WFP Ethiopia Country Brief, February 2017

Highlights

• WFP is urgently required to scale up its assistance from 1.2 million to 1.6 million people in the Somali Region due to the worsening food insecurity situation.

• The 2017 drought is currently impacting the Southern and Southern-East part of the country the most, as well as areas of the Southern Nations Nationalities People’s Region (SNNPR). In addition, the refugee influx from South Sudan and Somalia remain a concern.

Operational Updates

• The February distributions targeted 1.6 million people in response to the worsening food security situation in the Somali Region. WFP provided specialized nutritious food to 198,000 children under five years, 120,000 pregnant women and nursing mothers in 192 priority one woredas in the Somali, Afar, Southern parts of Oromia and the Southern Nations Nationalities People’s Regions.

• WFP is planning to continue cash distribution in 2017, but due to the prevailing drought, affecting market supplies and food prices, cash assistance will be put on hold until later on in the year in the Somali Region. In Amhara and Oromia, cash assistance will continue in the March distributions.

• Considering the increase in needs in the Somali region, the logistics cluster is working to complete the planned storage augmentation. As of 23 February, 2,400 MT of storage capacity had been provided through the erection of mobile storage units and local warehouse constructions in six locations in the Somali region. Six additional warehouses are expected to be completed in the coming weeks.

• In February, the average arrival rate of new South Sudanese refugees to Gambella was 160 per day, compared to 1,000 per day in September and October 2016 following renewed fighting in the Upper Nile State. The operation is also registering new arrivals from Somalia to Dollo Ado. To date, Ethiopia hosts some 245,500 registered Somali refugees in the areas of Melkadida and Jijiga. The Somalis are arriving because of the unstable security and the deteriorating food security in the country.

Challenges

• Following the El Nino related drought of 2015/2016, Ethiopia faces a new drought crisis affecting much of Somali, parts of Afar and some lowland areas of Oromia and Southern Nations Nationalities and People’s Regions (SNNPR).

• Resources are urgently required to meet burgeoning food needs in South Eastern Ethiopia. Unless funding is received in a timely manner, the gains made over the last one year will be rapidly eroded. Uncertainties around available resources in the Government of Ethiopia’s (GoE) pipeline poses a challenge to preparedness planning for WFP and JEOP.