Thanks to careful forward planning, Madagascar is better prepared now to deal with the impacts of the current El Niño phenomenon and climate change, as the south of the country endures a long-standing humanitarian crisis, says Reena Ghelani, the UN’s Climate Crisis Coordinator for the El Niño response.

More people are expected to go hungry in February as the food security situation deteriorates, mainly due to an expected lack of rain as an impact of El Niño.  

The UN says that more than 262,000 children under five are acutely malnourished across the south.

Daniel Dickinson spoke to Ms. Ghali as she visited an irrigation project in the Anosy region.

He began by asking her to explain what the El Niño phenomenon is.