Now, in East Africa, the worst in the last 40 years.droughtis occurring. The reason for this is that in this region, which has two rainy seasons per year, four consecutive seasons of adequate rainfallIt's not raining.This is because of the fact that Thereby, in East Africa, many people are suffering from food shortages and severefamineis about to occur. The scale of the damage is substantial, with more than 20 million people in Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia severely food insecure as of July 2022.faceThe company is doing so.

But this is not a revelation now; already in January 2022, the United Nations announced that East Africa is facing its worst drought in 40 years.announcementThe UN has also been involved in theWarning.are being made. It may be difficult to prevent drought as a cause, but if proper measures are taken and prepared for before it develops into famine, the occurrence ofpreventThe government should have been able to do so. However, in order for such measures to be taken, the serious situation on the ground must be known and deemed important by the rest of the world, i.e., it must be reported in the press.indispensableIn Japan, however, the situation has not been reported. So, how much has the East African emergency been reported in Japan? In this article, we will explore the current situation in East Africa and consider the amount of coverage in Japan.

Mothers and children being tested for malnutrition (Ethiopia) (Photo:UNICEF Ethiopia / Flickr [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0])

Famine and Damage in East Africa

So how serious is the situation in East Africa? The figure below is the result of a collaboration of 15 international organizationssystembe (formal, literary)Integrated Food Security Level Classification (IPC)This is a map of acute food insecurity published by the International Food Security Institute (IFSI). Each region is color-coded according to the degree to which it faces an imminent food crisis, with the most severe situation being "famine (IPC 5)," followed by five levels: "humanitarian crisis (IPC 4)," "acute food insecurity (IPC 3)," "food insecurity (IPC 2)," and "food sufficiency (IPC 1)" (*1). The actual situation is divided into five levels: IPC4, IPC3, IPC2, and IPC1. Note that there are some regions that actually face large-scale hunger but have not been fully analyzed for some reason, and Ethiopia is classified as an example of such a region.

Acute Food Insecurity Classification for East Africa and Yemen by IPC (translated by GNV from the English original)

We will look at the meaning of "famine" here. I mentioned above that a famine is "about to occur" in parts of East Africa, but in fact, there are several definitions of the word famine,IPCIn order for a region to be identified as having a "famine" at level 5 in thetermsThe first is that at least 30% children are recognized as severely malnourished; the second is that over two deaths per 10,000 people per day occur due to outright starvation or the interaction of malnutrition and disease; and the third is that over one-fifth of families face severe food insecurity. Currently, the areas in the world identified as famine arenot (verb-negating suffix; may indicate question or invitation with rising intonation)The region is also known as the "humanitarian crisis" or "acute food insecurity" region. However, areas identified as "humanitarian crisis," which is before famine, and "acute food insecurity," which is before famine, make up much of East Africa and other parts of Africa. And in some areas of Somalia, within 2022, "famine" andcertificationThe company is expected to be

So what is the scale of the damage in Africa, which is in such a critical situation? Statistics on deaths have not been collected at this time, but as mentioned at the beginning of this paper, more than 20 million people have been seriously affected in the three East African countries of Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia alone.food shortageIt is estimated that more than 23 million people facewater shortageThe country is suffering from the In addition, more than 3 million livestock have died anddamn!And due to such shortages of food, water, and other resources, more than 1.7 million people are homeless.We're being chased.The following is a list of the most common problems with the

Next, we will look specifically at both Somalia and Kenya, which have been particularly hard hit by drought. Somalia, located in what is known as the "Horn of Africa," is the most affected country in East Africa: as of October 2022, more than 7 million of its citizens were(state of) starvationIn And 386,000 children are on the brink of death.faceSince August, one child has been admitted to a medical facility for acute malnutrition every minute.hospitalizationThe country is in the midst of a In addition to drought, political and public health systems are weak and unstable,armed warThe country also has a high incidence of infectious diseases such as the new coronavirus and cholera. As a result, the humanitarian crisis is severelyenlargementThe famine was so severe that in some areas it was soon recognized as a famine.youIt has come as far as

IPC's Acute Food Insecurity Classification for Somalia (translated by GNV from the English original)

Neighboring Kenya has also been severely affected: as of August 2022, a series of droughts in areas of the north where poverty is particularly prevalent have caused3.5 million peopleare under humanitarian crisis, and food insecurity is a major concern in Kenya as a whole.1.1 million peopleIt is said that Kenya to prepare for successive droughts,National Drought Emergency Fundand stable funding is also being provided by an initiative called thestructureexist. However, because the scale of this drought is unparalleled in recent years, the funds that have been collected are quite insufficient and have been severely damaged.

