Food Security South Sudan Project #27268

East Africa Hunger Crisis: Concern's Response

by Concern Worldwide US

East Africa Hunger Crisis: Concern's Response

Project Report | Oct 13, 2022
An "Emergency Beyond An Emergency" in East Africa

By Kathleen Felesina | Director, West Region - Concern Worldwide

East Africa (”Horn of Africa”) Famine Crisis

Across East Africa (Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Uganda and Eritrea, also known as the “Horn of Africa”) nearly 40 million people – nearly one-third of the region’s total population -- have been adversely affected by the current severe drought, which is in its 4th consecutive season, the worst in over 40 years. This severe drought has led to widespread livestock deaths, acute food insecurity and a very real risk of impending widespread famine. It is estimated that a person is dying of hunger every 48 seconds across Ethiopia, Kenya and particularly Somalia.

Somalia in particular is experiencing some of the worst ravages of this climate-change caused disaster. Somalia has two rainy seasons: the Gu and the Deyr. The Gu rains last from April to June, while the Deyr are October to December. The Gu rainy season this year was catastrophically dry, and forecasts indicate a similar failure in the upcoming Deyr season this fall -- as well as warmer-than-average surface temperatures causing further impacts.

Compounding this severe drought situation is the ongoing protracted conflict in the region, lingering supply chain issues from the COVID-19 pandemic, the aftermath of the desert locust upsurge last year, global inflation, and the impact of the war in Ukraine on grain and oil imports. The price of staple items such as cooking oil, sugar and rice has increased over 100% since the beginning of 2022. Over 3 million livestock are estimated to have perished since mid-2021 due to starvation and disease, with 22 million more at risk in the coming months.

In a country where pastoralism and agro-pastoralism are the dominant livelihood strategies, the drought has had devastating impacts on rural households’ ability to grow crops and raise livestock. This has left hundreds of thousands of families with little choice but to leave their homes and travel to urban centers for jobs and access to basic services. The latest figures released from the UN indicate that over 1.1 million Somalis have been displaced from their homes since January 2021, primarily driven by the extreme impacts of drought. Internally displaced people (IDPs) are concentrated in Bay (Baidoa) and Banadir (Mogadishu) regions, and it is anticipated that the increase in influx of IDPs to these areas will continue at a rate of 30-40,000 per month through the end of 2022.

The impact of drought, displacement and increasing economic pressures are deepening the severity of needs and driving the country to the brink of famine and catastrophe. Over 7.1 million people are acutely food insecure, with confirmed pockets of catastrophic food insecurity across 17 districts affecting hundreds of thousands of people (see map). The Somalia Food Security and Nutrition analysis report, released this month, shows concrete indications that famine will occur in two areas in the Bay region (Baidoa and Burhakaba districts) in South-Central Somalia between October and December of this year.

As a result, food insecurity and acute malnutrition are drastically on the rise. Approximately 1.5 million children under 5 are acutely malnourished, with 385,000 at risk of dying before the end of the year without immediate intervention. Nearly 4 million people cannot access enough water for drinking, cooking and cleaning.

Hunger, access to clean, safe water, and adequate nutrition are inextricably linked; a lack of clean water for drinking and sanitation is resulting in increased incidence of waterborne diseases like cholera and acute watery diarrhea (AWD), which can cause/intensify malnutrition and further endanger the lives of vulnerable Somalis, especially children under 5 and those who are already experiencing severe food insecurity and high rates of acute malnutrition.

To ease suffering and stave off famine for tens of thousands, Concern is currently:

Treating tens of thousands of children and adults suffering from severe malnutrition and other illnesses
Supporting health clinics to deliver nutrition assistance
Providing emergency cash transfers to affected communities so they can buy nutritious food to feed their families and other essential items
Providing emergency water to areas most in need and improving access to adequate and safe water
Repairing broken boreholes and shallow wells
Vaccinating livestock against diseases in an attempt to keep them alive during the drought

Concern is well-placed to deliver these critical interventions. Indeed, we have long been a recognized leader and innovator in the humanitarian aid sphere. Fifty-four years ago, Concern was founded to address famine in Africa. Twenty-plus years ago, we helped pioneer a breakthrough in nutrition delivery that ushered in a steady decline in global starvation rates for the first time in history. Now, with this progress is in danger of being reversed due to the effects of climate change, conflict and Covid, we must step up our efforts, requiring more resources than ever – and thus we must look to past, current and potential partners to help us prepare and respond to once again save lives.

Concern puts a strong focus on coordination with other humanitarian actors, and we are a member of the Food Security, WASH, Health, and Nutrition Clusters, Somalia NGO Consortium, Cash Working Group (CWG), and other Clusters at national and sub-national levels. In ongoing drought response and famine prevention, Concern works closely with UN OCHA; Concern and its local partners are actively participating in districts across the country, including the proposed targeted area. Concern also leverages its strong working relationships and reputation to work closely with other aid agencies to ensure no duplication with other NGOs working in the target location on similar programming and provides regular information to ensure coordination. Concern maintains good working relationship with relevant state and federal line ministries, especially the Ministry of Health as a key partner in Banadir.

