CHC's Research Director, Chris Funk, is featured in Nature’s Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya face devastating drought. This opinion piece urges governments and key stakeholders to act now, warning that drought, in combination with the financial and physical effects of COVID-19, means that, "If governments don’t take note, however, all the data collection and modelling is for nothing. Few nations in eastern and southern Africa use drought predictions adequately. For example, when El Niño-related drought was forecast in September 2015, it was ten months before an emergency was declared."