WP Ethiopia Country Brief, May 2021

In Numbers

3.14 million people assisted

USD 1,995,742 in cash transfers

USD 377 million (July – December 2021) net funding requirements

35,119 mt of food assistance distributed

Operational Updates

WFP assisted 3.14 million people, including drought and flood-affected people, internally displaced persons (IDPs), refugees and malnourished children and women. WFP extended its emergency food assistance relief response in Tigray and augmented its secondary transport capacity for relief distributions, as requested by the Government of Ethiopia.

Relief

• In the Tigray region, WFP continued its food distributions to 1.2 million people.

• In the Somali Region, WFP continued to provide in-kind food assistance to drought and flood-affected people and IDPs. WFP is entirely responsible for the provision of food assistance in this Region. WFP reached 1.15 million people through its first round of food distributions under the 2021 Humanitarian Response Plan, delivering USD 225,220 (ETB 9.84 million) in cash-based transfers (CBT) to 32,000 people in the Region.

Nutrition

• WFP distributed 2,470 metric tons (mt) of specialized nutritious food to 529,482 children aged 6-59 months, as well as pregnant and lactating women and girls (PLWG) through targeted supplementary feeding (TSF) for the treatment of moderate acute malnutrition (MAM).

• Insecurity in Tigray has interrupted access to markets and services, leading to an increase in malnutrition cases among PLWG and children. WFP has targeted 85 woredas in Tigray, including IDP locations, to address the critical nutritional needs.

Support to Refugees

• WFP supported 720,489 refugees with in-kind food assistance and CBT in 24 refugee camps in May. Of these, 65,311 primary school children benefited from school feeding in 24 camps. As WFP has faced shortages of SuperCereal (CSB+), it has reduced the food basket of beneficiaries from 84 percent to 78 percent.

School Feeding

• Adhering to the national COVID-19 safety protocols, WFP reached 177,081 school children in the Afar and Oromia Regions with 2,416 mt of food assistance.

Climate Risk Management

• To mitigate risks posed by the invasion of desert locusts, flooding and the COVID-19 pandemic, WFP supported 5 private veterinary pharmacies and 9 rural pharmaceutical vendors which continued providing services to 574 beneficiaries.

• Agricultural input suppliers also provided tools to farmers for natural resource management activities, in partnership with WFP.

Source: World Food Programme