2011, staple prices were at 68% over the five-year average,  including increases of up to 240%in southern Somalia, 117% in south-eastern Ethiopia, and 58% in northern Kenya. In early July, the UN World Food Programme said that it expected 10 millionpeople across the Horn of Africa region to need food aid, revising upward an earlier estimate of 6 million. Later in the month, the UN further updated the figure to 12 million, with 2.8 million in southern Somalia alone, which was the most affected area. On 3 August, the UN declared famine in three other regions of southern Somalia, citing worsening conditions and inadequate humanitarian response.

Famine was expected to spread across all regions of the south in the following four to six weeks. On 5 Sep, the UN added the entire Bay region in Somalia tothe list of famine-stricken areas. The UN has conducted several airlifts of supplies in addition toon-the-ground assistance, but humanitarian response to the crisis has been hindered by a severe lack of funding for international aid coupled with security issues in the region. As of September 2011, 63 per cent of the UN’s appeal for $2.5 billion (US) in humanitarian assistance has been financed.

The crisis was expected to worsen in the following months, peaking in August and September, with large-scale assistance needed until at least December 2011. Torrential rains also exacerbated the situationin Mogadishu by destroying makeshift homes. Tens of thousands of southern Somalia's internally displaced people were consequently left out in the cold.

Turkana women in the Turkana District, one of Kenya'smost drought-affected regions.

In addition, the Kenyan Red Cross warns of a looming humanitarian crisis in the northwestern Turkana region of Kenya, which bordersSouth Sudan. According to officials with the aid agency, over three-fourths of the area's population is now in dire need of food supplies. Malnutrition levels are also at their highest. As a consequence, schools in the region haveshut down "because there is no food for the children".About 385,000 children in these neglected parts of Kenya are already malnourished, along with 90,000 pregnant and breast feeding women. A further 3.5 million people in Kenya are estimated to be at risk of malnutrition. In August 2012, an estimated 87,000 people in the Taita-Taveta District of Kenya were reportedly affected by famine, a situation attributed to a combination of wildlife invasions and drought. Large

herds of elephants and monkeys overran farms in the district's lowland and highland areas, respectively, ruining thousands of acres of crops. Local residents,about 67,000 of whom were receiving food aid, also accused the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) of intentionally moving the monkeys to the district. However, this was denied by the KWS. Food shortages have also been reported in northern and eastern Uganda. The Karamoja region and the Bulambuli district, in particular, are among the worst hit areas, with an estimated 1.2 million Ugandans affected. The Ugandan government has also indicated that as of September 2011, acute deficits in foodstuffs are expected in 35 of the country's districts.

Although fighting disrupted aid delivery in some areas, a scaling up of relief operations in mid-November had unexpectedly significantly reduced malnutrition and mortality rates in southern Somalia,prompting the UN to downgrade the humanitarian situation in the Bay, Bakool and Lower Shabele regions from famine to emergency levels. Humanitarianaccess to rebel-controlled areas had also improved and rainfall had surpassed expectations, improving the prospects of a good harvest in early 2012. 

Despite the re-imposition of blocks by the militants on the delivery of relief supplies in some areas under their control, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reported in January 2012 that

the food crisis in southern Somalia was by then no longer at emergency levels. Although security restrictions precluded the collection of updated information in December/January for a few regions in southern Somalia, the UN indicated in February 2012 that indirect data from health and relief centers pointed to improved general conditions from August 2011.

The UN also announced that the famine in southern Somalia was over. However, FEWS NET indicated that Emergency (IPC Phase 4) levels of food insecurity would persist through March in the southern riverine parts of the Juba and Gedo regions, the south-centralagropastoral zones of Hiran and Middle Shebele, the southeast pastoral sections of Shebele and Juba, and the north-central Coastal Deeh on account of crop flooding and ongoing military operations in these areas that have restricted humanitarian access, tradeand movement.

A Somali woman and child at a relief center in Dollowon the Somalia-Ethiopia border.

The UN also warned that, in a worst-case scenario of poor rains and price instability, conditions would remain at crisis level for about 31% of the population in limited-access areas until the August

harvest season. In the most-likely scenario, the FSNAU and FEWS NET expect the April–June rains to be average. Ameliorated food security outcomes are also expected on account of the start of the Deyr harvest, which reached 200% of the post-war mean and is predicted to be significantly higher than usual.

