Day: November 1, 2021

FOOD SECURITY AND AGRICULTURE

Despite the jibraka harvest, food security remains low

Blue Nile (Southern Kurmuk County)

The early crops failed, leaving a hunger gap. This has depressed agricultural output for many communities throughout Blue Nile, reducing overall potential output for the region. The impact of this will likely be felt throughout 2022. Specifically, in Chali payam, around 60 per cent of households are food insecure. A poor Jibraka harvest coupled with no more food distribution left results in a situation where there is a growing fear of food shortage in the coming months. With few coping strategies available, people are forced to either subsist on wild foods like leaves and roots or resort to traditional gold mining.

Full market functionality was registered in the four major regularly monitored cross-line markets (i.e., Yabus Bala, Moguf, Mayak and Wadaka Balila), despite the ongoing political crisis in neighboring Ethiopia. Local and foreign traders showed up in good numbers in September, however, prices of staples remained high. According to CU reporters, locals were selling the staple sorghum to Ethipian traders; this will affect the food security levels in coming months.

South Kordofan

In Central Region, rainfall conditions improved somewhat during the reporting period.

Weeding and replanting activities are ongoing. However, only 5,600 feddans were ploughed supported by one of the partners due to lack of fuel, labour (instead, farmers are using herbicides to kill weeds) and insecurity in Dallami. Additionally, the Kalkada scheme in Heiban county was not ploughed due to tribal clashes between Tira and Oturo tribes in June. As previously reported in August, the next harvest is likely to be low due to insufficient rainfall during the growing season, with periods of abnormally low rainfall and impact of the recent flooding episodes in Thobo, which damaged some crops and property.

Overall food security improved in Central Region as a result of the jibraka harvest, as well as a third round of food distribution, particlualry in Dalami, Um Ddurain, Thobo, and Western Kadguli (in these locations, each household received 50 kgs of maize, 5g of salt, 5kg of beans and 3 liters of oil). In addition to the above, distribution of seeds was conducted in enclaves of Kua Nyaro and Warni. Cash transfer is ongoing across the region (so far 19,147 households have been covered in Thobo, Lagawa, Habilla, Al Sunut, Kau Nyaro and Warni).

Some monitored markets ( i.e. Buram in Thobo and Undulu in Um Durain counties) closed due to heavy rainfall, resulting in increased prices of food items. On the other hand, in Dallami county, the prices of food items this month is low compared to last month on account of food distribution.

Western Jebel

The jibraka harvest (short-duration sorghum, tamoteos, vegetables, ground nuts etc.) has improved households’ food security. However, continued killing of farmers by Arab raiders has affected activities on far farms, particularly in Dilling and Al Sunut counties -- this is likely to affect the next harvest because few farms have been cultivated. In addition, in the last weeks of September, most parts of Western Jebels did not receive sufficient rainfall leading to drying of crops, particularly those on mechanized farms. Farmers have also reported crop diseases and pests.

According to the household surveys, there was an increase in prices of basic commodities due to transport costs to cross-line markets, resulting in low supply. In addition, inflation in Sudan also contributed to increase in prices across Western Jebel region.

Source: Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust

The Ministries of Health of Uganda and Kenya have launched their first cross-border mass drug administration (MDA) for trachoma, bringing the two countries another step closer to eliminating the disease.

Beginning on October 21, 2021, teams in key districts on both sides of the border began delivering medicines for trachoma, a neglected tropical disease (NTD) that affects the eye and causes severe pain and blindness if left untreated.

Kenya and Uganda have both used the SAFE strategy — surgery, antibiotics, face washing, and environmental improvements — to dramatically reduce the prevalence of trachoma in both countries. As a result, Uganda is on track to meet the World Health Organization goal for elimination by 2030 and Kenya is expected to do the same. But achieving elimination depends on reaching those who have not yet been reached by NTD program interventions, including nomadic pastoralist populations that regularly cross the border.

