Excellencies,
Esteemed colleagues,
Ladies and gentlemen,

I would like to extend particular thanks to Dr Diouf and my colleagues at FAO for hosting today’s meeting, to the French Government for making the request, and to all the governments represented here today for recognising the severity of the crisis in the Horn of Africa.

This is a sombre gathering.  The rains have failed in the Horn of Africa, bringing the worst drought to the region in sixty years.

This is not the first time the rains have failed, and it won’t be the last. In this part of the world, drought is becoming ever more frequent. And with drought comes hunger, desperation, disease and death.

Those of us gathered here today cannot make the rains come. But we can respond. And we must do so now. Millions of people are threatened with famine. We must not wait.

In the short term, we must provide immediate and substantial assistance to avert widespread starvation and death. I appeal to all donors to provide the funds for immediate, emergency assistance.

But we must also act now for the medium and long term, building the resilience of those people most vulnerable to drought and other extreme weather events. We must do this so that the next time the rains fail, the countries involved and the people affected are prepared, and are less susceptible to the impact.

Let me speak plainly.  If we do not act now to build this resilience in anticipation of the next drought, we will have failed.

Climate change is a reality.  And even if we cannot say that one specific event has been caused by climate change, we do know that we can expect more frequent and more extreme weather events – we can expect more droughts; we can expect more floods.

These events will not be limited to Somalia, Kenya or the Horn of Africa.  They are a global problem. Today, there are droughts in far-flung parts of the world – from northwest China to the southern United States.  My own country of birth, Nigeria, is coping with the aftermath of floods.

For millions of poor women, men and children, who live in rural areas – on hillsides, in deserts, in floodplains – the speed and intensity of climate change are outpacing their ability to adapt. They must contend with crop failures, loss of livestock, economic losses, higher food prices and greater food insecurity – a near condemnation of innocents to a life of poverty and hunger.

Today, we must commit to working better and together to enable poor people to adapt better to extreme weather events. We must create the conditions where they can first achieve household food security and then produce a surplus to take to market.

It can be done. Even in areas prone to drought or floods. I have just returned from visiting an IFAD-supported poverty reduction programme in the South Gansu province of China, which suffers from frequent drought, limited water for irrigation and severe soil erosion.

But what I witnessed last week was enough to lift the spirits of anyone working in agricultural development. Despite the weather and the harsh environment, the farmers in the Gansu programme area are feeding themselves and increasing their incomes. I met one farmer whose income had risen from only $2 a day in 2006 to $35 a day last year!

Gansu may be a world away from the Horn of Africa, but smallholders contending with drought or flood conditions anywhere in world have common needs. Farmers can thrive, even in a harsh environment, if they have the right policy support; if they have the right training; if they have access to financial services and new agricultural technologies.

Smallholders can thrive if governments invest in rural infrastructure and social services.  They can thrive using simple but effective environmental practices that restore the ecological environment and increase resilience.

The catastrophic impact of the drought in the Horn of Africa underscores the importance of focusing, now, on smallholder farmers vulnerable to climate events.

We must commit to a community-driven development model where rural communities play a central role in influencing decisions that affect their livelihoods. When people devise the strategies themselves, they are invested in their own development and they are more likely to ensure that poverty reduction initiatives are sustainable.

We must increase investment in agricultural research, which has long been neglected by donors and governments alike. Through research, we can develop and distribute seeds that are drought tolerant and disease resistant. Through research, we can develop fodder crops that are better able to withstand stress from too much or too little moisture.

And we must work in partnership, with the support of national and local governments.  Each of us brings our individual strengths to bear in the common cause of ensuring food security and nutrition.

We must do this not just for the Horn of Africa, but for every region in the world where poor people are vulnerable to the impact of extreme weather.

Conferences such as this play an important role in facilitating collaboration and laying the foundation for collaboration.  But conferences will not keep away droughts or floods.  But they can lead to action, concrete action.  And I pray that our Action Plan for the Horn of Africa is do-able and will be done!

Together we can reduce the impact of regular droughts. We can help farmers and herders build their resilience so that when the inevitable happens, when the rains fail, they are prepared. 

Let us not forget, that although drought may be inevitable, famine is not.  Famine is simply inhuman and unacceptable.

Today, the rains have failed, but we must not fail.

Thank you.

FAO, Rome, 25 July 2011