Attachments
A. SITUATION ANALYSIS
Description of the crisis On 29 February 2024, the President of Zambia declared a national emergency due to the prolonged drought. On 16 April 2024, the joint rapid needs assessment 1 was commissioned by the Agriculture and Food Security Cluster and the National Government Drought Response Appeal indicated that 6.6 million people were in need of urgent humanitarian assistance (33 per cent of Zambia’s total population according to World Bank data). This includes more than three million children under 18 years of age, mostly based in the provinces of Lusaka, Luapula, and the Western, Eastern, Southern, Central, and Northwestern Provinces. According to the rapid assessment report, the top three provinces with more than 1.3 million people in need were Western, Southern, and North-Western. The report also highlights that many households were struggling to meet their basic needs, including access to food, with many resorting to negative coping mechanisms. Although most of the surveyed households reported that they cultivated maize and other crops in the 2023/2024 season, projected production levels were minimal, and the majority of households reported total crop failure particularly due to the prolonged dry spells. Likewise, livestock and fisheries are equally affected due to the drying of water sources, almost half of surveyed households that kept livestock reported a reduction of pastures especially for cattle, while 39 per cent indicated that distance to water points increased.
Zambia is undergoing one of the driest agricultural seasons in more than forty years, causing major crop and livestock losses and severely affecting the well-being and livelihoods of communities nationwide. According to ongoing reports from the UN, 84 out of 116 districts in the country have been affected by this crisis. According to 2024 IPC report, between April and September 2024, an estimated 4.95 million people (29 percent of the population) are facing high levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or above). This includes about 84,000 people facing critical levels, classified as IPC Phase 4 (Emergency) and 4.87 million people facing crisis levels, classified as IPC Phase 3 (Crisis). The affected populations require urgent response action to fill their food needs and to protect and save lives and livelihoods. Of the 94 districts analysed, 82 are classified in Phase 3 with the rest of the districts being classified as IPC Phase 2 (Stressed).
The country continues to recover from a cholera outbreak that began in October 2023, with over 21,000 reported cases. The decreased access to water has also led to outbreaks of diarrheal and other vector-borne diseases, exacerbating the health crisis. The IFRC, in support of the Zambia Red Cross Society (ZRCS), launched a Cholera Emergency Appeal in October 2023. Zambia has regions that are also prone to malaria, which could spike once bodies of water and water sources start drying up creating conducive breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
The situation is dire, as most of the districts affected did not harvest any yields due to lost crops; therefore, with the loss of crops and livestock, nutrition and survival are getting to a frightening level. With limited resources to respond to the 6.6 million affected population and increasing vulnerability, the current government and humanitarian efforts to respond are almost insignificant; therefore, there is a need for more support. Partners and governments are spread out across the 8 most affected provinces, i.e., districts, in the 84 out of 117 districts in response to the compounding impacts of the drought in Zambia. The IFRC, in support to the ZRCS, launched an emergency appeal of CHF 11 million (Federation-wide), to scale-up its operation initially funded by the DREF. To date, a total of 1,525,573 CHF has been mobilized where interventions have started being implemented in two districts of Sinazongwe and Chikankata out of the 5 planned Districts.