Supporting agriculture to avoid a hunger crisis in the Horn of Africa

Speaking to journalists in New York, FAO Director of Emergencies and Resilience Rein Paulsen briefed on a looming hunger crisis in the Horn of Africa in the face of inaction.

Connecting live from FAO headquarters in Rome, Director of Emergencies and Resilience Rein Paulsen briefed journalists in New York today at a virtual press briefing hosted by the Spokesperson of the Secretary-General.

Following his recent visit to Kenya, Paulsen spoke on the criticality of supporting agricultural livelihoods across the Horn of Africa, where FAO’s $138 million Drought Response Plan aims to support 1.5 million of the most at-risk rural people across Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia through June. 

Paulsen spoke of the short time window for upscaled humanitarian response funding to reach the most vulnerable and at-risk communities, noting that the international community has only six to seven months to prevent a major humanitarian catastrophe in the Horn of Africa.

He also outlined the time-sensitive response actions that FAO is leading, including cash to help people to buy food until their production resumes, alongside key agricultural inputs – especially drought-resistant seeds – to help farmers ensure a harvest and help keep livestock alive.

Stretching coping capacities to the limit

“These communities have been hammered by a succession of challenges”, Paulsen said, speaking of a region already prone to food insecurity associated with climate extremes, natural resource limitations, protracted conflict, the ripple effects of COVID-19, and desert locust upsurges. 

These compounding challenges have stretched coping capacities to the limit, with the current drought threatening to completely cripple food production, deplete pastures, disrupt markets and, unless urgent action is taken immediately, cause widespread human and animal deaths.

A third consecutive season of drought driven by La Niña is now a very present threat that may lead to a large-scale hunger crisis if the region’s food producing rural communities do not receive adequate assistance in time for upcoming seasons. 

In the three countries hardest hit – Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia – 25.3 million people are projected to face high acute food insecurity by mid-2022, in the face of inaction. What’s more, FAO and partners estimate that between 12 and 14 million people in southern and south-eastern Ethiopia, the arid and semi-arid lands regions of Kenya, and Somalia will likely face high levels of acute food insecurity because of the ongoing drought alone. 

Without the help they need, these farmers and pastoralists will struggle to access enough food, they will be forced to sell off their assets that will then be very expensive and could take years to recover later, and they will watch their livestock die or abandon their livelihoods altogether. Malnutrition levels will also soar. 

A narrow window of opportunity to avoid catastrophic hunger

Against this somber reality, Paulsen pointed to a narrow window of six to seven months to “prevent a worst-case scenario” where the number of highly food insecure people could climb to 15-20 million if the upcoming rainy season, which runs from March through May, would fail. 

“We’ve been sounding as FAO, together with partners, the alarm since the middle of last year about how the situation was unfolding, and we are now most definitely sitting on the brink of catastrophe, Paulsen said, adding that “we have a window to the middle of this year – to June – for urgent actions to scale up to prevent a worst-case scenario.”

FAO is calling for $138 million through June to deliver urgent cash and emergency agricultural support alongside food assistance to at-risk communities as quickly as possible, with agriculture playing a key role in these response efforts.

“Agriculture needs a lot more attention. It is central to the survival of drought-affected communities,” Paulsen stressed, also calling for coherent, complementary, and well-timed drought responses based on the right combination of actions implemented at the correct time in the drought cycle. 

“It is absolutely indispensable that we have joint multi-sectoral interventions across four key life-saving sectors: food security, nutrition, water and sanitation, and health. All of them need to go together if we are going to prevent a desperate situation from unfolding,” he said.

Supporting farmers and pastoralists through the lean period on their road to survival

If fully funded, FAO’s Horn of Africa Drought Response Plan stands to support 770 400 agro-pastoralists to safeguard their livelihoods and assets for six months and secure the production of up to 90 million litres of milk in the upcoming six months, which is enough for 3 million children under 5 years of age.

Agricultural communities would also be able to secure the production of 40 000 tonnes of staple food crops in the first half of 2022, putting over 1 million highly food insecure people on a safe footing for at least six months. Lastly, these efforts could help support 16 800 fishers, who will be able to safeguard their livelihoods and assets through the end of the fishing season in April, in turn securing the harvest of up to 900 tonnes of fish in the four months after that.

Relevant links

• Watch the recording of today’s briefing.
• Revisit the latest from FAO’s Horn of Africa Response here and here, including the FAO Horn of Africa Drought Response Plan for 2022.
• Read about FAO in other humanitarian appeals for 2022.