The East African Food Crisis: Did Regional Early Warning Systems Function?

This opinion paper evaluates the early warning regional systems in East Africa in 2010 and 2011 and their abilities to predict and warn about the current food insecurity crisis. It provides information on which systems worked and which did not. It explains the potential reasons why and provides future recommendations. Finally, it notes that many organizations/systems assess only individual countries and thus are not able to see the larger regional picture and, therefore, the wider implications of the crisis and response. J. Nutr. 142: 131-133, 2012.