Attachments
Highlights
• Despite the harsh winter condition subsided by May 2024, the impact of the dzud impact on the herder households continues to affect the livelihood, mental health, wellbeing, nutritional and education needs of over 24,000 children.
• UNICEF Mongolia is providing immediate assistance including nutrition support, health kits, hygiene kits, learning materials and mental health and psychosocial support to over 21,000 children. To ensure that health and social services remain accessible to herder households, UNICEF provided road clearing support to 78 soums of 11 provinces.
• Amid the dzud recovery efforts, there is a high risk of flooding in central and eastern parts of Mongolia, posing increasing challenges for the vulnerable population in flood-prone areas.
Situation in Numbers
Over 188,300 people including 80,215 children affected.
Immediate assistance delivered to 11,000 children between Jan-May 2024.
10,000 children and 2,500 families in need of humanitarian assistance to be supported by UNICEF from June - July 2024.
Situation Overview & Humanitarian Need
Between November 2023 and May 2024, Mongolia experienced the harshest dzud in the last fifty years, with severe blizzards and harsh weather conditions affecting over 188,300 people, including 80,215 children (40,830 girls and 39,385 boys). Twenty people, including two children, lost their lives due to severe blizzard.
In a country, where one third of the population is nomadic and dependent on livestock, dzud has a severely adverse impact on national social and economic welfare. The massive loss of livestock means the collapse of the primary, if not the sole, source of income and livelihoods for a large portion of the population. Although the severe winter condition subsided, livestock that had been exhausted and starved for long period continued to perish well into May. By mid-May 2024, the number of livestock loss reached 7.2 million, amounting to 11.6 percent of the total.
Specialists at the State Emergency Commission estimated the total livestock loss could reach 15 million by April 2024, based on the severity of the weather conditions and previous historical dzud data. However, due to the early preparedness actions taken by the State and local emergency commissions, the number of livestock perished stalled at 11.6 per cent as opposed to the estimated 23 percent loss. Timely de-stocking, provision of cash for preparedness, continuous clearing of snow blockages and relocation of vulnerable households to central areas were some of the successful early interventions identified by herders. Households affected by dzud employed various strategies to cope with the adverse impacts. These include dietary restrictions, prolonged outdoor labor, and reduced household expenditures, such as skipping medical check-ups and cutting expenses on education, hygiene, and warm clothes for children. The already poor nutritional status of children and women in rural herder households puts them at greater risk of malnutrition during the dzud, given the lack of available food, as well as inadequate essential micronutrients. The Government of Mongolia is taking a series of actions to support households in recovering from the dzud. The “Law on Mitigating the Negative Effects of Climate Change on Traditional Livestock Husbandry”, adopted in April 2024, aims to enhance the resilience of the livestock industry against the negative impacts of climate change. The "New Cooperative - Wealthy Herder" program is being implemented to reinforce the newly adopted law by strengthening the local supply system, leading to enhanced and value-added agricultural manufacturing and livestock husbandry. The program aims to support the development of a risk-resilient nomadic lifestyle by diversifying and stabilizing the income sources of herders. It provided coaching programs and soft financing with low interest rates for herder cooperatives. Through various counselling sessions and focus group discussions, joint teams of UNICEF and National Center for Mental Health observed the significant toll dzud is taking on children’s mental health. Children are suffering not only from the aftermath of the mass death of their livestock, but also from the dispirited and exhausted state of adults and reduced attention and care from their caretakers.
The State Emergency Commission of Mongolia (SEC) concluded the Dzud emergency response operation on 15 May 2024. However, long-term dzud recovery efforts remain a priority for the Government of Mongolia. The Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) is activated and working to collectively respond. The Mongolia Dzud Response Plan was revised and relaunched on 25 March. By May 2024, HCT members collectively delivered assistance to over 60,000 people in need with cash and in-kind assistance.