Attachments
Highlights
• Over 188,300 people, including 80,215 children (40,830 girls and 39,385 boys) are grappling with an exceptionally harsh winter characterized by icy conditions that completely obstruct livestock access to pastures and cause disruption to education, health, and social services.
• To ensure a timely response to the severely affected areas, UNICEF Mongolia has allocated USD 254,000 and mobilized USD 25,000 through local donations, providing immediate assistance of nutrition support, health and hygiene kits, learning materials and mental health and psychosocial support to over 14,000 children. UNICEF provided road clearing support to 78 soums of 11 provinces to sustain the continuity of the classroom trainings in remote areas and to ensure health and social services remain accessible to herder households.
• Despite continuing relief effort by the Government of Mongolia and the humanitarian actors, 22,300 children in dormitories and 25,265 children aged 0-5 years in severely affected areas remain in urgent need of nutrition and hygiene support, and mental health, and psychosocial services.
Situation Overview & Humanitarian Needs
Between November 2023 and March 2024, severe blizzards and harsh weather conditions affected over 90% of the country. Over 188,300 people, including 80,215 children (40,830 girls and 39,385 boys) are affected by the extreme weather conditions. The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) search and rescue teams have responded to more than 114 alert calls for missing people, rescuing over 3,757 people, including 721 children, trapped by heavy snow.
The number of livestock perished reached more than 4.7 million (7.3%) as of 14 March 2024, which is significantly higher compared to past years’ data. According to the EOC analysis of 12 March 2024, if the situation continues to worsen at the current rate, the livestock mortality is expected to reach more than 15 million (22.3%) by end of March 2024. As of 15 March 2024, more than 3000 households have lost more than 70% of their livestock.
Due to the prolonged severe winter conditions, most of the herder households have depleted their winter/spring reserves and the high rate of livestock mortality is significantly affecting their income sources. These conditions are leading herder households into negative coping mechanisms such as drastically reducing their daily food consumption and other necessities. Due to reduced income and cash reserve, herder households have not been able to provide cash for food support to their children staying in dormitories for several months. Currently, school dormitories provide only 35% of recommended dietary intake for children.
According to the Ministry of Education and Science assessment, nutritional support, learning materials and hygiene items, mental health and wellbeing support have been identified as immediate needs for 22,300 children staying in dormitories in severely affected areas. Support for local child protection outreach services and health services have been requested to the UNICEF by several local emergency commissions.
According to the Government experts, there will be a surge in migration to urban areas after dzud, due to complete loss of livestock and livelihood of herders. The Government is supporting the commercial destocking of livestock and preparing to launch the livestock restocking program to reduce the negative impact on herders.
The Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) is activated and working to collectively respond. To address the emerging needs humanitarian partners in Mongolia, with support from OCHA is revising its Dzud Early Action and Response Plan for 2023/2024, which was published on 19th of February 2024.
Immediate needs for March to June 2024 include provision of nutritional supplements, health and hygiene kits, support for child protection workers, and distribution of learning materials for school children.
The warming spring temperatures following the unusually high amount of precipitation in winter 2023/2024 will create a significant risk of flashfloods by early to mid-April 2024. In anticipation to the flashfloods, UNICEF Mongolia is focusing on pre-positioning relief items and increasing the capacity of emergency responders.