Collaborative Approach to Interagency Communications Spurs Calls for Action in Drought-Stricken Horn of Africa

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) produces early warning reports and analyses that inform humanitarian responses to food security crises within USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) and the broader humanitarian and development community. FEWS NET is a collaborative project that harnesses technical inputs from multidisciplinary teams including agroclimatology scientists, food security analysts, and knowledge, learning, and data experts that serve as the glue between collaborators. FEWS NET's ability to develop evidence-based forecasts of food insecurity and disseminate timely alerts has helped to inform USAID's decision-making and allocate funding to mitigate acute food insecurity crises for nearly four decades.

In late 2021, as FEWS NET agroclimate models forecast an unprecedented fourth consecutive season of drought in the Horn of Africa, project leaders took an adaptive management approach to elevate awareness of this emergency and its potential impacts on peoples' food security and livelihoods, communicating about the crisis beyond the network's usual reporting mechanisms. This effort used collaborating, learning, and adapting (CLA) strategies for consistent messaging as part of an interagency Joint Statement and communications campaign that reflected FEWS NET's robust technical evidence base coupled with a call to humanitarian action. With the strength of regional, international, and global institutions behind it, the Joint Statement provided a cohesive narrative that informed swift decision-making and refocused resources to the region. FEWS NET continues to use lessons learned from this exercise to collaborate - both internally and externally - on communications that amplify awareness of forecasts of urgent concern.