Emergency food assistance to people in southern Madagascar and emergency preparedness
Start & End Date: 2020-2022
Country/Countries: Madagascar
Multilateral Institution(s) Involved: United Nations World Food Programme, European Union
Southern Madagascar is currently in the grips of a severe hunger crisis, driven by the worst drought in four decades. For the first time ever pockets of IPC phase 5 - the highest phase of the IPC Acute Food Insecurity scale to classify famines - , have been recorded in the south of the country, where people are being forced to eat raw red cactus fruits, wild leaves and locusts due to a lack of food. It’s the only country in the world where famine-like conditions are being driven by climate and not conflict, due to extensive droughts.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomed a contribution of €2.5 million from the European Union (EU) to support its life-saving food and nutritional assistance in the southern region of Madagascar and its cash programmes for vulnerable communities affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. WFP aims to reach one million people with emergency food assistance in the Grand Sud region, where food insecurity levels are highest. The project not only support immediate relief measures but also the emergency preparedness to food crisis. Integrating the food security, vulnerability and nutrition assessments of different agencies into a single process that operates from the village to the national level, WFP implements preparedness and early response actions in the country with the National Disaster Management Authority and the national institute of statistics.
Funding from the EU has allowed WFP to reach around 245,830 people with emergency food assistance in 9 districts in the south of the country, as well as provide cash assistance to 102,705 vulnerable people who were severely affected by the socioeconomic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. As of May 2021, WFP has been scaling up its response and reaching 700,000 people per month through general food distributions as well as supplementary nutrition products. WFP aims to scale up its response to reach 1 million people with life-saving food in Southern Madagascar and urgently needs US$ 56.3 million to do so.