The region covering the East African Community and the entire horn of Africa region is currently facing serious drought and famine that has not been witnessed in recent decades.

Citizens of these countries are grappling with the debilitating food shortages, with appeals out for relief to feed the hungry thousands. Hundreds of Somalis in the war-ravaged country have died of hunger and thousands are crossing everyday into Kenya in search of food and shelter.

The consequences of the deteriorating food situation in the region as well as the other related calamities should worry everyone. It is for this reason that the planned regional Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) platform among EAC member countries is welcome. It must be said that such a strategy is long overdue, considering that the revived EAC community has been in place for over a decade now.

A warning should be sounded. It is one thing to come up with good strategies and platforms and a completely different thing when it comes to implementing the same.There are numerous other regional platforms in different sectors, either those that have been put in place or some that are in the pipeline.

It should be emphasised that stakeholders involved in crafting these regional initiatives must move to ensure that they work and deliver as expected.