One year on: Building resilience in the Horn of Africa

Tierney Smith in Responding to Climate Change:  A year on from the Horn of Africa disaster and two good rainy seasons have helped to relieve the pressure and aid recovery in the region. But there is an underlying feeling of helplessness for communities in the region living at the mercy of possible future dry periods.

With the potential of another dry spell always just around the corner, the efforts of NGOs and Aid Agencies is moving away from emergency relief to building resilience in the region. They want to ensure a similar event will not have the dire consequences – an estimated 50,000 and 100,000 deaths – it had in Africa last year.

“Memories about the last drought are almost erased because we have received two very good seasons consecutively,” says Abdul Haro from Practical Action. “But the long rains in April to June were below optimal levels and should the short rains expected in October and November fail, then there will be trouble.

“Currently there is plenty of pasture and water pans have water, although recently a few areas have started reporting water stress for humans.”

Drought is a complex phenomenon, caused by multiple contributing factors. It is still impossible for scientists to fully associate one extreme event to climate change. But scientists agree that the chances of these events heighten with advancing climate instability....

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