Except for the Juba region, where damage from flooding and limitations on trade have kept cereal prices high, the above average harvest has led to a substantial drop in overall cereal prices in the south's vulnerable regions. This has resulted in moreagricultural wage labour opportunities for underprivileged agropastoral households and increasedthe purchasing power of pastoralists. With the exception of some coastal areas, where a little under95,000 pastoralists have yet to recover their herd sizes from the drought and consequently still requireemergency livelihood assistance (IPC Phase 4), the abundant rainfall in most parts of central and northern Somalia has replenished pastureland and alsofurther boosted the purchasing power of local herders.

With the benefit of the current harvest likely to ebbin May, the UN stressed that continued multi-sectoralresponse is necessary to secure the recent gains made, and that general humanitarian needs requiring international assistance would persist until at leastSeptember 2012.

According to the Sudan Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission (CSFAM) for January 2012, due to supbar cereal production and increased cereal prices caused by intense conflict that has limited trade, humanitarian and population movements, an estimated 4.2 million people in Sudan are predicted to be in the Stressed (IPC Phase 3), Crisis and Emergency levels during the first three or four months of 2012.The number was previously estimated at 3.3 million people in December 2011, and is expected to especially affect the South Kordofan, North Darfur and Blue Nile states.

Below average cereal production and a trade blockade imposed by Sudan have also extended food insecurity in South Sudan, with the northern and northeastern sections of the nation expected to be at Stressed andCrisis levels through March. Aid agencies have now shifted their emphasis to recovery efforts, including digging irrigation canalsand distributing plant seeds. Long-term strategies bynational governments in conjunction with development agencies are believed to offer the most sustainable results.

3.3) Climate and population pressureMany famines are caused by imbalance of food production compared to the large populations of countries whose population exceeds the regional carrying capacity . Historically, famines have occurred from agricultural problems such as drought, crop failure, or pestilence. Changing weather

patterns, the ineffectiveness of medieval governmentsin dealing with crises, wars, and epidemic diseases such as the Black Death helped to cause hundreds of famines in Europe during the Middle Ages,including 95 in Britain and 75 in France. In France, the Hundred Years' War, crop failures and epidemics reduced the population by two-thirds. The failure of a harvest or change in conditions, such as drought, can create a situation whereby largenumbers of people continue to live where the carryingcapacity of the land has temporarily dropped radically. Famine is often associated with subsistence agriculture. The total absence of agriculture in an economically strong area does not cause famine; Arizona and other wealthy regions import the vast majority of their food, since such regions produce sufficient economic goods for trade.

Famines have also been caused by volcanism. The 1815 eruption of the Mount Tambora volcano in Indonesia caused crop failures and famines worldwide and causedthe worst famine of the 19th century. The current consensus of the scientific community is that the aerosols and dust released into the upper atmosphere causes cooler temperatures by preventing the sun's energy from reaching the ground. The same mechanism is theorized to be caused by very large meteorite impacts to the extent of causing mass extinctions.

However, for people in a drought living a long way from and with limited access to markets, delivering food may be the most appropriate way to help. Fred Cuny stated that "the chances of saving lives at the

outset of a relief operation are greatly reduced whenfood is imported. By the time it arrives in the country and gets to people, many will have died." US Law, which requires buying food at home rather than where the hungry live, is inefficient because approximately half of what is spent goes for transport. Fred Cuny further pointed out "studies of every recent famine have shown that food was available in-country — though not always in the immediate food deficit area" and "even though by local standards the prices are too high for the poor to purchase it, it would usually be cheaper for a donor to buy the hoarded food at the inflated price than to import it from abroad." Deficient micronutrients can be provided through fortifying foods. Fortifying foods such as peanut butter sachets (see Plumpy'Nut) have revolutionized emergency feeding in humanitarian emergencies because they can be eaten directly from the packet, do not require refrigeration or mixing with scarce clean water, can be stored for years and,vitally, can be absorbed by extremely ill children.

