The Horn of Africa crisis of 2011-2012 affected 13 million people. The main focus of the crisis was across southern Ethiopia, south-central Somalia and northern Kenya. Regional drought came on top of successive bad rains and rising inflation. It ramped up a chronic livelihoods crisis into a tipping point of potential disaster by putting extreme pressure on food prices, livestock survival, and water and food availability. Armed conflict across the region compounded chronic ecological and economic vulnerability, which escalated the crisis and limited people’s survival and recovery choices. (IASC Real-Time Evaluation of the Humanitarian Response to the Horn of Africa Drought Crisis in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya - Synthesis Report)
Appeals & Funding
- Djibouti Appel global 2013
- Ethiopia Humanitarian Requirements 2013
- Kenya Emergency Humanitarian Response Plan 2013
- Somalia Consolidated Appeal 2013-15
The International Development Secretary met with members of Hendon’s Somali community today to hear their views on how to create a more peaceful, prosperous and secure Somalia ahead of a major international conference next month.
Visiting Hendon’s BritSom community centre with Hendon MP Matthew Offord, Justine Greening pledged to present their recommendations to the London Somalia Conference as she answered questions about Britain’s £80 million a year development programme in Somalia.
04 February 2013
Britain will help Somalia to establish a new democratic government and federal parliament, as well as providing aid to help fight the food crisis.
Development Secretary Justine Greening today pledged to support Somali parliamentarians as they establish their new government and federal parliament, following a meeting in London with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of Somalia.
Annual publication Statistics on International Development (SID) provides information on the UK’s Gross Public Expenditure on Development (GPEX) which includes both the DFID aid programme and official aid provided through other UK government departments
Britain pledged to target aid that will help prevent future food disasters in the Horn of Africa - a year on from the crisis that cost countless lives.
The new Development Secretary Justine Greening made the pledge today during a visit to the drought-hit area of Turkana province in Northern Kenya.
It comes as Ms Greening set out new UK aid to treat thousands more children and women who continue to suffer from malnutrition across the arid region.
Through the aid announced by the Development Secretary today, Britain will:
British aid has fed 3.5 million people in the Horn of Africa in the past 12 months according to latest figures released by Andrew Mitchell today, but others are still at risk a year on from the declaration of famine last summer.
Annual report: New results show UK aid is changing lives
New figures tracking the success of UK aid around the globe show how British support is transforming the lives of the world's poorest people.
The latest numbers are set out in the Department for International Development's Annual Report 2011-12, published by the British Government ministry today.
The progress report reveals the Government is on track to deliver the results it set out over a year ago, in a major review of how British aid is targeted.
Thousands of families affected by the on-going drought in East Africa are set to benefit from improved water supplies, thanks to innovative mobile technology from Oxford University.
The 'Smart Handpumps' project – backed by the UK Government – sees the hand pumps automatically 'text' local water engineers when water pumps break down or run dry.
The UK Government is determined to help reduce the inequalities of opportunity we see around the world today. We believe that promoting global prosperity is both a moral duty and in the UK‟s national interest. Aid is only ever a means to an end, never an end in itself. It is wealth creation and sustainable growth that will help people to lift themselves out of poverty.
- EXCECUTIVE SUMMARY
Nutrition Situation Overview. As significant scale-up of emergency response since September/October 2011, in combination with the off season harvest and the Deyr (October-December) 2011 harvest has had a considerable impact on improving food access, acute malnutrition, and mortality levels in the southern Somali population.
As a result, famine outcomes characterized by evidence of of all three of the following outcomes, based on the Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) version 2.0, are no longer existent in Southern Somalia:
The Department for International Development has won Best Technological Breakthrough at the Climate Week Awards for a project to develop drought-tolerant maize in Africa.
Developed by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) and supported by UK aid and other donors, the new kind of maize needs far less water in the soil than normal maize. As well as growing it year round, it also means the maize can withstand times of severe drought.
The Secretary of State for International Development, Andrew Mitchell said:
The world has met its target to halve the number of people without access to safe drinking water, says a report released by the UN today.
The achievement is part of Millennium Development Goal 7 – one of the eight internationally agreed targets to fight poverty and boost development by 2015.
It is one of the first targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to be met, and means that more than 2 billion people now have better water than they did two decades ago thanks to new piped supplies and protected wells.
East Africa is experiencing a major humanitarian crisis due to drought. More than 13 million people are affected, more than the combined population of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Britain is providing lifesaving aid for over three million people across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia and the UK is now calling on more countries to follow its lead and step up their help for the crisis.
Across the region, UK aid is delivering:
Britain will provide life-saving medical help, food and sanitation for hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees over the next three years.
The UK will provide a comprehensive package of assistance including healthcare, nutritional and sanitation assistance for those forced to flee the food crisis and fighting, finding refuge in neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia.
In Kenya, UK aid will help 150,000 refugees per year over the next three years. In Ethiopia, Britain will reach 100,000 refugees every year up to 2015.
The humanitarian side event to the London Conference on Somalia took place at Lancaster House on 23 February 2012.
The event aimed to maintain the international community's focus on the current and protracted humanitarian crisis, and efforts to improve the effectiveness of the international response in the future.
The participants welcomed the initiative to convene a humanitarian meeting, which brought the international community together to address the ongoing and protracted humanitarian situation in Somalia.
A new fund focused on bringing more stability to Somalia is expected to be agreed as part of tomorrow's London Conference, International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell has said today.
The international Stability Fund – led by Britain – will help create jobs, agree local peace deals and set up police, courts and basic services in areas where there is less fighting, or which have been recently freed from militant control.
Some 13.3 million people are affected in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia
The first famine of the 21 st Century was declared in Somalia in July 2011 with was lifted in February 2012.
The UK is the third largest humanitarian donor to the Horn of Africa. Across the Horn UK aid is making a difference and is helping to save lives.
UK RESULTS SO FAR
More must be done to tackle the underlying causes of instability in Somalia if years of devastating decline are to be reversed, Andrew Mitchell warned today on a visit to two separate parts of the country: Gedo and Puntland.
Mr Mitchell said efforts aimed at gripping the issue had failed over the last two decades and a new, stronger international approach must be agreed at a high-level conference in London next month if the world is to tackle both the root causes and effects of the problems the country faces.
How UK aid protects those most at risk
07 December 2011
The Hunger Safety Net Programme has been running in Turkana since 2008 and is reaching 60,000 of the most vulnerable households with small cash transfers. The money means that people can buy what they need most, which in turn supports the local economy.
UK aid is being used to improve the livelihoods of the poorest Kenyans in Turkana, the country's poorest district. Picture: Marisol Grandon/DFID
Defining Disaster Resilience: What does it mean for DFID?
Building disaster resilience is the term we use to describe the process of helping communities and countries to be better prepared to withstand and rapidly recover from a shock such as an earthquake, drought, flood or cyclone.
Why is disaster resilience important?