New funding represents a significant contribution to mitigating the impacts of drought on food security
The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) has announced a €25 million contribution from the Government of Germany to provide access to food and other basic goods and services while protecting and restoring productive livelihoods in drought-affected communities in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and the Sudan.
An extended, multiseason drought is driving high levels of acute food insecurity across Eastern Africa, with more than 22 million people in southern Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia in need of urgent humanitarian food assistance (IPC Phase 3 or above) as of March 2023, as crops fail, animals die, and populations are displaced across the region. This figure includes 2.6 million people in Emergency (IPC Phase 4) in Kenya and Somalia and more than 96 000 people in Catastrophe (IPC Phase 5) in Somalia.
Under the project, FAO will provide food insecure rural households with unconditional cash transfers through its cash+ programmes, allowing families to cover basic expenditures in food, health, education, among other. The plus component of the cash package is aimed at safeguarding livelihoods and enabling self-reliance in food production and nutrition by distributing agriculture assistance packages for farmers composed of seeds, tools, subsidised services and fertilisers, as well as distributing animal feed and water transport support for pastoralists.
Of these funds, Ethiopia will receive €7 million, Kenya – €6.5 million, Somalia – €7.5 million and the Sudan – €4 million.
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