Ethiopia Weekly Humanitarian Bulletin, 8 February 2016

Key Issues

• With the Meher approaching in a few months there is urgent need for funds for procurement. The Meher planting season accounts for more than 80% of the crop production in the country.

• Humanitarian partners have commended steps taken by the Government to scale food assistance in light of impending short fall in funding for food assistance by end of April.

Ethiopia is responding to an El Niño-caused drought emergency: The El Niño global climactic event has wreaked havoc on Ethiopia’s summer rains. This comes on the heels of failed spring rains, and has driven food insecurity, malnutrition and water shortages in affected areas of the country. A well-coordinated response is already underway and expanding rapidly, although the scale of the developing emergency exceeds resources available to date. Given the lead times necessary for the procurement of relief items, the Government and its international partners have called for early action to this slow onset natural disaster.

Window for procurement closing; Urgent need to address funding gap for emergency seed distribution

The window for procurement of seeds for the Belg planting season closes by end of March; 30% of households have been assisted with seeds for the planting season. With the Meher approaching in a few months there is urgent need for funds for procurement. The Meher planting season accounts for more than 80% of the crop production in the country.

The number of household requiring seeds for the Belg planting season almost doubled since December when the Humanitarian Requirement Document (HRD) for 2016 was launched. The recent Government, Agriculture Task Force (ATF) and FAO data collection exercise reported an increase from 500,000 households to 900,000 households. The government will be able to respond to the 30% of this need which brings the total funding gap to $US52.2 million. If funds are not mobilized for the procurement of seeds by late March before the closing of Belg planting season, food production will continue to drop with implications for limited access to food and heightened malnutrition. Seed procurement and distribution is urgent now to protect livelihood assets, prevent further displacement and avoid increased Food aid needs that are already stretched. Humanitarian partners are concerned with reports about increasing indebtedness amongst vulnerable families in drought affected areas who were obliged to take on fertilizer credit last year.

Agriculture contributes 47% to Ethiopia’s economy; previous El Niños in 1998 and 2003 resulted in GDP reductions of 5 and 3 percent. 84 percent of Ethiopia’s estimated 100 million people are subsistence farmers and pastoralists. Failed and erratic rains reduced food harvests by 50-90 percent crop losses in 2015.

Humanitarian Partners Commend Government’s efforts to speed up food assistance to drought affected communities

Humanitarian partners have commended steps taken by the Government to scale up food response with the food it currently has available; food pipeline data reveals projected pipeline break by end of April. The Ministry of Transport's agreement to allow the United Nations World Food programme (WFP) to bring in additional trucks to aid in the massive logistics operation will also help to reduce delivery times from 6 to 4 weeks per round which signals a shift to monthly distributions, and ensures sufficient off take capacity from Djibouti port.

The Government of Ethiopia jointly with the Ethiopia Humanitarian Country Team through the Humanitarian Requirement Document (HRD) seeks US$1.4 billion for 10.2 Million people affected by the current drought. US$1.2 of this amount is urgently needed for food assistance.

Whilst over $680m has already been mobilized by the Government and international community, the current funding available for food aid will be exhausted by 1 May, and the risk of pipeline breaks on other sectors is deeply concerning.