Foreword by the UN Resident Coordinator
Recurrent drought conditions induced by climate change over the past two decades have led to a significant deterioration in Djibouti’s humanitarian situation. Heat and arid conditions have left only 0.01 per cent of the land arable with minimal annual rainfall. The population’s coping capacities have steadily eroded, people have had to flee from the rural to the peri-urban area surrounding Djibouti, and as a consequence, people are increasingly unable to generate sufficient household income to provide for basic necessities. More than fifty-eight per cent of the rural population is food insecure and about twenty-three per cent live in extreme poverty. Forty-two per cent of the population live in relative poverty, and thirty-five per cent of the rural population have no access to water. Malnutrition has also reached extremely high levels.
The presence of refugees and migrants has created additional pressure on infrastructure and further stretched the limited capacity to provide basic services. Refugees, asylum seekers and migrants are fleeing from Somalia, Yemen and Ethiopia due to recurring armed conflicts and extreme poverty to seek asylum in Djibouti or to transit through Djibouti to the Gulf countries in search of better living conditions. The humanitarian situation is also exacerbated by chronic weaknesses, such as lack of safe water and basic sanitation services and health care, the limited provision of safety nets, high food prices and structural poverty.
Overall, 289,338 people will require humanitarian assistance in 2017, including Djiboutians living in extreme poverty, refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. The 2017 HRP focuses on providing life-saving assistance, including food security, nutrition, water and sanitation, health, protection and refugee and migrant responses. While providing humanitarian assistance, the international community will collaborate very closely with the Government of Djibouti and municipal and local level authorities to strengthen the resilience of affected communities and people and their capacity to cope with climate change emergencies, and to improve access to basic social services.
Humanitarian assistance in 2017 will be pivotal to contribute to achieving the goals of the Government of Djibouti and of the international community, as outlined in the UN Development Assistance Framework (2013-2017) and the five-year national development plan of Djibouti ‘SCAPE’ (2015-2019) Strategy for Accelerated Growth and Promotion of Employment.
Valerie Cliff
UN Resident Coordinator
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