Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – Fifteen countries from Africa’s most drought prone regions are meeting in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to share practices on how to best address recurrent droughts and chronic food insecurity on the continent.

Governments and organizations from Africa’s Horn and Sahel regions are showcasing initiatives on some of the good agricultural practices with a view of easing the impact of recurrent droughts on the continent’s productivity. Both regions suffer recurrent and severe droughts, sometimes leading to famine.

JOHANNESBURG, 14 September 2012 (IRIN) - Small farmers in the developing world who are going hungry for long periods of time - in some cases for up to half the year in Ethiopia's Borana region - are failing to find ways to adapt to an increasingly erratic climate, a new survey has found.

1) The five-week delay in the onset of the March-May seasonal rainfall and the erratic and below-average nature of the Kiremt rains have significantly impacted ground moisture and cropping activities in the central region of Ethiopia. Although rainfall has been consistent in the western parts of the country since the middle of May, accumulated rainfall has been well below-average since the start of the Kiremt rainy season in June.

The five-week delay in the onset of the March-May seasonal rainfall has significantly impacted ground moisture and cropping activities in the central region of Ethiopia. Although rainfall has been consistent in the western parts of the country since the middle of May, accumulated rainfall has been below-average. Another week of increased rainfall is forecast during the next seven days. This could help to reduce moisture deficits and aid cropping activities in the region.

Note: map in 2 pages

Below-average rainfall continues in eastern Africa, while above-average rainfall was observed over the central portions of the Sahel during the last seven days.

Overcoming extreme poverty remains at the top of the development agenda in Africa and this commitment is paying off but at a slower pace. Recent evidence indicates that poverty in Africa and in all the regions of the world declined over the period 2005-2010. In Africa, the proportion of people living below the poverty line decreased to 40% in 2008 from 47% in 1990, making it the first ever reversal of the long term poverty trend (see Figure 1). However, there are disparities in the rate of decline between Africa and other regions.

This briefing papers describe some of the lessons learned from two recent experience-sharing events: i) a visit to Niger (and Mali) organised by Oxfam GB and USAID for government and NGO representatives from Ethiopia, Uganda and Somaliland; and ii) the 'making rangelands secure' learning route to find effective and sustainable solutions that support the different land uses in dryland areas.

This report is a synthesis from lessons of government experiences of scale up of community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM). It is based on nine country case studies (Ethiopia, Pakistan, Niger, Somalia, Kenya, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Mozambique), considerations around scale-up from India, and the proceedings of an international conference in Addis Ababa, 14-17 November, 2011 at which the case studies and India experiences were presented and discussed. The contributions of an additional 12 countries at the conference are also reflected in this report.

Imagine walking for two hours to get to school. And then walking two more hours to get home again. Whether slogging through mud in the brief but intense rainy season or travelling under the heat of a blazing hot sun, kids in a small Ethiopian farming community make the daily trek with a spring in their step. Their energy levels are high.

This seems a little out of place in Tigray, a northern province in Ethiopia plagued by droughts, where there never seems to be enough food to go around.
But the taste of change is being ladled out at their school.