“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and

SITUATION OVERVIEW Back-to-back emergency As we reported in the January sitrep, the situation in the southern rain belt has dramatically deteriorated over the last month with the arrival of La Niña coupled by the negative Indian Ocean Dipole weather phenomena on the coattails of El Niño. Currently, Ethiopia and the sub-region are dealing with residual needs from the 2015/16 El Niño phenomenon as well as this new drought that is expected to be as disastrous as the 2011 Horn of Africa Drought and/or even equal the one in the year 2000. The 2017 drought is mostly affecting the pastoralist’s areas in the south and eastern parts of the country where both the spring and fall Hagaya/Deyir rains 2016 failed. With the predicted failure of the spring 2017 belg/gul/ganna rains in this region in March/April, the situation is expected to be catastrophic. The Ethiopian Government together with its humanitarian partners issued the 2017 Humanitarian Requirements Document (HRD) in mid-January. The total requirements are USD 948 million to respond to the crisis. As it can clearly be deduced from the table below, the needs are far greater in WASH and in livestock support in this year’s drought than in 2016 due to the fact that the drought has severely hit pastoralist areas. The ETH161 and ETH171 also reflect these competing needs.

EL NIÑO & 2017 HORN OF AFRICA DROUGHTS AT A GLANCE

SECTOR AFFECTED

POPULATIONS LWF WORLD SERVICE ETHIOPIA’S INTERVENTION

2016 2017

10.2m

5.6m

Amhara (North Wello, Oromia (Bale Zone) and Somali Region (Fafaan Zone)

10.2m

5.6m

Amhara (North Wello, Oromia (Bale Zone) and Somali Region (Fafaan Zone)

2m

1.9m HHs

Seed distribution in Amhara (North Wello Zone) and Oromia (Bale Zone)

3m

2.1m

N/A

5.8m

9.1m

Water trucking and logs support to the Gov Oromia (Bale Zone)

1.9m

Animal feed - Oromia (Bale Zone)

821,400

718,000

N/A

ETH161 - EL Niño-induced drought emergency SitRep February 2017

Ethiopia

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LWF WORLD SERVICE ETHIOPIA’S RESPONSE Rayitu-Dawe Kachen districts, Bale Zone, Oromia region In mid-January, LWF World Service Ethiopia requested its partners a budget realignment in the ACT ETH161 appeal to be able to launch an initial response to assist communities affected by this new drought in Rayitu and Dawe Kachen districts in Bale Zone, Oromia Region through water trucking and animal feed and veterinary services. Forty thousand US dollars (USD 40,000) were re-allocated from CFW and seed distribution budget lines from ETH161 to water trucking and animal feed in six kebeles reaching a total of 1,111 drought-affected households. Initially, 400 selected severely affected households in Bokol and Borore kebeles were supported with120 quintals of concentrated feed and 3600 bales of hay. The project is also trucking 20,000 liters per day in Rayitu and also supported the government with 5,200 liters diesel fuel for additional trucking capacity.

In addition to the water trucking and the animal feed provision, CFW activities have been implemented in Rayitu district. The following are the achievements during this reporting period: 5.7 km stone faced soil bund constructed

in which 510 people (358m & 152f) participated;

36 hectares (ha) of range land was fenced and bush thinning conducted in which a total of 355 (279m & 76f ) participated;

Six community ponds were excavated and 1,315 cubic meters of soil removed in Halochoma, Jara Torbi and Ardakalo in which a total of 665 people (437m & 228f) participated.

In Bale zone, the seeds distributed in the summer of 2016 wilted and the crops failed completely due to the failed Hagaya rains in the fall of 2016. According to the 2016 joint Meher assessment a total production failure was reported in Bale zone among other zones due to moisture stress. The CFW and direct cash support activities have been able to tide beneficiaries over the dry season, however these communities are now facing 3 consecutive failed rains that are threatening people and livestock. With the deteriorating drought situation in Bale, lack of water and insufficient food, LWF World Service Ethiopia decided to suspend CWF activities until the situation improves and people are strong enough to resume work. Rayitu/Dawe Kachen remain under category Hotspot Priority 1.

Water trucking and animal feed provision to livestock with poor body condition, Rayitu district, © LWF/Fekadu Genete

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Alem Mekonnen and Beriye live in Terazfere kebele in Lasta District and are one beneficiary households targeted by ETH161 El Niño drought Response. They are blessed with a 12 year old girl and 8 year old boy. The children go to school and grade 5 and 2, respectively. Beriye is a poor farmer. His assets are composed of 2 sheep, an ox and 0.31 hectare of land. As so many others in Lasta district, his family was in short of food and seed source for the next cropping season during the El Niño-induced drought that ravaged his village in 2015/16. Beriye and his family were one family targeted by the LWF ETH161 seed distribution activity and 20 kg of improved lentil seeds. Beriye recalls: "Since we had nothing left at home, I was compelled to use 10.5 kg of the seeds for preparing wot1 and feed my family". On July 2016, Beriye and his wife Alem sowed the remaining 9.5 kg of lentil seeds over 0.025 hectare of land and following a moderate belg rainy season and produced 30 kg of lentils.

