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WFP Ethiopia Country Brief, April 2020

Countries
Ethiopia
+ 1 more
Sources
WFP
Publication date

In Numbers

29,300 mt of food distributed

USD 8 million of cash distributed

USD 125 million (May - October 2020) net funding requirements

3 million people assisted in April 2020

Operational updates:

  • WFP Ethiopia is currently assisting more than 3 million people each month through food or cash assistance for drought and flood-affected people, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and refugees; and treatment of malnourished children and women. WFP is adapting new ways of operations to ensure continuity and is also identifying COVID-19-related food assistance requirements.

  • The National Disaster Management Commission (NDRMC), WFP and the Joint Emergency Operation Program (JEOP) continued to dispatch food assistance for drought/flood-affected people and IDPs for 2020 rounds 1 and 2, covering April and May.

  • To reduce the risk of COVID 19 infections to beneficiaries, partners and WFP staff, WFP is implementing revised protocols for food distributions and other operations. Subsequently, the Food Cluster has also adapted and aligned WFP’s corporate COVID-19 guidance to the Ethiopian context. WFP and partners are implementing physical distancing and hand washing. Additional distribution sites are being established to reduce large gatherings at distribution sites. Where possible, WFP is implementing double distributions to limit exposure of beneficiaries to COVID-19 at distribution centres and refugee camps. Beneficiaries are informed that their double rations need to last twice the normal duration.

  • The Desert Locust infestations are likely exacerbate prevailing food insecurity . The Ministry of Agriculture reported that Desert Locusts have consumed over 350,000 mt of agricultural produce across Ethiopia. Impacted areas are in belg crop-producing areas such as Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region, zones in eastern Amhara and southern Tigray, and all pastoral areas.

  • The Government and the Food Cluster are estimating the number of people likely to require humanitarian assistance due to the impacts of COVID-19 and Desert Locusts. Provisional estimates are that 24 million people would be food insecure in urban and rural areas; this includes 7 million being assisted through the 2020 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP), 8 million through the rural productive safety net programme (PSNP), and 0.6 million through the urban PSNP.

  • WFP Ethiopia’s current approach can be summarised as:

  • WFP has adapted its operations to ensure continuity of life-saving food assistance for (i) acutely food insecure drought affected, and flood affected people, and internally displaced persons; (ii) Treatment of acute malnutrition activities targeting malnourished pregnant and lactating women, and children aged 6-59;

  • New assistance: (i) supply chain support for the Humanitarian Air Hub and Logistics Cluster (see below); (ii) support to scale-up the urban PSNP, with WFP to reach 17,500 people with cash assistance from July; and (iii) designing food assistance for returnees/deportees in quarantine at border areas.

  • Scaling down: school feeding, resilience and livelihood interventions (Activity 4 and 5) are being adapted or reduced.

  • WFP Ethiopia continues to expand the unique “last mile” solutions to improve traceability of WFP food commodities. During April, 200,000 food items were tagged with a unique code and delivered to more than 110 locations across the country.

  • As part of an overall logistics response to the COVID-19 virus, WFP has led the augmentation of logistics services on behalf of the humanitarian community:

  • The Addis Ababa Humanitarian Air Hub cargo services have been operational since 14 April, facilitating the onward transport of COVID-19 emergency items on behalf of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Government of Ethiopia’s partnership with the Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation to 52 countries across Africa. Three major deliveries were completed in April and the next round of deliveries is on behalf of the African Union’s Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

  • Co-led by WFP and NDRMC, the Logistics Cluster was activated at the end of April as one of the sectors of the Ethiopian 2020 HRP, aiming to provide information management, advocacy, and augmentation of logistics services to the humanitarian community. The Logistics Cluster will also facilitate access to common logistics services and timely access to logistics assets, storage and other services, in order to ensure an uninterrupted supply chain of life-saving relief items to affected populations during an emergency.