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	Extreme Drought: Climate crisis poses grave risks to children in Eastern and Southern Africa by UNICEF, OCHA, CARE, agencies   25 Mar. 2024   As a prolonged heatwave and drought grip several countries in Eastern and Southern Africa, UNICEF is sounding the alarm on the dire situation faced by vulnerable communities who are bearing the brunt of climate change.   In the region, 45 million children are living through multiple and often overlapping crises intensified by climate change, including cholera outbreaks, malnutrition, drought and floods.   The 2023-24 El Nino, one of the strongest on record, is exacerbating already challenging environmental conditions. El Nino has escalated regional climate patterns, causing extremely dry conditions and erratic rainfall, affecting crop production, and worsening disease outbreaks.   "The climate crisis is a real threat to children and communities in Eastern and Southern Africa. The very elements that children need to survive and thrive, including clean water, food, shelter, learning and safety, are being impacted by climate shocks.   Communities who depend on agriculture face major crop losses, negatively affecting their livelihoods. Widening impoverishment means more children becoming malnourished. In more difficult times children are often forced to work to support income generation. Challenges in accessing clean water expose children to disease, affects livelihoods and cause forced displacement," said Eva Kadilli, UNICEF Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa.   Over the weekend, the President of Malawi declared a State of Disaster in 23 out of the 28 districts in the country, due to El Nino conditions. Inadequate rains, floods, and prolonged dry spells have led to severe damage to crops and food production, impacting two million households (an estimated 9 million people, including 4.59 million children).   In South Sudan, children and young people are among those most at risk due to the climate crisis. Because of an extreme heatwave, authorities have recently ordered schools to be closed for two weeks and children have been advised to stay indoors as temperatures are expected to hit 45C, impacting 2.2 million learners.   In Zambia, the government has recently declared a national emergency over drought that has impacted large parts of the country, affecting 6.5 million people -- including 3 million children. This comes after the devasting floods that exacerbated the cholera outbreak in the country, with over 22 000 cases and children disproportionally affected.   As rising temperatures and scarce water resources push families to the brink, children face increased risks of malnutrition, dehydration, and illnesses. 2.4 million people are expected to be severely food insecure this year.   In Zimbabwe, the El Nino phenomenon has disrupted rainfall patterns, leading to prolonged drought. Families are grappling with food insecurity, water scarcity, and heightened vulnerability including to violence and exploitation. These challenges come at a time when the country is also responding to cholera and polio outbreaks, potentially leading to a severe crisis for children.   In Madagascar, limited rainfall in the Great South is expected to reverse the marginal gains made in 2023 and plunge this fragile zone into a fresh humanitarian crisis. More than 262,000 children under the age of 5 are already acutely malnourished in the region.   The impact of El Nino is not limited to dry conditions. Late last year, heavy rains and flooding battered parts of the Eastern African region, including Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. These floods led to loss of lives, disrupted livelihoods, and displaced communities, with more than 5.2 million people affected.   "Distressingly, extreme weather is expected to be the norm in Eastern and Southern Africa in the years to come. we must also come together to reduce the effects of climate change on vulnerable populations in the region," said Ms. Kadilli. "We continue our call to partners to prioritize investment in climate adaptation and mitigation, as well as in systems capable of withstanding the intensifying shocks brought on by climate change. Without sustainable responses, the future of children hangs in the balance. We need to take decisive action now to ensure that they not only survive but thrive in the challenging years ahead."   http://www.unicef.org/zimbabwe/press-releases/rising-heat-drought-and-disease-climate-crisis-poses-grave-risks-children-eastern http://www.savethechildren.net/news/we-go-sleep-hungry-children-surviving-boiled-waterlily-roots-and-wild-fruits-drought-devastates http://reliefweb.int/report/madagascar/rising-heat-drought-and-disease-climate-crisis-poses-grave-risks-children-eastern-and-southern-africa http://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-urges-global-support-malawi-faces-looming-food-crisis-triggered-el-nino   13 Mar. 2024   The humanitarian impact of El Nino in Southern Africa: OCHA, Regional Interagency Standing Committee, Southern Africa   The Southern African region is experiencing extremely dry conditions during the 2023/24 El Nino season, including one of the driest Februarys in over 40 years, resulting in widespread crop failure across central parts of the region.   These conditions have led to water scarcity, diminished crop yields, and subsequently, food shortages, along with displacement and the proliferation of diseases. These challenges are expected to escalate food insecurity and malnutrition levels, disrupt education and healthcare services, and exacerbate economic hardships in the region.   The areas of highest concern due rainfall deficits from January to March are Zambia, Zimbabwe, southern Malawi, central Mozambique, southeastern Angola and northeastern Botswana. Lesotho, Eswatini and southern Madagascar will also be severely affected.   