Measuring drought and drought impacts in Red Sea Province, Sudan

The report assesses the 1987 and 1988 drought in Red Sea Province, Sudan putting it in the wider context of other droughts and floods, and the impact of food aid on the province. There are three major coping strategies employed in times of drought, which are essentially intensification of activities already performed. The first of these involves food consumption reduction, the consumption of bush foods, borrowing, the sale of livestock, and herd splitting. The medial responses involve further intensification of activities in the form of calling for loans, selling non-perishable assets, and borrowing from traders. Finally out-migration occurs, but generally only among the old, the women and the children, as working men will already have left the community with the livestock or will be seeking wage employment in towns. The ability to respond to drought depends on economic and social circumstances, as well as age, gender, family size and location. At the macro level, communities are constrained by the level of development, political instability, environmental variation, environmental degradation, and population growth.