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The European Commission through its emergency unit, Directorate General for Humanitarian Aid (DG ECHO), has set aside 977 966 Euros in humanitarian funding to support the recovery efforts in Ohangwena region, north of Namibia. The fund has been committed to Namibia Red Cross Society through Swedish Red Cross to provide seeds, fertilizers, agricultural hand tools, ploughing contracting services, goats and chicken and IEC materials for flood victims. The Agricultural Input for Flood Recovery will benefit 36 000 affected people in the region. World Food Programme (WFP) and the Namibian Government conducted a comprehensive emergency food security assessment (EFSA) in May-June this year and concluded that 52 000 people in the rural areas of the four Northern Central regions have been very affected due to the floods and now have limited food stocks. The food stock was expected not to last beyond 2008. The same is said to be true for another 94 000 people who had a very limited harvest last year due to other shocks, such as drought and invasion of so called army worms. Thus, a population of approximately 146 000 will face an extraordinary difficult situation when the current governmental aid is terminated. Therefore, it is recommended to provide agricultural support to these households for them to be able to plant in the coming season and reach their own food production in this way. The Namibia Red Cross, however, has indicated that even though the absolute figures on estimated number of household s affected by the floods and information on type if loss is varying between the sources, there is no doubt that there is need to assist flood affected farmers in recovering their food production cycle. Thus the target group and the scale of the herewith proposed action have been identified based on a merge of above information. It was considered that Ohangwena is the largest affected region and that this coincides with the fact that NRCS have structures in place there led to decision to operate in this region to optimize the outcome of the effort. Food insecurity is high in many parts of Namibia, particularly in the north where around half of the total population were worst affected by the flood that wreaked the north and north east of Namibia from early January through April this year. The four regions of the north have been subjected to severe flooding due to heavy rains and inflow of water from the Cuvelai river system in southern Angola. The type of damage that affected families included collapsed or partially damaged houses, ruined furniture, drowned livestock, destroyed food reserves and destroyed fields and grazing. Due to this, most farmers in the region do not have means to plant in the upcoming planting season and cannot afford buying seeds or equipment, nor meet the expenses associated with land preparation. Further they lack both valuable animal protein sources and draught power due to the lost livestock. The northern regions of Namibia are the most densely populated areas in the country with an estimated 529 000 people living in the five regions. In addition, HIV rates across these regions vary between 20-40 percent. As a result the north has an estimated number of 170 000 orphans and vulnerable children, the majority of whom have been affected by the disaster. Overall, it is estimated that over 65 000 people were displaced as their homes and immediate environment were gravely affected, while another 200 000 people indirectly affected. Early this year, ECHO already funds major humanitarian emergency aid to the tune of EUR 350 000 in response to Government of Namibias appeal for international assistance to respond to severe floods affecting close to 65 000 people in the north and north eastern parts of the country. The emergency phase was coordinated by ECHO with other stakeholders such as UN agencies, Namibia Red Cross Society and other NGOs and together they confirmed the need for assistance to avert the suffering for many people affected by floods. The European Unions mandate to ECHO is to provide emergency assistance and relief to the victims of natural disasters or armed conflicts outside the European Union. The aid is intended to go directly to those in distress, irrespective of race, religion or political convictions. Since 1992, ECHO has funded humanitarian aid in more than 85 countries. Its grants cover emergency aid, food aid and aid to refugees and displaced persons worth a total of more than 700 million per year. Commission-funded humanitarian aid projects are implemented
by non-governmental relief organizations, specialized UN
agencies and the Red Cross/Red Crescent movement. ECHO has a
regional support office in Indias capital, New Delhi, and
field experts based in Bangladesh and Nepal. They closely
follow developments in the humanitarian situation and play
an active role in the local coordination of relief efforts
and monitor the use of the Commissions relief funds. |
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