Acute Food Insecurity Classification for Kenya by IPC (translated by GNV from the English original)

This is also not the first time there has been such a massive drought and associated famine. Somalia has had three famines in the last approximately 10 years.experienceThe famine of 2011, in particular, was on a scale comparable to the current situation. In particular, the famine of 2011 was on a scale comparable to the current situation, with more than 250,000 deaths among the population as a whole. Most of them do not have the capacity to withstand food shortages as well as adults.childIn addition, half of the deaths were due to famine. In addition, half of the deaths were due to famine andBefore certificationHe had died in

Thus, through past famines, the world should have learned that it is too late to wait until a famine certification is announced to respond to a drought and prevent the spread of hunger, and that early action is needed. However, it would be hard to say that the lessons have been learned in the current drought. As for the famine this time around, in fact, by the middle of 2020.alarm bellwas sounded.

cause of famine

There are several causes of this kind of hunger on a large scale. The first and most important cause is drought. As mentioned at the beginning of this article, East Africa has not received sufficient rainfall in the last four rainy seasons. In addition, temperatures are alsoHigher than usualThis has caused even the small amount of water stored in the soil to evaporate. The region is also prone to drought by nature, most recently experiencing a major drought in 2016-2017.droughtwas occurring, but had not yet recovered from the damage of the drought of that time, and was exacerbated by further damage to the weakened environment.

Precipitation, a major factor in drought, has been decreasing over several decades due to climate change, and the recent La Niña phenomenon (*2) has contributed to this.attacking the routed enemyThe increase in temperature due to global warming is also believed to be a major factor. In addition, rising temperatures due to global warming are also a majoraffectIt is believed that this is giving rise to the However, some say that it is not possible to say that such anthropogenic climate change is the only factorvoiceThere are also. Even if climate change were one of the direct causes of the drought, the main cause would not be local, but rather the activities of high-income countries. This is because Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia account for only 3% of the world's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, which contribute to climate change.0.1% (0.1%)in the United States. In other words, they are taking on the price of other countries' CO2 emissions.

Another major problem caused by drought is food shortage. First, the lack of water due to decreased precipitation causes grain to wither and die,Sufficient harvesthave not been able to obtain the same. Not only that, it has adapted to the dry and harsh climate and has long been an important asset for many people living in the region to earn a livingstock-farmingEven the death of so many livestock has successfullyno longer workingThe "new" is a "new".

Somalis using livestock to carry water (Photo:Water Alternatives Photos / Flickr [CC BY-NC 2.0])

Moreover, not only the drought, but also the disparity of wealth in the world.enlargementand lower harvest yields and energy prices.sudden price jumpThe various types of virus, such as the spread of the new coronavirus over a two-year period, have been the main cause of the outbreak.primary factorThe sharp rise in food prices caused by the "Great East Japan Earthquake" has also dealt a major blow. This was followed by Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In Somalia, in particular, the food supply has been60%.The country relies on imports for wheat.90% or moreThe two countries were relying on these two countries for the

Another factor exacerbating hunger is the inability of countries to afford to respond to food insecurity due to their domestic situations and conflicts. As mentioned above, in Somalia, the armed group Al-Shabaab has been operating both inside and outside the country.confusionThe government is making them do it. In addition, Kenya has not given much political attention to drought solutions and assistance during the presidential election in August 2022, because people affected by the drought have difficulty going to the polls and cannot get votes from them, according to thevoiceThe number of people who were also up.

Hunger Prevention

How should measures be taken against such outbreaks of hunger? The premise is that drought does not necessarily lead to famine. It can be prevented from worsening if food systems and infrastructure can be built to withstand drought before the situation worsens, and if financial and food aid from outside the country can be better utilized when the country is unable to cope with drought domestically. In fact, in the past droughts in East Africa, Somalia experienced famine, but Ethiopia was able to survive without many deaths.ExampleThere are also

The way for a nation or community to withstand drought is for the nation or community itself toresilienceis very important. Resilience is the ability to respond to risks such as droughtabilityof the project. To achieve resilience, it is important to build resilient food systems that transcend national borders, and the agricultural system's inclusivereformand infrastructure development, and enough to implement policies.independenceare needed. Such a durable system would lead to stability in the face of successive droughts.

