Time to scale up African solutions for continent's food, climate crises

Livestock carcasses in drought-stricken Korbesa village in Isiolo. [File, Standard]

When it comes to climate change, there is no greater challenge than making sure Africa can feed itself. Right now, the Horn of Africa is suffering its worst drought in four decades, with UNICEF warning that 20 million children are at risk of severe hunger, thirst, and disease.

What makes this crisis especially pressing is that it is not a freak event; it is Africa's new normal. Rising global temperatures are playing havoc with the rainfall patterns that hundreds of millions of smallholder farmers rely on. Large portions of Africa are warming at a rate twice the global average, putting half a billion people at risk.