MEPs on the European Parliament’s Committee on Development (DEVE) once again took stock with the European Commission, on Monday 6 February, of the food crisis and growing humanitarian needs in the Horn of Africa, emphasising the importance of an integrated approach to link humanitarian aid, development aid, peace and the long-term resilience of populations.
“In the Horn of Africa, a person can die of hunger every 36 seconds. It helps to understand the issues at stake. The food crisis is an emergency that requires us to act to better cooperate with our partners. Our responsibility is to co-construct with them sustainable solutions”, said Stéphane Bijoux (Renew Europe, French), who led the exchange in place of Tomas Tobé (EPP, Swedish).
He announced that a delegation of MEPs from the DEVE Committee will carry out a mission to Kenya at the beginning of April with food security as a priority.
Beatrice Miege, Deputy Head of Unit for Southern and Eastern Africa in the Commission’s Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO), described “the outlook for 2023 as unfortunately very bleak”, pointing out that the unprecedented drought is affecting at least 37 million people, some 7.5 million children under five are severely malnourished, and 24 million people suffer from daily insecurity of access to water. “Recovering from such a drought will take years. Humanitarian needs will continue and even worsen in 2023”, she predicted.
In Somalia, famine was “barely averted” and the hunger crisis is still enormous. Areas are also affected in Ethiopia.
Kenya is suffering from drought and is hosting more and more refugees. “These climate shocks come on top of pre-existing challenges related to political or insecurity issues. Political instability is a driver of humanitarian crisis in East Africa. These recurring shocks have gradually eroded the resilience of households”, said Ms Miege.
She recalled that €350 million of humanitarian aid had been delivered in 2022 and the EU’s humanitarian response strategy remains: - advocating with the international community to push for action, as in April in Geneva with the UN (see EUROPE 12940/21); - continuing efforts to increase funding sources; - a humanitarian aid/long-term continuous support approach to strengthen the resilience of affected populations to the food and nutrition crisis.
In doing so, the Commission acts in complementarity with development actors, in particular the Commission’s International Partnerships services (DG INPA) and EU delegations to work on the long-term resilience of communities, to address the root causes of these crises, the structural causes of conflict and climate fragility, and to support the capacities of national authorities to deliver assistance to their populations. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)