Nairobi, Kenya - East African ministers meeting here Thursday are expected to adopt a wide-ranging action plan, seeking rapid increments in long-term financing of drought-control measures, to deal with a cycle of drought and starvation in the Horn of Africa region. Kenya’s Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula said the Nairobi Action Plan, set for adoption at the one-day regional ministerial meeting, would pave the way for a robust international support for efforts to tackle the region’s cycle of drought and starvation.

“We need to build water dams, to conserve water, build the roads and rail infrastructure, to efficiently deliver aid and invest in human capital, including schools and health services,” Wetangula said of the Nairobi Action Plan.

The plan will form the basis for talks later this month in New York, where UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon will mobilise the world’s leaders to assist Somalia.

The 24 Sept. UN Summit will discuss measures needed to aid Somalia and the Horn of Africa region to deal with its cycle of drought, conflict and famine.

“We must solve our problems. They (European Union and the international community) give us therapies, like responding to an emergency, but we as Africans have to solve our problems in the long-run, they cannot come to till our lands and build dams for us, but they can provide the funds for us to build the dams,” Wetangula said.

Foreign Ministers from Burundi, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Rwanda, Kenya, Sudan, Somalia, and South Sudan are attending the meeting to discuss the Nairobi Action Plan, which could incorporate the sharing of the US$300 million recently pledged for the region’s famine.

The Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), Mahboub Maalim, said talks were scheduled in Djibouti on 14 September, to discuss the funding of the regional plans required to help deal with the crisis in the Horn of Africa.

“We require synergies to deal with the famine in Somalia. We require long-term programmes so that resources can be shared. But we have often taken long to respond because we lack the funds to respond,’' Mahboub said.

Djibouti’s President Omar Guelleh has previously hit out at the region for failing to act on regional drought warnings, saying water storage facilities were required to be in place for the region to deal with its cycle of drought and famine.

“A drought alert was issued in October 2010 by the IGAD Centre for Climate Monitoring and Prediction, based in Nairobi. It happened that we did not have the money to move, not because we did not know that the drought was coming but we did not have the funds,” the IGAD official told journalists.

Meanwhile, Horn of African leaders are expected to gather here Friday for talks aimed at reaching long-term solutions to the famine and starvation crisis facing the region.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, South Sudanese leader Salva Kiir, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, and African Union Commission’s Deputy Chairperson Erastus Mwencha are due to attend the one-day Summit.

Pana 08/09/2011