Wednesday, 09 November 2011 22:37

Written by IRIN aj/cb

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[DAKAR] Move away from “food-first” responses and lay more stress on water and livelihoods; intervene early - it saves money and lives: These are a couple of the lessons emerging from the past four years of drought response, according to the Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance (ALNAP).

ALNAP pored over 200 evaluations and lessons-learned reports since 2007. “The fact that 200 lessons-learned reports have been done is a sign of progress,” said Paul Knox-Clarke head of research and communications at ALNAP. “Agencies are now more consistent and rigorous in terms of thinking about what they’re doing, and recording it.”

Areas of progress include far more sophisticated cash responses - there has been “vast learning” about using cash in drought situations, said Knox-Clarke; while the development-to-relief continuum is now pretty much accepted as the way forward in drought situations, “there seems to be little argument about the need for disaster-aware development programmes, and humanitarian programmes that can look more long-term and segue into livelihoods models,” he continued.

Likewise, beneficiary accountability has significantly improved he said.

But where the whole system needs to buck up, is responding to early warning. “So much good work has been done around early warning systems, but this still does not necessarily trigger response,” said Knox-Clarke.

Here are some of the lessons outlined in the report:

Monday, 29 August 2011 11:02

Written by Niamh Griffin

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Donations of close to twelve million euro have been collected in Ireland for the famine-stricken Horn of Africa according to aid-workers in addition to more than seven million pledged in state aid.

Director of Dóchas, an umbrella organisation of more than 40 Irish aid agencies and development organisations, Mr Hans Zomer said the public money had been collected through sponsored walks and other activities in the last six weeks.

“It is wonderful of the Irish people to come and give aid to people who are suffering. It is a phenomenally positive response,” he said.

“The important message is that the needs of the people there are very great, and they are likely to grow. The next harvest will be in November, and until then people will have to depend on food aid.”

Friday, 22 July 2011 17:06

Written by Mićo Tatalović

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[LONDON] Forecasting systems were warning about a serious drought in the Horn of Africa as much as a year ago — but communication problems between scientists and decision-makers meant the alerts went largely unheeded, according to forecasters.

Warnings about the drought — which the United Nations says is the worst in 60 years — were issued last August, when the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) released a brief on food security in East Africa following the declaration of a La Niña event, a cooling of the sea surface in the Pacific Ocean known to affect weather in Africa.

"We were very confident that the October to December rains were going to be poor," Chris Hillbruner, a food security early warning specialist with FEWS NET, told SciDev.Net. "And there was an increased likelihood that the March to May rains were going to be poor as well."

Friday, 22 July 2011 16:45

Written by IRIN aw/js/mw

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[NAIROBI] At least 500,000 malnourished children in the Horn of Africa's drought-affected areas risk death if immediate help does not reach them, Anthony Lake, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) executive director, has said.

These are the children suffering from severe acute malnutrition, whose clinical signs include swelling in the feet, legs or face caused by an extreme shortage of protein.

"This crisis is likely to deepen over the coming six months or so," Lake told a news conference in Nairobi on 17 July at the end of a visit to the northwestern Turkana region and Dadaab - home to thousands of Somali refugees - in the northeast.