A Somali boy receiving treatment for malnutrition at a health facility in Hilaweyn during the drought of 2011.

WHO and other sources recommend that malnourished children - and adults who also have diarrhea - drink

rehydration solution, and continue to eat, in addition to antibiotics, and zinc supplements. There is a special oral rehydration solution called Resomalwhich has less sodium and more potassium than standard solution. However, if the diarrhea is severe, the standard solution is preferable as the person needs the extra sodium.

Obviously, this is a judgment call best made by a physician, and using either solution is better than doing nothing. Zinc supplements often can help reducethe duration and severity of diarrhea, and Vitamin A can also be helpful. The World Health Organization underlines the importance of a person with diarrhea continuing to eat, with a 2005 publication for physicians stating: “Food should never be withheld andthe child's usual foods should not be diluted. Breastfeeding should always be continued." Ethiopia has been pioneering a program that has now become part of the World Bank's prescribed recipe forcoping with a food crisis and had been seen by aid organizations as a model of how to best help hungry nations. Through the country's main food assistance program, the Productive Safety Net Program, Ethiopia has been giving rural residents who are chronically short of food, a chance to work for food or cash. Foreign aid organizations like the World Food Programwere then able to buy food locally from surplus areasto distribute in areas with a shortage of food.

3.4) Refugee crisis

By 15 September, more than 920,000 refugees from Somalia had reportedly fled to neighboring countries,particularly Kenya and Ethiopia. At the height of thecrisis in June 2011, the UNHCR base in Dadaab, Kenya hosted at least 440,000 people in three refugee camps, though the maximum capacity was 90,000.  More than 1,500 refugees continued to arrive every day from southern Somalia, 80 per cent of whom were womenand children.  UN High Commissioner for Refugees spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said that many people haddied en route. Within the camps, infant mortality hadrisen threefold in the few months leading up to July 2011. The overallmortality rate was 7.4 out of 10,000per day, which was more than seven times as high as the "emergency" rate of 1 out of 10,000 per day.Therewas an upsurge in sexual violence against women and girls, with the number of cases reported increasing by over 4 times. Incidents of sexual violence occurred primarily during travel to the refugee camps, with some cases reported in the camps themselves or as new refugees went in search for firewood. This put them at high risk of acquiring HIV/AIDS. According to UN representative Radhika Coomaraswamy, the food crisis had forced manywomen to leave their homes in search of assistance, where they were often without the protection of theirfamily and clan.In July 2011, Dolo Odo, Ethiopia also hosted at least110,000 refugees from Somalia, most of whom had arrived recently. The three camps at Bokolomanyo, Melkadida, and Kobe all exceeded their maximum capacity; one more camp was reportedly being built

while another was planned in the future. Water shortage reportedly affected all the facilities.According to the Lutheran World Federation, military activities in the conflict zones of southern Somalia and a scaling up of relief operations had by early December 2011 greatly reduced the movement of migrants. By February 2012, several thousand people had also begun returning to their homes and farms.

3.5) Health and disease

A Somali boy receiving treatment at a health facilityin Hilaweyn.

In July 2011, measles cases broke out in the Dadaab camps, with 462 cases confirmed including 11 deaths. Ethiopia and Kenya were also facing a severe measles epidemic, attributed in part to the refugee crisis, with over 17,500 cases reported in the first 6 months. WHO statistics put the number of children that were then most at the risk of measles at 2 million. The epidemic in Ethiopia may have led to an measles outbreak in the United States and other parts of the developed world. The World Health Organization stated that "8.8 million people are at risk of malaria and 5 million of cholera" in Ethiopia, due to crowded, unsanitary conditions.

