A report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) has highlighted the need for a proactive approach in dealing ElNino phenomenon in Southern Africa to mitigate its impact on the people of the Region.
The report, titled the Humanitarian Impact of ElNino in Southern Africa indicated the dire impact the region faces as a result of the weather occurrence known as ElNino characterized by low rainfall and prolonged dry spells.
‘There is need to take urgent and phased actions aimed at safeguarding the food and nutrition security of affected communities through Anticipatory Action(AA), timely response and resilience building; rehabilitation/establishment of community livestock watering points, livestock supplementary feeding, provision of seed and other appropriate agricultural inputs, food production using efficient low water requirement systems, fish re-stocking and surveillance and control of trans boundary livestock diseases’
The report further notes the gaps in funding available to plug the huge gap in food sufficiency especially in Malawi, Mozambique, Angola, Zambia, DRC, Zimbabwe and Madagascar.
‘The food security sectors’ funding remains low: 90 per cent of the current lean season requirements remain underfunded, despite the PC4 (Emergency) category for populations Malawi, Madagascar ,Eswatini, Zambia, and Mozambique. Although Anticipatory Actions are already activated in Lesotho, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe, to mitigate the impact of the upcoming lean season of 2024/2025, the coverage remains low, and more needs to be done.’
‘The limited funding and response mean that a significant number of people will be using coping strategies already during the current lean season and will resort to severe coping mechanisms in the next lean season which is expected to start earlier than usual due to ElNino.’
ElNino currently afflicting Southern Africa is anticipated to have a strong effect on food security nutrition, health, water and sanitation, social behaviour and child protection with Gender Based Violence also expected to increase.
The region has seen prolonged dry spells, increased water shortages and an outbreak of cholera among a plethora of challenges induced or exacerbated by the weather phenomenon.