El Nino effects will have severe consequences on livelihoods across the region. An estimated 70 per cent of the population in Southern Africa is dependent on agriculture for subsistence, communities affected by El Nino are projected to have lower harvests and fewer livelihood opportunities. These factors will culminate in a deeper and earlier 2024/2025 lean season, which usually starts in November.   El Nino effects are hitting at a time of already significant protracted unmet needs, with alarming levels of food insecurity. Some 18 million people are currently experiencing crisis levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase 3+) in Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe while Malawi is estimated to have 4.4 million people or 22 percent of the population facing IPC 3 and worse between October 2023 and March 2024. Unless response is urgently scaled-up, the situation will deteriorate further.   The impact of El Nino on children’s nutrition and health is grave, with 3.5 million children in need of nutrition treatment services. More than 900,000 children require treatment for severe malnutrition in Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Malawi, Namibia, Madagascar, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Eswatini and Lesotho. An estimated 21 million children under five are stunted in the Southern Africa region. This is an increase from 18.6 million reported in 2022.   Further deterioration in the nutritional status of children is expected as the lean season continues. Even where food is available, food price inflation will make accessing a sufficient diet inaccessible to many. Coping strategies such as reducing meal frequency and size are expected to escalate.   Malnourished children face a higher risk of death from preventable diseases such as diarrhoea, pneumonia, and malaria.   Local water scarcity is a concern, with potentially serious implications for public health and security, and livelihoods in a region already battling a serious cholera outbreak. Vector-borne diseases such as yellow fever, malaria and dengue often increase in dry conditions while the increased usage of unsafe water sources can lead to a rise in trachoma, cholera, typhoid, and bilharzia cases. Furthermore, evidence suggests that women and girls are exposed to increased risks of gender-based violence when water is scarce as they are forced to travel long distances (often alone) in search of potable water, making them vulnerable to sexual violence.   Dry conditions will worsen water access for livestock leading to livestock deaths, further impacting food security and livelihoods.   Climate induced shocks and the associated closure of schools, full or partial destruction of school infrastructure and learning materials have a devastating impact on children’s learning. El Nino effects, mainly drought, contribute to children’s vulnerability to dropping out of school as families are forced to prioritize food and water over education, leaving them more vulnerable to child labour and child marriage.   Funding gaps are hindering response efforts. For example, in the nutrition sector, 70 percent of 2023 needs in southern Africa remained underfunded, with the highest funding gaps noted in Zimbabwe, Angola, Malawi, and Mozambique. This means a significant number of children and pregnant and breastfeeding women will remain unreached in these countries despite the immense needs resulting from El Nino and other drivers.   * Dry conditions and below-normal rainfall are expected until June for nine countries: Angola, Botswana, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Record-breaking high temperatures may well worsen droughts in Mozambique and southern Madagascar, escalating food insecurity.   http://reliefweb.int/report/angola/humanitarian-impact-el-nino-southern-africa-key-messages-march-2024   13 Mar. 2024 (CARE)   A record-breaking dry spell has plunged Southern Africa into a dire situation, affecting vast areas and is driving communities to the brink of a humanitarian emergency. The region is experiencing the lowest rainfall recorded in at least 40 years, with devastating consequences for agriculture, water availability, and livelihoods.   "The prolonged dry spell and erratic rainfall patterns are pushing Southern Africa to the brink of a humanitarian crisis", says Matthew Pickard, Southern Africa Regional Director for CARE, expressing grave concern over the situation.   "Coupled with an ongoing cholera outbreak, millions of people are facing severe hardship. Crops are wilting, livestock are dying, and millions of people are facing severe food and water shortages", Pickard added.   In Zambia, where a national disaster has been declared, the Government announced that seven provinces have received no rain, resulting in the destruction of 1 million hectares of farmland and affecting over 5 million people. In Malawi, the World Food Program estimates that over 6.8 million people are experiencing food shortages, while in Madagascar, 601,000 individuals face severe food scarcity.   In Mozambique, ongoing conflict coupled with El Nino-induced dry conditions may leave a staggering 7.6 million people facing acute hunger by September 2024. Neighboring Zimbabwe is also grappling with El Nino's erratic rainfall, with significant moisture stress, wilting crops, and livestock diseases. The consequences are dire, with over 5.3 million Zimbabweans facing acute hunger.   The relentless dry spell not only persists but is also increasing in scale. Without immediate international intervention, the future of Southern Africa is bleak. We implore the global community to act now. The lives of millions depend on it.   http://www.care-international.org/news/record-breaking-dry-spell-leading-starvation-water-shortages-southern-africa http://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/over-24-million-people-southern-africa-face-hunger-malnutrition-and-water-scarcity-0 http://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/over-six-million-people-face-hunger-malnutrition-and-water-scarcity-zambia-oxfam Visit the related web page