“This first-ever cross-border MDA between Kenya and Uganda represents the bold, inventive, and targeted action needed to achieve trachoma elimination, said Benjamin Binagwa, Chief of Party for USAID’s Act to End Neglected Tropical Diseases | East program in Uganda. “Congratulations to both Kenya and Uganda for your leadership in the fight against trachoma, for your commitment to reaching those who have not been reached, and for bringing the East Africa region one step closer to elimination.”

Synchronized treatment is one critical part of a wider cross-border trachoma strategy between the two countries, which includes sharing data on disease prevalence, mapping border hotspots, and discussing progress on the use of the SAFE strategy. Ugandan State Minister for Karamoja Affairs Dr. Maria Goretti Kitutu lauded this accomplishment, which will help to reach pastoralist communities that move across the border throughout the year. “I thank our Kenyan brothers for their efforts in working jointly with Uganda on trachoma elimination ranging from joint surgery, joint MDA and behaviour change communication,” said Dr. Kitutu.

Uganda’s Ministry of Health coordinates these cross-border efforts to eliminate trachoma, with support from USAID’s Act to End NTDs | East program, led by RTI International. To further help reach nomadic populations, Act | East is assisting outreach teams, supporting microplanning sessions to create targeted strategies in key areas, and building relationships with organizations that can help reach nomadic groups.

Kenya has also seen considerable success in the fight against trachoma. The cross-border efforts are led by Kenya’s Ministry of Health with support from The Fred Hollows Foundation, funded through the Sightsavers’ led Accelerate programme. “Trachoma is a painful and debilitating disease with no respect for political borders. Congratulations to Kenya and Uganda for coming together to eliminate trachoma in districts along the shared border,” said Michael Kirumba, Sightsavers’ Deputy Director for Accelerate. “No organisation can eliminate a neglected tropical disease alone. The Kenyan and Ugandan governments; donors; and other supporting organisations, have worked together through a leadership and cooperation model that other countries can adopt to help end this cruel disease.”

Since 2007, USAID has supported Uganda’s Ministry of Health to reach the country’s NTD control and elimination goals, with a focus on scaling up mass treatment and helping to strengthen Uganda’s health system to deliver NTD services. RTI International and The Carter Center have implemented USAID NTD programs in Uganda.

Source: RTI International

The Southern Africa region, comprising Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique,

Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, is at the front line of some the most extreme impacts of climate change, facing both slow and rapid onset extreme weather events, and placing many areas in a state of protracted crisis. Since the start of the 2018/2019 cropping season in October the region has been severely affected by anomalous dry conditions, leading to precarious food security in the region (Reliefweb 2020). The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have also added to health and livelihood stresses in the region.

Climate change impacts the rights of the most marginalised children and young people severely and magnifies gender inequalities for women and girls. Children and young people living in poverty, in fragile and conflict-affected states, with oppressive social norms and under-resourced education systems are often the most marginalised and the hardest hit by climate change (Anderson 2010; OECD 2020). Protracted crises affect adolescent girls in ways that are different to women and children, the larger groups to which they are often assigned. Young women and girls experience insecurity and uncertainty as a result of climate change in ways that are unique to their particular age, gender, and status in their community and family, as well as any additional intersecting identities and lived experiences. In particular, girls are at risk of being pulled out of school to help with the extra domestic tasks and to lessen the financial burden households face due to climaterelated shocks and stress (Plan International 2017).

Education is crucial in building knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours needed for tackling the impacts of climate change, for engaging in and developing climate policies, for supporting the green economy and for encouraging individual environmental responsibility.

Plan International believes upholding the rights of young women and adolescent girls, including the right to quality education before, during and after extreme weather and climate events, must therefore be a priority. Bringing girls on board and ensuring climateadaptation initiatives are girl-led will improve their adaptative capacities and promote their participation in decision-making. Targeted climate education has the power to play a pivotal role to promote girls’ ability to adapt to climate risks and to engage in climate policies and processes.

1.2 Aims

The overall objective of the research was to empower young women to investigate and act on the impact of climate change on young women and girl’s lives in Zambia and Zimbabwe. The results sought to build an evidence base that furthers understanding, through girls’ views and lived experiences, of how climate change is reshaping their lives and their futures, including as a barrier to quality education. Through this unique perspective, development and humanitarian actors, donors and policy makers will gain a better understanding of the interventions needed to help realise young women and girls’ fundamental right to education, equality and climate justice.