Subsequently, they allocated the 30 kg lentils for the following purposes:

15 kg is being used to prepare wot’

9 kg kept as seed source for the next plantation season;

6 kg was sold on the market to fetch money and fulfill family food and non-food items.

Alem sold the 6 kg of lentil seeds with a total price of Birr 120 (USD 5.5) i.e. 20 Birr/kg. With the money she purchased 3 kg of pepper, 0.3 kg coffee and a liter of cooking oil for family consumption. Before the drought occurrence, farmer Beriye used to grow local lentil, but the crops failed several times. He and his wife compared the new lentil variety provided by the project with the local variety and both have mentioned that the new variety yields more than the local variety. Besides the larger yield, Alem added that the new variety is cooks quickly without consuming much firewood and the taste is very good when preparing lentil wot. However, Alem also mentioned that the price of the new lentil variety of 20 Birr/kg is lower than the local one selling for an average 26-27 Birr/kg due its pinkish color (pinkish), an unknown variety in these parts of the country. Alem concludes by saying that: ‘We now have lentil seeds to cultivate and multiply for the coming cropping season, we have saved our sheep from being sold to buy food and seed and we are back consuming our staple injera with wot, thank you’.

ALEM MEKONNEN, FROM SEED BENEFICIARY TO SELF sufficiency

Lasta district, North Wello Zone, Amhara Region In the Northern rainfall belt such as Lasta and Lalibela, humanitarian organizations are dealing with residual needs from the El Niño-induced drought but the situation has significantly improved. Lasta and Lalibela woreda have been ranked Priority Hotspot priority 2, up from priority Hotspot 1 in 2015/16. The communities in these parts are faring much better than their compatriots in Bale zone, Oromia Region. In Lasta, most have harvested their crops and able to feed themselves and their family. Some have been able to sell part of their crops from the seeds distributed by LWF World Service Ethiopia through the ETH161 appeal and earn cash income. With normal belg rains in the spring of 2017, we hope that the targeted households will be able to go beyond survival and gradually restore their livelihoods and build back their resiliency. Alem Mekonnen [blue text box] is one of ETH161 drought response’s success stories in Lasta district. We invite you to a photo montage on Page 4 illustrating the project results from seed distribution and CFW in Lasta district, Amhara Regional State. Photos © LWF/Melese Getaneh. From top left to right:

Lentil seed distribution beneficiary (female),

Lasta district, July 2016.

Lentil seed beneficiary, Alem Mekonnen, selling surplus lentils at Terazfere market, Lasta district, December 2016.

Wheat seed distribution beneficiary (female)

harvesting a bumper wheat crop, Lasta district, December 2016.

Wheat seed distribution beneficiary, Mersha

Lakew and wife, proudly showing the good quality wheat they produced – Nakutele’ab kebele, Lasta district, December 2016.

Woman CFW beneficiary with her four sheep

bought through CFW earnings working on natural resource management (NRM) structures, Genete Mariam kebele, Lasta district, December 2016.

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INCOME AND EXPENDITURE Response through ETH161 Appeal LWF World Service Ethiopia wishes to extend its sincere thanks to its partners for the timely and generous contributions to ETH161 and for the flexibility afforded to it in order to respond to the most pressing needs when dealing with back-to-back emergencies. So far, a total of USD 948,511 (62% of the appeal budget) has been received. Of the total, 64% is allocated to the response activities in Lasta district and the remaining 36% has been earmarked to the response in Rayitu/Dawe Kachen districts, including the USD 40,000 budget realignment from CFW and seed distribution to water trucking and animal feed. The funding gap to-date is 38%. New appeal- Horn of Africa Drought - ETH171 March 31 2017 will mark the completion of ETH61 after 13 months of drought response in Amhara and Oromia regions. Unfortunately, only a year later, LWF World Service Ethiopia, together with 6 other ACT Ethiopia Forum members, launched another appeal on 03 March 2017 to respond to the disastrous drought situation in the Southern and eastern parts of Ethiopia for a total requirements of USD 5,023,461. LWF World Service Ethiopia’s requirements stand at USD 1,145,863.

THANK YOU!

Contact: Sophie Gebreyes, Country Representative Email: rep.eth@lwfdws.org Phone: +251 933702851