Over the past year, drought has plagued much of the Horn of Africa: Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda. It has been the driest year on record since 1950! The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET) and Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU) were able to signal this emerging weather-related crisis as early as August 2010. These initiatives have helped donors track the crisis and its impact on communities in the region. Though the crisis has not been averted, these data allowed donors to scale up and pre-position quantities of food to help meed the needs of the populations.

Drought devastates crops and livestock, which in turn reduce the amount of food people have to eat and their opportunities for earning an income. For pastoralist communities throughout the Horn, raising livestock is their way of life. Even when good seasonal rains come, the people’s resources are so depleted that they begin a new season deep in the hole.

According to Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), as of the end of June, at least 10 million people in the region are food insecure. Approximately 120,000 people in Djibouti, 3.2 million in Ethiopia, 3.5 million in Kenya, 600,000 in Uganda and 2.5 million in Somalia are affected by the drought. Here’s a great interactive map to explain the numbers of people affected.

Not only has the drought hit the region hard, but many communities –- urban, rural, pastoralist and even those in refugee camps –- face rising food prices in part because of global pressures on commodities markets. The price of grain in affected areas in Kenya is 30 to 80 percent more than the five-year average. In Ethiopia, the consumer price index for food increased by almost 41 percent from May 2010 to May 2011.

Poor people in developing countries are especially affected by high food prices because they spend on average between 60 and 80 percent of their incomes on food. Faced with higher food bills, poor people eat cheaper, less nutritious food. This crisis is no exception. The region faces very high levels of acute malnutrition: between 23 and 27 percent in some areas of Kenya, 24 percent in parts of Ethiopia and levels possibly as high as 30 percent in Somalia.

In addition, the drought is causing kids to drop out of school, exacerbating disease prevalence in both humans and livestock, and pushing people in extreme circumstances to migrate in search of work, food and in conflict-afflicted areas, protection. Every month in 2011, an average of 15,000 Somalis flee their homes and arrive in Kenya and Ethiopia, seeking protection and assistance. Dadaab, in northeastern Kenya, is the world’s largest refugee camp, housing more than four times its capacity — and still 60,000 Somalis camp outside. Kakuma, a second refugee camp, is home to 70,000 Somali refugees.

Humanitarian aid agencies, governments and UN organizations are rushing to respond to the crisis. The consolidated appeal process (CAP) that brings governmental and non-governmental aid organizations together to jointly plan, coordinate, implement and monitor their responses estimates that nearly $33 million is needed for Djibouti, $324 million for Kenya, about $355 million for Somalia and nearly $400 million for Ethiopia.

While funding these humanitarian appeals are life-saving and essential, and should be met immediately, it is also critical to ensure that long-term interventions that both help prevent and lessen the impact of crises when they occur are not forgotten. This week, ONE released a report called “Agriculture Accountability” that measures how donors are doing against their promises to invest in agricultural development and food security.

Smart investments in agriculture, including crop insurance for small-scale farmers, are proven to lift people out of poverty, reduce food prices, grow economies and build resilience to withstand shocks from high food prices or adverse weather. But donors are not approaching agriculture and food security with the urgency they deserve. They need to step up their investments so that future droughts and weather shocks are less likely to tip into large-scale humanitarian crises.

If you want to get into the nitty-gritty of the humanitarian challenges that the region is facing, OCHA also provides specific information on the situations in Ethiopia, Uganda and Djibouti, Kenya and Somalia.

You can help protect anti-poverty programs, including agriculture initiatives that fight hunger, by signing our petition now.

This is of course a worldwide epidemic, and a big issue in Jakarta, Indonesia — a city in which “17 percent of children under the age of 5 suffer from acute malnutrition, while 12 percent are overweight” according to op-ed columnist Tina Rosenberg. A severe lack of kitchens and adequate sources of fresh, healthy food makes street vendors often the only viable source of daily meals.

Enter MercyCorps:

Mercy Corps couldn’t think of anything traditional that a nongovernmental group could do about this. So, it did something very untraditional: in April, 2009, it started a healthy street food business called Kedai Balitaku [KeBal], or My Child’s Café, that has since spun off into a for-profit company. “The idea was to provide access while raising awareness about healthy food and creating economic opportunity,” said Sean Granville-Ross, Mercy Corps’ Indonesia country director.
….

