New regional plan for food security

In a new attempt to tackle hunger in the disaster-prone Horn of Africa region, government experts and international aid organisations have vowed to move forward a UN-sponsored initiative to develop country-based and regional food security strategies. It aims to boost investment in the drive to reduce poverty, seen as being at the root of many of the problems facing the region. In a World Bank-convened meeting between 2 and 4 July in Nairobi, Kenya, participants were told that of the 160 million people living in the Horn of Africa, more than 40 percent were undernourished. With serious drought occurring every three to four years, herds of livestock have been devastated and traditional ways of life undermined. Large numbers of pastoralists have become stranded in relief camps, or are living in rough shelters on the fringes of urban centres.

The meeting was the culmination of work by a high-level task force formed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the height of last year’s drought emergency in the Horn. A report entitled “The elimination of food insecurity in the Horn of Africa” calls for, among other things, major new investments, regional food-security policies, and national food-security teams to be built by governments. [For more details see IRIN Focus - Fighting the hunger war]
IRIN Horn of Africa Web Special:”Struggling with the legacy of drought” - looks at the problems faced by communities and countries after prolonged regional drought in Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia and Sudan.

This Web Special is a region-wide look at the devastating effects of
drought, and the strategies being designed to break the cycle of disaster, and help recovery.

http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/webspecials/drought/index.phtml