Links:

What we're doing on the ground to stave off famine

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Jun 14, 2022
The Impact of the 2022 Drought on Horn of Africa

By Conner Purcell | Sr Director, Business Development

A family in Salahad, Ethiopia (by Conor O'Donovan)

The following report has been adapted from an account written by Concern Worldwide’s Emma Kelly in May 2022.

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The Horn of Africa is currently experiencing its most severe drought in 40 years. A staggering 15 million people across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia - most of whom are already living in extreme poverty - are acutely food insecure. This is when a person's inability to consume adequate food puts their lives or livelihoods in immediate danger.

It is expected that this year, 5.5 million children across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia will be acutely malnourished, with more than 1.6 million of them expected to be severely acutely malnourished, and famine is a very real possibility in Somalia. The staggering truth lies in these facts:

One person likely dying every 48 seconds from hunger in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia
20 million people at risk of starvation this year
3.5 million people in Kenya facing extreme hunger
7.2 million people in Ethiopia waking up hungry
In Somalia, 3 million livestock are dead and 1 million people have left their homes in search of food and water

Most people in the Horn of Africa are farmers, and are reliant on the land and their livestock to survive. So when drought strikes, there is an immediate impact on their ability to work and feed their families.

For example, in Kenya, a drought emergency has been declared with between 80% and 90% of reservoirs and dams drying up in Turkana, its largest county in the northwest of the country and one of the hottest and driest counties in Kenya. Here, lakeside communities can no longer survive on fishing, while pastoralists are losing their livestock. More than 1.4 million animals are believed to have died in Kenya alone as a result of the ongoing drought.

The Horn of Africa’s dependence on agriculture would make severe drought difficult enough to weather, but a number of factors have exacerbated the situation. Climate change has not caused the drought, but has made it worse and prolonged the conditions. This is despite the region being one of the least responsible for climate change, being responsible for just 0.1% of global carbon emissions.

And while it may be happening thousands of miles away, the conflict in Ukraine is having a disastrous impact on East Africa by creating a perfect storm for food insecurity. Ukraine and the Russian Federation provide around 30% of the world’s wheat and barley. Thirty-six countries import more than 50% of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine, including Somalia, and this has led to food prices rocketing in these countries in particular, as well as Sudan and South Sudan. Ethiopia’s cost of a food basket has risen by 66%, with Somalia’s rising by 36% between February 2021 and February 2022.

Concern is responding to this crisis supporting health clinics to deliver nutrition assistance and providing emergency cash transfers to affected communities. This allows beneficiaries to afford nutritious food to feed their families. Our teams are also repairing broken boreholes and shallow wells and vaccinating livestock against diseases in an attempt to keep them alive during the drought.

We are continuing our work to improve access to adequate and safe water, largely through ground water abstraction infrastructure and enhanced adoption of sustainable water resources management practices in both developmental and humanitarian emergency contexts.

However, the crisis in the Horn of Africa will require a $4.5 billion (€4.2bn) commitment globally for an effective humanitarian response in the region.

Amina Abdulla, Concern Worldwide’s regional director for Horn of Africa, explains: “Shockingly, we are fast heading to where we were in 2011. Many of us will remember the scale of the drought in East Africa back then, the number of lives lost, and the length of time it took the humanitarian community to launch an appropriate response and help support communities to the point where they could recover.

“For families struggling to feed their children today in parts of Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya, there is not a moment to lose. The response is already six months too slow. We must act now.”

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Feb 1, 2022
Concern Responds to Kenya Drought

By Conner Purcell | Sr Director, Business Development

Turkana, Kenya/credit: Giro Boru (Concern 2019)

Concern Worldwide is helping communities in Kenya respond to a devastating drought which hit in late 2021. The drought is affecting over 2 million people including 111,000 children at risk of death from starvation. Declared a national emergency by the government, it has dried up water sources and killed livestock and food crops across almost half the country.

“More than 111,000 children under the age of five years are severely malnourished and at risk of loss of life without humanitarian assistance,” said Concern’s Country Director in Kenya, Arshad Muhammad.

“The areas impacted are already the poorest and most food insecure in the country. Families who had to walk 2-5km each day to get clean water are now having to walk twice or three times that distance.”

Little or no rain has fallen during the past two rainy seasons and the situation is expected to get worse.

Kenya has experienced emergency droughts every 10 years since 1904 when records in the country began, but since 2001, they have occurred every three to five years.

“The increased frequency means the affected populations don’t get enough time to recover and rebuild their assets before the next drought,” added Mr Muhammad. “It is the opinion of many that this is an example of the impact climate change can have. Our immediate focus is to help alleviate the suffering and extreme poverty these droughts cause. The drought has affected all farming and livestock, which means families struggle to find enough food to eat and we are very concerned for young children with less or no milk available.”

He said that over 520,000 children under the age of five in Kenya are currently acutely malnourished with over 110,000 of these severely malnourished, which means they are more likely to die from poor nutrition without treatment.

Concern, which has been working in Kenya since 2002, is helping the Kenyan authorities by supporting government officials and community volunteers who are going to households and screening children for acute malnutrition and by helping to provide the treatment the children need.

Concern’s Kenyan team are also repairing lifesaving water wells and boreholes in addition to treating and vaccinating livestock that are facing drought-related diseases.

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