FAO Lauds Ethiopia’s Effort in Dealing with Climate Change

Addis Ababa August 12/2019 The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) noted that Ethiopia’s development program which prioritizes a green resilience agricultural development has been contributing a lot to reduce food insecurity and poverty.

FAO Subregional Coordinator for Eastern Africa, Chimimba David Phiri told ENA that some 133 million people in the region are hungry and 30 percent undernourished due to climate change.

According to the "Africa Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2018 FAO Report", climate change will cause 71 million people to be food insecure in the world, over half of them in sub-Saharan Africa, by 2050.

However, countries like Ethiopia are working to reduce poverty and hunger using various programs in agriculture to plummet the impact of climate change, Phiri noted.

He added that “Ethiopia is one of the countries which has reduced poverty to a very big extent, the numbers and proportions have gone down and the same is true with hunger. This is partly because of the programs that have accelerated the economy and the agricultural development for a long time.”

Ethiopia is a great example of resilience that works, and countries that have done very well with respect to dealing with climate change reduction in poverty and hunger, Phiri stated.

The "Africa Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2018 FAO Report" states also that Ethiopia is an example of power of political will and coherent and effective polices and interventions, though much remains to be done.

According to Phiri, the recent national tree seedling initiative to plant 4 billion trees and programs of reforestation are encouraging “This reforestation programs are moving on the right direction,” the coordinator said.

He pointed out that African as well as Eastern African countries contribute to deforestation, even though industrial countries contribute highly for some of the climate change effects happening in the globe.

FAO works to reduce the effect of this problem by supporting the farming community in adapting to the ever changing climate (climate adaptation) through promoting climate smart agriculture, Phiri said.

According to him, climate smart agriculture prepares communities to early warning system as well as early response and support the community in building resilience by working with donors and governments.

Capacity building programs are among the supports which the organization provides to develop and promote good policies that are private sector inclusive and related to market economy that help increase production and productivity, the representative added.

Moreover, the organization is working to prevent conflict as it worsens the effect of climate change which causes natural resource deterioration in hosting African countries..

Migration and youth unemployment as well as traditional agricultural practices are also factors in Eastern Africa for not moving fast in lowering the number of people in poverty, he noted.