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	Urgent scale-up in funding needed to stave off famine in Somalia by Unicef, WFP, Red Cross, agencies   Sept. 2017   With 3.1 million people facing crisis and emergency, acute food insecurity persists in Somalia. (FAO Somalia)   An estimated 3.1 million people, 25 percent of the population, are expected to be in Crisis (IPC Phase 3) or Emergency (IPC Phase 4) through December. The Gu (April-June) cereal harvest was far below average, prices of local cereal remain well above average, and substantial livestock losses have occurred, all of which have lowered household access to food and income. Persistent drought has led to large-scale population displacement.   Deyr (October-December) rains are expected to be average to below average, but levels of acute food insecurity in Somalia will remain high through the end of the year. Acute and widespread food insecurity and increased morbidity have contributed to further deterioration of the overall nutrition situation in Somalia.   Scaled up humanitarian assistance must be sustained in order to prevent further deterioration of food security and nutrition situation of the affected population. A risk of Famine continues through the end of the year in the worst affected areas: in a worst-case scenario where there is a significant interruption to current food assistance programs and higher prices further decrease household food access. Areas of greatest concern include the northeast and some IDP populations.   Findings from a seasonal assessment conducted across Somalia in June and July 2017 indicate that over 3.1 million people will face Crisis or Emergency (IPC Phases 3 and 4) through December 2017. This represents only a slight improvement in food security compared to the figures projected for April-June 2017, primarily as a result of sustained humanitarian assistance and improved rainfall in localized areas.   Additionally, nearly 3.1 million people are classified as Stressed (IPC Phase 2). In total, 6.2 million people across Somalia face acute food insecurity. This seasonal assessment was jointly led by the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit for Somalia (FSNAU, a project managed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), and the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET, a project funded by USAID) and carried out with the active participation of Government institutions and other partners.   The overall nutrition situation in Somalia has continued to deteriorate, especially in northern and central parts of Somalia.   Results from 31 separate nutrition surveys conducted FSNAU and partners between June and July 2017 indicate that an estimated 388,000 children under the age of five are acutely malnourished, including 87,000 who are severely malnourished and face an increased risk of morbidity and death.   In two-thirds of the 31 nutrition surveys conducted, Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) prevalence were considered Critical (15-30%) or Very Critical (>30%). In one-thirds of the surveys, Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) was also considered Critical (4.0-5.6%) or Very Critical (5.6%).   Morbidity rates are at least 20 percent or higher in more than half of the surveyed populations, contributing to the reported high levels of acute malnutrition in most of these populations. Mortality rates have also increased. http://www.fsnau.org/   March 2017   World must act fast, scale up life-saving assistance in drought-hit Somalia. (UN News)   Hearing the heart-wrenching stories of desperate families displaced in Somalia, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged a major scale up in international support to avert a famine in the drought-stricken Horn of Africa nation and curb the spread of cholera.   With almost half of the Somali population in need of assistance, including 330,000 children who are acutely malnourished, the UN chief reiterated an appeal for funding support for 5.5 million people.   'There is a chance in Somalia to avoid a situation like the one we had in 2011', he said, referring to the previous famine that killed many in that country.   He said that 3.3 million people are in need of health support and that cholera has been developing and making hunger even worse and more dangerous. In the last two months, there were 7,731 cases of cholera with 183 people dying, he warned.   The situation has become significantly worse in the last six months, says Joseph Contreras, the spokesperson for the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM).   'Currently, approximately 6.2 million Somalis are in need of humanitarian assistance, of that number, three million are in need of urgent life saving measures.. In addition, 950,000 children under the age of five will be acutely malnourished this year, with 185,000 of that number at risk of death without immediate medical treatment'.   The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports that wages are collapsing, local food prices are rising, and malnutrition rates are rising. Water prices are spiralling and Somalis are moving in growing numbers in search of food and water. Without assistance, many people face malnutrition, significantly increased risk of disease, loss of livelihoods and death.   Humanitarians in Somalia are seeking urgent support to reach the most vulnerable with life-saving assistance.   http://bit.ly/2nc72CB http://www.unocha.org/somalia http://bit.ly/2mrPdRS   March 2017   Somalia: A family without food sees drought turn to disaster. (ICRC)   Inside an isolated straw hut on a dried-up riverbed, Abdullahi Mohamud sits with three of his youngest children. Despair covers his face. There is no food left in the house.   "The ones you see here didn't have supper last night," Abdullahi reveals.   Two of the children play with empty containers, while the other tugs on his father's shirt for attention. All three seem innocently unaware of their father's deep worries.   Abdullahi moved his wife and 11 children to this location 25 kilometres north of Garowe in Somalia's Nugal region two months ago, after he lost most of his animals to the drought. Only 30 goats and sheep remain in his once-sizeable herd of 270. Worse, the remaining animals are frail and near impossible to sell. They don't produce milk and can't be slaughtered for meat. As a last resort, Abdullahi moved to the riverbed hoping he would be able to sell the sand. But that hasn't panned out either.   "If we can't live on the animals or from the soil, then I don't know how they [children] will survive," he admits in a voice cracking with emotion and eyes welling with tears.   This reality of hard living is familiar to many Somalis. Mohamed Salat, also a herder who lives further down the channel, has seen his herd of 360 goats and sheep dwindle to 90. He has brought the animals to water at a well built along the dried-up river.   "In my 43 years, I have never seen or heard of a drought like this one." says Salat. "We never woke up to a time when we didn't have milk from our goats."   While dry spells are nothing new in Somalia, the conditions this year have been exacerbated by the poor rains last year. The Somali saying "livestock is life" resonates even deeper in such difficult spells. Lack of pasture and water has led to loss of livestock, ultimately robbing the people of their source of income and food. Pastoralists have been forced to move into urban areas in search of food and water.   Medical officials have seen a spike in the number of malnourished children visiting nutrition centres.   Alarmingly, the drought's adverse effects are being felt across a much wider area of the country than in 2011, when famine led to over 250,000 deaths.   Humanitarian organizations estimate 6.2 million people, over half the country's population, are facing acute food insecurity across Somalia and are in need of assistance. Fears of a looming famine run rife and there is a growing concern that should the aid response fail to keep pace the situation will get much worse.   The ICRC has already began its response - food assistance, increasing access to water - to the most vulnerable drought-affected families beginning with conflict-prone areas that are difficult to access for many aid organizations.   http://www.icrc.org/en/document/somalia-africa-food-drought-disaster-threat-of-famine   Feb. 2017   According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Somalia is in the grip of an intense drought, induced by two consecutive seasons of poor rainfall. In the worst affected areas, inadequate rainfall and lack of water has wiped out crops and killed livestock, while communities are being forced to sell their assets, and borrow food and money to survive.   The Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU) and the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET) managed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have found that over 6.2 million, or more than half of the country's population, are now in need of assistance, up from five million in September.   This includes a drastic increase in the number of people in crisis and emergency situations from 1.1 million six months ago to a projected three million between February and June this year.   The situation for children is especially grave. Some 363,000 acutely malnourished children are in need of critical nutrition support, including life-saving treatment for more than 70,000 severely malnourished children.   The levels of suffering in the country, triggered by protracted conflict, seasonal shocks and disease outbreaks, are typically hard to bear, but the impact of this drought represents a threat of a different scale and magnitude.   http://bit.ly/2kbNRXw http://bit.ly/2kkKizd http://bit.ly/2dgd1V4 http://bit.ly/2dWjS83 http://www.fao.org/emergencies/en/ Visit the related web page
	How families cope with poverty in Asia by Vanessa Self Senior Food Security Advisor, Save the Children in Asia   Mar. 2017   How Families Cope with Poverty in Asia: Lessons from a review of Household Economy Analysis and Cost of the Diet Analysis in Asia, 2011-2015 by Vanessa Self, Senior Food Security & Livelihoods Advisor, Save the Children in Asia.   Over the last five years Save the Children has been conducting analyses to inform a number of new programmes on the economic and food-related choices that households make across Asia. Last year we realised the untapped potential of this data beyond just the programmes they were intended to help design, and decided to take stock of what this information could tell us when put together, about poverty, vulnerability and hunger across the region.   The data uncovered new information about how children experience poverty at the household level, which can inform not only programming but also national- and local-level decisions on how better to reach children and pull them out of poverty so they grow up healthy, educated, well-fed with nutritious food and in a safe and secure home.   First of all, let me explain a bit more about the two research tools we'd been using and what we found:   The Household Economy Approach (HEA): a livelihoods-based framework for analysing the way households obtain access to the things they need to survive and prosper.   The Cost of the Diet method: helps us understand the extent to which poverty affects the ability of individuals and households in different contexts to meet their energy, protein, fat and micronutrient requirements using locally available foods at different times of the year.   Between 2012 and 2015, we conducted nine HEA and six Cost of the Diet studies from 12 livelihood zones and five countries (Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and the Philippines).   We found out more about who the most poor and deprived are. Better-off households earn between three and nine times as much as the very poor households. This in itself is no surprise; but the studies helped us understand the nature and drivers of this inequality: the poorest households have little in the way of income, assets and livelihood options; they have little to no access to land, or (fair) credit and savings mechanisms, and precarious livelihood strategies.   The lack of land means the poorest households buy rather than produce their food so they often purchase food on credit; which are often informal and with high interest rates. Women have fewer livelihood options due to social and cultural restrictions.   