http://cpifinancial.net/blog/post/34638/record-breaking-drought-puts-ethiopia-in-dire-need
Tuesday 09, February 2016 by Sarah Owermohle
Record-breaking drought puts Ethiopia in dire need
International organisations appeal to donors as crisis worsens.
Some are saying that it is the worst drought in 30 years, others that it is the worst in 60.
Carolyn Miles, CEO of international humanitarian organisation Save the Children, said that the Ethiopian drought is one of just two crises in its worst crisis level, category one; the other being the Syrian crisis.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has said that the strongest El Niño weather episode in the last several decades has caused repeated crop failure, decimated livestock herds and driven some 10.2 million people across Ethiopia into food insecurity. Crop production has dropped by 50 to 90 per cent in some regions, and the latest assessments say conditions will continue to deteriorate until at least March.
In mid-January, FAO presented a $50 million emergency plan for the hardest hit areas, appealing to the international community for aid.
"The outlook for 2016 is very grim," says Amadou Allahoury, FAO Representative for Ethiopia, adding that "After two consecutive seasons of failed crops, the success of the main cropping season that starts now will be critical to preventing conditions from worsening."
"Continued drought throughout the beginning of 2016 also means pasture will become even more scarce, which will negatively impact livestock keepers that rely on those grazing lands and water points for their food security." he says. "Food overall will become harder to access if we continue to see prices rise, food stocks deplete and livestock become weaker, less productive, and perish."
John Graham, Save the Children's Country Director in Ethiopia, noted that the Government is already stretched thin. "Humanitarian aid is coming in from the international community, but still too slowly, and the Ethiopian Government has already committed an unprecedented $297 million, as well as distributing their own limited food stocks, but this is still a race against time to meet their needs," he said.
The new FAO response plan aims to assist 1.8 million farmers and livestock keepers in 2016 to reduce food gaps and restore agricultural production and incomes. The first critical phase of the $50 million will focus on the ‘meher’ season between January and June, helping some 121,500 households. The plan will be a mix of food and seed supply, micro-loans and cash-for-livestock plans to compensate farmers. The final leg of the project will be strengthening farmer resilience to further shocks.
"In Ethiopia, El Niño is not just a food crisis—it's above all a livelihood crisis. And we need to intervene now to protect and rebuild these livelihoods and people's capacity to produce, to prevent families from becoming long-term dependent on food aid," said Dominique Burgeon, Leader of FAO's Strategic Programme on Reslience and Director of FAO's Emergencies and Rehabilitation Division. "If response is delayed, recovery will be difficult and the cost of interventions will only increase.”
FAO said that the El Niño phenomenon is associated with the abnormal warming of sea surface temperature in parts of the Pacific Ocean that has severe effects on global weather and climate patterns. El Niño has also lowered crop prospects in South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland, as well as several Latin American and South Pacific countries.
Received on Tue Feb 09 2016 - 13:19:56 EST