Information Update on Drought Response by the UN System - June 2024

KEY HIGHLIGHTS 

• EU provides €4.5m for Nutrition support to drought affected households through UNICEF.
• So far, $24.8 million (approximately 10%) of the $228 million UN Appeal has been funded. UN urgently call on humanitarian partners to provide the necessary funding to save lives and support those affected by the crisis.
• Data collection for the Zambia Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZVAC) in-depth analysis is ongoing and projected to be completed by mid-July. Analysis will then follow with initial results expected at the end of July 2024.
• A Standardized Monitoring and Assessment of Relief and Transitions (SMART) survey was recently conducted in drought affected areas. Findings show that if timely concrete preventive actions are not taken now, a nutrition crisis is likely to unfold in Zambia especially in Southern and Western Provinces, in addition to North- Western and Central Provinces where hunger scale and nutrient gaps are high. In six of the seven provinces surveyed, more than half of households were already experiencing moderate to severe hunger as early as May when the country is still in the harvest season.
• Rapid Qualitative Assessments (RQAs) were conducted in Southern and Western provinces and indicated that drought-affected people are engaged in negative coping mechanisms.
• OCHA provided training on the 5Ws matrix (Who does What, Where, When, and for Whom) to humanitarian partners.
• USAID intends to provide $67 million to the drought response to enhance long-term food security and build resilience (this support is out of UN’s Flash Appeal).
• The World Bank has approved a grant of $207.6 million as the second additional financing to support more than 1.6 million households in 84 drought-hit districts in Zambia. This is under the Scaling Up Shock Responsive Social Protection Project. The financial package is emergency cash assistance to cover the beneficiaries over a 12-month period, including 904,635 current Social Cash Transfer beneficiary households and 726,361 new ones (this support is out of UN’s Flash Appeal).