6-Month Progress Report: Horn of Africa

UNICEF’s Response to the Horn of Africa Emergency A Six Month Progress Report, April 2012

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UNICEF’s Response to the Horn of Africa Emergency A Six Month Progress Report, April 2012

The SituationAt the height of the crisis in July 2011, more than 13 million people in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti were impacted by severe drought. The situation was exacerbated by conflict and limited humanitarian access in Somalia that displaced many people from their homes and into neigh-boring countries. In July and August, the UN classified parts of Southern Somalia as famine zones. UNICEF declared the crisis a Level 3 emergency – triggering a massive mobilization of staff and resources through January 2012 and, in the case of Somalia, until May 2012.

A combination of favorable rains in much of the eastern Horn of Africa in late 2011 and a significantly scaled-up aid response have improved the dire conditions of affected communities including displaced and refugee children. This was especially evident in the containment and progressive easing of previously declared famine conditions in six areas of Southern Somalia.

However, as of the end of March 2012 over 8 million people remain in need of urgent humanitarian assistance and the projection of below-aver-age seasonal rains from March to May 2012 highlight that the prospects for a sustained recovery are precarious. The tentative gains of the 2011 emergency response are in jeopardy as vulnerable communities face renewed shocks and disruptions. The chronic and often acute vulnerability of these affected communities highlight the need for a sustained humani-tarian response in 2012 which places resilience building and disaster risk reduction approaches at its center.

UNICEF’s ResponseChildren are at the center of this crisis. UNICEF’s response has demanded rapid scale-up of a diverse set of emergency interventions accompanied by the timely mobilization of skilled personnel and life-saving supplies.

UNICEF’s Response to the Horn of Africa Emergency

PHOTO COVER

Women prepare to fill jerrycans with water from a collection tank in the ground, in Melbana Village, Mio District, in the drought-affected Borena Zone. The collec-tion tank has just been filled by a tanker truck delivering emergency water supplies. Water delivery is supported by the Borena Zone Emergency Water Task-force, of which UNICEF is a member.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2011-1566/Tibebu Lemma

“ Thanks to the generous response to our 2011 appeal, UNICEF and partners have been at the forefront of delivering life-saving assistance and responding to the protection and education needs of thousands of children and women throughout the region.

With sustained support in the crucial months ahead, we can continue our vital interventions on nutrition, health, water, sanitation and hygiene, educa-tion and child protection to bolster and protect the gains made so far. These interventions must be accompanied by efforts to address the underlying development challenges and vulnerabilities that have placed children at such high risks of suffering.

Together we are making a difference.”

— Elhadj As Sy, UNICEF Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa & Global Emergency Coordinator for the Horn of Africa Crisis

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This has only been possible due to a robust donor response, the UNICEF National Committees, and private sector support. UNICEF raised $405.7 million by the end of 2011 or 95.5 percent of its total required amount of $424.7 million for the four-country response. This outpouring of support enabled life-saving actions including the procurement of more than 3,000 tons of ready-to-use therapeutic food, the vaccination of 7.9 million chil-dren, and the delivery of improved water sources to 3.2 million people.

Key results of this unprecedented intervention include:

its network of close to 140 partners – mostly local. Interventions included the vaccination of more than one million children against measles, support for the provision of safe water to close to 1.8 million people, and the treatment of over 107,000 children for severe acute malnutrition.

-ted from nutrition programs and close to 1.1 million people were provided with access to safe water.

treated and more than 6.7 million children were vaccinated against measles, including children at very high risk within the Dollo Ado camps.

-ted from UNICEF’s nutritional programs and over 3,200 children were vaccinated.

received essential protection interventions such as cash trans-fers to encourage school attendance and measures to prevent abuse and gender-based violence.

Furthermore, UNICEF’s central role in building alliances in program part-nerships has added value to its increased emphasis on strengthening the humanitarian response by positioning disaster risk reduction within longer-term development responses. This has simultaneously accelerated the effectiveness of interventions and stimulated greater resilience of local populations vulnerable to multiple challenges to their survival and development.

Central to ensuring sustainable progress – and to better linking emergency and development interventions – is the transitioning of humanitarian response to the provision of longer-term investments for children. UNICEF will further develop its programming responses in three broad areas:

and access to safe water;

factors and external shocks.


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UNICEF will also ensure that children are part of the agenda in national and inter-governmental initiatives to promote human security, economic recovery, and growth in these chronically high-risk environments.

UNICEF extends its deepest appreciation to governments, implementing partners, donors and all the people of goodwill who have joined efforts to overcome the formidable challenges to child survival and development in the Horn of Africa.

Responding to Somalia’s Immediate NeedsThe 2011 famine in Somalia was a children’s crisis, with children account-ing for half of the tens of thousands of people thought to have died in southern Somalia before famine was declared in two regions in July 2011. By September, six regions were famine-stricken and the overall number of people in crisis had risen from 2.4 million in January to a peak of four million people.

By mid-November, the trend changed. As a result of the combination of a massive scale-up in humanitarian assistance, substantial flows of food aid commodities into local markets, the arrival of the main rainy season and off-season cereal harvests, the famine status for three of the six regions was lifted. However, these regions remain at critical pre-famine levels, with continuing high malnutrition and child mortality indicators.

UNICEF’s response focused heavily on reaching the most vulnerable chil-dren and their families despite continuous barriers to access. This required a major scale-up of traditional UNICEF-supported programs, and the introduction of new approaches to overcome the challenges to access. By the end of December, this massive effort had begun to bear fruit, revealing positive progress for children and women in southern Somalia.

PHOTO RIGHT

In July 2011, people collect water during a distribution in a camp for people displaced by the drought, in Mogadishu, the capital. The water is being distributed by troops from AMISOM (the African Union Mission in Somalia) from their base supplies. AMISOM was established by the United Nations to support peace, stability and the safe delivery of humanitarian aid in the country. UNICEF works on all sides of the long-running conflict.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2011-1205/Kate Holt


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NutritionUNICEF responded to the famine with a three-pronged strategy of:

prevent people from reaching famine conditions by providing a monthly take-home ration;

displaced persons (IDPs) fleeing their homes and in transit; and

malnourished children.

To enhance access to food in the Central and Southern Zone (CSZ) and compensate for the lack of general food distribution, UNICEF introduced BSFPs rapidly in August. These reached 109,066 households (about 660,000 people) by December with at least one monthly food ration in the worst affected CSZ regions. UNICEF-supported wet feeding programs provided a daily average of 10,000 hot meals from August to December, to 51,363 households (including 47,206 children under the age of five) comprising mostly IDPs and those in cross-border transit to Ethiopia and Kenya.

From July to December, UNICEF reached a total of 241,469 malnourished children in Somalia. During the same period, the number of UNICEF-sup-ported nutrition sites increased from 973 to over 2,100 across Somalia.

HealthFollowing the famine declaration, UNICEF’s scale-up strategy included the expansion of the number of supported health facilities and increased outreach and access through community-based interventions to address the top causes of illness and death in children as well as prevent and con- trol contagious diseases. UNICEF supported community case manage-ment of pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, the provision of emergency medical supplies for health centers throughout Somalia, the provision of routine and emergency measles and polio vaccines, communication strategies and health education messages, and preparedness and response to out-breaks of measles, malaria, acute watery diarrhea, and cholera.

Between July and December, 1,074,331 children under the age of 15 were vaccinated against measles in CSZ, while 1,009,401 children under the age of five received Vitamin A and 426,354 received deworming tablets. In addition, 465,505 children were vaccinated against polio and 210,611 women of childbearing age were vaccinated against tetanus.

To ensure access to treatment of common diseases, UNICEF has, since July:

and training of health service providers) from 120 to 183 Mater-nal and Child Health (MCH) centers, from 200 to 323 health posts (HPs) and to an additional 23 hospitals; and

medical equipment) through its partners to 120 maternal and child health centers, 200 health posts and 23 hospitals across

In July 2011, 14-year-old Ahmed, who has encephalitis, is helped off a stretcher by his father and his aunt, at a water point in Mogadishu, the capital. There are no health facilities where they live, so they are taking him to a health centre located on the grounds of the AMISOM (the African Union Mission in Somalia) base. AMISOM was established by the United Nations to support peace, stability and the safe delivery of humanitarian aid in the country. UNICEF works on all sides of the long-running conflict.