Drought-tolerant maize, which is under development and research in Kenya (Photo:International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center / Flickr [CC BY-NC-SA 2.0])

However, they did not have the food systems and infrastructure in place to withstand a drought of this magnitude. There was not enough money for low-income countries such as Somalia and Kenya to undertake such reforms domestically.sidefrom outside the country, as there are alsofinancial assistanceThe "aid" that is required to be provided by the government is not sufficient. Furthermore, as mentioned above, high-income countries are responsible for causing climate change, which can contribute to droughts, and should therefore actively provide "assistance" in the form of compensation for damages.pointing outThe company has been

And while emergency assistance is needed in the current situation, where preventive measures have not been adequately implemented in advance, it cannot be said that the support from outside the country after the crisis has occurred is also adequate. The UN's request for emergency assistance for the crisis in East Africa is significantly underfunded, and as of November 5, 2022, the achievement rate was only at56%.in Kenya.65%.The total amount of aid has been Of the total aid already collected, the Japanese government has provided Somalia with an overall0.9% (0.9%)For Kenya, the0.4% (0.4%)The company's investment in the company is limited to an investment of

Long-term attention is essential to provide the support needed for a nation to gain resilience before such a crisis occurs, and to strengthen support from outside the country after a crisis has occurred. The power of the press is essential for this purpose. The press has the power to raise a variety of issues to the public, and differences in coverage can make a difference in the public's awareness of the issues.lead to a differenceIt is said. And this will be the difference in humanitarian aid by the government. This is because the public's awareness of the problem puts pressure on the government to provide humanitarian assistance.promptFrom.

Press Coverage of Drought and Hunger

We conducted a survey (*3) of the Asahi Shimbun, Mainichi Shimbun, and Yomiuri Shimbun for the 10-month period from January 1, 2022, to October 31, 2022, to determine how much coverage there was of the East African emergency in Japan. As mentioned at the beginning of this report, the drought in East Africa is said to be the worst in 40 years, and the famine is the worst in the world, yet the three newspapers combined had only five articles on this subject in the 10-month period, The situation had already been foreseen at the beginning of 2022, and the alarm bells had been sounded many times since then. However, none of the newspapers covered the spread of the damage, and only mentioned it in one sentence in an article on another topic.

Let us look at how the news was reported, newspaper by newspaper. In the Asahi Shimbun, two articles were written on the subject of drought in Africa.（Two Years of Drought, Starving Northern Kenya Government Declares "National DisasterThe second is a May 18 article titled "(Notes on the Reporting) Drought in Africa: Climate Change is Not Just a Matter of Life and Death Yuji EndoThe article was titled "Drought in Africa," and no articles about the drought in Africa have been transmitted since May 18. During the same period, there were 14 articles in which the issue was mentioned only. For example, on May 20articleIn the article describing the agricultural damage suffered by Ukrainians as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, there was only a vague statement in the article that the food crisis in Africa was exacerbated by the skyrocketing food prices caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Ethiopian women and their children under a tree waiting for medical diagnosis (Photo:UNICEF Ethiopia / Flickr [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0])

Only one article on the subject of drought in Africa was written in the Mainichi, the February 10 "Drought in Africa, over 13 million people feared starvingThe article is titled "The New York Times," but it is based on an article by Kyodo News. However, this is an article by Kyodo NewsarticleThe article was the one that was published in the magazine. Did they decide that it was an issue that should be covered but was not worth sending a correspondent to cover? There were 15 articles in which this issue was mentioned only. For example, in the August 30articleIn an editorial written on the occasion of the African Development Conference hosted by the Japanese government, the editorial mentioned that droughts caused by climate change are causing famine in Africa, but only in a single sentence.

The Yomiuri Shimbun has written two articles on the subject of famine in Africa, the first on June 22, "Soaring Food Prices Followed by South Sudan Displaced Persons Camps Africa Export RestrictionsThe second article, also from June 22, titled "87,000 South Sudanese "starving" in aftermath of Russian invasionThe article was titled "The problem. And there were 18 articles that only mentioned this issue. For example, in the September 21articleIn the article on the UN Secretary-General's speech on the general debate on climate change, food crisis, etc. throughout the world, there was mention of a severe drought in Africa, but no specific figures or expressions to convey the severity of the situation were found.

Thus, all three companies wrote one or two articles on the subject of drought and famine in Africa, followed by only vague references to it. Not once did each company report on the steadily worsening situation after June, when the articles on the subject were written.

In the following section, we will look specifically at the breakdown of news coverage of the crisis in East Africa. Here, we categorized articles mentioning East Africa by the subject matter of the article. As a result, the most common subject of articles mentioning the issue was about Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with a total of 13.5 articles (*4). While the number of articles with either Russia or Ukraine as the subject alone is large, the number increases even more when it is mentioned in an article on another subject, with 75% of all articles mentioning this conflict among those that mentioned the crisis in Africa. In fact, the next most common subject of articles mentioned, articles about the food crisis in the world in general, are often described in conjunction with Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and of the 11 articles in which the food crisis is the subject (*4), descriptions of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine can be found in all of them. In addition, a total of 9.5 articles (*4) mentioned in articles related to Africa, and a total of 6 articles (*4) mentioned in articles related to climate change.

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As we have discussed, the drought in East Africa is about to cause famine as well, and is probably the most serious situation in the world. However, droughts are also occurring in other parts of the world.