KeBal sells niche street food. Its clientele is children — and it focuses on those 5 years old and younger. The most popular meal is a chicken, rice and vegetable porridge, which costs the going rate of 20 cents. The leading snack is a 10 cent gelatin pop. Such pops are a common snack but they are almost always made with artificial fruit flavors; KeBal’s are made with real mango, strawberry, melon or other fruits. The menu also includes meatballs, macaroni and cheese and shu mai dumplings. The carts use food-grade materials and vendors get regular health inspections from KeBal’s management.

This is a classic — and very encouraging — example of an organization working within the community to address a problem head-on, by meeting people where they’re already going — in this case, street vendors. Rosenberg does a great job in this piece of clearly explaining a complex issue, not just in Jakarta but worldwide, and some of the challenges confronting a nonprofit working to fix a broken system.

What about this piece stood out to you? Curious to hear your thoughts in the comments.

If you haven’t heard yet, food prices are spiking again and food is starting to be out of reach of the poor. Prices haven’t been this high since the 2008 food crisis where prices jumped 83 percent, pushing roughly 150 million more people into poverty.

After the onset of the global economic downturn, prices quieted, but only temporarily. From June to December 2010, global prices for wheat increased 75 percent, corn 73 percent and rice 17 percent. Prices for other main staples such as sorghum, beans and cassava have risen between 20 percent and 48 percent in some countries. Rising wheat prices have surged the highest in Central Asian countries, whereas corn prices have affected South American countries like Brazil and Argentina the most. Rice prices on the other hand have increased at a much slower rate and remain about 70 percent below their peak in 2008. Africa also seems to be relatively insulated from bumper corn harvests last year.

Food prices are high again. In December 2010, prices — according the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s measurement of a group of food commodities — soared higher than the peak of the 2008 food prices. While new figures have not been released, reports are saying that prices for staple foods in developing countries like rice and wheat are climbing and the suspicious absence of rioting is starting to reverse. Riots in Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Yemen and Pakistan might just be the start for a tumultuous year. But while these riots were not triggered by high food prices -– high food prices certainly only add to citizens’ gripes with their governments.

There are a number of factors at play: Adverse weather is driving grim grain projections in South America and the US, increasing demands for biofuels made from food crops, oil surpassing $100 a barrel for the first time since October 2008, expectations that Russia’s export bans will be extended beyond 2011 and that others are starting to hoard or panic-buy. All this suggests that prices will continue to climb. And while the G20 debates the role of financial speculation in influencing food prices more hungry people could take to the streets.

But more importantly, hungry people don’t need to be hungry. Hunger is a symptom of poverty. First of all, there’s enough food in this world to feed everyone, it’s just not equitably distributed. Where food may be available, many people also just don’t have the money to buy enough to eat. Those that farm for a living often don’t have the resources to grow enough to sell to afford basic necessities, including food. Matter of fact, most people who experience hunger don’t have enough money to buy food, rather than that there isn’t enough food for them to eat. So, it’s not just about staving off hunger, but also promoting better nutrition where people are less vulnerable to disease and infection, and building rural economies. So, addressing the root cause of poverty will help solve the hunger problem along with many others.

Yet, “we” seem fixated on the causes of high and rising food prices and debating what to do about them, rather than enabling poor people’s economic development so that their pocketbooks can handle the ups and downs in food prices. Whether these high prices are here for the short or long-term, it pushes people into poverty and makes it just that much harder for others to climb out. In dire cases, particularly for children, it can lead to under-nutrition that has irreversible life-time consequences and even lead to death.

So, let’s put a little less effort into trying to point a finger at one price driver –- be it climate change, biofuels, trade measures, financial speculation or just good old supply and demand –- and put a little more effort in trying to do something about it. The food crisis in 2008 promoted global leaders to commit $22.5 billion to invest in agriculture and food security, a third of which was additional to existing aid budgets, but nearly 3 years later, what have they done? According to the donors themselves, without any third-party verification, they had disbursed only $6.5 billion of the $22.5 in April 2010. And now? It’s unclear. Especially with respect to European donors who haven’t been very forthcoming about their aid budgets for agriculture as of yet. And in the US, budget debates are very worrying. In a worst case scenario, budgets for the Feed the Future Initiative will drop dramatically and the funding that the US pledged to the Global Food Security and Agriculture Program, a newly created multilateral fund for agriculture, could disappear.

Though, one thing we do know is that Africa hasn’t been hit as hard this time around by high prices -– at least not yet. Why? Well, the World Bank says that greater investments in agriculture that improve productivity so that African countries don’t rely so much on imported food have helped cushion the blow. Well, how do you like that? Investments in agriculture help poor countries deal with high food prices. Donors, national governments and private sector…are you listening? Smart investments in agriculture are what we need more of. While issues such as the impact of increased droughts, floods and changing rainfall patterns on food productivity or the behaviors of financial speculators will need to be addressed; we cannot ignore that no matter what, we need to invest in agriculture, in poor countries, and help the poorest of the poor if we’re going to reduce poverty and hunger.

