Famine in Somalia: A Rift Valley Forum Meeting, Mar. 22 2016 @ RVI Office – Kileleshwa

Launch of Famine in Somalia: Competing Imperatives, Collective Failures, 2011-12

Date: March 22, 2016
Venue: Rift Valley Institute Office, Seminar Room
Time: 2-4 pm
Entry: Prior Reservation, RSVP here

About
In 2011, the scale of famine taking grip in Somalia was just beginning to receive international attention. Although famine had been predicted almost a year earlier, it was not until July that famine was formally declared. Some 250,000 people died in the southern Somalia in the famine, which also displaced and destroyed the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of others, many of whom sought refuge in Kenya.

On Tuesday 22 March 2016, the Rift Valley Forum will host the Nairobi launch of Famine in Somalia: Competing Imperatives, Collective Failures, 2011-12. This new book by Dan Maxwell and Nisar Majid is based on extensive research in Somalia and the region. It examines the causes of the famine, the trade-offs between competing policy priorities that led to it, the collective failure in response, and how those affected by it attempted to protect themselves and their livelihoods. Its analysis of the humanitarian response, includes the role played by Turkey, the Middle East, and Islamic charities worldwide — actors that had not previously been particularly visible in Somalia.

Copies of the book will be on sale during the Forum.

More information on the book can be found here.

Nairobi Forum: Learning from the 2011 Famine in Somalia, Nov.13 2014 @ BIEA/IFRA

Learning from the 2011 Famine in Somalia

Date: Thursday, 13 November 2014
Venue: BIEA Seminar Room
Location: Laikipia Road, Kileleshwa
Time: 6-8 pm

In 2011, people in Somalia suffered a catastrophic famine. Since 2012, a group from the Feinstein Center at Tufts University and the Rift Valley Institute has been conducting retrospective research on the famine in Somalia, and in the Horn of Africa region more broadly, with the aim of providing empirical evidence to help prevent or mitigate such crises in the future. The research has examined the causes of the famine, how different groups in Somalia experienced it, and international responses to the crisis.

A report examining the lessons arising from this international response to the famine in 2011 was published in August. It is available here.

In this public meeting, hosted by the RVI’s Nairobi Forum, Dan Maxwell and Nisar Majid will present the key research findings and discuss the policy implications.

Entrance is by prior registration only.
Register here.