Month: September 2022

Rome — The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) today welcomed an $83 million contribution from the United States of America designed to bolster the agency’s emergency and resilience programmes in Ethiopia, Afghanistan and Sudan, as well as in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Burkina Faso, the Sahel and the West Africa region.

It follows a recent commitment of $80 million from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) specifically focused on improving food security and nutrition in Afghanistan.

“We are grateful to the United States of America for this important contribution towards FAO’s mandate,” said FAO Director-General QU Dongyu. “Safeguarding the rural livelihoods of the vulnerable is central to averting catastrophe and saving lives through the development of local production. Such funding is critical to respond agilely and at scale in food crisis contexts.”

Given its mandate to end hunger, its longstanding country presence, and its substantial expertise and experience in both humanitarian and development contexts, FAO has a unique role to play in preventing and addressing acute hunger and supporting countries that are experiencing food crises return to a path of growth and prosperity.

Protecting livelihoods by providing emergency agricultural assistance from the onset of a crisis enables people to produce food and earn an income, while a rapid and efficient response to agricultural threats and emergencies saves lives, promotes recovery and reduces the gap between dependency on food assistance and self-reliance.

The new contribution was announced by Ambassador Cindy McCain, Permanent Representative of the United States of America to the UN agencies in Rome. The funds are designed to improve the availability and access to food in crises contexts, by supplying aid and technical assistance to smallholder farmers and livestock-dependent communities, focusing on crop and livestock production.

The Unites States of America has been the largest resource partner of FAO’s humanitarian and resilience programme since 2017. The latest contribution, part of the annual support from USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, represents a three-fold increase in funds from the previous year.

Bolstering emergency and resilience efforts

FAO’s work in Ethiopia stands to receive $32 million in emergency support to improve crop production in the Tigray region, where conflict is a key driver of severe food shortages.

FAO is already scaling up the urgent delivery of fertilizers in the northern Ethiopian region to help farmers sow their fields in the midst of the crucial planting season. The new funds will facilitate the targeted distribution of agricultural inputs, such as fertilizers and seeds, and the training of 344 000 households (involving an estimated 1 720 000 people) on fertilizer application and handling, good agronomic practices, post-harvest handling and value addition.

A further $30 million of the USA contribution announced today have been earmarked for emergency livelihood assistance to safeguard food and nutrition security in Afghanistan, where local food production and the incomes of the most vulnerable rural families have been affected by multiple shocks, including back-to-back droughts and a deepening economic crisis.

More than 70 percent of Afghans live in rural areas, and millions of men, women and children could face catastrophe in 2022 unless agriculture and livestock production are continuously supported.

FAO plans to use the funds there to improve the food and nutrition security status of 2 065 000 vulnerable and marginalized people through the distribution of winter wheat cultivation packages, a livestock protection package for herders in areas affected by drought, and multi-purpose cash transfers to households without access to land and limited labour force within the family.

An additional $15 million have been earmarked to bolster food security and livelihoods in Sudan, while the remaining amounts will target people in need in Burkina Faso and the region of West Africa and help mitigate the impact of an outbreak of African Swine Fever in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

World Vision is responding to the impact of hunger in seven countries in East Africa and requires US$ 181 million to reach 5 million people, including 2.7 million children by April 2023. We have reached more than 8 million people since April 2021.

A deadly mix of conflict, COVID-19 and the climate crisis have pushed more than 11 million people across seven countries in East Africa to the very brink of a hunger crisis. Of critical concern are vulnerable children who are experiencing high levels of malnutrition.

Conflict is the leading driver of hunger globally. Every country where World Vision works in East Africa is either in conflict or neighbouring a country in conflict. The region has also endured substantial climate shocks, undermining people’s ability to feed themselves. The economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and the current ripple effect from the war in Ukraine is also driving hunger to unprecedented levels.

Humanitarian needs are immense and the impact on children, including safeguarding risks, is enormous. This challenging period could also erode human and economic development gains that have been made towards the global 2030 Sustainable Development Goals across the region.

World Vision is deeply concerned for millions of children in East Africa, who are enduring a devastating hunger crisis. According to FSNWG Drought Special report (July 2022), about 568,000 children were admitted for Severe Acute Malnutrition treatment in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia from January to June. About 6.5 million children are projected to suffer from acute malnutrition, of which close to 1.8 million face severe wasting.

World Vision has reached more than 8 million people, including 4.4 million children, since April 2021. We are already responding with food distributions in multiple countries. World Vision re-declared its multi-country response comprising Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. We aim to reach 5 million people, including 2.7 million children, by April 2023 through the second phase of the response. World Vision has been implementing a multi-country hunger emergency response in the above-mentioned countries for the last 12 months and has been able to repurpose and raise new funds, to the tune of US $ 81 million. However, the needs have insurmountably increased and we require an additional US$ 100 million.

