Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Lord Avebury (Liberal Democrat). It was answered on Thursday, 16 February 2006.

Africa: Drought and Famine

Question: My Lords, I applaud the efforts that are being made by DfID to help the international agencies to cope with the immediate effects of this appalling drought, but does the noble Baroness agree that we need a long-term strategy to cope with permanent changes in the climate of the region, which are shown by all the computer models to be going in the direction of higher temperatures and lower rainfalls? Can the noble Baroness tell me, in particular, whether the matter came up at the Met Office’s conference earlier this month on avoiding dangerous climate change? Does she not think that we should now talk about coping with dangerous climate change and developing long-term strategies for this region on how to cope with much drier conditions?

Answer: My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Avebury, is right: we need to look at longer-term solutions, and that is precisely why we are supporting the Productive Safety Nets programme in Ethiopia. With respect to the Met Office conference, I cannot answer that question, but if I can find the answer I shall of course write to the noble Lord. It is important to say to the House that, even when there are good rains in this part of the African continent, millions go hungry. They are chronically hungry because of poverty, so we need to look at the underlying causes of that as well. People have no jobs. They are not able to farm effectively because they have no land and no labour. They may be sick because of HIV/AIDS, or they may be disabled. We have to consider all those issues as well as the implications of climate change.

Secondary information

Type: Oral question
Reference: 678 c1262-3
Session: 2005-06
Oral question type: Supplementary
Chamber / Committee: House of Lords chamber
Subjects: Disaster relief Droughts Famine Ethiopia Somalia Kenya Horn of Africa
Link: View this Oral question on www.publications.parliament.uk