Famine debate, conceptual framework, and study approach; Record of drought and household-level consequences in western Sudan; Drought-production relationships; Prices and market disconnections during famines; Implications of drought and famine for consumption and nutrition; Past policies and programs for coping with drought and famine; Policy conclusions.

The report assesses the occurrence and impacts of drought, the current policies underlying drought management as well as the mitigation measures and responses adopted in the Near East and North Africa region, with a focus on the Agriculture Sector. It is the third of a series of similar studies carried out in different regions and countries of the world, with the objective of shedding light on drought effects, sensitizing policy-makers for the much needed paradigm shift to pro-active drought management planning and providing guidance for the development of such policies. The studies are carried out by FAO, in collaboration with the Water for Food Institute, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA, as a direct contribution to FAO's Strategic Objective "increasing the resilience of livelihoods to disasters" and Strategic Objective "make agriculture, forestry and fisheries more productive and sustainable".

In 2003, Darfur started to attract the attention of the international community following the outbreak of the conflict. Since then, much is being written on what is happening on the ground, much less about the root causes of the conflict, and that is the reason why it has been looked at from a political perspective rather than from a scientific one. It has been described by many as genocide, resembling the tragedy of the 21st century. A tragedy of climate change explains how the adverse of climate change has affected Darfur since the 1970s, and how the affect has intensified since the 1980s when the region witnessed a severe drought and famine. These symptoms include the expanding desertification, the decreased rainfall and the land degradation left dire consequences. As a result, more Darfurians are competing for access to land, water, and other natural resources than at any other time. The increased competition only further aggravates the already uneasy political, social, and ethnic relationships in the Darfur region. This book seeks to critically analyze the role of climate change in intrastate conflicts in less developed countries, and links between climate change and the untraditional concept of security threats.

'Sound and solid case studies on vulnerability and adaptation have been woefully lacking in the international discourse on climate change. This set of books begins to bridge the gap.' Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of United Nations Environment Programme 'Important reading for students and practitioners alike.' Martin Parry, Co-Chair, Working Group II (Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 'Fills an important gap in our understanding ... It is policy-relevant and deserves to be widely read.' Richard Klein, Senior Research Fellow, Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), Sweden The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded in its 2001 report that much of the developing world is highly vulnerable to adverse impacts from climate change. But the IPCC also concluded that the vulnerabilities of developing countries are too little studied and too poorly understood to enable determination of adaptation strategies that would be effective at reducing risks. These authoritative volumes, resulting from the work of the Assessments of Impacts and Adaptations to Climate Change (AIACC) project launched by the IPCC in 2002, are the first to provide a comprehensive investigation of the issues at stake. Climate Change and Vulnerability discusses who is vulnerable to climate change, the nature of their vulnerability and the causes of their vulnerability for parts of the world that have been poorly researched until now. Climate Change and Adaptation covers current practices for managing climate risks to food security, water resources, livelihoods, human health and infrastructure, needs for effective management of climate risks, the changing nature of the risks, strategies for adaptation, and the need to integrate these strategies into development planning and resource management.

An important read for academics and policy-makers alike, Hard Choices, Soft Law asserts that voluntary standards, or 'soft' law, are an important supplement to international law in a number of areas. This key work firstly outlines the approach taken to combining soft and hard law and trade, environment and labour values in the WTO and NAFTA, and in the prospective Millennium Round. Then, using the forestry sector - a realm where formal international law remains largely absent - the book provides a detailed examination of the role of soft law in action. It demonstrates how soft and hard law can be combined to promote trade, environmental and social cohesion, in ways that also permit sustainable development. The book presents a wealth of knowledge from a range of contributors familiar with the work of the G7/G8, the OECD, the Biodiversity Convention and the Codex Alimentarius.

This book presents an empirical study of the role of knowledge in the making of the climate-security nexus. Climate change might give the Soviet Union a competitive advantage in the Cold War. Extreme droughts contributed to wars in Darfur, Syria or Yemen. Melting sea ice creates geopolitical risks. Russia’s climate-destroying hydrocarbons enabled its invasion of Ukraine. These are just some of the many ways in which climate change and conflicts have been linked into a climate-security nexus. In this innovative book, Matti Goldberg considers how such connections are constructed and asks to what extent they are driven by evidence and science. Goldberg describes the tools used to present the wars of Darfur and Syria as “climate wars” and considers the fragmented role of the sciences in those presentations as well as the resulting patterns of influence and marginalization of impacted populations. The author also highlights how the international community can better integrate the situations of people at the frontlines of climate change into policymaking and, based on an analysis of the dynamic nature of power, identifies potential entry points for positive change. This book is a must-read for researchers interested in climate-security links, in science-policy interfaces, and in the formation of nexuses of issues in international politics. It is also of interest to practitioners working on the climate-security nexus and science-policy interfaces.

Famine in Africa: a special case? Framework to examine famine; Dimensions of the famine problem in Ethipia and Sudan; Causes of famine; How the food insecure cope; Policies and programs for reducing food insecurity; Policy conclusions and recommendations.

Covers the period from the 1960s to 1990s.

After a decade of uneasy peace, the historic conflict between the North and South Sudanese erupted into violent conflict in 1983 This ferocious civil war, witti its Arab militias and widespread use of automatic weapons, has devastated the populace. In additon to the miseries of war, drought and famine took a further toll on an already battered societyalthough this regional calamity remains largely unknown to the outside world, over 1,000,000 people have either perished or been displaced. Furthermore, the Sudanese government seemed little inclined to help its own people Requiem for the Sudan provides a chilling account of the ravages of drought and civil war, graphically recounting how attempts by international agencies and humanitarian organizations to provide food and medical reliefhave been thwarted by bureaucratic infighting, corruption, greed, and ineptitude. Based on a wealth of previously unpublished documents, Requiem for the Sudan clearly illustrates how the failure of conflict resolution, organizational mismanagement, and a government hostile toward its own people had tragic human consequences.