FAO launched a revised Rapid Response and Mitigation Plan, which exclusively focuses on four drought epicentres across the Horn of Africa region: Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia.
The time frame for the new plan has been extended from June to December 2022 with the aim of preventing a deterioration in food security conditions in the region, saving the livelihoods and therefore the lives of almost five million rural people across the four countries.
FAO is appealing for a total of $219 million. So far, the UN Agency has mobilized around $47 million, leaving a gap of $172 million. The funds received thus far will provide life-saving livelihoods assistance through cash and livelihood packages, including animal health and infrastructure rehabilitation to approximately 700 000 people, yet millions more are still to be reached.
As of early May, the performance of the 2022 long rains season (March–May) in the region was poor, which represents an unprecedented fourth below-average rainy season for Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia resulting in dire impacts on food security. Djibouti’s rainfall pattern differs to those of the other three countries though rainfall there was also erratic in 2021.
The region is already facing high levels of food insecurity. At present, 16.7 million people are projected to be in Crisis (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification - IPC - Phase 3) or worse levels of high acute food insecurity due solely to the drought in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. In Kenya alone, 4.1 million people are likely to be highly food insecure through June 2022, over the 3.5 million initially projected over the same period.
Similarly, in Somalia, some 7.1 million people (close to half the population) now face crisis-level food insecurity or worse through at least September 2022, including 2.1 million people in Emergency (IPC Phase 4) and 213 000 people in Catastrophe (IPC Phase 5).
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