The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has been monitoring forecasts for the current El Niño since early 2015. It is using early warning information to design and implement early actions knowing that anticipatory action can mitigate or even prevent disasters from happening.
What is El Niño?
El Niño is the warming of sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific. While the main threats to food production are reduced rainfall and drought in some regions, El Niño can also cause heavy rains and flooding in others.
What has been done so far?
When predictions suggested that this year’s El Niño could be even more severe than that of 1997–1998 – the worst on record – FAO took prompt action:
• a multi-departmental El Niño Task Force was established in September 2015. The Task Force holds monthly meetings and liaises directly with countries to develop the best early action and response plans;
• a special Early Warning – Early Action report was created to provide a global analysis of current and anticipated El Niño related impacts. It brings together early warning information with the actions being taken by FAO and national authorities.
Funding needs are also included. See: www.fao.org/emergencies/resources/documents/resources-detail/en/c/340660
• FAO staff undertook missions to high-priority countries to support the drafting of El Niño early action and response plans. Plans have already been developed for Somalia, Papua New Guinea, Mongolia, Philippines, Micronesia and Melanesia, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Sudan and the Southern Africa region and implementation has started.