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, the Bread for the World Institute released its timely 2011 Hunger Report, with an event Monday at the National Press Club, featuring USAID administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah and recent World Food Prize winner and Bread for the World President David Beckman.

As American families prepare to gather with friends and loved ones to share a large meal this week, the panelists helped to highlight the growing global food crisis, estimating that 925 million people worldwide will go hungry in 2010 due in large part to soaring global food prices.

Fortunately, the US government has recently stepped up its response to hunger and malnutrition, thanks primarily to the new Feed the Future initiative that focuses on “improving the productivity and livelihoods of smallholder farmers.” This initiative isn’t about handing out emergency food aid, but empowering farmers to get the support they need to respond to high food prices. Now, this is a cause that we at ONE can get behind!

The program, which is working in 20 countries including Rwanda, Ghana and Tanzania, works with national governments for in-country leadership and ownership, all of which involves sustainable agriculture-led development. As Dr. Shah says, this is the way “to help the most people help themselves out of poverty.”

The new USAID approach means focusing on women farmers, as women produce between 60 to 80 percent of food in developing countries. It also means putting to use new technology to help smallholder farmers “deliver results on a large scale,” whether this means using YouTube to help farmers in India communicate with each other, or creating a new variety of maize to resist drought in East Africa.

Programs like Feed the Future are more important than ever. Global food prices are thankfully lower than their peak in 2008, but they are still higher than pre-crisis levels. As a result, poor families are spending 60 to 80 percent of their income on food.

The US has committed $3.5 billion to the global hunger and food security initiative, but policymakers must make sure this promise is carried out over the next three years. Check out Bread’s new report as you head home for Thanksgiving and make sure you tell your representatives to support Feed the Future to ensure nobody has to go hungry this holiday season!

The answer is that farmers can use any type of seed they want in the field. Regardless of the type of seed, they end up using less because of the management techniques that the system recommends -– using compost and manure, growing seedlings to an ideal height for transplant, using less water and planting in orderly rows, among other ideas.

Because the system is precise, farmers plant less seeds (check out the difference in the image above!) and use less land than they would if they were flooding their fields and using lots of synthetic fertilizer. This means that their expenses are lower and their incomes are higher. Not to mention they have more land to grow the vegetables that help combat malnutrition in their children.

Innovations like SRI are a part of the U.S. government’s plan to end hunger and decrease childhood malnutrition. Congress is debating whether or not to fund it. For more on actions to take to convince them, stay tuned to ONE actions over the next couple of weeks.

Initiated by Norman Borlaug and supported by the Ruan company and others, the World Food Prize is the “Nobel” of food and hunger — and an entire week full of events has sprung up around the prize. Here are a few of the moments that stand out from the events I was able to take part during a packed week.

The Iowa Hunger Summit begins the week. Iowans gather to learn and act on hunger issues in the Hawkeye State, in the U.S. and around the world. Former Ambassador and Ohio Congressman Tony Hall gave the keynote remarks. For ONE members, his words about engaging elected officials stood out. The midterm elections “will make a decisive impact on progress on hunger,” said Amb. Hall. Referring to our engagement with candidates and elected officials, Tony said “put them on the spot, in a nice way.” If we do not bring issues like hunger to their attention, they will think that “it must not be important.”

The ONE panel discussion was a terrific part of the Hunger Summit. Led by U.S. Executive Director Sheila Nix, the speakers included Karey Claghorn, Iowa Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, Richard Mkandawire of Africa Union/NEPAD, and Julie Howard of the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa. Secretary Claghorn described how passionate Iowans are about alleviating hunger. Mr. Mkandawire was clear that donor countries like the U.S. are becoming responsive to African voices that are charting the course of agricultural development. Ms. Howard called us to really get behind research based advocacy so that we focus on what works.

This year’s WFP laureates are Jo Luck, who leads Heifer Inernational, and David Beckmann, the head of Bread for the World. Both organizations are ONE partners. And both Jo and David played key roles in ONE’s launch and development. Congratulations to both! This is the first time that grassroots advocacy and direct help have been honored with the prize. In her remarks, Jo Luck related that Heifer “lives the success” of agriculture development. David Beckmann called what Bread and other advocates do as creating “organized give a damns.”

