Extreme drought in Ethiopia stretches drought management systems

This factsheet from the Raising Risk Awareness initiative analyzes the 2015-16 drought in Ethiopia, noting that the event's extreme rarity and severity—influenced by El Niño—strained the capacity of existing national and international preparedness and response systems.

• Ethiopia's agricultural production and food security are tied to two rainy seasons: the belg (February to May), which supports 10% of the population and livestock pasture in the center, and the kiremt (June to mid-September), which supports agriculture in the west. Due to the importance of these seasons, the government receives approximately $USD200 m (£166.2 m) in annual food assistance.
• The 2015-16 drought was triggered by the failure of the spring belg rains on 4 June 2015 and subsequent erratic summer kiremt rains, affecting 9.7 million people. Scientists identified this as an extremely rare event occurring roughly once every few hundred years in central and north-eastern Ethiopia, with the 2015 El Niño event contributing to its severity.
• Existing national and international systems designed for preparedness and response are limited in their capacity to mitigate all the impacts resulting from a very extreme event like the 2015–16 drought.

APA

Climate and Development Knowledge Network (2017). Extreme drought in Ethiopia stretches drought management systems. https://cdkn.org/resource/factsheet-extreme-drought-ethiopia-stretches-drought-management-systems

Chicago

Climate and Development Knowledge Network. Extreme drought in Ethiopia stretches drought management systems. 2017. https://cdkn.org/resource/factsheet-extreme-drought-ethiopia-stretches-drought-management-systems.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |title=Extreme drought in Ethiopia stretches drought management systems |date=14 August 2017 |url=https://cdkn.org/resource/factsheet-extreme-drought-ethiopia-stretches-drought-management-systems |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{climateanddevelopmentknowledgenetwork2017extreme, author = {{Climate and Development Knowledge Network}}, title = {{Extreme drought in Ethiopia stretches drought management systems}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, year = {2017}, month = aug, url = {https://cdkn.org/resource/factsheet-extreme-drought-ethiopia-stretches-drought-management-systems}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }