Prime Minister addresses IGAD Drought Resilience Summit

His Excellency Prime Minister Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed, today addressed the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Drought Resilience Summit calling on IGAD to “work harder together to sustainably save lives in our drought prone region”. The meeting held in Kampala is the second IGAD summit on drought resilience following the devastating drought of 2010-2011.

Addressing the Summit Prime Minister Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed, said:

“Drought is one of the root cause of conflict and underdevelopment. Across the IGAD region there are now five times more people living in the drought-prone pastoral areas than there were 60 years ago.

“We must focus on early warning and preparedness in drought prone communities and a quick response when drought hits, moving quickly and strongly. Our region will always be hit by drought and we have to be prepared and responsive. We have to work and craft long term solutions to continue to mitigate through safety nets and by building resilience.

“As a region we must harmonise our approach on cross boarder issues including refugees, trade and strengthening peace and security, this is what we are doing across the IGAD region. To do this we must build regional infrastructure for greater regional integration and find regional solutions to reduce our reliance on aid. By continuing to work together and doing things differently to prevent and alleviate the devastating impact drought can have.

“We must move forward to a sustainable solution to drought and Somalia strongly commits to regional efforts to find that solution. All of us: regionals, internationals and governments must work harder and smarter together to sustainably save lives in our drought prone region.”