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CSZ to serve an estimated 1.2 million people with basic emer-gency obstetric and neonatal care, and antibiotics to treat major infections such as respiratory infections, acute watery diarrhea, dysentery, and typhoid.

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) From July to December, approximately1.8 million people across central and southern Somalia were benefitting from UNICEF’s efforts to provide access to safe water. Specifically, UNICEF oversaw the construction and rehabilitation of 400 water systems which provided access for 480,534 people. Temporary measures such as providing water vouchers to fami-lies, delivering water by trucks, and chlorinating local water sources pro-vided access to water for 1,280,220 people.

A major hand washing promotion campaign in October reached over 1.5 million people countrywide, and included hand washing demonstra-tions, life-saving messages on cholera prevention, and the distribution of essential supplies such as soap, buckets, and water purification tablets.

These interventions assisted in the response to cholera, especially in areas with existing, newly arrived, and transiting displaced people.

Child ProtectionThe escalation of hostilities, the movement of people and ongoing military interventions all heighten the risk of children’s recruitment into armed groups, separation from their families, neglect and exploitation, and leaves women and girls more vulnerable to abuse and sexual violence.

supporting partners in their delivery of an Identification, Documentation, Tracing and Reintegration (IDTR) system for unaccompanied and sepa-rated children in transit areas. By December, 378 separated and unaccom-panied children were registered at transit points, with information shared on the Kenyan side to expedite children’s transport and access to services. Children are placed in interim care with host families while efforts are made to reunite them with family members.

A total of 353 new Child Friendly Spaces were established in camps for internally displaced people (IDP), transit points and host communities in famine-affected regions and are now providing 34,356 children (34 percent girls) with safe spaces to play and learn and to access improved water and sanitation facilities. The centers enable facilitators to address child protec-tion issues and to register and respond to child protection cases.

EducationFrom September to December, UNICEF supported the reopening and running of schools by providing training on education, psychosocial sup-port, and life skills to 6,747 teachers (of whom 5,371 received incentives) and distributing school supplies – including textbooks – to over 260,000 children. This facilitated the enrolment of 420,271 children (42 percent girls) to exceed the target of 300,000 across 2,230 schools in CSZ.


Children and women queue for a food distribu-tion, in the Badbado camp in Mogadishu, the capital. The camp, established three weeks ago, shelters almost 30,000 people who have been displaced from rural areas more affected by the drought.


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During the school break (June to September) some 37,000 children (at least 40 percent girls) continued their education through 155 IDP schools, where UNICEF provided supplies and teacher incentives.

Support to Community Education Committees (school management bod-ies of teachers, elders, parents, and students) continued throughout the school year to ensure effective governance and management of schools in CSZ areas that lack education authorities. Over 12,000 Committee mem-bers were trained (23 percent female).

Almost 30,000 children in 318 schools received monthly food vouchers that their families can redeem through local merchants to increase school attendance using an incentive ration.

Responding to Kenya’s Immediate NeedsThe food security and nutrition situation in most of the arid and semi-arid areas of Kenya improved significantly in the final quarter of 2011, due to above average rainfall between September and November and the con-

and other partners.

The marked decline in malnutrition rates in the greater Turkana County demonstrates the impact of well-coordinated humanitarian efforts, illus-

North East from 37 percent in May to 13 percent by December. Localized flooding in North Eastern and Western areas following heavy rainfall,

civil society and UNICEF. Investments in cholera preparedness meant that no cholera cases were reported in ‘hotspots’ in drought-affected areas, despite the heavy rains and poor sanitation levels.


PHOTO RIGHT

In August 2011, a boy drinks a high-nutrition porridge at Catholic Integrated School in the drought-affected district of Wajir, in North Eastern Province. Hundreds of children are receiving porridge at the school, part of a national policy to continue school lunches during the sum-mer vacation to ensure children are fed. For many children, it is the only meal of the day. The lunch programme is funded by UNICEF and implemented by the inter-

Children. In the worst-hit areas of Wajir, up to half of all households need food aid.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2011-1345/Antony Njuguna

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Insecurity challenged humanitarian operations in Dadaab refugee camps, preventing access to the camps that house 463,000 refugees for all but life-saving humanitarian missions for weeks at a time. UNICEF worked closely with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other partners to develop continuity plans and more robust security arrangements to enable the continuation of life-saving services and mitigate risks to staff. Amidst these challenges, UNICEF and UNHCR finalized a joint Education Strategy with partners to guide education improvements in Dadaab in coming years, and reached an agreement to proceed with multi-year child protection and gender-based violence prevention strategies.

NutritionUNICEF scaled-up high impact nutrition interventions in drought-affected

34,482 severely malnourished children were provided with treatment, as were 80,284 moderately malnourished children. The 22 Nutrition Support Officers deployed to support capacity building, mentoring, and coordina-tion at the district level played a pivotal role in strengthening program performance. By the end of December, 75 percent of the health facilities in arid and semi-arid lands were offering high impact nutrition services. Nutrition monitoring systems were reinforced with 13 nutrition surveys carried out between September and December.

Despite the volatile security situation since October 2011, UNICEF main-

in the Dadaab refugee camps to detect and treat severely malnourished children. UNICEF initiated additional technical and financial support to improve infant feeding practices in the camps and, from July to December, 24,282 children were treated for severe acute malnutrition.

HealthUNICEF strengthened routine immunization coverage for measles and polio in drought-affected areas. It also scaled up maternal and child health activities. Surveillance systems were strengthened to ensure early detec-tion of cases and early warning of possible disease outbreaks. UNICEF’s rapid response to the malaria upsurge resulted in low malaria cases as well as the prompt management of other feverish epidemic diseases, including dengue fever. A polio outbreak in Nyanza prompted UNICEF to launch two polio campaign rounds in 32 districts, followed by two rounds that were expanded to 129 districts.

UNICEF worked with key partners along the border between Kenya and Somalia to provide health stabilization support to refugees en route to Dadaab refugee camps. Integrated vaccination, deworming, and Vitamin A supplementation campaigns for refugee and host communities prevented disease outbreaks in and around the Dadaab camps.


In July, a Somali child waits with others to register for aid in the Ifo refugee camp in North Eastern Province, near the Kenya-Somalia bor-der. The camp is among three that comprise the Dadaab camps, located near the town of Dadaab


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UNICEF supported the procurement of vaccines and the necessary cold chain equipment to store them for the Dadaab refugee camps, increas-ing routine measles immunization coverage to 100 percent and drasti-cally reducing outbreaks. In addition, UNICEF helped train 152 community health workers on community-based tracking and management, contribut-ing to the prompt detection and management of cholera cases.

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)Water trucking and the repair and rehabilitation of water sources enabled UNICEF to provide 1.1 million people (654,000 children) with access to safe water. This includes 270,000 people accessing emergency nutrition services in 85 health centers and 88,000 children accessing supplemen-tary feeding programs (SFPs) in 172 schools. Rapid hygiene promotion activities reached 1.3 million people, including 43,000 school children in 222 schools providing SFPs, and just over one million people accessed nutrition services in 254 health centers. In addition, 30,000 school children in 51 schools gained improved access to WASH facilities, including gender sensitive latrines, water supply and hand washing facilities, and hygiene promotion messages. UNICEF also helped train around 2,600 community health workers in cholera prone areas.

In consultation with the Somalia program, UNICEF Kenya provided safe water to refugees in transit from Somalia to the Dadaab camps by estab-lishing strategic water points along their main routes, benefiting at least 10,000 refugees and 122,500 people in the host communities. An esti-mated 18,000 refugee families (90,000 people) living in makeshift shel-ters while waiting to enter the camps benefited from WASH supplies and hygiene promotion activities. UNICEF is working with UNHCR to construct four new boreholes as well as pumping equipment and infrastructure in the new camp of Ifo West as part of more sustainable long-term efforts to ensure access to safe water for an estimated 60,000 refugees.

Child ProtectionThe drought crisis saw an increase in the number of children living on the street and separated from their families. UNICEF provided support and supplies to drop-in centers and programs supporting 5,507 street children. This includes active Identification, Documentation, Tracing, and Reinte-gration (IDTR) from October 2011 for separated children that, by the end of 2011, had identified 346 vulnerable children in Eldoret, Kitale and West Pokot. In addition, 89 children were either reunited with their families or provided with alternative care.

UNICEF’s cash transfer program began focusing on vulnerable children in 15,000 households in seven drought-affected districts. The program pro-vides approximately $30 to each family per month to protect children at risk of family separation and/or reliance on child work due to household food insecurity, and to help households recover from the effects of the drought. The transfer program is building local capacity to identify vulnerable chil-dren, and gathering evidence to support the planning of a focused national social protection response to vulnerable families in future emergencies.


In July, Fatima holds her baby son in their makeshift shelter on the outskirts of the Dagahaley refugee camp in North Eastern Province, near the Kenya-Somalia border. The camp is among three that comprise the Dadaab camps, located near the town of Dadaab in


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UNICEF deployed specialized child protection and gender-based violence personnel to Dadaab to scale-up its existing child protection partnerships and establish new partnerships to provide legal advocacy and support to refugees. Insecurity in Dadaab has had an impact on service outreach, although integrated missions have travelled to the camps as the security situation has allowed. While 50,046 children were reached through Child Friendly Spaces in recent months, attendance dropped dramatically in November and December due to security incidents. Inter-country col-laboration with UNICEF Somalia improved support to children with acute

areas to identify and provide services to unaccompanied and separated children and survivors of sexual violence.

EducationAn estimated 508,000 children have seen their education disrupted in drought-prone areas of North and North Eastern Kenya. UNICEF partnered

-gency Preparedness and Response Plan (EPRP) – developed with UNICEF

-nation and UNICEF collaboration with the Ministry of Education (MoE) for a rapid assessment in the 39 arid districts most affected by drought, strengthening existing government systems for emergency response countrywide.

Support to boarding schools is a key means of providing both food secu-rity and education to children in Kenya’s drought-stricken areas. With the MoE, UNICEF developed a disaster risk reduction (DRR) manual for low-cost boarding schools and reinforced the capacity of 236 school head teachers and heads of boarding houses on disaster preparedness and management for future droughts.

49,100 children with Early Childhood Development (ECD) materials, teach-ing and learning materials, and recreation kits. UNICEF also developed the capacity of 930 primary school teachers – including refugee teachers in Dadaab – on how to create a child-centered teaching and learning environ-

access and quality of education in the camps, leading to the MoE’s devel-opment of a government policy on refugee education in Kenya.


In September, a boy reads during the first day of classes at Yathrib Primary School, in the

UNICEF is increasing its support to schools in drought-affected areas, distributing education kits to schools, bedding and mosquito nets to boarding schools, and temporary learning cen-tres to refugee camps.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2011-1365/Antony Njuguna

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Responding to Ethiopia’s Immediate NeedsDry weather worsened Ethiopia’s humanitarian situation in 2011 and triggered an emergency response to both drought-affected areas and to areas that hosted the influx of refugees from Somalia. Drought, increased food prices, and insufficient resources for preventive measures escalated the rates of child malnutrition. Admissions of children under the age of five into therapeutic feeding programs more than doubled to over 40,000 between January and May.

By July, a government-led multi-agency assessment found that 4.5 million people required food assistance, a 42 percent increase since April. Short-ages of clean water, exacerbated by poor access to health services, contrib-uted to outbreaks of acute watery diarrhea, measles and malaria. As fami-lies left their homes in search of water and other resources, an estimated 87,000 children dropped out of school and more than 300 schools closed.

The second half of 2011 saw improvements in drought affected areas due to seasonal rains, declining food prices and on-going humanitarian assistance. Between May and November, Therapeutic Feeding Program admissions declined by 46 percent. There were fewer outbreaks of acute watery diarrhea and meningitis in the second half of 2011, due to

partners. Those estimated to need food assistance in the first half of 2012 fell to 3.2 million people.

By the end of 2011, more than 142,000 Somali refugees were living in five refugee camps and one transit center in the Dollo Ado area of the Somali Region. Approximately 97,000 refugees arrived in 2011, placing significant strain on basic services in host communities. A daily average of 120 refu-gees continued to arrive in December. One quarter of the camp population is under the age of five and two-thirds are under the age of 18.


PHOTO RIGHT

A UNICEF-supported mobile health and nutrition team member speaks to a woman during a distribu-

UNICEF-provided supplies, in the village of Dabaka-tur in the eastern Somali Region. UNICEF supports many health and nutrition teams in drought-affected pastoral areas of Ethio-pia. These teams provide nutrition monitoring and treatment for malnour-ished children, and other vital services.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2011-1368/Malene Kamp Jensen

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NutritionEthiopia’s response to acute malnutrition among women and children was strengthened substantially during the past months. Emergency nutrition interventions are integrated increasingly into general health service deliv-ery, with over 10,000 health centers across the country now able to treat acute malnutrition, up from 8,900 in July. Between July and December, 164,785 children were admitted into therapeutic feeding programs. In addi-tion, 440,629 children under the age of five were admitted to supplemen-

the quality of services, training health extension workers, providing techni-cal assistance, and distributing 2,271 tons of ready-to-use therapeutic food.

UNICEF supported the response to acute malnutrition in Dollo Ado by pro-curing and distributing essential nutrition supplies, and promoting healthy infant and young child feeding practices. Some 6,281 children under five were admitted to therapeutic feeding programs between July and Decem-ber 2011. Another 9,962 children under the age of five were admitted into supplementary feeding programs to treat moderate malnutrition.

HealthSupport to health programs in 2011 contributed to the development of a more robust health system that is better able to respond to emergencies.

immunization campaign, launched on September 25, 2011, reaching 6.7 million children under the age of 15 years.

UNICEF provided vaccines and supplies, technical support and intensive social mobilization efforts. Mobile Health and Nutrition Teams (MHNTs) continue to reach pastoralist populations in Afar and Somali Regions that would otherwise have limited access to basic health services. MHNTs conducted 169,178 consultations, including 69,838 for children. UNICEF provided MHNTs with 164 essential drug kits and 82 renewable kits, 3,919 clean delivery kits, and nutritional, hygiene and other supplies. UNICEF’s prepositioned supplies and technical support helped facilitate the rapid response, within 72 hours, to 14 acute watery diarrhea outbreaks.

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)UNICEF’s WASH drought response focused on the inspection and rehabilitation of critical water points, water trucking, and coordination. Some 114,400 people, including 18,304 children, were reached by water trucking operations between July and December. The need for trucking decreased in Ethiopia’s Oromia and Somali regions during the October to December rainfalls and increased again towards the end of 2011. Continued support for the inspection, rehabilitation and expansion of water sources ensured a sustained water supply for an estimated 395,500 people since July.

UNICEF is working closely with key partners to respond to the influx of refugees from Somalia. As part of this response, UNICEF provided on-site technical support and emergency WASH supplies and equipment.


On 3 August 2011, a health worker unpacks ready-to-eat therapeutic food at a health centre in Odoleka Village, Oromia Region. The food was supplied by UNICEF to treat malnourished chil-dren in the village.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2011-1256/Jiro Ose

On 5 August, Kalkidan Yimam, a health exten-sion worker, uses a mid-upper arm circum- ference (MUAC) armband to measure the arm of 10-month-old Firdoze Liben, who is sitting in the lap of her mother, Berida Jateni, at their home in Meleb Village, in Oromia Region. The red portion of the armband indicates that Firdoze is severely malnourished. Firdoze weighed 5.7 kilograms when admitted to the outpatient programme two weeks ago; now she weighs 6.4 kilograms and continues to recover. Beside them on the ground is a first aid kit bearing the UNICEF logo.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2011-1329/

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UNICEF procured and delivered five water treatment kits, 20 pillow tanks, water storage containers and soap, reaching 28,183 refugees. Communica-tion materials on proper hygiene, healthy behaviors, toilet usage, and hand washing, were developed, reaching an estimated 137,692 people between July and December.

Child ProtectionFollowing previous long-term work in Tigray Region, UNICEF supported regional bureaus to develop and establish a community care framework for drought-affected communities. Between July and December, 121,000 people were reached through 50 Community Care Coalitions that enhance the protection of vulnerable children and their families through early iden-tification and timely community-based interventions. In late 2011, UNICEF supported the training of 160 para-social workers to manage protection issues in the Somali Region.

Since July 2011, UNICEF has been working with key partners in Dollo Ado to support the response to the refugee influx from Somalia, focusing on establishing a child protection staffing structure for efficient program delivery in Bokolmayo, Hiloweyn, Kobe and Melkadida refugee camps. This includes registering unaccompanied minors and separated children and their receipt of suitable alternative care services, plus family tracing and reunification assistance. Between July and December, 2,204 separated and unaccompanied children were verified and documented. All separated children were reunited with their families or provided with kinship care, while all unaccompanied children were placed in formalized foster care within the camps.

EducationUNICEF ensured the continued education of 91,000 children (45 percent girls) in seven drought-prone regions between July and December by pro-viding learning spaces, materials, advocacy and teacher training. Essential learning materials were provided to the federal and regional education authorities, and included 300 Early Childhood Development (ECD) kits, 200 teachers’ kits, 1,000 learner’s kits, 190 recreational kits, and 1,500 hygiene kits for adolescent female students.

In Dollo Ado, UNICEF provided enough education supplies to support “Education in Emergency Interventions” for 30,000 refugee children. More than 17,000 refugee children from Somalia are continuing their basic and early childhood education in safe temporary learning spaces, assisted by UNICEF’s procurement of 256 school tents. To facilitate regular school attendance, UNICEF supplied 2,500 hygiene kits to benefit 12,500 ado-lescent female students. UNICEF also delivered 35,000 learner’s kits, 200 School-in-a-Box kits to provide 8,000 children with schools supplies, and 100 ECD kits sufficient for 4,000 children aged three to six years.


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Responding to Djibouti’s Immediate NeedsMore than 165,000 people in Djibouti, or some 20 percent of the population were affected by the drought. Of these, 120,000 needed urgent humanitar-ian assistance making Djibouti proportionately the second most affected country in the Horn of Africa. Cases of severe acute malnutrition increased between August and November 2011, from around 4,000 to 7,000 cases. Since September, arrangements were established to provide education to an additional 33,000 school aged children in drought-affected areas, including in the refugee camp of Ali Ade.

NutritionUNICEF supported seven therapeutic feeding centers in Djibouti and 35 supplementary feeding centers through the training of 80 community workers and the provision of Plumpy’nut, the peanut-based therapeutic food for malnourished children. In addition, 22 community-based malnutri-tion management sites are supported in both the capital and rural areas. Overall, the UNICEF-supported national nutritional program treated 17,581 children suffering from moderate acute malnutrition and 5,836 children for severe acute malnutrition.

HealthUNICEF strengthened the health information management system by delivering 60 phones to 55 health sites and five regional health centers, five fax machines to the five regions, and a telephone for a cholera treat-ment center in a peripheral area of Djibouti that holds one of the largest IDP populations.

