General Overview
The mid- year revision of Humanitarian Requirements Document (HRD ) by the Government of Ethiopia and Humanitarian partners has been finalized and launched on the 12th of August. The revised HRD is based on the belg season joint government and humanitarian partners’ verification assessment, and indicates that the food security situation has shown limited improvements after the belg harvest due to a number of factors, including late and short duration of rains, availability of seeds and livestock recovery. The number of emergency food beneficiaries has dropped from 10.2 to 9.7 million, with a minor reduction in the projected SAM caseload due to improved food and TSF ration distributions. Here are the major needs as per the revised HRD:
The most recent National Meteorological Agency (NMA) forecast indicates that most kiremt rain-benefiting areas of the country will likely receive normal to above normal rainfall. This strong rainfall may continue beyond its usual seasonal period with the possible onset of La Niña. While these rains should boost agricultural production in highland areas, above normal rainfall could also spell disaster for communities in mid and lowland areas who were already affected by flooding and mudslides following the late, heavy belg. The peak of the kiremt rainy season (July and August) in most flood-prone areas of the country could be particularly severe and the response to flooding as well as to water-borne disease outbreaks have now been categorized by Save the Children as separate emergencies. Of more immediate concern is the forecast of 80% probability of Deyr rain season failure in the southeast of the country, across southern Somali and Oromia Regions, which in some areas could be classified as drought as they had poor Gu season performance in 2016.
Save the Children is in the peak of its drought response, delivering assistance at scale expending around $6m USD per month on the response and reaching over 250,000 new beneficiaries every month in more than 60 woredas across the country. July-September is the main lean season of the country, and all resources are being committed and focused on three key priority areas: the completion of the Meher seed distribution plan to over 70,000 households, the strengthening and readiness of 126 acute malnutrition stabilisation centres being supported by Save the Children, and the response readiness to further natural disasters including disease outbreaks like acute watery diarrhea (AWD), flooding or other health outbreaks.