2010 marks the start of the United Nations Decade for Deserts and the Fight against Desertification. This international decade of observance is designed to focus international attention on the importance of drought and desertification, climate change, and poverty.
The United Nations formally recognized the importance of the issue with the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa. The convention is “mindful that desertification and drought affect sustainable development through their interrelationships with important social problems such as poverty, poor health and nutrition, lack of food security, and those arising from migration, displacement of persons and demographic dynamics.”
Africa in particular is extremely vulnerable to drought. Indeed, the World Food Programme has identified the response to drought as one of the key gaps in international disaster prevention and mitigation strategies. Some countries, such as the United States, have used their respective foreign aid agencies to create early warning famine systems, which use geography-related technology to survey agricultural land and predict and prevent famines, based on climate and environmental conditions. The United Nations Environment Programme works to reverse this trend by planting trees as a means of reforestation. Reforestation can reduce the leaching of soil nutrients and increase the fertility of the land, leading to increased food production.
Desertification represents a substantial challenge to poverty reduction, because it usually translated into a decrease in arable land (land that can be farmed), a decrease in the country’s agricultural production, and decreased food availability. This, in turn, will foster malnutrition and chronic hunger. In Angola, for instance, drought is substantial problem and one that requires urgent attention, as agriculture accounts for 8% of gross domestic product—providing incomes to much of its rural populace. In Angola, 35% of the population is estimated to be food insecure and 31% of children are underweight. The country’s global hunger index has been described as “alarming.” Such realities are reflected in the country’s high indicators for child and infant mortality.
Training rural families with the knowledge to practice sustainable farming is key to improving their incomes and the lives of children, for with increased incomes, families will be better empowered to send their children to school.
Globally, every 3.6 seconds, a child dies of hunger. Reversing this trend and halving this statistic comprise part of the first of the Millennium Development Goals to Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger.