Before hope dries up

Climate change demands new methods of development cooperation

By Constanze Bandowski

Drought in Kenya © WeissClimate change and the greenhouse effect are on everyone's lips. The consequences affect us all, because the weather is fundamentally changing throughout the world. People in the developing countries are suffering from this particularly severely however: droughts, floods, or hurricanes leave lost harvests, hunger and epidemics in their wake.

It is the poor countries that are affected

The current reports of disasters this autumn alone confirm the dramatic trend. In Guatemala, 400,000 families are threatened by hunger due to drought and the world economic crisis. In West Africa, a once-a-century rainfall event floods fields, roads and houses. Hundreds of thousands are made homeless. In Kenya, 3.8 million people fear for their lives because of a dramatic drought. And in the Gulf of Bengal, more than six million people have lost their homes due to hurricane "Aila".

Reconstruction after
hurricane "Aila" in Myanmar.
© SasseThese are all consequences of global warming – and people are largely responsible. It is precisely in the industrial and emerging industrial countries that riverbanks are concreted up, forests felled, and resources wasted. And that has dire consequences for the natural world. If people in the developing countries are robbed of their means of nutritional subsistence, they leave their homeland, and the number of environmental refugees increases. Welthungerhilfe and other organisations have already been gearing their work to such developments for a long time now.

They help to alleviate the consequences of climate change for the people affected, and to secure harvests and create income-earning opportunities. The root of the problem is tackled with concrete preventive measures. For example, the farmers in the sparsely vegetated areas of Burkina Faso and Mali are protecting their valuable arable land from erosion with stone embankments. This means that the wind and rain can no longer carry away the fertile topsoil.

In India on the other hand, Welthungerhilfe is backing solar energy in areas where wood or other raw materials are in short supply. Small solar panels are as inexpensive as they are effective, and together with simple wood-saving ovens, they provide great benefits for people and the environment. In the case of all these measures, Welthungerhilfe actively involves the women and men in the project areas, in line with its concept of help towards self-help.


Industrialised countries bear responsibility

According to the World Food Organisation (FAO), 16 out of 36 hunger crises in the past year could be traced back to weather-related causes. Only 16 percent of the natural disasters which have occurred since 1980 have been caused by earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. The remainder can be put down to man-made climatic influences.  International aid organisations and politicians face new challenges if they are to provide people in the developing countries with a secure future.

They must take into account climate change in the fight against worldwide hunger. Responsibility lies particularly with the industrialised countries, as the main causers of global warming. The world climate conference in Copenhagen in December this year is intended to establish binding solutions and rules for our use of natural resources.  Welthungerhilfe will campaign for the rich countries to take responsibility and help pay for the resulting costs of climate change in the poor countries.