A. Situation analysis
Description of the disaster
September/October 2015: In Ethiopia, consecutive failed Belg rains (March – May) and Kiremt rains (June – September) combined with erratic weather conditions attributed to El Nino, have resulted in severe food insecurity, especially in the North and North East areas of the country.
November 2015: Following the recognition of urgent needs related to drought within Ethiopia, the ERCS requested support through an IFRC Field Assessment and Coordination Team (FACT), which was deployed to define the exact needs and to develop an appropriate, relevant plan and budget for the response. The FACT conducted field visits to Afar and Somali regions, and held numerous meetings with Movement, non-Movement partners and other stakeholders.
28 December 2015: Emergency Appeal launched for 2,211,085 Swiss francs to support 35,371 people. One hundred eighty-one thousand five hundred and twenty one (181,521) Swiss francs was allocated from the IFRC Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) as a start-up support for the response.
March 2016: A Head of Emergency Operations (HeOps) was deployed to work with ERCS to consolidate its National Drought Response Plan. The objective of this document was to pull together the National Society overall response strategic plan and operational framework.
June 2016: The appeal was revised to include an additional 30,000 beneficiaries for supplementary food and adjust the WASH component to prepositioning of WASH kits and hygiene promotion activities. The budget was increased to 2,773,556 Swiss francs.
Summary of current response
Overview of Host National Society
The National Society has been responding with own funds, support from Movement and external partners since the early stages of the drought. A FACT team was deployed in November 2015 and undertook an assessment focused on Afar and Somali Regions. Senior Management and all branches not only agreed on Afar and Somali as a focus, but the branches also expressed an interest to support from their side assisting with regional funds and humanitarian structure in their respective regions.
ERCS is closely working and coordinating with the Central and field level Government. The ERCS is part of the Drought Technical Working Group organized by the National Disaster Response Mission Commission at the capital level. Some sub-committees of this commission are also working with the DPR department of the ERCS. At zonal and woreda level, the Government is organizing Drought Response Task Force to which ERCS branches are participating.
Overview of Red Cross Red Crescent Movement in country
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) supports ERCS through its East Africa and Indian Ocean Islands (EAIOI) country cluster and the Africa regional office, which are both based in Nairobi, Kenya, and through an IFRC Operations Manager based in the ERCS headquarters in Addis Ababa.
In Ethiopia, the IFRC, ICRC and PNSs participate in regular co-ordination meetings convened by the National Society. All issues including potential bilateral and multilateral actions are discussed. Additionally, IFRC convenes regular coordination meetings in Nairobi with ICRC and PNS representatives to share updates on the situation in Ethiopia and neighboring countries and Movement action to date.
Following the recognition of urgent needs related to drought and a request from ERCS for support, IFRC deployed a FACT mission in November 2015, to support ERCS define the exact needs and to craft an appropriate, relevant EPOA and budget for this current appeal. The FACT was composed to 4 members (1 Team Leader, 2 Livelihoods members, and 1 Health member) and was present in Ethiopia for 4.5 weeks.
In March 2016 a Head of Emergency Operations (HeOps) was requested by the National Society to support the consolidation of the ERCS’s National Drought Response plan under an ‘umbrella document’. The objective of this document was to pull together the National Society overall response plan, strategy and operational framework (self-funded activities branch and HQ, pivoting of existing Movement partner activities and IFRC/ERCS Appeal). There is an extensive PNS presence in Ethiopia and all PNS’s (have different strategies to support the ERCS drought emergency response. Discussion with IFRC Country representative and ERCS SG resulted in an agreement that all partners Drought Response activities should be harmonised with the ERCS National Drought Response Plan as it is with this EPOA.
Overview of non-RCRC actors in country
The overall emergency response is led by the National Disaster Risk Management Coordination Commission (NDRMCC) which is a Government structure above the Disaster Risk Management Food Security Services (DRMFSS) of the Ministry of Agriculture. Sector task forces have been established at National, Regional, Zonal and Woreda level with the participation of all stakeholders including the National Society. ERCS will ensure that technical coordinators from ERCS HQ Disaster Preparedness and Response Department participates in their respective clusters (health, nutrition, NFI and WASH) to allow for enhanced visibility of Red Cross movement activities and warrant coordination with non-movement partner on the ERCS response.
To date, the GoE at federal and regional levels allocated more than US$ 381 million from its strategic reserves for the drought response. National and sub-national committees were established to oversee the distribution of relief supplies, which include food distributions, water point rehabilitation, livestock support, health services, and non-food items distribution for the internally displaced families.
The GoE, together with partners, has been able to respond to most of the increased health related needs faced due to drought. In Somali region local health authorities reported shortages of drugs and called for more support for community level interventions such as health awareness rising. To increase the response capacity, GoE had divided the most affected woredas in the region between partners like Save the Children and Mercy Corps. They provide support through their mobile health teams and in some areas also train volunteers at community level. In Afar, where gaps were identified, the GoE has allocated additional staff to health centers especially to support treatment of severely malnourished children. Between November 2015 and April 2016, MSF Spain was requested to support Bidu Health centre and SAM case management. ERCS volunteers worked with MSF on community screening. MSF Spain ended their operational presence and support to the health center at the end of April, UNICEF will continue the provision of plumpy nut for SAM cases and thus ERCS is the main health partner to support the GoE in Bidu.
The appeal activities are being implemented in Bidu woreda in Afar region in the Health/Nutrition, WASH, Food Security/ Livelihoods sectors. In addition, the revised appeal added a competent for supplementary food for other hotspot areas where ERCS has an operational presence.