CERF provides US$ 1.5 million to emergency food assistance and security
15 May 2007: The Republic of Djibouti, an area of 23,000 square kilometers, is home to a population of some 632,000. More than 80% of its inhabitants reside in an urban environment, the rest live in a rural environment primarily as nomadic and semi-nomadic pastoralists. During the past decade, droughts have been more frequent and the recovery periods shorter, taking a heavy toll on vulnerable populations. By now, drought has evolved into a chronic emergency with a varying intensity and is seen as a “normal” phenomenon.
By creating the National Initiative for Social Development (INDS) and the inter-ministerial task force on food security, the Government has taken useful new steps to improve food security.
In September 2006, during the peak of the lean season, the World Food Programme (WFP) conducted an Emergency Food Security Assessment (EFSA). It came to the conclusion that an estimated 20% of the population was food-insecure and highly vulnerable. In the northwest of the country, almost half of the households indicated that they had been forced to migrate in order to find pasture for their animals.
The CERF grants totalling $1,575,570 are enabling the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to develop short-term projects in order to avoid a further increase of the malnutrition caseload, while the World Food Programme (WFP) is using its allocation to continue the free food distribution from June to August, the most difficult dry period of the year.
UNICEF is using its $278,200 CERF allocation to scale up the management of moderate and severe malnutrition at health facilities and at community levels from a coverage of 40% at the end of 2006 to 80% by the end of this year for children under five years of age, and to reduce the fatality rate of severe acute malnutrition treated in hospitals below 5%. The proposal is particularly targeted at 30,000 malnourished children who will receive therapeutic milk and drugs. In addition, UNICEF is supplying all the materials necessary for therapeutic and supplementary feeding centres, monitoring and supervision. The nutrition education for mothers with malnourished children is going to be improved. WHO is seeking to mitigate the impact of avoidable infectious diseases on mortality and morbidity among a population of some 106,000 semi-pastoralists and nomads and the rural population in the periphery of Dikhil and Ali Sabieh. Acute malnutrition rates are reaching 20.3% in Dikhil (including 5.5% of severe malnutrition) and 38.1% in Ali Sabieh (20%). With its CERF grant of $299,910, WHO is acquiring two equipped vehicles to improve the deployment of the existing mobile health units in the affected areas. The units are receiving logistic support and essential drugs, mosquito nets, and equipment to monitor the patients’ medical and nutritional status.
 |
| People gather around water point in Mouloud [Photo: FAO] |
FAO’s project is aiming at the survival of the livestock of the drought-stricken nomadic population in the Dorra region. The UN agency is supplying veterinary products to 20,000 beneficiaries chronically affected by food insecurity. With its CERF grant of $445,629, the FAO is also training veterinary personnel to health measures for animals as well as the care and management of herds. In addition, it is rehabilitating five water reserves by planting fodder bushes and sensitizing the stockbreeders to the maintenance and management of water reserves and forest perimeters.
WFP is using the $551,831 CERF grant to purchase food so it can continue its activities to meet the needs of an estimated 47,750 beneficiaries for one month. The aim is to improve the nutritional status of the most food-insecure rural populations in the five districts of Djibouti that are most affected by the drought.
[Last Update: 23 May 2007]
«CERF Around the World