A joint project by FAO, Ministry of Agriculture and ECHO contributes to livelihoods restoration among drought-affected communities in Somali and Oromia regions
22 February 2024, Addis Ababa - A joint project by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) has recorded major achievements in restoring the livelihoods of the pastoral and agropastoral communities in the Somali and Oromia regions in Ethiopia.
Funded by the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) to the tune of Euros 3.5 million, the ‘Emergency Livestock Response to Drought Affected Pastoral and Agropastoral Communities in Ethiopia’, is contributing to restore their livelihoods and sustainably address their food and nutrition needs.
Reports on the project’s Post Distribution Monitoring and Phone Surveys that were conducted in May and December 2023 respectively, found out that the animal feeds distributed together with forage seeds, contributed to an increment in milk production and in improvement of the animals’ body condition. Additionally, a significant number of beneficiaries expressed satisfaction with the overall input distribution processes.
Most households reported an increment in milk production after receiving feed from the project (eighty and fifty three percent of beneficiaries for Oromia and Somali respectively.
Besides, almost all households reported an improvement in body condition after providing project feed to their animals (ninety-nine and ninety-five percent in Oromia and Somali regions respectively).
The project came in response to the multiple shocks including back-to-back droughts, desert locust upsurge, high food prices, conflict, and insecurity, among others, have caused forced approximately 18 million people to depend on humanitarian assistance during the first half of 2022.
Much of the arid and semi-arid zones of Ethiopia including Oromia and Somali regions received below average rainfall causing poor rangeland and water availability for pastoralists. This resulted into deteriorating of animal body conditions, increased disease outbreaks, poor livestock market value, livestock deaths, reduced milk yields, ultimately resulting in increased households' food insecurity, and loss of assets.
At the same time, food prices rose sharply due to the combined effect of preexisting macroeconomic challenges that have been recently exacerbated by the economic impacts of the conflict in the Tigray region. Even though low in presence currently, the food security impacts of the desert locusts in the past two years have been significant in worst affected areas on food security.
With the financial support from ECHO, FAO activated its Rapid Response and Mitigation Plan to avert a humanitarian catastrophe in the two regions with the aim of improving food security while protecting the assets of pastoralist and agropastoralist households in the earmarked regions.
Somali Development Association (SDA), Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Suisse (VSF-S), and Oromia Bureau of Agriculture (Implement Agencies) worked in partnership with FAO implemented the project.
The main objective of the project was to support a total of 100 000 pastoralist and agropastoralist households (500 000 persons) to restore their livelihoods and sustainably address their food and nutrition needs.
This was through provision of supplementary animal feed to 32 000 core breeding and milking livestock belonging to 16 000 households, vaccination, and treatment of 3.2 million animals against infectious diseases and parasites, and forage seeds and training to 8 000 households.
By the end of the project in December 2023, the project distributed 3 225 tonnes of supplementary livestock feed multinutrient blocks total mixed ration to 16 000 households (of whom 54 percent female headed).
A total of 3 630 938 animals (cattle, camels and small ruminants) belonging to 85 680 households (428 400 people) were vaccinated and treated against a range of diseases including sheep and goat pox (SGP), peste des petits ruminants (PPR), lumpy skin disease (LSD) and camel pox.
The project also strengthened nineteen veterinary clinics in the two regions by distributing different types of medicines to ensure good animal health.
Furthermore, FAO procured and distributed 79.29 tonnes of forage seeds (71.29 tonnes of Sudan grass and 8 tonnes of sesbania) to 9 089 households (45 445 people), of whom 36 percent were female headed. About 3 965 ha of land were planted with the seeds provided, and 10 319 tonnes of fodder produced.
The two-year project enhanced cooperation among a wide range of partners including, Government, NGOs, input producers, quality assurance institutions and financial organizations.
Contact
Meseret Abiy
National Communications Specialist, Addis Ababa
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: +251 11 647 8888; Mobile: +251 911 161702
Twitter: @FAOEthiopia