There have been calls for the international community to step up its response to the ongoing drought in east Africa.
The United Nations has described the situation as the largest humanitarian emergency since the Second World War, with more than 20 million people facing starvation.
In Somalia alone, the UN says more than six million people are in need of urgent help.
Continuing war and cyclical famines over the last quarter century have displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
However, a conference in Galway has heard that there is an absence of political will to tackle the problem.
The two day event is hearing contributions from historians, aid agencies and members of the Irish-Somali community.
Delegates are examining the impact of humanitarian intervention in the country over the last 25 years and considering the reasons why the situation there continues to threaten the lives of millions.
As well as reviewing successful efforts over the years, the conference is looking at measures that have not brought about the desired results.
The workshop's keynote address will be delivered by Geoffrey Loane of the International Committee of the Red Cross, who was the relief co-ordinator in Somalia in the early 1990s and later managed the organisation's response to the Rwanda genocide.
Trócaire's Executive Director, Eamonn Meehan, has said Somalia has been abused and neglected at a political and international level for decades.
He has expressed hope that the conference will help plot a more co-ordinated global response to the multiple challenges facing people there.
The Irish charity's Head of Humanitarian Programmes has said 1.4 million children are at risk of malnutrition in Somalia.
Speaking on RTÉ's Six One News, Noreen Gumbo said children that are suffering from acute malnutrition require "therapeutic feeding to survive, but may still be at risk of long-term physical disabilities, and reduced mental capacity."
Rains have failed two years consecutively in Somalia and parts of East Africa leaving people desperate for food and severe water shortages are affecting homes and farm livestock.
She said as a result there are outbreaks of cholera, measles and diarrhoea.
Responding to the plight of people in Somalia is made harder by violence in the area.
She said Trócaire works in a ghetto region of Somalia which has seven districts, but aid workers are only able to access four of those to bring their health and nutrition programmes.
Ms Gumbo said communities are living at risk of daily fighting.