Malnutrition rates among children in July also reached 30 percent in parts of Kenya and Ethiopia andover 50% in southern Somalia , although the latter figure dropped to 36% by mid-September according to the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit. Doctors Without Borders(Médecins Sans Frontières) was also treating more than 10,000 severely malnourished children in its feeding centersand clinics. In July 2011, the UN's food security andnutrition analysis unit announced that the situation in southern Somalia then met all three characteristics of widespread famine: a) more than 30percent of children were suffering from acute malnutrition; b) more than two adults or four children were dying of hunger each day for every group of 10,000 people; and c) the population had access to less than 2,100 kilocalories of food and four liters of water per day. In August, cholera was suspected in 181 deaths in Mogadishu, along with confirmed reports of several other outbreaks elsewhere in Somalia, thus raising fears of tragedy for a severely weakened population. In mid-November, the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees(UNHCR) also announced that 60 cholera cases, with 10lab-confirmed and one fatality, had hit the Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya. By early December 2011, the UN's OCHA bureau announced that a scaling up of relief operations had resulted in an improvement in global and severe acutemalnutrition rates as well as a decrease in mortalityrates in southern Somalia's conflict zones relative to the start of the drought crisis in July/August. Although acute malnutrition rates remained much

higher than median global acute malnutrition (GAM) and severe acute malnutrition (SAM) rates for the October–December season, global acute malnutrition rates had fallen from 30-58 percent to 20-34 percent and severe acute malnutrition rates in turn dropped from 9-29 percent in July to 6-11 percent. The mortality rate likewise declined from 1.1-6.1 per 10,000 people per day in July/August to 0.6-2.8 per 10,000 people per day. Despite some gaps in aid delivery in certain areas due imposed Islamist bans, the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU)also reported that its Nutrition Cluster had by December reached 357,107 of the estimated 450,000 children that had been acutely malnourished at the start of the crisis in July.

CHAPTER: 4 INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE

International responseFunding Status Horn of Africa Crisis (as of 24

September 2011)Requirements(million US$

)

Committed(million US

$) % met

Kenya 741 480 65%Djibouti 33 19 56%Somalia 983 732 74%Ethiopia (non-refugees) 398 291 73%

Ethiopia (refugees)246 112 45%Miscellaneous funding 76

Total 2402 1710 71%Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

Humanitarian agencies have requested US$2.48 billion to address the crisis, but as of 1 August have secured less than half that amount. The European Union announced it would provide €5.67 million to help millions of people in the Horn of Africa affected by the drought.  On 16 July, the UK government pledged £52.25 million, on top of £38 million pledged earlier that month and more than £13 million raised by the Disasters Emergency Committee.  As of 25 August, the amount raised by theDisasters Emergency Committee had increased to £57 million.  Australia announced at the end of July thatit would supply an additional $20 million, thereby increasing the total aid volume to $80 million.  As of 5 October, the Canadian government and people alsocontributed about $142 million CAD to the relief

efforts in Eastern Africa, with the Canadian authorities pledging an additional $70 million CAD inmatching funds.  Much of the fundraising done from Canadians was contributed to the Humanitarian Coalition who distributed to its 5 partners. Over C$14 Million dollars was raised by the Coalition. In late August 2011, Saudi Arabia announced that it would donate $60 million in aid to the drought-impacted peoples in Somalia and urged the Al-Shabaab militants to cease their hostilities so as to facilitate the delivery of relief materials. Iran dispatched multiple convoys of humanitarian supplies and $25 million to the famine-stricken parts of the country, with Lebanon sending its first consignment to Mogadishu over the same period. Despite experiencing financial difficulties, Palestinians in the Gaza Stripalso assisted in the relief efforts. Imams in mosques raised awareness about the drought crisis and its parallels with the Palestinian situation, and urged Palestinians to contribute; the Arab Doctors Union Gaza branch also launched a fund-raising initiative, with most donations coming from affluent entrepreneurs and local NGOs Additionally, Bahraindonated $3 million tothe campaign, with Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Egypt, Algeria, Qatar, and Sudan also sending supplies. Elsewhere, Turkey dispatched multiple aid convoys to Somalia, working closely with the Somali Red CrescentSociety to deliver the materials to the drought-stricken parts of the country.  China also donated $16 million to the relief

efforts, with Venezuela sending $5 million,Russia contributing $3 million, and Kazakhstanadding $500,000.  In addition, Azerbaijan and Indonesia have assisted in the humanitarian campaign, with Malaysia dispatching aid workers on site.