	Humanitarian appeals for 2024 face severe funding shortfall by OCHA, ICRC, Lancet Medical Journal, agencies   Jan. 2023   The UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross have announced cuts in responses to the 2024 global humanitarian appeals. (The Lancet).   The UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have announced vastly reduced funds in response to their separate humanitarian appeals to help people affected by conflict, climate disasters, and health epidemics in 2024. The scale of the projected reductions, attributed to the funding crisis, has taken charities working in global emergencies aback.   “The necessary support from the international community is not keeping up with the needs”, said Martin Griffiths, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, at the launch of the 2024 Global Humanitarian Overview appeal in December, 2023. He said the appeal is calling for a total of US$46·4 billion from donors (compared with $57 billion in 2023) to assist nearly 181 million people (from a total of 300 million people in need) in 72 countries, and underscored the need to prioritise life-saving needs.   Griffiths stated “we have so far received...just over one-third of the $57 billion required in 2023, making this the worst funding shortfall in years...For the first time since 2010, we will have received less funding than in the previous year.”   Speaking to The Lancet, Michael Ryan, WHO's Executive Director for the Health Emergencies Programme, stressed the consequences of the cutbacks for humanitarians in the field.   “What it means is that the agencies are trying to calculate what's possible to get, donors are under pressure, and there's less determination, and interest, to deal with these issues.”   The projected 2024 budget for the ICRC is 2·1 billion Swiss Francs (approximately $2·4 billion), down from 2·8 billion Swiss Francs ($3·2 billion) in 2023.   “The simple fact is more people need help because of the horrors of war than we are able to respond to. We are now working as hard as we can to make the greatest positive impact possible with the budget that we have, but reduced funding means less assistance for those in need, and fewer ICRC personnel to help provide that assistance. And that's a painful reality”, Robert Mardini, ICRC's Director-General, told The Lancet.   “The last 6 months of 2023 showed how badly this support is needed. New fighting broke out in Sudan. A broken dam wiped out entire communities in Libya. A massive earthquake destroyed villages in war-scarred Afghanistan. And then came a full-blown armed conflict in Israel and Gaza, deepening by the day, with unspeakable suffering and unparalleled human costs for the civilians on both sides, as well as devastating humanitarian consequences, including doctors, nurses, and entire medical facilities that are overwhelmed with injured patients”, he added.   The cutbacks, say ICRC officials, come amid a trend of reduced humanitarian budgets, although humanitarian needs have never been higher. “Across the ICRC's global operations, approximately 4000 positions are being cut in 2023 and 2024, resulting in a workforce of approximately 18 500 people”, Jason Straziuso, ICRC's Media Team Leader. ICRC delegations that will see contracted spending in 2024 include Afghanistan, South Sudan, Syria, and Ukraine.   Eloi Fillion, until recently the ICRC's Head of Delegation in Afghanistan, told reporters that the ICRC had more than tripled its operations from 2021 to 2022 to compensate for the drastic suspension of international funding. This effort included supporting the health services and bringing in funds to support the 33 biggest hospitals in Afghanistan. The ICRC tried to maintain the same level of operation in 2023, but did not receive the same amount of funding because of the large contraction of humanitarian funding available for Afghanistan.   Fillion added that, in 2024, the main focus will remain on protection activities and assistance programmes in the health sector, including the running of seven orthopaedic centres serving 250 000 patients with disabilities. He said the budget for the ICRC operations in Afghanistan in 2024 will be approximately 100 million Swiss Francs, down from 220 million Swiss Francs in 2022.   The UN appeal, which represents more than 1900 humanitarian partners worldwide, is a comprehensive assessment of global humanitarian needs and includes many country-based programmes with high needs such as Syria, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Yemen, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.   Griffiths said that in 2023 humanitarian agencies had to make increasingly painful decisions, including cutting life-saving food, water, and health programmes.   In the UN appeal for 2023, $5·40 billion were requested for health, of which $1·88 billion were funded, leaving unmet requirements totalling $3·52 billion. Humanitarian funding has also fallen substantially short of the funds requested for food security, water, sanitation and hygiene, nutrition, emergency shelter, and protection against child violence and gender-based violence.   When asked about the effects of the declines in donor funding, Alistair Dutton, Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis, told The Lancet that “shortages in food aid are forcing humanitarians to make inhumane choices: we are having to take food from the hungry to feed the starving”.   Marta Valdés Garcia, Humanitarian Director at Oxfam International, told The Lancet that, because of the cuts in the UN funding response, “we have already experienced a severe funding shortfall in East and Horn of Africa...Unfortunately, funding gaps in an important number of crises have become the norm.” The prospects of further cuts in 2024, she noted, will put all of Oxfam's operations in the East and the Horn of Africa “under immense pressure”.   Similarly, Rez Gardi, Co-Managing Director at Refugees Seeking Equal Access at the Table, an advocacy group, told The Lancet that “the shortfall in UN humanitarian funding arrives at a particularly critical time. The increasing number of people on the move underscores the urgency of finding sustainable solutions. For refugees, reduced funding means more than just a lack of resources—it signifies a potential collapse in systems vital for their wellbeing. This includes access to essential services such as health care, education, and legal assistance.”   