This joint WFP and Action Against Hunger publication presents the impacts of El Niño in LAC, highlighting the emergency response and resilience activities taken to mitigate the effect of climate shocks in the region. The publication underscores the significance of adequate anticipation, preparedness, and response to climate emergencies in LAC. …
ROME (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Some 23 million farmers in drought-hit Southern Africa need urgent help to prepare for the next planting season with only a few weeks left before it begins, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Thursday. FAO said failure to help farmers in time …
BOGOTA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Honduras must develop a long term approach to combat the impact of drought exacerbated by climate change and put the poorest and most vulnerable at the center of government initiatives and funding, a U.N. special envoy said. Two consecutive years of severe drought linked to …
Protracted conflicts affecting 17 countries have driven millions of people into severe food insecurity and are hindering global efforts to eradicate malnutrition, two UN agencies have warned in a report submitted to the UN Security Council. A new series of 17 country briefs prepared by the United Nations' Food and …
Molefi Ramantele, a small-scale livestock farmer who ekes out a living in Botswana's arid scrubland, lost a third of his cattle in the drought that has scorched southern Africa. "My life is my cattle. I have never seen it so bad...It will take me years to get them back," the …
Race against time in drought-ravaged Southern Africa to ensure 23 million people receive farming support. At least $109 million is urgently required for the provision of seeds and other agricultural inputs and services. With only a few weeks before land preparation begins for the next main cropping season, some 23 …
Southern African countries have launched an emergency appeal for $2.8bn (£2.1bn) to help feed nearly 40 million people hit by one of the worst regional droughts in 35 years. According to the South African Development Community, which comprises 15 countries, 23 million people require urgent humanitarian assistance and a further …
Each week, Lucia Thedzi and her five children go one or two days without eating. Some weeks, the family survives on nuts the size of golf balls but with meager flesh inside. Living in a small village on the hot, flat plains of Chikwawa in southern Malawi, they have little …
ALBANIA, Colombia – A “water train” travels regularly along the railway between La Mina and Puerto Bolivar, bringing the precious liquid to dozens of towns to help alleviate the drought besetting the residents of Colombia’s Caribbean zone of Alta Guajira. An initiative of mining company Cerrejon, which operates the largest …
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that more than 60 million people, two thirds of them in east and southern Africa, are facing food shortages because of droughts linked to El Niño.
June marks 14 consecutive months of record heat for the globe. Average sea surface temperature was also record high, Persistent heat on land and in the sea this June shattered records, yet again. June 2016 was 1.62 degrees F above the 20th century average, breaking last year’s record for the …
NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Tens of thousands of children across southern Africa are being pushed out of school and into early marriage or child labor because of drought and hunger caused by the El Nino weather pattern, charities said on Wednesday. Southern Africa has been hard hit over the …
Some 18 million people from seven southern Africa countries require emergency food aid, according to the latest report by World Food Programme. The food security crisis in the region has been attributed to El Nino weather patterns which triggered unexpected droughts and prolonged dry spells last year. Lesotho, Mozambique, Malawi, …
This June has joined every other month of this year so far in setting an all-time monthly record for global temperatures, according to two separate US science agencies - although the globe was not as warm last month as it was earlier in the year. "Warmer to much-warmer-than-average conditions dominated …
The El Nino weather pattern is likely to dissipate by early August, giving way to La Nina, two top officials of the Indian weather office said on Tuesday, swelling already bountiful monsoon rains that are crucial for India's farm sector. India is almost halfway through its four-month monsoon season and …
In April 2016, the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, Stephen O’Brien, alerted governments gathered in Geneva that they collectively faced “an alarming funding gap of over $2.2 billion” to respond to El Niño food crisis. As the same donor officials prepare to attend the high level event on El Niño …
Conditions created by the strong El Niño event that warmed up Pacific waters in 2015 and early 2016 altered rainfall patterns around the world. In the Amazon basin, that meant reduced rainfall during the wet season, plunging some parts of the region into severe drought. According to NASA, the Amazon …
The devastating impacts of the 2015–16 El Niño will be felt well into 2017. This crisis was predicted, yet overall, the response has been too little too late. The looming La Niña event may further hit communities that are already deeply vulnerable. To end this cycle of failure, there is …
Researchers are increasingly concerned that the Amazon rain forest — the world’s largest tropical forest, a huge repository of carbon and a vital cycler of water into rainfall across much of South America — will soon burn in a way that has not been seen in many years. The reason …
2014 and 2015 each set the record for hottest calendar year since we began measuring surface temperatures over 150 years ago, and 2016 is almost certain to break the record once again. It will be without precedent: the first time that we’ve seen three consecutive record-breaking hot years. But it’s …
The United Nations' food agency said on Thursday it needed $730 million over the next 12 months for relief in seven southern African countries hit hard by a blistering drought and faced a $610 million shortfall. The World Food Programme (WFP) said in a statement the seven countries were Malawi, …