Across the livelihood zones, women tend to have limited skills, literacy and mobility compared to men. In the rural areas where women do engage in paid work, the work is limited to short periods throughout the year or they are paid less per day than men doing the same job. In urban areas, even those able to access formal employment do long hours without maternity benefits.   The poorest households are not just poor but vulnerable to economic and environmental shocks: their lack of savings and assets leaves them less able to cope with and bounce back from the region's frequent climatic and economic shocks, which hit the poorest households hardest.   What's new about these findings?   The review confirms what many of us know about poverty and hunger in the region. However, what the review does tell us that is not widely understood, is how these issues impact children:   In times of stress, poor households are likely to use coping strategies that can impact on children such as removing children from school, taking high-interest or unfavourable loans, which can have negative effects on children's access to food, education, a safe environment, and items essential for their wellbeing. In some of the study sites, children in poorer households are more likely to be engaged in harmful child labour in order to contribute economically to the household's income.   Even in 'normal' times, many poor households cannot afford nutritious food to prevent malnutrition, or to invest in their children's education, health and other basic non-food needs: Very poor and poor households do not have sufficient income to purchase nutritious food, as well as essential non-food expenditures.   On average, very poor households would need to increase their annual income by almost 1.5 times to be able to afford a nutritious diet in addition to other essential non-food expenditures, such as the cost of sending children to school, essential healthcare, fuel, clothes, etc.   In addition to poverty, cultural beliefs and practices, such as food preferences, sub- optimal breast-feeding practices also affect the nutritional status of children from all wealth groups. Sub-optimal breast-feeding practices are common throughout the region and increase the cost of a nutritious diet for children under the age of two as families must substitute breast milk for alternatives.   What needs to be done? Recommendations for programming   We need to design livelihoods and social protection programmes and polices based on a clear understanding of household economy. In other words, we need to be specific about how much households income needs to increase to address these challenges for children.   Programmes should be designed to enable households to obtain sufficient and reliable income to meet specific needs, especially for children such as afford nutritious food and the cost of going to school etc.   We must design programmes to address non- economic barriers to children's well-being, including cultural norms and practices: programmes should not assume that increasing household income or food production will alone automatically benefit children and must instead include complementary activities to address broader policy and cultural systems such as access to land, cultural norms around child feeding, and migration. Use social behaviour change communication approaches to help access to and consuming nutritious foods and appropriate child feeding and care.   Complementary environmental impact assessments will help identify sustainable livelihood options that enable households to prepare for and manage risk but also select livelihoods that do not cause long-term damage to the environment and natural resource base, like over-fishing.   Support women's empowerment, to enable them to partake in culturally and religiously acceptable livelihood strategies to contribute to household income, while recognizing their workload in the home, including childcare.   Invest in a child-focused analysis of household income and needs: to design economic strengthening programmes in the way described above, practitioners and policy makers need robust and context specific household economy data.   The HEA methodology should be modified to highlight the impact of poverty and shocks on childcare, as well as on child protection, education, learning and nutrition.   The Cost of the Diet framework should be used more regularly alongside HEA to inform programming that will have sustainable impacts for children's diets, such as identifying the lowest-cost nutritious foods that are locally available to reduce the cost of a nutritious diet throughout the year, and determining transfer values for cash- based food security or social protection programmes.   What happens now?   A first step needs to be a greater commitment from all of us responsible for delivering the SGDs on poverty and hunger to better understanding what poverty means for children; both what causes it and how it affects children's lives.   Once we have achieved this, we then need to challenge our own assumptions that if we address the issues described above at household or community level, then we will automatically be improving the lives of children. In the same way that assuming economic growth will 'trickle down' at a national level, there is no guarantee that it will work at household level either. Poverty and hunger-reduction Programmes need to set and measure targets for children's outcomes.   We can make our own context analyses more child sensitive by asking ourselves these questions: How much more money does a household need to earn to be able to afford a nutritious diet for children? What level of savings or assets does a household need during the lean season to avoid taking a child out of school? How much extra income would a household need to do without income from child labour and send a child to school instead?   These are the questions that poverty and hunger reduction programmes must ask, and then address. Save the Children is embarking on the development of a ground-breaking toolkit to enable us to do just this.   http://www.endchildhoodpoverty.org/news-and-updates-1/2017/3/28/how-families-cope-with-poverty-in-asia http://bit.ly/2LYPxBY Visit the related web page
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