The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has received a $27.1 million (€25 million) contribution from Germany to help provide access to food and other basic goods and services in drought-affected communities in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and Sudan.
This is a welcome reprieve for the region especially Somalia which has suffered five consecutive failed rainy seasons.
On March 20, the Federal Ministry of Health & Human Services, WHO, and UNICEF released the findings of a study that suggested that the ongoing drought killed over 43,000 people in 2022, with half of them being children under the age of 5.
The report also predicted that in the first half of 2023 between 18,100 and 34,200 people will have lost their lives due to the crisis.
Currently, half of the Somali population is in dire need of aid according to the United Nations. The situation is the same in parts of Ethiopia and Kenya.
As such, Germany’s donation is crucial in mitigating the impacts of drought on food security and livelihoods.
It will help to increase immediate food access in rural communities, safeguard and restore livelihoods and rapidly enable self-reliance.
Moreover, FAO says the funds will reach almost 1 million of the most vulnerable people in inaccessible and hard-to-reach rural areas.
Under the project, FAO will provide food-insecure rural households with unconditional cash transfers through its cash+ programs.
This will allow families to cover basic expenditures in food, health, and education, among others.
The cash package will also safeguard livelihoods and enable self-reliance in food production and nutrition by distributing agriculture assistance packages to farmers, as well as distributing animal feed and water transport support for pastoralists.
These assistance packages will comprise, seeds, tools, subsidized services, and fertilizers.
The funding allocation is as follows: Ethiopia – $7.6 million, Kenya – $7 million, Somalia – $8.1 million, and Sudan – $4.8 million.
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