On 25 April 2022, over 50 humanitarian organizations and networks, including the ASAL Humanitarian Network (AHN), jointly appealed for immediate and scaled-up funding to address the worsening drought crisis across Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya. The statement, released ahead of the Geneva High-Level Roundtable on the Horn of Africa Drought, warns that over 14 million people were already facing starvation—with numbers projected to rise to 20 million by mid-2022 if rains failed and funding gaps persisted.

The appeal underscores that the drought’s impact—compounded by COVID-19, conflict, locust infestations, and rising food prices due to the war in Ukraine—has pushed households to the brink. Women and children face heightened risks of malnutrition, abuse, and gender-based violence, with 5.7 million children at risk of acute malnutrition.

Citing lessons from Somalia’s 2011 famine and the success of early action in 2017, the statement calls for:

• Immediate humanitarian funding to prevent mass hunger and death.

• Direct, flexible financing to local actors leading community-driven responses.

• Increased investment in resilience and climate adaptation to break recurrent drought cycles.

• Renewed global leadership and political will to ensure the Horn of Africa receives the same urgency and solidarity shown to other crises.

Signatories include Mercy Corps, Oxfam, Concern Worldwide, ALDEF Kenya, DRC, World Vision, Plan International, and the Nexus Platform, among others. The statement emphasizes that delayed action will not only cost lives but also erode a decade of resilience investments in the region.