WHEREAS.Integrated Food Security Level Classification (IPC)shows that in 2022, there will be 11 countries in the world (*5) that are in Category Level 4 "Humanitarian Crisis" and 36 countries in Category Level 3 "Acute Food Insecurity". All of these countries are located in Africa, Central and West Asia, and Latin America, of which 31 are in Africa.IPCwill affect more than 20% of the country's population if food insecurity affects more than 20% of the country's population and the classification levelannouncementdo. During the same period, droughts were reported in Europe, the U.S., and China, but in none of them did the affected population reach 20% of the population, so there was no leveling off and few cases of large-scale hunger were reported.

So how well do the Japanese media report on every drought in the world? As before, we surveyed (*6) the Asahi Shimbun, Mainichi Shimbun, and Yomiuri Shimbun over a 10-month period from January 1, 2022 to October 31, 2022.

As a result, the total number of articles on the subject of drought in the first place was very small overall, 16 in all. Of these, Africa was by far the largest drought and the number of people affected.seriousYet, as shown in the graph below, it has received less coverage than droughts in regions such as Asia and Europe, and only about as much as in North America.

Looking specifically at the data, of the articles in which drought was the subject, all of the articles that mentioned Asia were about China. Among Asia, China has the largest drought and famine, along with Africa, and is classified at IPC's classification level 4, "humanitarian crisisThe coverage of Afghanistan and Yemen, which are also considered "areas of the world," was only mentioned in articles on other subjects, and there were no articles on the subject at all (*7).

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To eliminate differences in coverage

Thus, the current situation in East Africa is hardly reported in Japan. What is the reason for this? First of all, the problem of hunger and the nature of news reporting can be considered. Hunger takes a long and slow time to become serious. News reports, however, are not as effective as they could be because of some suddenness or freshness of information.attaching importance toThe world is a very different place. Therefore, issues such as hunger are less likely to make the news.

Furthermore, even among those few reports on drought and hunger, the amount of coverage is skewed by region, but what is the cause of this skew? It lies in the fact that news reports tend to be concerned with high-income and high-income countries around the world. In reporting, low-income countries, where hunger often occurs, are lessattentionThe Russian invasion of Ukraine is now attracting excessive attention. And now, with excessive attention on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, coverage of low-income countries, which was small to begin with, is increasinglyless and lessThe situation has remained the same. The massive food crisis in Africa was also often mentioned only in news reports on the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

Thus, there is a disparity in the amount of coverage due to several factors, and it is difficult to say that human life is being taken into account in the reporting. One of the reasons why droughts cause starvation and develop into famines may be the lack of media coverage of the issue. As mentioned above, the press has a role to play in raising the issue to the publiceffectand this has also led to humanitarian assistance by the government. The lack of Japanese government support for the current drought in East Africa is probably not unrelated to the lack of media coverage in Japan. Instead of focusing only on high-income countries and focusing only on the same problems, as is currently the case, it may be necessary to focus on areas where many lives will be lost if attention is not paid to them.

Right now, Somalia is on the verge of being recognized as a famine. Will the Japanese press and the Japanese government finally make a move if it is recognized as a famine?

1 Although new information is updated daily, the forecast for October-December 2022 is shown and does not exactly match the current situation.
note 2 (supplementary information)La Niña phenomenonis a phenomenon in which sea surface temperatures remain below normal in the equatorial Pacific Ocean from near the date line to the coast of South America.
3 Search for Africa AND ( hunger OR famine OR drought OR drought OR drought OR drought ) in the respective databases of the Mainichi Shimbun, Yomiuri Shimbun, and Asahi Shimbun (for the period January 1, 2022 to October 31, 2022). The items were then classified according to the context in which they appeared. The same text was counted as one item. In addition, many of the articles that were found in the search did not mention drought and famine in Africa, and these were not counted.
4 As in the analysis of media coverage, articles with two separate subject matters were counted as 0.5 each.
5 Countries with areas of classification level 4 "humanitarian crisis" are Afghanistan, Angola, Yemen, Kenya, Somalia, Central African Republic, Nigeria, Niger, Haiti, Burkina Faso, and South Sudan.
6 Search for drought in the respective databases of the Mainichi Shimbun, Yomiuri Shimbun, and Asahi Shimbun (for the period January 1, 2022 to October 31, 2022). Drought articles were categorized according to the region in which they mentioned drought. However, articles that mentioned two droughts were counted as 0.5 each, and articles with exactly the same text were counted as one, and articles that only mentioned one drought were not counted.
7 In terms of articles that only mentioned the topic, many articles mentioned Afghanistan and North America, with 12 articles mentioning the drought in Afghanistan and 7 mentioning the drought in North America. The drought in Afghanistan was mentioned because of the 2021Talebanwas in power, and the increased attention that was paid to the period studied, June 22, 2022.Afghanistan earthquakeoccurred.

Writer: Yuna Nakahigashi