Emergency and humanitarian action

Ethiopia has been experiencing drought and chronic food insecurity particularly for the last four decades. The situation in the last 4-5 years has been serious. Due to the scanty and erratic rains many parts of the country have experienced shortages of water and food both for humans and for livestock. Although almost all regions were affected in the 2002/2003 droughts, particularly six regions of the country (Afar, Somali, Oromia, Tigray, Amhara and Southern Nations, Nationalities and People's Region (SNNPR)) were seriously affected. The 2002/2003 drought emergency was unprecedented in terms of the number of population as well as the areas affected. In total, 13.2 million people required emergency assistance. The response from the international communities to the Government's appeal for help was considerable - it is through the concerted efforts of the humanitarian agencies and the Government that millions of lives could be saved. In 2004 in spite of an improved and a promising rainfall, the need for humanitarian assistance has remained being substantial. 7.8 million People in the same chronically food insecure regions of the country have to receive relief assistance to make their living.

The year 2004 has been a transition period where the government with the support from its partners has developed a separate program to address the chronically food insecure communities through a productive safety net program (PSNP). This PSNP is designed to inject cash or food to chronically food insecure areas and engage the community in a labor intensive work that aims at bringing a sustainable development in the structurally food insecure areas.

The goal of emergency preparedness and response is to reduce suffering, immediate and long-term mortality, morbidity and disability related to emergencies, and to contribute to development.

The World Health Organization (WHO) country office through its Emergency and Humanitarian Action (EHA) section had done its level best in helping the affected population during these hard times. WHO/EHA has provided mostly technical assistance, but also has provided significant amount of emergency drugs and funds, to the Federal Ministry of Health and Regional Health Bureaus in terms of assessing the health status of the affected population, identifying and prioritizing health problems, in epidemic prevention and control activities, in training of health workers on emergency related health issues and in supervision and monitoring of activities.

In the future WHO would like to strengthen its presence and assistance in emergency response. Focus areas will be assessment of health risks and prioritizing them, prevention and control of epidemic-prone diseases, water and sanitation, nutrition and HIV/AIDS.

Government-UN appeal for more than 271 million in 2005

The official launching of the 2005 Humanitarian Appeal for Ethiopia was made on December 23, 2004 at the Conference Hall of the Federal Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission (DPPC). The official launching was made by H.E. Ato Simon Mechale, Commissioner of DPPC. Representatives of relevant government ministries, UN agencies, donor representatives, representatives of NGOs and other partners were present on the occasion.

The 2005 appeal was jointly prepared by the Government, UN agencies and NGOs. For the first time in the history of Appeals in Ethiopia, an effort has been made to separately handle the chronic and acute caseloads. The 2005 Humanitarian Appeal is expected to attend to the acute needs of the unpredictable caseload while the Productive Safety Net Programme will tackle longer term food security needs. From January 2005, about 2.2 million people will be provided with emergency food assistance under the Appeal while more than 5 million chronically food insecure people will be provided assistance in the form of cash or food for labour intensive public works.