As donors and governments scramble to respond to a drought in Somalia, aid workers are urging them to heed the lesson of the country’s last famine in 2011 to act quickly and to take account of political decentralization in the country since then.
Savings lives will require mobilizing funds quickly, humanitarians told Devex — something that failed to happen last time, when nearly 260,000 people died due to starvation.
“The biggest problem back then was the late response,” said CARE Somalia Director Raheel Chaudhary. “It wasn’t until hundreds of thousands of lives were lost that funds started coming in, so in a sense, we can say we are in a better position compared to last time.”
Printing articles to share with others is a breach of our terms and conditions and copyright policy. Please use the sharing options on the left side of the article. Devex Pro members may share up to 10 articles per month using the Pro share tool ( ).
About the author
Christin Roby@robyreports
Christin Roby worked as the West Africa Correspondent for Devex, covering global development trends, health, technology, and policy. Before relocating to West Africa, Christin spent several years working in local newsrooms and earned her master of science in videography and global affairs reporting from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Her informed insight into the region stems from her diverse coverage of more than a dozen African nations.
