Attachments
Summary of major revisions made to the emergency plan of action:
This Operations Update is to request for the extension of the DREF operation by three months for an overall 12 months to finalize the implementation of the CVA component of the Programme and complete ongoing activities. The plan of action as such shall remain the same.
The implementation of this operation was for a total of 9 months with the 3-month initial phase in which the needs assessment was conducted. However, an extension of the timeframe with not necessarily requested given the context of afresh procurement of FSP taking long a time in an environment of limited providers for the multipurpose while cash assistance is the flagship activity of the project.
SITUATION ANALYSIS
Description of the disaster
The hunger crisis in Djibouti is a result of compounding risk factors, which over time serve as drivers of the hunger incountry and across the Horn of Africa. The effects of Covid-19, locust manifestation, the war in Ukraine, and its consequences on the basic food commodities supply chain are exacerbated by insufficient rain for four consecutive years, exhausting the coping mechanisms of affected communities, hence inducing a hunger crisis.
IPC projections for July to December 2022 indicate an increase in the number of acutely food insecure people, likely reaching 192,168 people, representing 16% of the analyzed population (1.2 million people, which is about the entire country). The number of people in an emergency (IPC 4) will likely increase to 12,390 people, a 250% rise from the current numbers, while 179,778 people could be in crisis (IPC 3). The underlying capacities further places Djibouti is vulnerable to the prevalence of drought hazards. The country’s GDP per capita is only 5,500 USD with an estimated unemployment rate of 40% and poverty rates of 79% with 42% of the population living in extreme poverty.[2] Djibouti is an arid country with only 0.3 cu km of total renewable water resources.[3] As one of the most water-scarce countries in the world. Only 4% of the land is arable [4], and the country relies on imports for over 90% of its food [5], leaving much of the population vulnerable to global price shocks.
This forecast led the Djibouti Red Crescent Society (DJRC), as part of IFRC's pan-African Zero Hunger Initiative, to plan for immediate assistance to communities in crisis and emergencies by first launching a CHF 96,329 DREF Operation which set out to conduct in-depth multi-sectoral assessments in affected communities, to understand their needs and engage them on how best to support them. This assessment mission also allowed DJRC to engage authorities and humanitarian partners to ensure the complementarity of actions with the wider hunger response coordination, as part of their role as auxiliaries to the authorities. The result of these consultations and assessments led to the previous operation update, which presented the response strategy DJRC used to initiate the response to the hunger crisis for the Red Cross Movement in the country. In addition, this operation is a direct response to the 9 May 2022 call by the President of Djibouti, for greater solidarity in the face of the dramatic consequences of global warming and the reduction of arable land in several regions of the world, particularly in Djibouti, known for its semi-arid and arid climate.