Many families in a little village close to Funhalouro in the southeast of Mozambique are receiving food assistance that is helping them to survive. “We have lived through many dry periods, but a drought like this one I cannot remember. I have not seen a single drop of rain for months,” says Joaquina, who does not know her age, but estimates she is in her late 40s.

I was working for the Irrigation Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Japan (currently the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries) when I was invited to speak at a symposium hosted by the United States Consulate in Fukuoka. At the event, the Principal Officer gave me a book entitled The Good War: the U.N.'s World-Wide Fight Against Poverty, Disease and Ignorance. That chance encounter, in the summer of 1969, changed my life.

According to UN sources, more than five million Somalis—representing nearly half of the population—need immediate humanitarian assistance. Nearly one in five across the country were forced to abandon their home, with half of them seeking refuge abroad. With failing crops for a third consecutive year, these numbers could continue to climb. To many abroad, there is little apparent hope in the foreseeable future for the Horn of Africa. The scene in Mogadishu however suggests a shift is happening.

Communications are a vital element of humanitarian assistance. As system-wide coordination took shape, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Somalia expanded its public information campaign on drought response and strategized new ways of informing people about its operations – both to make the public aware of the UN’s efforts and to provide information on where, when and how communities could get help themselves if affected by the drought.

International UN Volunteer Solomon Bekele (Ethiopia) has been serving with the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in South Sudan since April 2016 as the Pastoralist Literacy and Education Specialist for the project: Enhanced Knowledge and Education for Resilient Pastoral Livelihoods in South Sudan.

Daniel Gustafson, FAO Deputy Director General and UNV Executive Coordinator Olivier Adam signed a Memorandum of Understanding today aiming at scaling-up their collaboration and making rapid deployments easier.   UNV fields around 6,600 UN Volunteers from more than 150 countries working with dozens of UN organizations and Peacekeeping Operations in more than 120 countries.  FAO currently has 17 UN Volunteers posted in Chad, Honduras, Mongolia, Viet Nam and a host of other duty stations.  

Decades of drought, floods and refugee influx, as well as war and displacement, has meant that the those living here have been through substantial challenges. About 67 per cent of children under the age of two suffer from growth stunting, the highest in the country. Before that, 245 of every 100,000 births ends in death; the second highest infant mortality rate in the country.

I am currently serving as an international UN Youth Volunteer in Agricultural Economics with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Hanoi, Viet Nam. I’m one of the six UN Youth Volunteers fully funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic in 2017.

In Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, the ongoing threat of horrific acts by the insurgency of Boko Haram coupled with the worse drought in recent history have made tending of the land and harvesting of crops nearly impossible for rural populations. This double scourge is pushing millions of Nigerians beyond the brink.

In Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, the ongoing threat of horrific acts by the insurgency of Boko Haram coupled with the worse drought in recent history have made tending of the land and harvesting of crops nearly impossible for rural populations. This double scourge is pushing millions of Nigerians beyond the brink.