Given the scale of the funding crisis, humanitarian leaders argue for a radical re-think. Jan Egeland, Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, told The Lancet that the funding crisis represents “a collapse in international solidarity with the most vulnerable communities on our planet. I think the ambition level we had was the right one. But not anymore. We are now going to choose a proportion of those in great need. A function of too few of the world's big economies being part of the responsibility sharing for helping the most needy. It's a tough time for global compassion.”   Egeland said there is a solution for the predicament: that all major economies in the world provide funding to the assessed humanitarian needs through the UN consolidated appeals, according to their assessed fee and as part of their UN membership, so that part of their contribution to the UN is provided for humanitarian relief. He observed, “why is peacekeeping and running the UN Secretariat funded by assessed contributions, whereas the feeding, the health care, the shelter, and the education of children is an afterthought… only ten of the world's economies are serious donors. Most of the G20 economies are not top ten donors for saving children's lives.”   Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO's Director-General said that the 2024 UN appeal is substantial, but noted “it's a fraction of what the world spends on weapons and war. The nations of the world can easily mobilize that kind of money if they want to. It's just a question of what we value most.”   Dec. 2023   300 million people caught up in humanitarian crises will need urgent support in 2024 - CARE International & 14 International Non-Government organizations   The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has launched the Global Humanitarian Overview for 2024, which outlines the most pressing humanitarian needs around the globe and what will it take to respond to them. Some 300 million individuals face unbelievable suffering next year.   To ensure all people will receive the support they need and deserve, CARE International along with other 14 NGOs urges the international community to fully fund the response to all humanitarian crises and address the root causes that perpetuate them.   Joint NGO Statement:   Despite years of preventable suffering, human casualties and violence on a catastrophic scale, millions of forcibly displaced, massive and often deliberate destruction of homes, hospitals, schools and other critical civilian infrastructure, and increasingly, climate emergencies, there are no real and clear political resolutions to put an end to numerous crises.   As diverse NGOs delivering aid across multiple crises, in accordance with humanitarian principles, we bear witness to growing humanitarian needs and the tremendous suffering of millions of people. We also witness the incredible resilience and courage of communities to withstand shocks and rebuild their lives, if adequately, timely and equitably supported.   Despite donor generosity, the funding of global appeals in 2023 amounted to only 35%, leaving millions exposed to hunger, diseases, and pervasive protection risks, bereft of essential services. In such scenarios, women and children are disproportionately affected, and hard-won development gains reversed.   Although we see ever escalating needs, the total number of People in Need outlined in the 2024 GHO was reduced by almost 64 million compared to 2023. This reduction is a result of “boundary setting” prioritisation that will effectively provide aid to some while denying it to others.   As the lifeline for many will be cut or reduced, protection risks, including the risk of sexual exploitation and abuse, will skyrocket. We warn of the risk of making People in Need invisible and recall our collective commitment to leave no one behind.   We value OCHA’s and various Humanitarian Country Teams efforts to prepare evidence-based appeals. But we also recognise constraints to conduct needs assessment in specific contexts and call for upholding an impartial needs based targeting approach, informed by age, gender, and disability disaggregated data, as well as by the views and priorities of affected people.   The international community must not let people down twice. It is already failing to address the root causes of conflicts, climate change, and other drivers of humanitarian needs.   Existing and new donors must fully fund the 2024 GHO, including the work of international, national and local NGOs who have demonstrated to be best placed to reach affected people.   We also urge development actors to play a more active role to bring in substantive and sustainable additional resources to work in strategic collaboration with humanitarian actors to reduce needs over time.   http://humanitarianaction.info/document/global-humanitarian-overview-2024/ http://www.wfp.org/stories/2023-pictures-ration-cuts-threaten-catastrophe-millions-facing-hunger http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/press-releases/global-hunger-funding-gap-hit-65-percent-for-neediest-countries/ http://www.care-international.org/news/300-million-people-caught-humanitarian-crises-will-need-urgent-support-2024 http://www.wfp.org/publications/wfp-global-operational-response-plan-update-9-november-2023 http://www.savethechildren.net/news/2023-review-nearly-16000-children-day-plunged-hunger-top-10-worsening-food-crises http://www.unicef.org/emergencies/13-emergencies-need-more-attention-support-2024 http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/2024-looms-increasingly-bleak-children-affected-armed-conflicts-and-disasters-unicef http://www.unicef.org/emergencies/launch-2024-humanitarian-appeal http://www.icrc.org/en Visit the related web page
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