http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/dec/23/uk-gives-ethiopia-30m-fight-drought-similar-in-scale-1984-crisis
UK gives Ethiopia £30m to fight drought similar in scale to 1984 crisis
Visiting Ethiopia, UK minister Nick Hurd says although government response has been impressive, relentless drought is ‘pushing millions to the brink’
William Davison in Mekele
Wednesday 23 December 2015 12.23 GMT Last modified on Wednesday 23 December 2015 13.16 GMT
he UK will provide an extra £30m in aid for Ethiopia, where a prolonged drought means that more than 18 million people will need urgent relief in the next year, according to the Department for International Development (DfID).
Half of the cash is earmarked for the UN’S World Food Programme to supply emergency food supplies to around 1.9 million people, while £14m will go to a pooled fund that can be accessed by UN agencies and NGOs providing emergency water and healthcare.
The funding was announced as Nick Hurd, the new international development minister, travelled to Ethiopia in December on his first foreign trip since replacing Grant Shapps, who resigned last month.
Hurd visited a health clinic in the northern Tigray region, and said the number of mothers and children who had squeezed into the rooms demonstrated the severity of the crisis, as well as the effectiveness of services supported by British aid, he said.
“The scale of this is very big and almost certainly too big for the domestic systems the government has set up in a very impressive way since learning all the lessons of droughts in the past,” he said.
“A relentless drought is pushing millions to the brink in Ethiopia. The scale of the drought is similar to the one that killed so many in 1984. This time the Ethiopian government is in a much stronger position to help its people. However, they need the help of the international community,” he said.
Around £1m from the UK funds will be spent on seconding humanitarian experts to the UN and the Ethiopian government, which have jointly launched an appeal for $1.4bn (£923m) for their drought response.
Always prone to droughts, Ethiopia has also been affected by the El Niño weather phenomenon this year. And already difficult conditions are set to worsen in 2016 as meagre stocks from a weak harvest dwindle and the dry spell continues, possibly until June in some areas.
The Ethiopian government says 10.2 million people will need emergency food aid in 2016, and another 7.9 million “chronically food insecure” individuals will depend on the safety net programme. More than two million additional Ethiopians will need treatment for malnutrition because of the drought, which is mostly affecting low-lying eastern areas.
In August this year, the UN said around 4.5 million people in Ethiopia were projected to require assistance after failed rains. That figure has risen steadily since then.
Ethiopia is one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies, with nearly double-digit growth every year for the last decade, but failed rains have had devastating consequences for food supplies for its 96 million people, around three-quarters of whom are farmers.
The country has allocated £200m for the crisis, mainly to pay for cereal imports. The annual budget is £7.4bn, with 17% coming from foreign loans and grants.
Frequently using foreign credit, the state has embarked on an ambitious infrastructure programme, building railways, apartment blocks, sugar factories and power stations. It is also using £2.8bn of domestic funds to build a hydropower dam – Africa’s largest – on the Blue Nile. But given the scale of the drought, the government has said it will reallocate some funds from road building to drought relief.
Wheat imported by the government will make up the bulk of food aid deliveries in early 2016, until food provided by donors arrives, says David Del Conte, the deputy head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Ethiopia.
“Donors have contributed a lot and it will pay dividends in eight weeks or 12 weeks. Until then, the government will continue to play an incredible lead role by using the commodities they’ve purchased,” he said.
At this critical time, the government is also facing criticism over its controversial urban expansion plans for the capital Addis Ababa, which have angered farmers in the surrounding Oromia region. Opposition groups say around 50 people have been killed in clashes between security forces and protesters over the last three weeks. The government says around five people have been killed.
With multiple crises leading to a record global humanitarian appeal of $20bn by the UN this year, the UK will be encouraging others to make further donations to Ethiopia, Hurd said. The UK has given a total of £113m for the crisis so far, according to DfID.
“Whichever way you cut it, the international community is going to have to step up,” he said. “A stable, more prosperous Africa is firmly in Britain’s national interest and it is right that we do all that we can to prevent the crisis spiralling out of control.”
http://www.publicfinanceinternational.org/news/2015/12/uk-expands-aid-ethiopia-tackle-drought
Middle East and Africa
Development, Organisations
UK expands aid to Ethiopia to tackle drought
By: Emma Rumney
23 Dec 15
The UK has pledged a further £55m to support Ethiopia after a drought in the country left an estimated 18 million people in need of assistance.
The funding includes a £30m package, half of which will go to the World Food Programme to distribute emergency food to 1.9 million people. The UN’s Humanitarian Response Fund will see a further £14m, supporting the provision of water and healthcare and the protection of vulnerable women and girls. The final £1m will fund the secondment of experts to work on the crisis in the UN and the Ethiopian government.
The UK’s Department for International Development also announced a further £25m to support a programme by the Ethiopian government which currently supplies around 8 million severely food insecure people with food and works to boost longer-term food security.
UK international development minister Nick Hurd said the “relentless drought” echoes of a famine which in the country in 1984.
While the Ethiopian government are in a stronger position to help today, the scale of the current crisis means more needs to be done and the international community need to step up, he said.
The crisis in Ethiopia is has been caused by a failed harvest and a record-breaking drought caused by the El-Niño weather pattern. Since the start of the year, when 2.9 million people were found to be in need, that number has grown to 18 million.
The UK is working alongside the country’s government, the UN and others to prevent child malnutrition, treat disease outbreaks and keep children in school, Hurd said. The new funding will ensure families get the emergency food they “so desperately need to survive”.
The US, the EU and other member states are just some of the other countries that have contributed funds to help alleviate the crisis, with the new donations brining the UK’s total humanitarian response to £113m.
Hurd added “a stable, more prosperous Africa is firmly in Britain’s national interest” and said “it is right the country do all it can to prevent the crisis spiralling out of control”.
The UK government recently announced a new strategy for overseas aid, which has placed firmer emphasis on aligning the aid budget with British national interests in the face of a public who can be sceptical about the country’s commitment to spend 0.7% of national income on overseas aid.
Emma Rumney
Received on Wed Dec 23 2015 - 13:43:56 EST