Kenya focus on drought as it marks World Humanitarian Day

Nairobi, 19 August 2009: The United Nations and NGO partners in Kenya marked World Humanitarian Day at the United Nations Office at Nairobi today. This year’s commemoration is the first in humanitarian history, following the decision of the sixty-third United Nations General Assembly last December to designate 19 August, date of the bombing at the UN’s Baghdad headquarters in 2003, as World Humanitarian Day.
The ceremony highlighted the devastating impact of the current drought on food security, health, water, agriculture and livestock. Furthermore, worsening drought conditions have led to social instability with increased resource-based conflicts resulting in displacements and deaths.
Globally, World Humanitarian Day 2009 had three areas of focus: To draw attention to humanitarian needs worldwide; To acknowledge the ongoing work of humanitarian staff around the globe; To honour those who have lost their lives in humanitarian service. Under the theme The Human Face of Drought, UN and NGOs depicted the effects of drought in Kenya through a photo exhibition at the United Nations Office in Nairobi.
Kenya currently faces a multitude of challenges due to drought. The long rains in 2009 were poor in most parts of the country and this has caused severe water shortages even as available pasture has reduced in the arid and semi-arid lands. Food prices have doubled over the past year so that many Kenyans cannot afford regular meals. Pastoralists’ food security and their livelihoods are under threat while malnutrition rates have soared beyond emergency levels in districts like Mandera and Turkana. Young people in the marginal producing areas in rural areas are migrating to cities to search for employment and income, but high prices of essential commodities just increase the vulnerability of populations living in the urban informal settlements.
World Humanitarian day in Kenya marks the beginning of a solutions-oriented five-year advocacy campaign to highlight the fact that drought does not have to lead to emergencies. In the coming months, the UN looks forward to partnering with the Government of Kenya to End Drought Emergencies in Kenya, by supporting emergency responses while looking forward to collaborative ways that all humanitarian and development partners can collaborate to tackle the root causes of recurrent drought emergencies.
UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon marked the day from UN Headquarters in New York stating “It is, above all, a day (WHD) on which we renew our commitment to help vulnerable, voiceless and marginalized people wherever they may be. That is the abiding mission of the humanitarian community.”