Public Policy Tangents: El Niño scrunches Global Weather & Wreaks Havoc in Africa

Public Policy Tangents:

El Niño scrunches Global Weather & Wreaks Havoc in Africa

With the destruction in the global weather system that stuck, impacts both devastating and beneficial are being felt globally but more significantly in Horn of Africa

Public Lecture - CIX, MMXV, IDDS - ISSN 1018-1164

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD,

Chair, Ethiopica Infrastructure & Tunnelling Co.

Professor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies,

College of Business & Economics, AAU,

Abstract

      El Niño is characterized by unusually warm ocean temperatures as opposed to La Niña, which characterized by unusually cold ocean temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific. El Niño is an oscillation of the ocean-atmosphere system in the tropical Pacific having important consequences for weather around the globe. In the Horn of Africa, Southern Africa and West & Central Africa sub-regions drought is wreaking havoc on economies, a drought exacerbated by El Niño has directly affected the Horn of Africa region, leading to an increase in food insecurity and malnutrition. As of March 2016, the FSNWG reports close to 19.5 million people in the region are facing critical and emergency food insecurity levels. Some examples of short to long-term strategies that could be employed, particularly for building climate resilience in the agricultural sector: early warning and monitoring strategies, mitigation, adaptation and response strategies and long-term adaptation strategies

     What are the policy implications for the Horn of Africa? The Government of Ethiopia is strongly in the lead of the El Niño response, and has committed over US$838 million to provide humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable. While such assistance is very timely and apposite to save lives, the implementation will be premised on the fact that it is an opportunity for further development as it has brought out various gaps and weakness in development that needs to be redressed.  Any assistance to affected areas shall sub-serve the goals of socioeconomic growth and sustainable development. The economy should be able to recover quickly in order for the economy to withstand other future stresses and maintain sustainable livelihood security. The need to consider policy, legislative, human, natural and financial resources as well as motivational goals required for the successful attainment of stress prevention, preparedness and mitigation. Thus, the challenge in implementing this policy is to ensure that emergency preparedness becomes bridge to prevention and development. Preparedness should be a basis for sustaining life during emergencies and maintaining the morale of affected groups in order to create conditions for qualitative social change.

Key words:  El Niño, La Niña, ENSO, drought, floods, hunger, preparedness, prevention

See paper here