The aims of the research are to:

Build the evidence base on the impacts of climate change on and the role of education to empower and build the adaptative capacities of girls and young women.

Provide young women in Zambia and Zimbabwe with the tools to identify how climate change is impacting their lives and basic rights, including their access to education.

Amplify young people’s voices regarding their needs, solutions and recommendations towards humanitarian and development actors, donors and policy makers that will address the urgent challenges they face because of climate change.

Increase understanding of the link between education and climate change amongst policymakers and practitioners in Ministries of Education and Ministries of Environment, civil society, NGOs, UN agencies and government donors.

1.3 Research locations

This action research was carried out in Southern Africa in regions of Zambia and Zimbabwe, where the impacts of climate variability compound conditions of environmental degradation, poverty, gender inequality and the COVID-19 pandemic. Climate change impacts are already being felt across the region and will amplify existing stress on animals and crops, water quality and availability, human health and the natural environment (Dupar, 2020). In Zambia, historic trends show mean annual temperature has increased by 1.3°C between 1960 and 2003, which is approximately twice the increase in the average global temperature during the same period (see Figure 1). Within the region, countries such as South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia and Angola observed a 0.6 to 1°C annual average temperature increase during a comparable period (Gannon et al. 2014). Zimbabwe has experienced a mean annual temperature increase of roughly 0.01°C/year from 1901 to 2016, with higher warming towards the end of the twentieth century. Overall, precipitation has decreased by approximately 0.6 mm/year from 1901 to 2016 (World Bank CKP). This warming has been greatest during the dry season (MoEWC, 2014).

Soure: Plan International

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed “alarm” Monday over reports that forces from Ethiopia’s Tigray region have advanced into Dessie and Kombolcha, two towns in the neighboring Amhara region.

“All parties must stop military operations and begin ceasefire negotiations without preconditions,” Blinken wrote in a Twitter post.

The Ethiopian government accused the Tigrayan forces Monday of carrying out large-scale killings and destruction of property.

“The terrorist [Tigray People’s Liberation Front] TPLF group has infiltrated into Kombolcha at night killing more than 100 young people,” the federal government’s spokesperson, Legesse Tulu, said in a statement posted on Fana Broadcasting Corporate, the state-owned media.

“The terrorist group has destroyed private and public property in the cities of Dessie and Kombolcha,” the statement read in Amharic.

VOA could not independently verify the government’s accusation. A request sent to Billene Seyoum, the prime minister’s spokeswoman, went unanswered.

Speaking to the Reuters news agency on a satellite phone from an undisclosed location, TPLF spokesperson Getachew Reda denied government allegations that civilians were killed. He said Tigrayan forces “don’t have to kill the youth,” and that “there was no resistance in Kombolcha.”

Gen. Tsadkan Gebretensae, a member of the Tigrayan forces’ central command, said Monday that the government isn’t giving Tigray any choice but to fight.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed appeared to issue a general call to arms to the public, saying all Ethiopians should “march … with any weapon and resources they have to defend, repulse and bury the terrorist TPLF.”

“They [the federal government] are not giving us other opportunities,” Tsadkan said in an interview with Tigray TV, the regional state-owned media. “They want us to end this through war. So, it will end through war and obstacles that were in place to end this through war are clearing now.”

The Oromo Liberation Army, or the OLA, another group fighting the federal government, claimed that it had seized the town of Kemise, located 53 kilometers south of Kombolcha. Both labeled by the government as terrorist groups, Tigrayan forces and the OLA have come together in the fight against the central government.

The conflict that began in November 2020 between the federal government and TPLF has claimed thousands of lives and displaced millions. The United Nations says about 2.5 million people have fled their homes, many seeking refuge in neighboring countries such as Sudan.

The U.N. has said more than 5 million people need humanitarian assistance but that it has not had access to Tigray for two weeks. “No convoys with humanitarian supplies have entered Tigray since 18 October. Fuel for the humanitarian response has not entered since early August,” said a report from the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Source: Voice of America