Attachments
Executive summary
Cambodia is a country prone to floods and droughts, but 2016 has proven to be the hottest year on record. The ongoing 2015 – 2016 El Niño event is causing severe drought in much of the country. The Prime Minister, Hun Sen, has called this drought the worst natural disaster to hit Cambodia in 100 years. Nhim Vannda, the permanent Secretary of the National Committee for Disaster Management, has called the drought “one of the worst events ever to happen in this country”. The government has declared that 18 of Cambodia’s 25 provinces have been severely affected by drought, impacting 2.5 million people, an estimated 950,000 of whom are children. In parallel, El Niño’s sister weather event, La Niña, is expected to bring flooding to much of the land which is currently afflicted by drought by August.
The most vulnerable households are always the hardest hit during disaster, and this includes children. Due to the drought, Health Centres have reported increases in cases of illnesses to which children are particularly vulnerable - diarrhoea, fever, and upper respiratory infections. Children spend a large part of their days at school, and the conditions in these schools pose a major threat to their health and wellbeing, due to the heat and lack of water, which can have an effect on children’s ability to participate. The drought has been particularly harsh on the livelihoods and assets of the poorest of the poor. These households have sold assets, livestock, and taken loans to dig for water, to pump water or to buy water containers and water. Some families have not been able to sustain their livelihood because of the drought - farming and fishing are both affected. In various Provinces, migration and debt have increased due to crop failure or reduced yields.
Children are also being left behind in the care of relatives while their parents migrate for work.
Save the Children is responding to this ongoing drought by launching an emergency response shaped by the results of this initial survey. Through Cambodia’s Humanitarian Response Forum, we are leading the NGO sector to consolidate findings of rapid assessments across the country which will be used to inform our interventions, as well as those of other international and local NGOs. We will continue to support the efforts of the Royal Government of Cambodia to mitigate the effects of the drought in schools, health centres and communities. We are providing relief supplies to the hardest-hit communities in order to prevent children from dropping out of school, ensure that they are protected from dangerous situations and that they have the healthcare and nutrition that they need to survive and thrive. In parallel, we are building the resilience and preparedness of communities, enabling them to respond not only to this year’s drought and flood season, but also future drought and flood cycles exacerbated by climate change.
This assessment demonstrates the need for urgent emergency response and resilience-building for the most drought-affected communities and schools. The Royal Government of Cambodia is leading the way, calling on all levels of society to do what they can to mitigate the effects of disaster. However, the response has been slow and there are significant gaps in ongoing interventions. This report draws conclusions and makes recommendations for response strategies in the sectors of Education, Health and Child Protection. Save the Children will do whatever it takes to reach every last child.