The Horn of Africa is facing the worst drought in 60 years, and is affecting more than 12 million people (majority being women and children). Estimates show 300,000 children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition. Even with numbers and figures as harsh as these, world attention is only a fraction of what is needed despite flooding of information from social media campaigns. Immediate aid is being provided in the form of Plumpy’Nut (a food product made from peanut butter, milk powder and micronutrients) by UNICEF and other organizations to decrease the effects of famine, $2 billion in funding from the World Bank, but what other efforts and precautions are being taken into considerations to avoid future crisis?

David Olsen of the Huffington Post highlighted the recent U.N. General Assembly’s key points regarding the famine:

• Drought is inevitable, but famine is not.
• Early warning systems put into place after the last famine predicted this one was coming well before it arrived. Despite that, the U.N. did not formally declare a disaster until July.
• Too often there's an absence of people affected by crises (particularly women) who are engaged in planning interventions.
• There needs to be real commitment to mainstreaming gender into all humanitarian and development programs.
• People need to be assisted where they live instead of forcing them to flee days or weeks of walking from their homes. Displacement makes people more vulnerable to violence, theft, disease and other harmful effects.
• Too often during a humanitarian crisis, donor countries "cherry-pick" interventions, rather than forging an integrated and balanced approach.
• Humanitarian responses, while absolutely necessary, do not substitute for long-term and sustainable solutions.
• Investing in adequate training, motivation and retention of health personnel now is essential.

With the rainy season soon approaching, this problem is far from over. Although the presence of water would mitigate the crisis, but with waters present this will bring on a whole new sector of issues regarding communicable diseases.

However an approach that is being initiated in efforts to avoid future crisis is by PepsiCo.  They just recently announced a new program aiming to “increase the supply of chickpeas and expanding production of crop in Ethiopia.” Sadly this initiative will not aid those currently suffering, but PepsiCo’s partnership with WFP and USAID this venture has the ability to reduce famine crisis and death rates in the long term.

It is inspiring to see the collaborations between private sectors and technology aiding issues on famine, but there needs to be more sustainable solutions present.  This growing trend of public, private, NGO, and governmental alliances is something that should be the answers in avoiding future crisis. Only then would disasters be easier to handle.

Follow FEED’s work in the aid to end famine in Africa. Check out our FEED Africa bag and bracelets where with your purchase will help provide food, water, medicine, and other supplies- and save lives.

For more information check out ONE campaign’s The F Word: Famine is the Real Obscenity film, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bono/famine-africa-sudan-_b_992939.html?ref=mostpopular

Information sourced from:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15050694
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-j-olson/horn-of-africa-crisis-is-_b_994573.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bono/famine-africa-sudan-_b_992939.html?ref=mostpopular
http://wfp.tumblr.com/