The WFP included some really great keynotes. Jeff Raikes, the CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, commented about the need to “tell the story in front of the numbers.” Because that leads to the easing of hunger, provides livelihoods and allows parents have the means to send their children to school. This was particularly striking to me as ONE embarks on our Living Proof campaign. Two comments from Howie Buffett’s keynote stand out to me: “Markets are the key to moving farmers out of poverty, to the economy and into the economy” and “You cannot create long term productive positive change without good, clear policies.

World Food Prize week had a whole lot more to it than what I’ve mentioned here here. Check out the other posts on the WFP on the ONE blog and visit the WFP site for more.

This may be a big “duh” for many of you, but malnutrition is a huge problem in the developing world. So, it’s a pretty big deal that PATH, an NGO that works to break cycles of poor health through sustainable solutions, is finally making their Ultra Rice technology available in Burundi.

Ultra Rice is like regular rice in shape and size, but that’s where the similarities end. The manufactured grain-like product is jam-packed with micronutrients like vitamin A, iron, thiamin, folic acid and zinc — allowing people to get the nutrients they need without having to change the way that they normally eat.

And the cool part is that PATH customizes each kind of Ultra Rice to fit the health needs of the population and mimic the look of the local rice. For example, in China, people receive a short-grained rice with one set of vitamins, while Brazil receives a long-grained rice with another set of nutrients.

To give you an idea of how important Ultra Rice will be for malnourished people around the world, let’s take a look at some numbers. According to UNICEF and the Micronutrient Initiative, severe iron deficiency anemia results in the death of more than 60,000 young women during pregnancy and childbirth per year. Folic acid deficiency is responsible for approximately 200,000 severe birth defects in 80 developing countries. And mild to moderate zinc deficiency affects more than a third of people worldwide and compromises growth and immune function in children.

Learn more about Ultra Rice on PATH’s website — and let us know what you think about sustainable, creative technologies like these in the comments below.

Sheila Nix, ONE’s U.S. executive director, was a fantastic moderator. She engaged each of the panelists on the importance of advocacy and the challenges we face. Sheila described how she saw firsthand “the catalytic effect of agriculture in Africa and the enormous impact that very simple, low cost solutions and investments in women can have on a community.”

Julie Howard speaks at ONE’s World Food Prize panel discussion

We had a great group of experts, including Iowa’s own Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Karey Claghorn, Julie Howard from the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa and Richard Mkandawire, Head of Partnerships, Resource Mobilization and Communication for the African Union’s New Partnership for Africa’s Development.

“Iowans, by nature, are a compassionate group of people. Living on such fertile soil, we don’t want to see anyone go hungry,” said Karey Claghorn. “Agriculture is a big deal in Iowa and we need to keep our leaders engaged and informed in efforts to help farmers in the developing world to feed themselves so that no one goes hungry.”

At the peak of the 2008 food crisis, world leaders signaled a renewed focus on investing in agriculture as a means of poverty reduction in poor countries with a focus on smallholder female farmers. Two years later, ONE is working to hold leaders accountable to their commitments and push for smart, cost effective policies to avoid future food crises.

Richard Mkandawire stressed that “combating hunger in Africa requires a focus on agriculture and that advocacy is critical in keeping this issue on the agenda so that agriculture does become another fad that comes and goes. We must call upon the global community to support the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Program (CAADP) as a vision for restoring agricultural growth and food security in Africa.”

The event was well received, and Libby Crimmings, one of our regional field directors in the Midwest, used the opportunity to recruit more Iowans to get involved with ONE. 

Tonight, we will be attending the 2010 World Food Prize Laureates Forum with Enough author, Roger Thurow, who will be moderating a discussion with this year’s honorees Jo Luck of Heifer International and Bread for the World’s David Beckmann.

Next week, ONE’s Executive Director Sheila Nix will be in Iowa to moderate an expert panel discussion at the World Food Prize Symposium, an event that honors those who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world.

This prize is probably one of the highest achievements an individual can receive in the realm of world food supply — so it’s an honor for ONE to be able to contribute to the Symposium.

Our discussion, “Weeding through Impressions of Hunger,” will feature a panel of experts including Iowa’s own Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kary Claghorn, Julie Howard from the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa and Richard Mkandawire from the Africa Union/NEPAD.

Our goal for the discussion? Make sure that everyday Americans know that they can help improve global food security and make an impact in the fight against extreme poverty by supporting investments in agriculture through efforts like advocacy.

If you’re one of the 14,000 ONE members in Iowa, I encourage you to try to make it out to the event or get involved with us in some way — we would love to see you there! Here are four events ONE Iowa members can get involved with: