An estimated people including 4 million drought-affected depend on food assistance through distribution of cash and in-kind food rations for survival. About 5 million people, mostly children and women, will need nutrition interventions this year. Lack of food and nutrition assistance will bring them to the brink of hunger and severe malnutrition, exposing households to negative coping mechanisms such as school dropout, child labour and begging, transitional sex, early and child marriage, and gender-based violence, and will potentially lead to loss of lives.
If we do not scale-up and act early enough, shortage of food and acute malnutrition will worsen, particularly among the most vulnerable people, women and children with severe acute malnutrition who have a higher risk of death from common childhood illness such as diarrhoea, pneumonia, and malaria.
If we fail to deliver, the most vulnerable people, including women, children, persons with disabilities, those with mental health needs, the elderly, and survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, will not access lifesaving health services. Proper and timely health care will mitigate epidemic prone disease outbreaks (cholera, malaria, and measles) and avoid preventable deaths. Inadequate funding for vaccines, and delayed recovery and restoration of essential health facilities will result in more people lacking essential health care services. We will have thus failed to meet the objectives we set out to reduce morbidity, mortality, and suffering.
Failure to respond will jeopardize restoring and enhancing the livelihoods of conflict, violence and climate shock affected populations including those displaced, host communities, and returning IDPs. Inaction may well lead to irreversible damage to the affected populations and will cause further vulnerabilities.
More needs to be done, through resilience interventions, to protect and sustain the core agricultural and pastoral livelihoods of people affected by multiple overlaying recurrent shocks. Without timely response, millions of vulnerable people would be sentenced to bare the impact of recurrent shocks making recovery harder. Communities need support to improve crop production, access to seeds and tools, and enhance livestock health and production, so to reduce dependency on food assistance.
Fifteen million people in Ethiopia do not have access to safe adequate water, a primary need equally important for health, dignity, and survival. Response in water, sanitation and hygiene crises settings requires a focus on emergency and durable water interventions, jointly with health actors, including in health and learning institutions, in preparedness and prevention of recurrent water-borne disease emergencies.
It is crucial to continue serving the displaced population – the most vulnerable of all - with basic services. The inability to do so will deny more than 3.5 million internally displaced people access to their basic human rights and will further exacerbate their vulnerabilities and exacerbate protracted needs.
Protection risks triggered by conflict and natural disasters remain high and of concern. This year, more than 14.1 million people require specialized lifesaving and life-sustaining protection services. Survivors of violence and abuse, mostly women and children, need our help so they would not be further victimized. Children’s growth, development, and mental health and psychosocial well-being would depend on assistance they receive from protection partners. Inaction to their plight will have irreversible damages not only on them but also on the society.
Inadequate funding of education-in-emergency will increase the number of children not receiving any formal or informal education, putting girls and boys at much higher risk of violence, loss of learning opportunities, and poverty. About 3 million crisis-affected children, including with disabilities, will lose equitable access to safe, protective, and conducive learning environments while the capacity of education institutions and the quality of education and personnel will decline.
Timely delivery of life-saving humanitarian cargo must be facilitated by all concerned. Operational and security challenges must be eased, otherwise, the lives, livelihoods and well-being of the affected populations will be significantly compromised, and the urgent humanitarian assistance will not reach those most in need.
We could all imagine the catastrophic humanitarian consequences if we fail to respond to the urgent
needs of the vulnerable men, women, and children and those most in need in the country. The cost of inaction will be very high on the lives and livelihoods of millions, when we have the capacity to spare precious lives.