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Drought Crisis In The Horn Of Africa Presentation made during the CSO Forum By Anthony Mwangi, UNICEF Liaison Office to the AU and UNECA 22 November 2011, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Introduction
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Drought Crisis In The Horn Of Africa Presentation made during the CSO Forum By Anthony Mwangi, UNICEF Liaison Office to the AU and UNECA 22 November 2011, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Introduction 13.3 million people, half of them children, have been affected by a drought in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti. Triple shock caused by: Worst drought in 60 years Soaring food prices making it difficult for people to afford and depletion of their crops/livestock Ongoing conflict and insecurity (AS) in Somalia, which has created refugees and IDPs, limited humanitarian access and endangered aid workers. Thousands of Somali refugees have crossed into Kenya and Ethiopia.
Introduction (cont…) Worst affected are women, children, the physically challenged, the elderly and the sick. More than 320,000 children under five are severely malnourished and at risk of death. Situation is worst in Central South Somalia, where tens of thousands have died since the beginning of this year. Child survival is also threatened among the Somali refugees who continue crossing the border into Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti. Host communities also severely affected in these countries. Rains may possibly pour in Kenya and Ethiopia during the October-December season.
Situation in Somalia In Somalia, 4 million people are affected by food insecurity. About 336,000 children under five are acutely malnourished, nearly half of them severely. The situation is likely to worsen beyond the six famine-declared zones. Depletion of livestock, rising food prices and low purchasing power for the population. Before the drought, Somalia had the highest child mortality rate in the world, (1 in 6 children dying before 5 years).
Situation in Somalia - Challenges Access to implement key programmes in a highly restricted environment. Constant mass displacement and difficult to plan resources. Difficult personnel movements on the ground. Needs outstrip available transport infrastructure Denial of outreach campaigns and public advocacy for immunization Restricted social mobilization efforts prevent families and children from accessing nutrition services Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) The AS challenge
Situation in Kenya • Refugee population in Dadaab sored to over 450,000, most are children. • 3.75 million people in local communities are in need of humanitarian assistance. • More than 1.7 million children in the north and east of the country are also affected. • Failed rains have eroded pastoralist communities’ ability to cope. • Increased risk of human and livestock disease outbreaks and conflict.
Situation in Kenya - Challenges • The greatest challenge has been scaling up operations to match the caseloads, in particular capacity for the responses to nutrition and SGBV. • Immunization campaigns remain critical as low immunization rates among incoming refugees pose threats of measles outbreaks in camps especially. • Need sustainable longterm solutions to access to water • Open defecation in the drought-affected areas.
Situation in Ethiopia • Almost 160,000 children are projected to suffer from severe malnutrition by the end of 2011. • Failed rains have adversely affected food security. • More than 4.5 million Ethiopians – including 650,000 children under five –need assistance. Ethiopia Challenges • Maintaining good access in the Somali Region, • Ensuring the sustainability of strategies in the pastoralist areas of the country • Raising resources for programmes that deal with structural approaches to resilience
Situation in Djibouti • Some 23,000 malnourished children needed treatment between July and September. • Four consecutive poor rainy seasons have devastated livestock, withered local livelihood systems and left 120,000 people in need of humanitarian aid. Djibouti Challenges • Malnutrition screening and case management and surveillance systems need to be strengthened nationwide. • Lack of national and international NGOs remains a challenge across programmes.
Situation in Djibouti – Challenges (Cont…) • Cash transfers need to be expanded to cover more vulnerable children immediately outside urban areas. • National information systems and routine data collection – complicated by community-based rather than facility-based interventions – also need to be strengthened. • National capacities to plan, prioritize, implement and coordinate activities at national and regional levels need to be reinforced.
Refugees/IDPs • About 170,000 people in Somalia (100,000 of them in Mogadishu) have been internally displaced since January due to conflict and drought, bringing the total number of IDPs to almost 1.5 million. • In central and southern Somalia, most IDPs are children and women, while most are men in the northern regions of Puntland and Somaliland. • There are more than 842,000 refugees in need of humanitarian assistance in the Horn of Africa, mostly from Somalia, Sudan and Ethiopia – with over 100,000 who have fled from Somalia into north-eastern Kenya since June.
Refugees/IDPs (Cont…) • Large numbers of refugees have also crossed over the borders into Ethiopia and Djibouti. • In Kenya, the Dadaab refugee camps, built for 90,000 people, now shelter 450,000. • At Dollo Ado and other camps in Ethiopia, there are now some 280,000 refugees. • In Djibouti, the main refugee camp at Ali Ade, intended for 7,000 people, is accommodating nearly 20,000.
Snapshot of intervention Nutrition • Blanket supplementary feeding by providing families with monthly food vouchers. • ‘wet-feeding’ programme providing cooked meals to refugees. • Therapeutic feeding programmes for malnourished children. • Government Health Extension Programme. • Promotion of exclusive breastfeeding. • Treatment for severe malnutrition.
Snapshot of intervention (Cont…) Health • Immunization against measles, • Vaccination against polio • Receiving Vitamin A Supplements • De-worming medication. • Response to suspected outbreaks of acute watery diarrhoea. Water, sanitation and hygiene • Access to safe water through chlorination, water trucking and construction or rehabilitation of water sources. • New sanitation facilities • Hygiene and household water-treatment supplies.
Snapshot of intervention (Cont…) Education • Reopening of schools with teacher incentives and textbook distribution. • Kept schools open during August holidays to ensure learning and one meal a day. • Provided teaching and learning materials to enable refugee children to continue their education. • Delivered tents and other supplies for child-friendly learning spaces for refugee children.
Snapshot of intervention (Cont…) Protection • Support to reintegration programmes for children associated with armed forces or groups • Non-formal education, vocational training, and psycho-social care and support. • Provided tented Child Friendly Spaces or other safe environments for women and girls affected by SGBV. • Reunification or alternative care for unaccompanied and separated children.
Resource mobilization • Approx. US$ 2.4 billion is needed • Global fundraising effort • AU Pledging Conference in August 2011 raised US$ 350 million (in-kind and cash support) • Resources from CSOs, private sector, governments, etc.
Reflections • Despite massive aid, immediate needs outstrip high level of support. • While many lives have been saved, thousands have also died. • Low food stock as famine could extend into new areas of Somalia by December. • Normal rainfall is forecast for much of the Horn of Africa, but the positive impact will only be felt in 2012, after the next harvest. • Meanwhile, malaria and measles epidemics are expected with the rains, which also bring an increased risk of cholera and acute watery diarrhoea outbreaks.
Reflections (Cont…) • Protecting vulnerable refugees, especially women and girls, is high priority. • Cost of pre-emptive action is much lower than the cost of inaction. • Major role of media • Government-led investment in drought mitigation at the community level has averted an even worse crisis in parts of the Horn of Africa. • How long must we keep up with this?
Quote from Distance Runner Haile Gebreselassie • It is unacceptable to live in a world of plenty and constantly watch the other half die of hunger and malnutrition. It is unacceptable to have so many organizations and institutions striving to improve the livelihoods of the poor with no visible impact and millions of funds thrown down the drain. • It is unacceptable to have a food surplus in one side of the continent while the other side faces famine and starvation because our borders are closed to one another and we have laws and regulations, we worked very hard to put in place, to prevent the free movement of food our farmers grow. • This is not a situation in which a compromise is acceptable. Food for all is the only situation we should accept. How can one explain that Africa is the continent with the most resources and the poorest one?
