At a glance

• Number of people facing acute food insecurity: ▶ over 48 million people in the ten affected countries in 2020 and ▶ over 39 million people in the five remaining targeted countries in 2021

• 2 million ha of land targeted for control in the ten countries (by June 2021): ▶ 1.3 million ha reached in 2020 ▶ 0.7 million ha targeted in 2021

• 307 000 households targeted for rapid livelihoods protection under the appeal since January 2020 (excluding the targets of 2021 Humanitarian Response Plans): ▶ 298 000 households targeted in 2020 ▶ 9 000 households targeted in 2021

• USD 230.45 million total appeal funding requirement (since January 2020) and funding requirement in 2021 (excluding the amounts requested through country Humanitarian Response Plans) ▶ 191.65 million received in 2020 ▶ 38.8 million appeal in 2021

In the Greater Horn of Africa, significant progress was made in 2020 on issues related to capacity building to detect, report and apply technically-sound and safe standard operating procedures (SOPs) to control the desert locust infestations. This allowed governments in the region to treat over 1.25 million ha of infested areas and avert a major humanitarian catastrophe by protecting food production and rangeland, and preventing movement of desert locust to West Africa.

In the Arabian Peninsula, surveillance and control operations were conducted and over 220 000 ha were treated, including in Yemen (50 000 ha). However, Yemen remains an important breeding area with limited capacity to perform interventions to a desirable scale, which in turn continues to pose a threat to the Greater Horn of Africa.
Altogether the livelihoods and food security of over 20 million people were protected in Eastern Africa and Yemen and the economic benefit of the intervention is conservatively estimated to be approximately USD 1 billion.

Across the ten countries included in the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) 2020 appeal for the Greater Horn of Africa and Yemen – Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, the Sudan, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania – over 210 000 households, equivalent to some 1.1 million people, were assisted through anticipatory action and/or in-kind or cash livelihood recovery interventions. The existing funds will ensure an additional 80 000 households will receive assistance in early 2021 in countries with unimodal farming systems.

Due to the prevailing favourable breeding conditions and the remaining presence of desert locust in Eastern Africa and Yemen, FAO is extending its appeal until June 2021 (six months) focusing on countries currently infested or under imminent threat, and for activities that will not be included in the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) led country Humanitarian Response Plans (HRPs).