Read at :
World failed to heed early warning system on famine
Children shouldn’t have to starve to death to galvanize the international community into action. And yet that is what happened in the Horn of Africa last summer.
Sophisticated early warning systems forecast a drought and hunger crisis in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia as far back as the summer of 2010; but donors, governments, the United Nations and even relief agencies failed to respond until people began to die.
In the months before the famine, the world was understandably preoccupied with the global recession, the Arab Spring uprisings and other crises. However, the early warning system, which analyzes weather, agriculture, livestock, markets and nutrition, produced reliable information that should not have been ignored.
The wait-and-see approach resulted in the unnecessary deaths of 100,000 people – many of them Somali women and children. In all, more than 13 million people have been affected. Tens of millions of extra dollars had to be spent to bring in food and water.
(continued)
