Crucial Funding To WFP Avoids Suspension Of Food Assistance To Drought-Affected People In Ethiopia

Copyright: WFP/Melese Awoke

ADDIS ABABA – Thanks to timely contributions from key donors, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is able to continue food distributions later this month for more than 1.5 million people in the Somali region of Ethiopia, and can scale up nutrition help to more than 700,000 children and nursing mothers in the most drought-affected areas. The scaling up of food and nutrition support is crucial to prevent vulnerable people falling into a deeper crisis.

However, even with the new contributions, WFP has only 7 percent of the US$228 million budget required for food and nutrition interventions until June 2016.

A dramatic increase in the number of people in need of relief assistance, from 2.5 million at the beginning of the year to 8.2 million in October, led to a serious funding gap, and WFP was concerned that it would have to entirely stop distributions for people affected by the drought at the end of November.

Such a situation was avoided, thanks to contributions from - in alphabetical order - Canada,Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund. The United States Agency for International Development has also confirmed an in-kind contribution equivalent to US$17 million to WFP.

 “These donors have shown incredible leadership in their response to the current crisis, and their generous contributions will help people cope with this humanitarian crisis exacerbated by El Nino,” said John Aylieff, WFP Representative and Country Director in Ethiopia.

The in-kind contribution will be used to meet the immediate food needs of vulnerable people in the early part of 2016, while the cash contributions will allow WFP to extend life-saving food and nutrition assistance until the end of the year.

More than 1.5 million people in the Somali region will receive cereals, pulses, vegetable oil and a fortified high-protein blend known as Super Cereal. These rations will help stabilize malnutrition rates, which have risen sharply in recent months since the drought took hold.

This will complement government distributions in other regions following the government of Ethiopia’s allocation of 4 billion birr (US$ 192 million) to relief efforts. Humanitarian needs still remain extremely high in the first six months of 2016, and WFP, together with the government of Ethiopia, is gearing up to provide assistance to at least 6 million people.

Recent contributions to WFP’s relief operation in Ethiopia include: USA (US$ 17 million), UN CERF (US$17 million), Sweden (US$ 16.8 million), Canada (US$ 2.6 million), Switzerland (US$ 1.7 million), and Norway (US$ 1.7 million).

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WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. Each year, WFP assists some 80 million people in around 80 countries.

Source:http://www.wfp.org/news/news-release/crucial-funding-wfp-avoids-suspension-food-assistance-drought-affected-people-ethi

Ethiopia Experiencing “worst Drought In 30 Years”

The latest bulletin released by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, contains this very alarming sentence:

“The level of acute need across virtually all humanitarian sectors has already exceeded levels seen in the Horn of Africa drought of 2011″

To put that in context: the Horn of Africa drought of 2011 led to a famine in Somalia that killed an estimated 200,000 people.

No one is yet saying that this will turn into a famine, in part because the Somali famine was caused largely by the al Shebaab insurgency, which has subsided. Still, the fact that OCHA is putting the current situation in the context of one of the worst humanitarian crises of the last decade is deeply alarming.

The proximate cause of the drought is the El Nino effect, which is being felt particularly hard in the Horn of Africa. In Ethiopia, rains that feed 80 to 85 percent of the country are far weaker than in years past. OCHA is warning that Ethiopia is in the midst of the worst drought in 30 years, and that things will get worse during the first eight months of 2016.

During the last El Nino, in 2002, donors we slow to respond.”Much of the required food aid was not delivered until late February 2003, leading to a doubling of global and severe acute malnutrition rates and a costlier intervention,” says OCHA. This time around, the United Nations and government of Ethiopia are pleading with countries to intervene sooner. But while there is some donor interest, it is “still insignificant in relation to the need.”

In other words, El Nino is hitting a particularly vulnerable region particularly hard. And so far, the international community is not responding in any meaningful way.

source:http://www.undispatch.com/ethiopia-experiencing-worst-drought-in-30-years/

El Nino to cause 80% rise in East Africans needing aid

A Woman walks through a flooded road

NAIROBI - Heavy floods and drought sparked by the El Nino weather phenomenon in East Africa in coming weeks could see the number of people needing aid soar by over 80 percent, the UN warned Friday.

El Nino is sparked by a warming in sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific, setting off changing weather patterns across the world, and can cause unusually heavy rains in some areas, and drought elsewhere.

"The number of food insecure people in the region is expected to increase by 83 per cent, from approximately 12 million people at the start of 2015, to 22.1 million people by the start of 2016," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a report Friday.

"In addition, between 2.7 million and 3.5 million people could be affected by floods," the report added, focusing on 10 nations across East Africa and the Horn of Africa.

The El Nino phenomenon, a global weather pattern known to wreak havoc every few years, is expected to last until early 2016.

While some countries -- including Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Djibouti -- could see drier conditions, other countries including Kenya, Somalia and Uganda could see floods.

The UN said that government and aid workers are "racing against the clock to prepare for floods caused by El Nino," and have appealed for $451 million (409 million euros).

Ethiopia is an especial concern, with the number needing food aid rising from 2.9 million at the beginning of 2015 to 8.2 million today, with some 15 million people likely to need aid by early next year, the UN said.

East Africa was struck by intense drought in 2011, the worst in 60 years, with some 12 million people in four nations affected.

Parts of Somalia were declared famine zones, and more than 250,000 people died, half of them children.

South Sudan, where fighting continues in its 22-month long civil war, is also likely to be affected. The UN warned on Thursday that over 30,000 people there are already starving to death, and that tens of thousands more are on the brink of famine.

"Severe and moderate acute malnutrition among children has significantly increased in Ethiopia, Somalia, and South Sudan," the OCHA report read.

Source:http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/674882-el-nino-to-cause-80-rise-in-east-africans-needing-aid-un.html