Famine in Africa: investment can reduce the need for emergency aid in future

The famine in the Horn of Africa is now official. The UN says that one in three children in the region is suffering acute malutrition, and Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya is now the largest refugee camp in the world, supporting close to 400,000 people.

Against this background Bioversity hopes that the emergency aid agencies, such as World Food Programme, Oxfam and others, with the support of the global community, are able to ensure that aid comes quickly and appropriately.

Like our colleagues and partners at the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the International Food Policy Research Institute, we believe that, important though it is, emergency food aid is not enough, because it does nothing to prevent the next crisis. Although our ability to predict drought, including this one, is improving, there is still nothing we can do about the weather. There are, however, things we can do to reduce the impact of droughts and other climate extremes on the lives of poor people.

Bioversity's Director General Emile Frison expressed his profound sympathy for the victims of the famine. He also said that the world must look for more sustainable solutions: "We need to build the resilience and sustainability of the farmers and pastoralists in the region, investing in research for development, so that poor people everywhere, not just in the Horn of Africa, can make better use of the agricultural biodiversity that is one of the greatest assets they have at their disposal."

An Emergency Ministerial-Level Meeting meeting, called by France as President of the G20, took place on 25 July at FAO in Rome, Italy. Bioversity, along with other colleagues from the Rome-based Agencies, were in attendance at the meeting.