The Global development is hosting a live chat with people involved in supporting relief efforts at the Horn of Africa on Tuesday January 10 between 2-3pm GMT (9am EST) to answer your questions on the food crisis and famine at the Horn of Africa.

On the panel will be Clive Jones, chairman of the board of trustees at the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), who has been traveling through the region, and Abdalla Rashid, head of Islamic Relief’s Emergency Programs, who works mainly out of Wajir district in north-eastern Kenya.

Some of the general questions to start the discussion are:

• What is happening on the ground in the countries affected by the crisis?
• What’s the biggest challenge facing staff day-to-day, or those at a strategic level trying to track and supply a huge area?
• Why, in a region not unaccustomed to famine, has the food crisis been so bad this time?
• How can more resilience and better planning be built to prevent this happening again?

The food crisis in east Africa is affecting over 13 million people in parts of Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan. Last year, the UN said the region was experiencing the worst drought in 60 years. On 20th July 2011, famine was officially declared in three regions of Somalia, and on 13th December, the UN made an appeal for $1.5bn to support projects in the country in 2012.

Send your questions now for the online chat and click here to join the chat on Tuesday!