350,000 Babies Expected to be Born Across Drought-Affected Parts of Ethiopia as Food Crisis Peaks

As a result of the severe drought in Ethiopia thousands of women and children are currently spending up to six hours a day fetching clean water as many wells are now drying up, and up to 1.2 million children are missing out on education as schools are closed in the worst affected areas. Save the Children is therefore calling on the United Nations to urgently raise the global alarm on Ethiopia’s worst drought in 50 years.

The call comes as figures show an estimated *350,000 newborns are expected in drought-affected communities in the months leading up to August 2016 when Ethiopia’s ‘hunger season’ peaks, according to Save the Children. The aid agency says that the international community needs to immediately increase funding towards the $1.4 billion drought appeal – which is less than half funded to date.

“Ethiopia has made been a model in terms of reaching the goals we globally share for children. They met the Millennium Development Goal #4 – reduce under-five child mortality by two-thirds – two years early. If emergency funding doesn’t escalate very soon, there is a real risk of reversing some of the vital progress they’ve made over the last two decades, including halving the percentage of the population living below the poverty line,” warns Patricia Erb, President and CEO of Save the Children. “The Ethiopian Government has shouldered much of the funding burden for this crisis to date but if they don’t get more immediate help from foreign donors they may be forced to redirect funding from other vital areas, including education and maternal and child health programs, in order to buy life-saving food aid.”

Drought conditions, triggered by El Niño, began in June of last year in remote northeastern areas of the country, as well as many parts of Somalia and Somaliland, and have spread rapidly to the more populous highlands, leaving an estimated 10.2 million people in need of food aid.

Save the Children currently classifies just two global humanitarian crises at the organization’s highest level of emergency – the on-going war in Syria, and the drought in Ethiopia.

“The world is dealing with too many massive humanitarian crises today, from Syria to Yemen and South Sudan, but the scale of the drought in Ethiopia is like nothing we’ve seen before,” Erb says. “This is a code red emergency and it needs to be treated like one. We’ve never seen such a small response to a drought of this magnitude from the UN or the international community.”

Save the Children is also extremely concerned about the impact the drought could have on the 350,000 newborns expected in drought affected areas in the upcoming months.

“Giving birth is physically demanding for women. Giving birth in a desperate situation where there are already serious food shortages, and where nutrition sources are s
care due to large-scale livestock deaths, is extremely dangerous for both newborns and their mothers,” she said. “We are seeing more and more pregnant and lactating mothers suffering from malnutrition because of the drought. This not only reduces their chances of delivering a healthy delivery, but also means many will struggle to feed babies who are already significantly underweight. Newborns and pregnant mothers need to have access to quality health care services and a nutritious diet.”

This year more than 2.5 million children are expected to drop out of the education system due to the drought, while an estimated 400,000 children are at risk of suffering severe acute malnutrition according to the Government of Ethiopia.“If the next rainy season fails again and the international community doesn’t significantly increase funding for this emergency response, we could see the number of children suffering from severe malnutrition rise significantly,” Patricia Erb adds.

Save the Children is working in over 60 of the worst drought-affected districts in Ethiopia, providing food, water, medicine and crucial support to families who have lost their incomes, with immediate focus on increasing food aid; treating child malnutrition; water trucking; intervening to save livestock and crops where possible; and supporting families to keep their children in school through the crisis.