UNICEF continued assistance to the Ministry of Health to treat 498 acute watery diarrhea cases near the capital city of Djibouti and provided sup-port to mobile health clinics. Following measles outbreaks in June and August, which resulted in the deaths of two children under the age of

PHOTO RIGHT

A severely malnourished child lies in a crib with his mother beside him, in the UNICEF-supported therapeutic feeding centre in the main hospital in Djibouti, the capital. The hospital has seen an influx of malnourished children since the drought began.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2006-0214/Michael Kamber


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five, UNICEF supported an immunization campaign that vaccinated 3,213 children against measles, and 70 against polio and tuberculosis. In addi-tion, more than 3,000 children received vitamin A. In December, UNICEF and the World Health Organization supported the launch of a mass immu-nization campaign by the President of Djibouti against measles and polio, alongside deworming and vitamin A. The campaign vaccinated 113,316 children under five years of age in Djibouti and the five regions.

In addition, UNICEF provided 26,400 long-lasting insecticide-treated malaria nets to 24,000 children under the age of five and 2,400 pregnant women (12,000 families) in 16 malaria prone localities of Djibouti city and all five regions.

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)Water trucking assistance reached 110,700 people countrywide, and 36,000 liters of water were distributed daily to 500 vulnerable households living in informal settlements in Djibouti peri-urban areas. To improve household water storage, 150 highly vulnerable households in Balbala peri-urban area benefited from 650 200-litre barrels and 800 20-liter jerry cans. Access to sanitation was improved with the construction of 150 family latrines with community participation and 120 emergency latrines to benefit 720 women in Djibouti peri-urban areas.

A joint action plan by the World Food Program, UNHCR and UNICEF was put in place to respond to the drought crisis. With the recent increase in the number of refugees, UNICEF is supporting humanitarian interventions in the Ali Addeh refugee camp, by improving water access and quality as well as helping to treat and prevent malnutrition in the camp through the provision of additional ready-to-use therapeutic and supplementary foods. UNICEF is also supporting the camp-based primary school through the construction of classrooms and provision of learning materials.

Child ProtectionSince the onset of the crisis, 700 orphaned and vulnerable children received conditional cash transfers and school kits in two phases, in order to improve their livelihood and facilitate continued school attendance.


Children and women queue to receive water at a UNICEF-supported distribution point in Bouldougo, a slum area on the outskirts of Djibouti City, the capital. In Somali, ‘Bouldougo’ means ‘knocked out’; the area is missing even the most basic services. Some 400 families live in the area, including refugees arriving from Somalia and Ethiopia. Barrels of water bear the UNICEF logo.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2011-1353/Najwa Mekki

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UNICEF has saved more children’s lives than any other humanitarian organization in the world. Working in more than 150 countries, UNICEF provides children with health and immunizations, clean water, nutrition, educa-tion, emergency and disaster relief, and more. The U.S. Fund for UNICEF supports UNICEF’s work through fundraising, advocacy, and education in the United States.

UNICEF is at the forefront of efforts to reduce child mortality worldwide. There has been substantial progress: the annual number of

under-five deaths dropped from more than 12 million in 1990 to 7.6 million in 2010. But still, 21,000 children die each day from preventable causes. Our mission is to do whatever it takes to make that number zero by giving children the essentials for a safe and healthy childhood. For more informa-tion, visit www.unicefusa.org.

U.S. Fund for UNICEF 125 Maiden Lane New York, NY 10038 1.800.4UNICEF www.unicefusa.org


Rebuilding Lives with the Future in MindFor the people of the Horn, the drought and the crisis that followed were unprecedented emergencies, unique in their magnitude, depth, and scope. UNICEF pledged to do “anything and everything” to support families as the region struggled with unimaginable circumstances.

Despite the perfect storm of hurdles, the technical, material, and financial resources mobilized in response to the crisis were exceptional in their own right. Rebuilding the lives and livelihoods of millions is by no means an easy task. But significant progress has been made by committed national and international stakeholders from both the public and private sectors.

Recovery is moving forward. Hope and resiliency are returning. Our com-mitment to the children of the Horn is in full force. We remain champions for children even when faced with adversity.

We dedicate this report to everyone who has supported us, and to the children who have given us courage and hope along the way. Thank you for investing in our commitment to all of the children and families affected by the crisis. By joining us you are helping to ensure that they are able to move on and continue living healthy, productive lives.

http://www.unicefusa.org

Documents

6-Month Progress Report: Horn of Africa