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Hamou Waticha lives in the Ethiopian village of Waja Washboula with his 15 children. He, like so many other Ethiopians, has been a victim of terrible cyclical drought, the most recent of which struck in 2002. Hamou's crops failed completely, forcing him to sell all his livestock in order to survive. Left with no provision for the future he was forced to rely on international aid and charitable donations.
 
It is a story that seems as cyclical as the droughts themselves and one that does nothing for Africa in the eyes of the international community.
 
Yet Richard Wilcox and his team at the UN's World Food Program (WFP) are out to shake-up the way aid is financed.  
 
The WFP invited Richard to blow a fresh wind of commercialism and financial discipline to the multi-billion dollar humanitarian aid business.
 
Caroline Pare tracks Richard and his team as they work with 70 million Ethiopians, including Hamou, to pioneer a radical new weather insurance project designed to plug the gap between crisis and aid relief, allowing Ethiopians to manage the risk of drought themselves.

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About Al Jazeera - Witness

Rageh Omaar presents Witness, a half-hour daily documentary series which features short, specially commissioned or acquired films gathered from independent filmmakers.
 
Each documentary reveals the unknown lives of ordinary people, following their lives, telling their stories and portraying the challenges that confront them. Our witnesses are people in a situation or those who have observed them first hand.
 
The films cover conflict, belief, the past and the future and as well as bringing new stories to light they showcase the talents of a new breed of multi-skilled, frontline journalist. In the studio, Rageh will further explore the issues raised in the films, with expert guests on the subject matter and the filmmakers themselves.