FAO Director of Emergencies and Resilience briefs on FAO's response in the Horn of Africa

 

Monday, 14 February | 12:00 noon (EST)

The Horn of Africa is already prone to food insecurity associated with weather extremes, natural resource limitations and conflict, but the the COVID-19 pandemic and 2020-21 locust invasion have stretched the coping capacities of rural communities to the limit, undermining agricultural productivity and increasing the need for urgent livelihood and humanitarian response. Now a third season of drought driven by La Niña is raising concerns that a large-scale hunger crisis could break out if the region’s food producing rural communities do not receive adequate assistance timed to the necessities of upcoming agricultural seasons. 

In Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, the worst affected countries, projections indicate that some 25.3 million people will be facing high acute food insecurity by mid-2022. If that scenario should materialize, it would place the Horn of Africa among the world’s largest-scale food crises. 

Following his recent visit to Kenya, FAO Director of Emergencies and Resilience, Mr. Rein Paulsen, will participate at the UN Secretary General Spokesperson's noon briefing to speak on the criticality of supporting rural livelihoods. He will also speak on the FAO's rapid response and mitigation plan for the Horn of Africa, which lays out a set of activities to be prioritized from the recent Humanitarian Response Plans (HRPs) for Ethiopia and Somalia, as well as those included in the Kenya Drought Flash Appeal, in order to save the livelihoods, and therefore the lives, of 1.5 million rural people across the three countries.

Watch the recording.

Read the latest from FAO on the Horn of Africa response.