SOMALIA: Acute Malnutrition Is a Chronic Emergency
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs:
Acute malnutrition is a chronic emergency all over the country. Families who have been displaced for years due to the political conflict require urgent assistance. Pastoralists in some areas have lost half of their herds. In southern Somalia, historically the country’s breadbasket, production of staple foods (such as sorghum and maize) has fallen by up to 50 percent because of the protracted drought.
With a $3 million CERF allocation, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is treating acute malnutrition in displaced children under five and vulnerable host Populations by handing out Plumpy’doz (a compound of vegetable fat, peanut paste, sugar, skimmed milk powder, malto-dextrine, and complex vitamins and minerals) every two months at distribution sites. It is also providing emergency nutrition supplementary food and technical support to 122,000 children in the Shabelle and Bossaso IDP camps.
A $1 million CERF grant is enabling UNDP to provide an income to 13,000 poor households, so they can purchase food. The project is rehabilitating crucial infrastructure, such as canals and water storage basins, for the recovery of the local agricultural production, thus indirectly benefiting 250,000 people. Similarly, FAO is utilizing a $2 million CERF grant to support cash and work-for-food interventions for 55,300 households in the Middle and Lower Shabelle regions. It is supplying agricultural tools and supporting infrastructure projects to increase the water storage capacity during the Jilaal dry season.