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STORY: ROME / HORN OF AFRICA FOLLOW-UP
TRT: 1.37
SOURCE: FAO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/ FRENCH /NATS
DATELINE: 18 AUGUST, ROME ITALY / FILE
1. Pan right, audience
2. SOUNDBITE (French) Jacques Diouf, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General:
“Agricultural production has been reduced even in Somalia’s most productive areas. Under investment, degradation of resources and conflict, have exacerbated this serious problem.”
3. Med shot, journalist
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Sally Kosgei, Minister for Agriculture, Kenya:
“Those who live in the refugee camps live among people who are equally starving. And as some of you may know, sixty percent of Kenya is arid or semi-arid. We have a disaster management strategy in that country which has been in response in action for some time, but given the current crisis, our resources there and our management capabilities have been stretched to the limit.”
5. Pan right, audience
FILE - 2010, SOUTHERN SOMALIA
6. Various shots, herders collecting water
7. Various shots, food market
8. Various shots, women working the land
Agriculture ministers from the 191 Member States of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), senior officials from the African Union and representatives from NGOs and other UN agencies gathered in Rome today (18 August) for a United Nations-convened meeting to discuss ways to boost food security in the drought-prone Horn of Africa.
The meeting aims to take stock of the situation in Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya and Somalia, where more than 12 million people are facing a severe food crisis spawned by the region’s worst drought in six decades.
According to FAO, food producing farmers and herders need immediate help to prevent the crisis from deepening.
FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf told the meeting that agricultural production has been reduced even in Somalia’s most productive areas and that underinvestment, degradation of resources and conflict “have exacerbated this serious problem.”
Five regions of south-central Somalia have been declared famine zones with tens of thousands of people, mostly children, thought to have died of starvation and related diseases in recent months.
The Minister for Agriculture of Kenya, Sally Kosgei, sounded an alarm about the situation Somali refugees flowing into Kenya.
She noted that those now in refugee camps “live among people who are equally starving.” She said that “given the current crisis, our resources there and our management capabilities have been stretched to the limit.”
The day-long meeting at FAO headquarters in Rome ended with a call for a twin track approach that involves both meeting pressing relief needs as well as addressing the root causes of the problem and strengthening the affected populations' resilience in the face of future shocks.
