Chronic conflict, cyclical drought, floods, disease out-breaks, environmental degradation, rapid population growth, and limited government capacity present signifi-cant challenges to vulnerable populations in the East and Central Africa region. Between Fiscal Year (FY) 2002 and FY 2011, USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assis-tance (USAID/OFDA) and USAID’s Office of Food for Peace (USAID/FFP) provided humanitarian assistance in response to a diverse range of natural and complex emergencies, including drought in Ethiopia and Kenya, an Ebola outbreak in Uganda, regional food insecurity throughout the Horn of Africa, post-election violence in Kenya, and crises in Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and the DRC.
Between FY 2002 and FY 2011, USAID provided more than $11.5 billion in humanitarian assistance in the East and Central Africa region, including nearly $2.3 billion from USAID/OFDA for agriculture and food security, economic recovery and market systems, health, humanitarian coordination and information management, logistics and relief commodities, nutrition, protection, shelter and settlements, and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) interventions, and nearly $9.3 billion in emergency food aid from USAID/FFP.
In the last decade, USAID deployed eight Disaster Assis-tance Response Teams (DARTs) in response to humani-tarian emergencies in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, the DRC, Sudan, and regional food security crises in the Horn of Af-rica. USAID assessment teams also traveled to CAR, DRC, and Chad. In addition, USAID activated multiple Washington, D.C.-based Response Management Teams to support coordination and response efforts in Sudan and the Horn of Africa, including famine in Somalia.