Abstract
The Inter‐Governmental Authority on Drought and Development (IGADD) covers six East African countries — Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, the Sudan and Uganda, covering an area of more 520,724 km2and a population of over 126 million people. The overall growth rate, which averaged 3 per cent per annum in the early 1970s, has now reached 3.2 per cent — one of the highest in the world. The total population of the six countries is estimated to reach 168 million by the end of the century. Already, nearly half the population is under 14 years of age. IGADD is increasingly playing a vital regional role not only in environmental issues but political ones as well—as in the case of southern Sudan.