East African
region which makes up AMECEA, is a region which from time to time is faced by
numerous challenges such as conflicts, natural disasters, poverty, etc. While
some of these challenges are addressed using the local mechanisms available,
others are not well addressed and they keep on recurring. Draught is an example of recurring disasters
which very little is done to address. Although several governments in the
region would claim to have done a lot over the years, thousands of lives are
lost and millions are left in dire need of humanitarian assistance each time there
is draught. A report by Department for International Development indicates that
approximately 100,000 people died in the Horn of Africa in the year 2011.
Here we are
in 2014 and some parts of the region especially those which depend on largely
on agriculture; the draught has started to knock the doors. Climate change has
far reaching consequences on agriculture especially for the areas that depend
on farming and livestock keeping. Inadequate rain fall or failure to rain at
all threatens the very survival of the most vulnerable farmers and pastoralists
as crops and animals yield to the prolonged dry spell or excessive rainfall.
Draught does
not only cause food and water shortage but also bring with it malnutrition and
diseases to the habitants of the affected areas.
The
governments, International communities and other stakeholders wait until the
situation gets to the crisis point before responding. They wait until they see in the media people
dying for an action to be taken. The Chief Executive of Oxfam Barbara Stocking
once said “We all bear responsibility for this dangerous delay that cost lives
in East Africa and need to learn the lessons of the late response.” However we
tend to act very fast when things go wrong and once the situation is put under
control, we shift our attention to other emerging issues forgetting that
tomorrow it might happen again.
Several strategies
can be adopted to address the draught issue or to minimize its impact. One of
such measures is for the people to use indigenous strategies to predict climate
change and use indigenous ways of coping. Discouraging human activities which
negatively affect the environment such as degradation and desertification forms
part of indigenous strategy.
Another
one is to have insurance schemes which would enable both farmers and
pastoralists cope well with the climate changes. Unfortunately insurance might
not work for most of the affected are people of low income and who practice
small scale farming who might not have spare money to spend on insurance
premium.
