CERF allocates $1 million to underfunded humanitarian activities in Eritrea
20 September: CERF allocates US$ 1 million to Eritrea as part of the second underfunded allocation in 2007. Chronic food insecurity represents one of the main challenges for Eritrea. Adverse weather conditions have resulted in recurrent droughts from which the country is yet to recover. The stalemate in the peace process with Ethiopia over the two countries’ disputed border continues to impose a heavy burden on scarce resources and continues to prevent the realization of full agricultural production potential. Malnutrition rates among women and children in coastal and IDP resettlement areas range from 11% to 21%., with the level of malnutrition among non-pregnant women ranges from 35%-54%.
The average monthly incidence of diarrhea is above 10,000 per 100,000. Migrant populations in coastal regions lose vital health services like antenatal care and immunization because of their nomadic lifestyle. Recurrent droughts have led surface water sources to dry up as well as alternate sources closer to villages have dried up and the population. Scare resources further impact on the situation, and as such the focus of these projects are on Food Security, Health, Nutrition and WASH.
![Amina and her three children [Photo: UN/Eritrea]](/Portals/11/Images_country/ERI_Amina_UN_crop.jpg) |
| Amina and her three children [Photo: UN/Eritrea] |
Lack of access to basic health services such as immunization and antenatal care as well as control of communicable diseases especially diarrhea are the major health needs of the chronically drought affected populations as well as the IDPs and their host communities. Skilled delivery attendance was only 26%, fully vaccinated children range from 36.8% in Southern Red Sea to 49% in Northern Red Sea.
Humanitarian interventions with the support of CERF and ECHO funding have resulted in raising the immunization coverage to above 70%, about 5,000 pregnant and women of child bearing age received antenatal services. Maternity waiting homes were established and maintained to assist disadvantaged women to access skilled delivery attendance. The major priority now is to sustain and improve on these gains.
WHO’s grant of $175,000 will improve vital life saving services of immunization and antenatal/skilled delivery services through supporting outreach activities in the hard to reach coastal areas, as well as the resettled IDPs.
The project will specifically fill critical gaps in immunization, procurement and installation of cold chain materials treatment of diarrhea and supply of essential medicines such as ORS.
Diarrhea is a major problem in Eritrea accounting for 20% of all causes of hospital attendance among infants and 12% among the children under 5 years. It accounts for 11% of infant and 10% of under 5 hospital mortality. The major causes of deaths in diarrhea are dehydration arising from poor management at home. This intervention aims at consolidating and improving the integrated outreach services for the vulnerable groups, building capacity of mothers to manage diarrhea at home as well as building capacity to rapidly detect, respond and adequately control any outbreaks.
UNICEF’s grant of $ 210,000 will provide access to water supply for 9,600 people from 10-20 drought affected communities by repairing/rehabilitating 20 non-functioning hand pumps, and rehabilitating 8 unprotected dug-wells identified as part of the rapid assessment carried out in 2006. UNICEF will also provide facility based therapeutic and supplementary feeding with a grant of $ 175,938. This project will allow UNICEF its support to 5,850 malnourished children under 5 and pregnant and lactating women through supplementary feeding (SF) and facility based therapeutic feeding (FBTF) through training, procurement of basic equipments, provision of IEC materials and support to social mobilization and monitoring.
UNHCR has the responsibility to meet the basic international protection and humanitarian assistance needs of refugees/asylum seekers in Eritrea. UNHCR is responsible for providing basic and complementary food commodities to 3,700 Somali and 200 Sudanese camp based refugees, including malnourished children, the elderly, lactating/pregnant women, and medically recommended patients. Malnutrition remains a serious problem among the Somali refugee children in the Emkulu refugee camp. A supplementary feeding programme was introduced to address the issue and the malnutrition rate has considerably been reduced from 13 percent in March 2007 to 9.3 % at the end of June 2007. Planned programmes are aimed at further reducing this rate in the coming months.
A CERF grant of $200,000 to UNHCR will provide locally procured food items to 3,900 Somali and Sudanese refugees in Eritrea. With UNHCR Eritrea severely under-funded, this project will help refugees consume a balanced diet and receive an average of 2,100 kcal per day, and reduce malnutrition rate to below 10%.
In the absence of food aid, UNDP’s CERF grant of $239,985 will support the Joint Programme on IDPs in return/resettlement areas with emergency food production for 20,902 vulnerable IDPs through the provision of farm hand tools, vegetable and fast growing local crop seeds.
[Last Update: 5 October 2007]
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CERF allocates $2 million to critical humanitarian assistance in Eritrea
20 March: Following several years of poor rains and subsequent drought, the costal population of Eritrea and a proportion of those living in the Western lowlands are currently experiencing a crisis situation. Over 2.3 million people living in Eritrea's western and eastern lowlands (Anseba, Gash Barka, and Northern and Southern Red Sea) are the most vulnerable in the country. They are mainly nomadic pastoralists and agriculturalists in the western lowlands. The main coping strategy for this population is migration to the highlands. More than 80% of the families migrate to the highlands in search of pasture and water for the animals and food for the families. Due to this pattern of livelihood, the vulnerable groups - especially women and children - are not accessing basic health services, adequate nutrition or shelter.
