Gov't, relief agencies launch humanitarian appeal

The Ethiopian government, UN agencies and their humanitarian partners have appealed for 387,482 mt of food valued at approximately US $159 million to help an estimated 2.2 million needy people in the Horn of Africa country in 2005. Another $112.74 million worth of non-food assistance would be needed to meet emergency humanitarian requirements, the government and aid agencies said in their appeal, which was launched on Thursday. They said for the first time in Ethiopia, an effort had been made to separately handle chronic and acute caseloads. The 2005 Humanitarian Appeal is expected to attend to the acute needs of the unpredictable demand, 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 given assistance in the form of cash or food for labour-intensive public works. "In addition to food assistance, critical non-food interventions in agriculture, health and nutrition, water and sanitation should be given equal importance, especially in drought-affected parts of the country," according to the appeal statement. The appeal also seeks to address cross-sector elements, such as capacity building, coordination, gender, child protection and HIV/AIDS. The health and nutrition response will mainly be undertaken through the Enhanced Outreach Strategy, which will be carried out twice a year, targeting 6.8 million children up to 59 months of age with measles vaccinations and vitamin A supplements. The entire health and nutrition component requires $83.7 million for this programme and other interventions, including malaria, meningitis, reproductive health, acute malnutrition, diarrhoea and other communicable diseases. The prime objective for the water and sanitation element is to provide access to drinkable water and sanitation services for an estimated 2.1-million people in the Afar, Amhara, Dire Dawa, Harari, Oromiya, SNNP, Somali and Tigray regions, at a cost of $10 million. In the agricultural sector, $10.8 million is required to cover costs of emergency interventions in both crop and livestock sub-sectors. An additional $1 million is needed to cover capacity building and coordination activities. Some $6 million will be needed to provide the means for improving Ethiopia's disaster response capacity, which the government undertakes in collaboration with UN agencies and NGOs, according to the appeal. The full report is available at: www.ocha-eth.org