To avert a hunger crisis in the Horn of Africa, support to agriculture is vital

The Director of the FAO Liaison Office with the UN in New York, QU Guangzhou, spoke today at a briefing to Member States on the recurrent drought and rising humanitarian needs in the Horn of Africa.

At today’s virtual briefing from New York on the drought in the Horn of Africa, the Director of the FAO Liaison Office in New York, QU Guangzhou, delivered remarks on the centrality of agriculture in as part of the humanitarian response if we are to stave off an otherwise looming hunger crisis in the coming months.

The briefing was convened and chaired by Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affiars and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths, and included remarks by the Permanent Representatives to the UN of the three hardest-hit countries – Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia.

Director Qu spoke of a region currently undergoing its third consecutive drought season driven by La Niña, which poses a very present threat for a large-scale hunger crisis across the three countries, especially if the region’s food-producing rural communities do not receive the assistance they need timed for the upcoming agricultural seasons.

FAO’s $138 million Drought Response Plan for the Horn of Africa aims to support 1.5 million of the most at-risk rural people across Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia through June. It aims to do so by delivering 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.

Without this urgent assistance, Qu explained, millions will struggle to access enough food and many others will be forced to sell off their assets, watch their livestock die, or abandon their livelihoods altogether. Malnutrition levels, especially among children, will also soar.

Coping capacities stretched too thin in in the face of parallel shocks and hazards

Even before the current drought, the Horn of Africa was already prone to food insecurity associated with climate extremes, natural resource limitations, protracted conflict, the ripple effects of COVID-19, and desert locust upsurges.

“Coping capacities have been stretched too thin,” Qu pointed out, calling on the international community to remain alert of the narrow window ahead of us to provide much needed support to agricultural livelihoods before it is too late.

With only six to seven months left to avert the onset of a hunger catastrophe, the time to act is today, with agricultural livelihoods playing a central role in humanitarian response.

“If we fail to act now, 12 to 14 million people are projected to face high acute food insecurity by the middle of 2022 across the three hardest-hit countries,” Qu warned, echoing the sobering picture presented by FAO Director of Emergencies and Resilience at a briefing to journalists in New York last month, on the number of people who stand to face acute food insecurity from drought alone. 

Drought does not mean food production must stop

Even in times of drought, with the right support, food production can continue where it is needed the most. It is in this spirit that FAO’s new Horn of Africa Drought Response Plan aims to support rural families withstand the many impacts of drought on agricultural productivity, rural livelihoods, and food security in 2022.

A fully funded response plan can translate into 144 000 rural people securing their food needs for up to six months through cash transfers, coupled with life-saving support for 770 400 agro-pastoralists who can safeguard their livelihoods and assets for six months and secure the production of up to 90 million liters of milk in the upcoming six months – enough for 3 million children under 5 years of age.

About 570 000 agricultural communities could also safeguard their livelihoods and assets, while securing the production of 40 000 tons of staple food crops in the first half of 2022, putting over 1 million highly food insecure people on a food secure path for at least six months. Some 16 800 fishers would also be benefited, safeguarding their livelihoods through the end of the fishing season in April and, in turn, securing the harvest of up to 900 tons of fish in the four months after that.

“Protecting the livelihoods of farmers, pastoralists, and agro-pastoralists, who represent the majority of those at-risk of acute hunger, is a foremost priority,” Qu stressed, adding that “our response must treat agriculture as central to the survival of these drought-affected communities”.

“With needs on the rise, timely funding, early funding – funding now – is urgently required to sustain and expand the response, Under Secretary-General and Emergency Relief Coordinator Griffiths said. “We have learned from earlier experiences in response to drought why early funding is essential,” he added. 

Related links

• Watch the recording and read the remarks delivered by the Director of the FAO Liaison Office in New York.
• Access FAO’s latest Drought Response Plan for the Horn of Africa here.
• Read about FAO in other humanitarian appeals for 2022.