Source: World Vision

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secretariat, in collaboration with WaterAid and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), launched the SADC Hygiene Strategy (2021-2025) on 24 August 2022. This marks a huge milestone in the realisation of political commitments made previously by Ministers of Health. The launch was attended by SADC Member States, development partners and donors who reiterated the importance of the Strategy as a tool to address persistent poor hygiene practices which are a major contributor to the spread of serious diseases in the Region.

Speaking during the launch ceremony, Dr Gertrude Nsambi, Director of Hygiene in the Democratic Republic of Congo noted that hygiene in general has often been relegated to the backstage when it comes to national prioritisation of health programmes in Member States. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, hand hygiene has received unprecedented prominence as the first line of defence in national COVID-19 prevention strategies. This has helped to position hand hygiene as an important long-term public policy issue. There is scientific evidence that hand hygiene is a highly cost-effective investment and has multiplier health benefits for a real ‘no-regrets’ investment. The SADC Hygiene Strategy 2021-2025, seeks to, amongst other interventions, upscale capacity building for the Region’s hygiene sector and provide a framework for the financing of hygiene activities.

Director of Social and Human Development in the SADC Secretariat, Ms Duduzile Simelane, highlighted that the Region continues to report recurrent outbreaks of diarrhoea, cholera, typhoid and hepatitis E. Amid these threatening diseases access to handwashing in the Region remains very low especially amongst rural populations. Furthermore, access to hand hygiene and practice remains inadequate with the requisite facilities to support behaviours change for hygiene lacking in many Member States. She reminded all present that access to water and sanitation services is key as these are enablers of good hygiene practices. Progress towards improved access to basic water supply has been very slow. She said that the UNICEF Report published in 2022 revealed that only 63% of the Region’s population was estimated to have access to basic water supply in 2022, which is 2% improvement from the 2012. Access to basic drinking water in health facilities is estimated at 67%, 24% of health facilities have limited access to water and up to 8% have no access to water at all.

Member States were urged to note that basic access to water, sanitation and hygiene practices have a contributory factor to the nutrition status especially of children under 5 years. Therefore, if these are not in place, it can lead to diarrhoea, poor absorption of nutrients and increase the chances of infants and young children being malnourished. Inability to practice hygiene during meal preparation and storage could result in diarrhoea and mortality especially in children.

WaterAid Regional Director for Southern Africa, Robert Kampala, described the adoption and launch of the Strategy as a highly significant milestone for the Region. “This official launch of the strategy reflects how seriously Member States take the issue of good hygiene. It’s now key that Member States back up this strategy with enough money, personnel and expertise. As a starting point, communities cannot be safe from infection if there is no proper hygiene and WaterAid continues to state that improved access to clean water, good sanitation and basic hygiene is absolutely key,” He said. Mr. Kampala emphasised the importance of development of national action plans that give prominence to hygiene with clear targets and financial commitments from domestic funding. He further assured the SADC Member States and the SADC Secretariat the support WaterAid will provide in rolling out the SADC Hygiene Strategy in the Member States.

Arnold Cole, WASH Specialist from UNICEF Eastern Southern Africa Region, indicated that UNICEF together with WHO during the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, initiated a drive for “Hand Hygiene for All (HH4A)”. This perfectly aligns to the pillars of the SADC Strategy ranging from political leadership, financing for hygiene, capacity building, demand and supply. UNICEF shared country level examples of hand hygiene initiatives together with the Governments of Lesotho which have advanced the hygiene agenda with ongoing development of a hygiene strategy as well as strengthened private sector engagement through the HH4A initiative in the United Republic of Tanzania under the Smart Hands Tanzania project. Mr. Cole underscored the importance of the regional hygiene strategy, noting that Africa will have to accelerate its current rate of progress on basic universal hygiene by 42 times in order to achieve universal coverage by 2030

Member Sates shared their experiences and agreed that in order for hygiene practices to be improved, there will be a requirement for strong implementation, monitoring, and evaluation systems in the Region. The presence of research institutions such as AUDA-NEPAD Southern African Network of Water Centres of Excellence (SANWATCE) represented by Dr Nico Elma provided assurance and commitment towards evidence generation and supporting community of practice on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene.

SADC will engage and work with key partners, including civil society and development agencies in the field of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) to ensure that sufficient resources are committed to enable effective implementation of the strategy.

Source: Southern African Development Community