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Mozambique

Mozambique: Food Insecurity Emergency Appeal MDRMZ012 Operation Update n°4

Attachments

A. Appeal History

  • This Emergency Appeal was launched on 22 April 2016 for CHF 1,702,895 to enable the IFRC to support the Cruz Vermelha de Moçambique (CVM) to reach 14,767 people (2,953 households) in 6 districts with food assistance support to meet emergency needs and livelihoods interventions to promote recovery for 9 months.

  • Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF): CHF 160,000 was initially allocated from the Federation’s DREF to support the national society to start up the operations by meeting immediate needs of affected people.

  • Operations update 1 and Operations update 2 were issued to give progress on the operation.
    The IFRC, on behalf of the Cruz Vermelha de Moçambique, would like to express its gratitude to all partners for their generous contributions and would like to appeal for more support to the EA to enable CVM provide much needed assistance to the most vulnerable, drought affected communities.

B. Situation analysis

Description of the disaster

The El Niño conditions that persisted during the 2015/16 planting season caused the worst drought in 35 years in Southern Africa, resulting in a second consecutive failed harvest, reducing food availability by 15 per cent compared to the 5-year average. In Mozambique, the food security and nutritional assessment of the Technical Secretariat for Food

Security and Nutrition (SETSAN), released in September 2016, estimates that 1.5 million people are food insecure in seven provinces: Maputo, Gaza, Inhambane, Tete, Manica, Sofala and Zambézia. FEWS NET (2016) estimates that between October and December 2016, nearly 1.8 million people will likely face Crisis (IPC Phase 3) outcomes, requiring urgent humanitarian assistance. In addition, an estimated 243,000 acutely malnourished children and 113,000 pregnant and lactating women will be in need of food assistance between October 2016 and March 2017 in all affected provinces, including the northern provinces where chronic malnutrition and stunting levels are the highest in the country ( Regional Inter-agency Standing Committee - RIASCO, 2016). A smaller number of worst-affected households, especially in the conflict areas, are likely in Emergency (IPC Phase 4). The Mozambique Vulnerability Assessment Committee, SETSAN/GAV, is conducting a national food security assessment, along with FEWS NET and other partners, and the results, available in mid-December, will update needs estimates through the next harvest in March 2017 (FEWSNET, 2016).

Food access continues to be constrained due to the extremely high staple food prices, and this is projected to continue until the harvest in March 2017. Maize grain prices in August/September were significantly higher in almost every monitored market, approximately 182 percent above the five-year average (RIASCO, 2016). Prices of substitutes, maize meal and rice, were not as high as maize, but they remained significantly above both the five-year average and last year’s prices (FEWSNET, 2016).

The scale of humanitarian assistance has grown since October, from covering less than 50 percent of total needs, to now meeting approximately 66 percent (FEWSNET, 2016). This assistance is being carried out in all seven drought- affected provinces and implemented through the Government of Mozambique, Red Cross, UN, and NGO partners.