Drought, the War in Europe and Its Impacts on Food Insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa, East Africa

Conflict, droughtDrought, and dependency on food import are leading concerns for food securityFood security in Eastern AfricaEastern Africa (EA). This region is vulnerable to drought and the adverse effects of international security, due to its heavy reliance on rainfed agricultureRainfed agriculture and food imports. This chapter reviews evidence of the adverse effects of drought and the war in Europe on food security in EA. The literature has established that climate change, in general, and specifically droughtDrought, has already impacted people subsistence means significantly, evidenced by a decline in crop yield and food productionFood production. It has also indicated a price increase of imported food and non-food commodities since the launch of the Russia-Ukraine war. These factors affect all components of food securitySecurity, which include, but are not limited to food availabilityFood availability, food accessibility, food utilisation, and food stability and, hence, increase the risk of hunger and violent conflictsConflict in the region. The chapter has confirmed that there is general consensus that EA is among the regions that are most vulnerable to droughtDrought (climate change), as well as global security. The chapter suggests further that policymakersPolicymakers and development agencies should focus on formulating and implementing policiesPolicy and programmes that would ensure that farmers across the region promote farm level adaptation strategiesAdaptation strategies, as well as climate-smart agricultureClimate-Smart Agriculture (CSA), and climate-smart livelihoods (CSL). This should be done alongside other price regulating factors such as subsidies on staple food crops and fertilisers. It is also crucial that the region reduces its level of food imports by encouraging local production or substituting some of the import products by locally available materials. In this regard, social protection programmes must account for the potential increases in seasonal price variability to enhance household resilienceResilience to weather shocks.