1002. Drought in Southern Africa Caused by El Niño

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has recently announced that it anticipates a shift from El Niño conditions to El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO)-neutral during April-June 2024 (85% chance), with the possibility of La Niña development from June to August 2024 (60% chance). 

This El Niño phenomenon has been accompanied by a variety of extreme weather events around the world. Since the beginning of this year, several African countries have experienced severe droughts, and Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique are facing a food crisis emergency. According to information released on April 15 by a website run by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 20 million people in southern Africa are reportedly facing acute hunger due to drought caused by El Niño. 

Just on April 18, World Weather Attribution, which analyzes the causal relationship between extreme events and climate change, announced that large parts of Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Angola, Mozambique, and Botswana experienced rainfall that was 20% below the average for February and for this reason, many people who rely on rain-fed agriculture faced a food security crisis. While the analysis indicated that the drought was more likely caused by the El Niño phenomenon than by climate change, the report emphasized the urgency of addressing the severe drought caused by ENSO in southern Africa in the future as climate change progresses. 

Along with emergency assistance, research and development support is needed to build climate-resilient agricultural systems in the medium to long term.

The following information is from the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) Programme.

Japan-UNV Partnership to Address Water and Food Crises Caused by Climate Change and Drought in Sub-Saharan African Countries

The United Nations Volunteers (UNV), through the "Japan-UNV Partnership to Address Water and Food Crises Caused by Climate Change and Drought in Sub-Saharan African Countries," is recruiting Japanese experts, mainly in the fields of water and food security, social and economic recovery, strategic policy formulation, and inter-agency coordination, to serve as UN volunteers for 10 months.

◆Application deadline: Monday, April 29, 2024 (tentative)
◆Details: https://unv.or.jp/news/2798/ (link in Japanese)
◆Webinars: (links in Japanese)
4/24(水)18:00～18:45　UNV Open Recruitment Seminar for Spring 2024 (Register here: https://unv.or.jp/news/2855/)
4/26(金)18:00～19:00　Introduction to UN Volunteers (Register here: https://unv.or.jp/news/2851/)

UNV experience provides a valuable opportunity to deepen your knowledge and skills in a specific field of expertise and the UN system, and is considered as work experience when applying for the Junior Professional Officer (JPO) Programme. We look forward to hearing from you if you are interested in a career with the UN or other international organizations.

◆For inquiries, please contact：

The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) Tokyo Liaison Office
unv.tokyo@unv.org
 

Contributor: IIYAMA Miyuki (Information Program)