In a United Nations breaking news article from earlier last month, The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced that a timely agricultural assistance for the upcoming rainy season is essential to help the drought. The drought in Ethiopia is worsened by the strong El Nino that has been impacting the lives and livelihoods of farmers and herders. The reason Ethiopia is struggling so badly is due to the drought that has led to successive crop failures and widespread livestock fatalities. FAO estimates taht 10.2 million people are not food insecure. The rainy season in Ethiopia is referred to as the belg which has been delayed. The rainy season, for Ethiopians, provide 85% of the nations food supplies.

In Module 9, impacts on different continents was explained to be controlled by the ability of the society to cope. The inability of Ethiopia to cope with the prolonged drought and strong El Nino, both enhanced by climate change, is due largely to the fact that they are a developing nation. Beatrice Mwangi, resilience and livelihoods director for World Vision explains this concept well, “[severe drought] is going to be the new norm. So our responses need to appreciate that.. there is climate change, and it’s going to affect the people.” Because agriculture in developing countries is more vulnerable to climate change than already developed countries, impact will depend on the ability of places like Ethiopia to adapt.

References:

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=53381#.VwGGJBIrJYg

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/mar/16/drought-high-temperatures-el-nino-36m-people-africa-hunger