| Activities |
Through Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) funding, FAO aimed at providing direct humanitarian assistance to 29 000 vulnerable rural beneficiaries, and indirectly assisting an additional 1 259 272 people affected by severe drought. This assistance strived to increase food products availability in southern Angola, (provinces of Cunene and Huila) and to mitigate the effects of the severe 2018-2019 drought. CERF fund enabled to give immediately support to these communities from April to September 2020 (six months) and safeguard the 2020’s agriculture production in targeted municipalities. At the same time, FAO is negotiating further actions with European Union and Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) to assist population from 2021. The activities proposed for CERF funding were in line with the overall drought mitigation programme framework developed in response to an appeal from the Government of Cunene and Huila Province. The project worked on two specific outputs: - Output 1: mitigate livestock losses and improve food security for pastoralists. It consisted in:
- 80 MT of fodder and grass seeds, planting forage and pasture (elephant grass, forage palm and other local semiarid plants). A Letter of Agreement (LOA) with the National Politechnical Institute of Huila was elaborated to fight against animal losses and mitigate diseases, through the introduction of these forage along the rivers and natural water points.
- 20 000 mineral licks production for animal nutrition improvement. The Center of Mineral licks in Cahama, Cunene, was reinforced to increase production. This activity was carried out in close collaboration with the municipal Government of Cahama. FAO supported the Government, through the Agrarian Development Station, with the organization of a cooperative of youth (with gender approach) to manage the centre. 50 irrigation kits were distributed rehabilitation of 2 animal feeders and 2 drinkers in the main transhumance roads. A total of 2 drinkers and feeders were rehabilitated. A training was conducted to improve the ability of the farmers field school (FFS) facilitators as community to manage the animal drinkers and feeders. Additional training will be given to enhance animal health workers. A LOA with the Veterinary Services Institute (ISV) was elaborated to provide the training to facilitators. A total of 250 facilitators will be trained as community-based animal health workers CAHWs (2 per FFS).
- Distribution of 250 veterinary kits (4 kits per FFS), and 2 000 couple of goats and 2 000 couple of chickens. The kits were distributed through a LOA with a national NGO with interventions in the area. A rapid training of ISV, NGOs, and other institutions technicians, including animal breeders, in the correct use of these veterinary kits and for the introduction of ethno-veterinary principles to use local plants to improve animal health. A training addressed to ISV technicians was implemented to strengthen abilities to apply ethno- veterinary principles. A total of 30 technicians were trained.
- Output 2: urgently restore agricultural food production for 2 000 smallholders / subsistence farmers. It consisted in:
- 2 000 households received seeds of cereals, beans and vegetables and agriculture tools, and production assistance (training on micro-gardens). Seeds were selected for their short vegetative cycle, to get the first harvest in 120-140 days. Each family received the following: 5 kg of millets seeds, 2 kg of macunde seeds, 100 g of vegetable seeds, and agricultural tool, namely: hoe, machete, and 50 irrigation system for 50 groups (40 families each group). The households also received 1 million sweet potato cuttings produced through other FAO projects.
- Training sessions on simple farming and livestock techniques to trainers (trainings for 30 technicians) and 2 000 beneficiaries (40 households per training – 30 sessions) were implemented.
|
