Ethiopia, with the help of the World Food Program, has an early warning system that monitors food shortages and communicates danger of famine. This system has been evolving since 1976. Currently, it is implemented by the Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Committee. The activities performed by this Committee include assessing the adequacy of food to local populations, monitoring the effect of climatic variation on food availability, supplying seed or food where necessary, and communicating the risk of famine to a wide audience through media and other means.

The overarching objective of this project is to develop and pilot a range of coping mechanisms for reducing the vulnerability of farmers and pastoralists to future climate shocks.  It hopes to (1) improve livelihood strategies and resilience of vulnerable farmers to cope with drought through farming practices (irrigated crop production, commercial agricultural production, crop diversification, livestock production and marketing, grazing land management, woodland management and tree farming, production of major crops of the area, improved post harvest storage and processing facilities, water h