Drought emergency response in the Borana, South Omo and Somali regions

Background

After five consecutive failed rainy seasons and the looming “lean season”, the drought situation in Ethiopia continues to worsen, with the south and east of the country particularly affected. The irregular and sparse rainfall has significantly reduced the harvests of livestock farmers. The nomadic communities, who barely had time to recover from the severe droughts of 2016 and 2017, the following plague of locusts and the floods, have been hit hard. The effects are alarming and have jeopardised the livelihoods of millions of people who rely heavily on livestock farming, worsened food security and forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes.

The Goals

• The goals The affected communities’ most important livestock should be protected by animal health services.
• People and their animals should have better access to safe drinking water.
• Hygiene and sanitation practices should be improved.
• Immediate basic needs such as enough food are being met.

Approach

Approaches To achieve the main objectives, key activities have been identified:

• the provision of water trucks during critical water shortages to save lives,
• the rehabilitation and maintenance of water systems,
• the promotion of sanitation and hygiene, especially for people at risk of disease outbreaks, as well as in schools.

We specifically link emergency and long-term efforts with community-based structures such as pastoral and farmer field schools, village community banks and community animal health systems. We also promote innovative feed and watering solutions, climate-friendly agricultural practices and measures that focus on healthy nutrition.

Which of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals does this project work towards?

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