Relief supplies at an Oxfamwarehouse in Kenya

The U.S. has pledged an additional $5 million to helprefugees from Somalia on top of a previously budgeted$63 million for general support in the larger East Africa region. However, the U.S. has withheld aid from the Somalia region, due to recent regulations which prevent the sending of food aid that risks "materially benefiting" designated terrorists, in this case the rebel group Al-Shabaab. The regulations came into force after reports that Al-Shabaab was "taxing food convoys", and as a result U.S. aid spending in Somalia has dropped from $150 million to $13 million this year. Mercy Corps has stated that "The aid effort will remain totally inadequate if legal restrictions force the USto remain on the sidelines". In addition, under U.S. regulations, international organizations may face prosecution under US law if their humanitarian aid materially benefits Al-Shabaab. However, on 2 August,the United States announced that it would no longer

prosecute humanitarian organizations who attempt to enter rebel-controlled territory. On 12 July, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called an urgent emergency meeting with the heads of UN agencies. He stated after the meeting that immediate action must be taken to prevent the crisis from deepening. According to Ban, "The human cost of this crisis is catastrophic. We cannot affordto wait."  On 13 July, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees began a "massive" airlift of aid supplies to the Dadaab region in Kenya, including 100 tonnes of tents to help relieve the congestion at the overcrowded Dadaab camps. The United Nations carried out its first airlift of emergency supplies in two years to southern Somalia on Wednesday, 13 July. Health kits are also being sent through land routes. Among other measures being taken by aid agencies are the distribution of cash vouchers to residents, and discussions with traders to freeze rapidly increasing food prices.

Oxfam distributing clean water to a drought-stricken area in southern Ethiopia

The UN's declaration of famine has been its first since the 1984–1985 famine in Ethiopia, when over a million people died.  Under international law, there is no mandated response which must follow from an official declaration of famine. However, it is hoped

that the use of the term will serve as a "wake-up call" to the rest of the world, who have so far failed to respond.  The UN humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, Mark Bowden, stated that UN agencies lack the necessary capacity to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of drought-affected people fromSomalia,  and that nearly $300 million in relief supplies are required over the next two months. On 27 July, the UN World Food Programme announced that it had begun an airlift of food to Somalia. Ten tonnes of food were delivered to Mogadishu, with plans to expand delivery to southern Somalia where millions remain inaccessible, and may be too weak to cross the border into neighbouring Kenya. Delivery offood to the region remained complicated by the refusal of al-Shabaab militants to allow certain foreign aid agencies to work in the country. On 25 Aug, a much delayed African Union summit raised$51 million of direct aid, some of which were perhapsannounced before, along with an additional $300 million from the African Development Bank to be spentover a four-year period. The African Union is, however, a young organization with little humanitarian experience.

Oxfam staff preparing to fly in relief supplies

On 30 Aug, the UN refugee agency announced that the furniture corporation IKEA would be making a $62 million donation (42.8 million euros) over three years to expand the overcrowded Dadaab refugee complex in Kenya. The company CEO was quoted as saying that this donation will “immediately make a difference” in thousands of lives. In September 2011,during the UN General Assembly in NYC,USAID and the Ad Council launched the agency's first ever Public Service Awareness Campaign called FWD, an acronym for Famine, War and Drought. The Campaign encourages the public to "Forward the Facts" about the campaign to help raise awareness. In early Oct. 2011, the ONE Campaign unveiled a public service message in which celebrities appear to be cursing andthen the message says that famine is the real obscenity. Fifty-six African artists and celebrities, including Nameless, Angélique Kidjo, 2face Idibia, Hugh Masekela, Freshlyground and K'naan, as well as international campaigners, sent a letter to a specialUN session on the horn of Africa crisis scheduled forSaturday 8 Oct. In Sept. 2011, Rajiv Shah, head of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), stated “We're trying cash distributions through the hawala system and through mobile phones and then concomitantly flooding border markets with food so that traders canthen make the connections." Somalis in the diaspora have likewise routinely sent money to drought-affected relatives at home through the informal moneytransfer system. Part of this funding stream

experienced a potential setback in December 2011, when Sunrise Community Banks, a U.S. financial institution that wires the transfers for many of the hawalas, announced that it might discontinue the service on 30 December due to overly strict government security regulations. Somalian and American federal officials as well as representativesof the transfer companies have worked together closely to resolve the issue, with the CEO of the Sunrise Community Banks indicating that "from a risk perspective, we are making progress, and I am optimistic that we are on the right path to get to a solution". Kenyan expatriates have similarly availed themselves of mobile phone services to send funds to their own drought-impacted family members in Kenya. In early 2012, the Turkish government ramped up its existing humanitarian and developmental efforts in southern Somalia. In coordination with the Somali authorities, it mobilized Turkish governmental organizations and NGOs to build new hospitals, a new relief center, and a tent city for remaining IDPs, which is scheduled to be converted into apartment flats. These and other proactive efforts have reportedly helped set in motion a rapid local recovery.

