A preventable crisis: El Nino and La Nina events need earlier responses and a renewed focus on prevention
This report (PDF) by Oxfam addresses various recommendations to deal with the El Nino and the forecast of La Nina. According to Oxfam, El Nino was a preventable crisis and the severity of El Nino’s impacts is a reflection of the world’s failure to provide comprehensive and long-term strategies to anticipate, prepare and adapt. To end this cycle of failure, there is an urgent need for humanitarian action where the situation is already dire, and to prepare for La Niña later this year, in addition to committing to comprehensive new measures to build communities’ resilience, and to mobilize global action to address climate change. Recommendations are directed at governments, regional bodies, and UN agencies and focus on ensuring data collection, implementing preparedness programmes, ensuring communities are informed, and increase investment to expand resilience in small-scale agriculture. The report adds to the earlier recommendations Oxfam made on the Ethiopian crisis caused by El Nino and the paper that addresses the crisis occurring in other countries like Malawi and Mozambique. The early action analysis (PDF) by the FAO adds more specified recommendations for La Nina’s effects on agriculture and food security and provides recommendations for each region that is likely to be affected by La Nina.