Eritrea
Drought, 05 May 2023
| Allocation | $5,002,073 |
|---|---|
| Emergency type | Drought |
| Window | Underfunded Emergencies |
| Recipient UN Agencies | FAO, UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF, WHO |
| Group of people targeted | Other affected persons |
| People reached | 275,395 |
| Status | Report Available |
| Due dates | | |
| Allocation code | 23-UF-ERI-58372 |
| Title | Eritrea UF Application May 2023 (Drought) |
Overview of the humanitarian situation
Eritrean rural communities were hit hard by successive years of drought with serious consequences for people’s health, wellbeing, and livelihoods. Climate change has led to extreme weather patterns, which have affected water resources, food production, hygiene, sanitation and health, and particularly child and maternal nutrition. The country’s ‘Bahri’ rainy season from October to January, upon which people in the coastal areas and lowlands rely, failed for four consecutive years, and the cumulative impact of low levels of precipitation caused significant stress on pastoralists and agro-pastoralists communities.
CERF-funded assistance
In the face of increasing drought-related needs and stagnant funding, the Emergency Relief Coordinator allocated $5 million from CERF’s Underfunded Emergency window for life-saving action. This funding enabled UN agencies and their Government partners to provide life-saving assistance to 275,395 people, including 53,916 women, 12,917 men and 208,563 children and 13,226 persons with disabilities. The CERF allocation strengthened essential basic services in the most drought-affected areas of the country, including immunization outreach for children and pregnant women, strengthening of maternal health services in hard-to-reach areas, distribution of supplementary animal feed, food-for-work activities that restored degraded land, and rehabilitation of water supply systems. This funding supported people in the most drought-affected regions of the Northern Red Sea, the Southern Red Sea, and Anseba.
CERFs Strategic Added Value
CERF helped respond to time-critical needs. For example, CERF funds allowed FAO and partners to respond to urgent agricultural needs at the right time in the seasonal calendar. The assistance reached affected people at a time of severe stress, especially regarding the provision of layer feed required by chicken - usually between one and four months after they hatch and before they are big enough to lay eggs. Targeting for this project was also gender sensitive with a heavy focus on female poultry farmers, providing a livelihoods lifeline to struggling households. Additionally, CERF funds improved the lives of people in some of the most under-served parts of the country that were hit hardest by the drought. For example, CERF enabled UNICEF to mitigate the catastrophic effects of water stress on remote communities and their livestock through the accelerated initiation of rehabilitation and construction of water supply systems leveraging existing stocks of supplies. This project also had significant gender benefits with women reporting that they not only have a significantly reduced work burden now that water is available closer to home, but also that the health of their children had improved. Beyond securing access to clean and safe water, the timely response enabled by CERF was critical to preventing the spread of infectious diseases which are at a higher risk at times of water stress. Moreover, CERF improved coordination, helping agencies and their Government partners to implement a strategic, joined-up nexus approach to the drought response, demonstrating the UN’s value added in times of crisis and its broader recognition of the effects of climate change on Eritrea. Finally, CERF improved complementary resource mobilization from other sources. For example, CERF has enabled WHO to leverage funding from the GAVI Alliance for vaccines, which co-financed the immunization program with $800,000, and the EPR flagship program with $500,000.
Projects included in this allocation
| Organization | Project title | Code | Amount in US$ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UNDP | Enhance food security and strengthen resilience of drought-affected vulnerable communities in the arid and semi-arid lands of the country (Anseba, Northern Red Sea and Southern Red Sea Regions) through food distribution and nature-based solutions | 23-UF-UDP-002 | US$1,500,000 | Read more |
| UNFPA | Lifesaving Health and Nutritional Support to pregnant women and new-borns through Maternity Waiting Homes in remote rural areas of Eritrea. | 23-UF-FPA-013 | US$502,030 | Read more |
| UNICEF | WASH response to drought emergency in Northern Red Sea, and Anseba, Eritrea | 23-UF-CEF-016 | US$1,000,000 | Read more |
| WHO | Emergency Health interventions in remote hard to reach and Drought impacted areas of Eritrea | 23-UF-WHO-013 | US$500,043 | Read more |
| FAO | Enhancing the livelihoods of Female headed households and Women with Starter and Layer feed in the Drought Affected Areas | 23-UF-FAO-006 | US$1,500,000 | Read more |