CHAPTER: 5 UNITED NATION ANNOUNCEMENT

UN says Somalia famine killed nearly 260,000World body admits it should have done more to prevent2010-2012 tragedy, finding half of those who died were children.

Almost 260,000 people, half of them young children, died of hunger during the last famine in Somalia, according to a UN report that admits the world body should have done more to prevent the tragedy.

The toll is much higher than was feared at the time of the 2010-2012 food crisis in the troubled Horn of Africa country and also exceeds the 220,000 who starved to death in a 1992 famine, according to the findings.

"The report confirms we should have done more before the famine was declared," said Philippe Lazzarini, UNHumanitarian Coordinator for Somalia.

"Warnings that began as far back as the drought in 2010 did not trigger sufficient early action," he said in a statement.

Half of those who died were children under five, according to the joint report by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization and the US-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network.

"Famine and severe food insecurity in Somalia claimedthe lives of about 258,000 people between October 2010 and April 2012, including 133,000 children underfive," said the report, the first scientific estimateof how many people died.Children toll

Somalia was the country hardest hit by extreme drought in 2011 that affected over 13 million people across the Horn of Africa.

"An estimated 4.6 percent of the total population and10 percent of children under five died in southern and central Somalia," the report said, saying the deaths were on top of 290,000 "baseline" deaths during the period, and double the average for sub-Saharan Africa.

Lazzarini said that about 2.7 million people are still in need of life-saving assistance and support to rebuild their livelihoods.

Half of those who died from famine were children under five, according to the UN

report [AFP]

Famine was first declared in July 2011 in Somalia's Southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle regions, but laterspread to other areas, including Middle Shabelle, Afgoye and inside camps for displaced people in the war-ravaged capital Mogadishu.

In Lower Shabelle 18 percent of children under five died, the report said.

During the famine, it was feared that tens of thousands had died, whereas the report now shows morepeople died than in Somalia's 1992 famine, when an estimated 220,000 people died over a year.

Famine implies that at least a fifth of households face extreme food shortages, with acute malnutrition in more than 30 percent of people, and two deaths per10,000 people every day, according to the UN definition.

Mark Smulders, a senior economist for the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation and one of the authors of the report, said the area had suffered one of the worst droughts in over 50 years in the whole of Africa.

"Livestock were dying," he told Al Jazeera. "People simply did not have access to food, and purchasing power went down."

Somalia, ravaged by nearly uninterrupted civil war for the past two decades, is one of the most

dangerous places in the world for aid workers and oneof the regions that needs them most.

However, security has slowly improved in recent months, with fighters linked to al-Qaeda on the back foot despite launching a deadly bombing campaign.

At the time, most of the famine-hit areas were under their control, and the crisis was exacerbated by their ban on most foreign aid agencies.'Catastrophic political failures'

The aid agency Oxfam said the "deaths could and should have been prevented".

"Famines are not natural phenomena, they are catastrophic political failures," Oxfam's Somalia director Senait Gebregziabher said in a statement.

"The world was too slow to respond to stark warnings of drought, exacerbated by conflict in Somalia and people paid with their lives."

More than a million Somalis are refugees in surrounding nations, and another million are displaced inside the country.

Next Tuesday, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and British Prime Minister David Cameron will co-hosta conference in London to discuss how the international community can support Somalia's progress.

More than 50 countries and organisations are due to take part.

Oxfam said leaders should "ensure that this was Somalia's last famine" by helping generate jobs and "ensuring trained, accountable security forces".

The UN declared the famine over in February 2012.

