| |
According to the UN Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit, the current situation in East Africa represents Africa’s worst food security crisis in almost 20 years.
Image source: WFP/David Orr
After bringing the crisis under the spotlight over the summer, media coverage has slowed down in the past few months. Despite this, aid is still sorely needed. As of 10 November 2011, 76% of the UN Flash Appeal has been funded. (UN OCHA).
Although international media have mostly focused on East Africa’s doom & gloom, neglecting altogether the positive impact of long-term development programmes in the region would mean providing only a partial picture of the situation. Some examples include the work carried out by Save the Children, UNICEF and Oxfam America. Here is a closer look:
- In Kenya, Save the Children has been working with communities to prepare for this drought – for example in Mandera (a heavily affected region) they have been giving 12,000 families cash to help build their resilience to the coming drought (Save the Children).
- In drought-affected northern Kenya, a solar powered water pump in Griftu Primary School provides a constant supply of water to a newly built water tank. That has allowed for the construction of segregated toilets for boys and girls, encouraging greater school enrolment and facilitating better hygiene and education (UNICEF).
- In 2008, when global food prices skyrocketed, famine swept across Ethiopia, threatening more than 14 million people in the Horn of Africa. Oxfam America, with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, organised a two-step response to the crisis. The first focused on 225,000 of Ethiopia’s most at-risk farmers, and got them what they needed immediately: food. The second step was to organise cash-for-work projects that built dams, rehabilitated springs and constructed roads, thereby helping people to strengthen their small farms and improve their resilience to future droughts. When drought returned in 2011, these investments paid off. These kinds of investments not only save lives, improve livelihoods and promote stability, but also save money in the long run. Estimates show that emergency relief in famines costs seven times as much as preventing them (Taipei Times).
A representative from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has kindly provided an interesting first-hand update on East Africa’s crisis. Below is a transcript of the interview. You can click on the questions below to go directly to the answers.
- Has there been any progress in the region since the famine was declared in July 2011?
- Can you give me one or two examples of long-term development programmes promoted by
your organisation in East Africa in the past few years, which have had a positive impact in
the region?
- Is there anything you would change in the way that global media has covered the crisis?
1) Has there been any progress in the region since the famine was declared in July 2011?
About 13.3 million people are affected by the current drought crisis in the Horn of Africa. The situation is particularly dire in Somalia, where famine has been declared in six areas of south Somalia. In Somalia, more than 2 million people have been reached with food aid. From 1 to 14 October, humanitarian partners reached approximately 679,888 beneficiaries with food, and are on track to sustain or surpass the approximately 2,215,634 people assisted throughout September. The Agriculture & Livelihoods Cluster [a group of humanitarian teams which focus on farming and subsistence strategies] plans to assist 2.6 million people by the end of 2011 through multiple interventions including: restoring the crop production capacity of farmers; safeguarding the livelihoods and remaining assets of vulnerable small-scale herders and emergency disease surveillance; and treatment and vaccination of livestock. The WASH sector [a group of humanitarian teams which focus on water and sanitation] aims to reach 3.3 million people with sustained access to safe water, and 1.3 million with emergency sanitation by the end of 2011. As of mid October, the cluster had supported 1,190,016 people with sustainable water access since January. This is a critical area of intervention as due to the onset of rains, the risk of water-borne disease has increased. The challenge remains accessing all areas where affected populations are.
Another issue to point out is that about 750,000 people are at a risk of death in the coming four months if efforts to respond to the famine are not scaled up. Child malnutrition rates in Somalia remain the highest in the world (one third of Somali children are malnourished – 450,000 out of about 1.3 million). Mortality in children under five years of age has reached 15.4 deaths per 10,000 people/day among Mogadishu Internally Displaced Persons, far above the emergency threshold (2 deaths/10,000/day). The ongoing conflict and prevailing drought has internally displaced 1.5 million Somalis and more than 917,000 are living as refugees in the neighbouring countries of Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Yemen, meaning that one in three Somalis has been displaced. Refugee outflows continue, albeit at a reduced rate.
2) Can you give me one or two examples of long-term development programmes promoted by your organisation in East Africa in the past few years, which have had a positive impact in the region?
OCHA is not an operational UN body. It is mandated to work with humanitarian actors in responding to humanitarian needs. OCHA therefore works in emergency situations and situations where extreme vulnerability exists. It is not mandated to implement long-term development programmes for which UN agencies like UNDP are primarily responsible. For sometime now OCHA has been preoccupied with the need for closer collaboration between humanitarian and development programming, particularly in addressing recurrent humanitarian situations that emanate from development shortcomings or failures. An example of this is the recurrent food security situation in the Horn of Africa, with drought as the primary driver. OCHA is working with partners from the Inter-Agency Standing Committee [IASC, a forum involving the key UN and non-UN humanitarian partners] and UN Country Teams in the region to see how sustainable solutions that address the underlying causes of recurrent vulnerability can be implemented in this region. The IASC Horn of Africa Plan of action promotes a comprehensive strategy for engagement with national and regional counterparts to support and strengthen Government-led plans. The Plan of Action aims at strengthening the synergies and linkages necessary to address the continuum from humanitarian actions to long-term development with a three-pronged approach to:
- Respond to extreme food and nutrition insecurity of vulnerable people at risk, in the short term;
- Promote early recovery strategies, in the medium term; and
- Promote livelihood resilience, in the longer term.
3) Is there anything you would change in the way that global media has covered the crisis?
The international media has covered various aspects of the Horn of Africa crisis, ranging from the declaration of the famine in Somalia, the terrible situation faced by people having to walk for weeks to find help, the response by aid agencies and donors, to challenges around the Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya, access in parts of Somalia and the impact of insecurity on humanitarian operations. Regional and local media also continue to cover the situation, impact and response, and awareness raising events in the region. As in all major humanitarian crises, the UN, Red Cross/Red Crescent and NGO partners have maintained a steady flow of information and advocacy, including through high-profile visits, summits and regional meetings, as well as press briefings, interviews and web/social media coverage. There are many aspects to the crisis in the region, including political and longer-term development dimensions, which are also of interest to the media.
For further information visit the website for OCHA. |
