In conference rooms and in academic papers, the experts call it 'pervasive pre-famine conditions'. In the village, squatting on his brick-sized wooden stool in the red dirt of east Africa, Lokuwam Lokitalauk calls it a death sentence. His curses ricochet round the quiet village and his glaucoma-misted eyes dart off, surveying the stick-like spectres of children drifting listlessly about.
'When I had my cows, I could afford three wives and I have 20 children,' he said. 'The drought has killed my herd. All my cattle have died of thirst but I still have the wives and children, and now I can't feed them. I should be out there with my cows grazing.' He waves a hand behind him to the crisp, cracked plains without turning his head: 'But, here I am, I am weak now; I'm waiting to die.'