by Mona Chaya
In Africa, agriculture supports the livelihoods of over 800 million people (80 percent of the population), providing employment for around 60 percent of the economically active population and 70 percent of the poorest (around 270 million people).
Smallholder farmers, pastoralists and agro-pastoralists living in drylands and relying on crops, livestock, fisheries and forests for their livelihoods are often the worst affected when a disaster strikes. However, in Africa, it is not only about the level of exposure to disaster risks, but the capacity to prevent, anticipate, manage and recover from disasters and crises.
Africa accounts for only 15 % of global natural disasters, however, the toll of these disasters is quite severe in terms of human development set-backs. Strengthening vulnerable people to become resilient to threats and crises is a priority for human development in this region.
This is why FAO started its Resilience Initiative in Africa’s Drylands in 2012. Nine focus countries were identified to benefit from a proactive support to improve their capacities at both national and community levels in the Sahel (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, and Niger), the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan) and Southern Africa (Zimbabwe).
This initiative builds on existing experience and involves strong collaboration with similar initiatives and partnerships in the region, such as the Global Alliance for Resilience Initiative (AGIR) in the Sahel and the Supporting Horn of Africa Resilience (SHARE) initiatives.
The FAO Regional Initiative assists countries to strengthen institutional capacity for developing and implementing policies on risk prevention and reduction including focus on Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and other regional bodies. It also facilitates knowledge exchange across sub-regions and between countries.
Furthermore, it aims at supporting partners in learning and applying vulnerability mapping and analysis through already existing tools such as Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), Resilience Index Measurement and Analysis (RIMA) as well as improving and extending early warning systems.
Anticipating and preventing recurrent crises affecting food security and nutrition proactively is critical to address the root causes of the vulnerability of farmers, herders and fishermen, particularly women. This is particularly true if we consider that these drylands with their fragile ecosystems are facing a recurrent combination of natural disasters, food chain crises, conflicts and protracted crises.