Famine in Somalia: causes and solutions

The UN announcement of famine in Somalia is both a wake-up call to the scale of this disaster, and a wake-up call to the solutions needed to limit death-from-hunger now and in the future. So, what is famineand how can we prevent it?

Famine is the “triple failure” of (1) food production, (2) people’s ability to access food and, finally and most crucially (3) in the political response by governments and international donors. Crop failure and poverty leave people vulnerable to starvation – but famine only occurs with political

failure. In Somalia years of internal violence and conflict have been highly significant in

CHAPTER: 6 CONCLUSION

A devastating famine, provoked by drought, is steadily moving north from Southern Africa, where it has affected more than 13 million lives. Two years ofalternating droughts and floods, mismanagement of land and food supplies, political instability, and regional conflicts are being blamed.

Emergency warnings and appeals for aid are coming in from East, West, and Central Africa. In Eritrea, because of the lack of seasonal rains and the

aftermath of war with Ethiopia, 1 million of the country’s 3.7 million people face drought and starvation. Farmers in Gambia are despairing as a shortage of rain is causing new seedlings to wilt anddie off. The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Nigeria has estimated that by 2010 around 300 million people in sub-Saharan Africa—nearly a third of the population—will be malnourished.

“Unless the government acts immediately or the donor community responds quickly to avert this serious situation, the drought will develop into widespread starvation,” warned Ethiopia’s The Reporter (independent, July 28), which estimated that 8million people in the country face starvation.

Referring to the lack of rain in Gambia, The Independent(independent biweekly, July 24) wrote that the situation was “alarming and unprecedented....Unless the people start serious planting of trees to revive and maintain our natural land features, the problem of low rainfall [will] continue to affect the region.”

Though many African leaders travelled to the June World Food Summit in Rome, immediate results were notforth coming. The East African (independent weekly, June 24) said, “It is a pity that African leaders went to the conference with begging bowls in their hands, while neglecting other options that could permanentlyeradicate hunger on the continent.” One option, the paper wrote, would be to address “armed conflicts, bad governance, insensitive agricultural and land-usepolicies, and unsustainable utilization of land and other environmental resources.”

The lack of arable lands (which make up 22 percent ofAfrica’s land surface) continues to be a problem, as more of this land is used for urban development, roadand telecommunication networks, and the cultivation of nonfood crops. Declaring that “Africa is its [own]worst environmental enemy,” The East African argued that “many African leaders have failed to find any meaningful solution to the problem of harmonizing allthese disparate land uses for sustainable development.”

Meanwhile, districts in Kenya are reporting that approximately 1.3 million Kenyans are facing famine despite a recent surplus in maize production.“There is little to show that the [Kenyan] government is stockpiling last year’s surplus,” accused The Nation (independent, July 23).

Rather than waiting for unreliable international aid,the paper concluded, the Kenyan government “should move fast to purchase the surplus produce and stockpile it before it rots away in the villages.”

Full scale famine can be prevented

By the time a famine was officially declared in Somalia in 2011, and action and adequate funding werefinally made available, there had already been 16 warnings of a crisis waiting to happen. In January 2012 we published a briefing jointly with Save the Children examining the factors that allowed the initial drought to turn to a full scale food crisis and famine, affecting 13 million people. This report recommended crucial changes of approach for international aid agencies – managing the risk not

the crisis, and also described how the resilience of local communities might be enhanced to face such situations in the future. We found that decisive action is needed early, rather than responding when the crisis has happened; all actors need to be working toward reducing drought risk and building community resilience; and the barriers between development aid and emergency humanitarian aid need to be broken down to allow crisis prevention before it’s too late. Early warnings require early action, and prevention is better than cure.

CHAPTER : 7 BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/drought/docs/1_Karamoja%20Disaster%20Risk%20Reduction.pdf

http://www.apeejay.edu/noida/activities/isa-activities/502-surviving-disaster-a-project-on-disaster-management.html

http://www.wfp.org/crisis/horn-of-africa

https://www.oxfam.org/en/east-africa-food-crisis-our-response

http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=1274

http://www.unicefusa.org/mission/emergencies/food-crises/horn-africa-famine

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/horn-of-africa-food-crisis-latest-updates