The situation is aggravated by often understaffed health services, deficient and poorly maintained equipment leading to service coverage that is well below the national average. Many of the remote areas are not covered by routine or outreach services at all. Immunization drop out rate due to population displacement has reached up to 50% in many communities. In addition to the outbreaks of diarrhoeal diseases, other outbreaks include that of meningitis and suspected dengue fever.
The last severe drought affected an estimated 350,000 persons in five regions. Due to vagaries of the weather it is difficult to determine when the next drought will set in since the country is prone to drought. From past experience, such natural disasters resulted in low attendance and high drop-out rates in primary schools in those areas. Other causes of low attendance and high drop-out rates at the primary school level include poverty, which made parents unable to afford the cost of educational materials; children’s engagement in household chores; and lack of drinking water supply and sanitary facilities in schools. The complexity of this situation demands that various complementary measures be taken to ensure that children in both conflict-prone and drought-affected areas continue schooling and provided with psycho-social support.
The border conflict has left an estimated 21,700 persons (11,600 persons in Gash Barka and 10,100 persons in Debub regions) still living in IDP camps. An additional 10,000 IDPs are currently living with family members in the communities. Efforts are being made to resettle over 20,000 persons in both Gash Barka and Debub regions.
According to a recently conducted Landmine Impact Survey (LIS) under the auspices of the UNDP Mine Action Capacity Building Programme, 481 local communities are affected out of 4,176 communities in Eritrea. Moreover, 914 suspected Hazard Areas covering about 30 Square Kilometers of land have also been identified that have greatly impacted a population of 655,000 persons. The hardest hit, are rural inhabitants, especially IDPs in return/resettlement areas and nomadic people.
Due to the ongoing conflict in Somalia, Eritrea has received 3,700 Somali refugees in Emkulu camp. Malnutrition has become a serious problem among the Somali refugee children. A supplementary feeding programme has been set up. However, as all WFP food in Eriterea was confiscated by the govenrment, UNHCR is no longer able to access basic rations and supplementary feeding for camp based refugees. As a result, UNHCR is required to purchase food from its own resources and organise the distribution.
The CERF under-funded allocation to Eritrea covers the sectors of health and nutrition, mine action, assistance to refugees, water and sanitation and emergency education: UNICEF and WHO will provide access to water supply for 9,000 people from IDP settlements and its surrounding areas in Gash Barka and Debub by installing 28 hand pumps in 20 rehabilitated traditional water sources such as dug-wells and 8 newly drilled boreholes. In addition 600 household latrines will be constructed and used covering 3,000 people. Moreover, UNICEF will respond to the emergency education needs of an estimated 3,000 children who have recently returned to their villages of origin from the IDP camps or who are still in the camps in Gash Barka and Debub, as they are not able to return to their original villages. With respect to child health and nutrition, UNICEF will also provide supplement vitamin A to 460,000 children 6-59 months old, in order to reduce childhood morbidity and mortality by using an integrated approach that includes vitamin A supplementation and other health and nutrition interventions, in Northern and Southern Red Sea regions and Anseba region.
![A girl pours water from a small plastic pitcher into a jerrycan in a camp in Eritrea [Photo: UNICEF/Lemoyne]](/Portals/11/Images_country/ERI_CEF_Girl_crop.jpg "A girl pours water from a small plastic pitcher into a jerrycan in a camp in Eritrea [Photo: UNICEF/Lemoyne]") |
| A girl pours water from a small plastic pitcher into a jerrycan in a camp in Eritrea [Photo: UNICEF/Lemoyne] |
WHO will seek to reduce mortality from health and nutritional hazards among Eritrea’s low land migrant population by rapidly responding to outbreaks as well as strengthening outreach services for immunization, growth monitoring and antenatal services.
UNHCR will provide the Somali refugees in Emkulu camp, located in Northern Red Sea region, with a balanced diet and a minimum of 2,100 kcal per day in order to reduce the malnutrition rate among the refugees.
UNDP’s mine action project aims to protect the IDPs against landmines and UXO threats, and reduce mine related accidents and fatalities in all the villages of return/resettlement of IDPs in Gash Barka and Debub.
According to the NGO proclamation issued in 2005, UN agencies are not allowed to channel funding through NGOs in Eritrea. Therefore, NGOs will not function as implementing partners for the CERF funded projects in Eritrea.
In 2006, Eritrea received CERF grants totalling US$ 5.9 million under both the under-funded and rapid response windows for emergency humanitarian activities, particularly related to the drought affecting the Horn of Africa.
[Last updated: 12 April 2007]
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