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Emergency Plan of Action (EPoA) Kenya: Drought

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Emergency Appeal Operation MDRKE030

Date of issue: 29.08.14 Date of disaster:

Operation Manager: Dennis Kjeldsen, Operations Coordinator, IFRC

Point of contact: Abbas Gullet, Secretary General, Kenya Red Cross Society

Operation start date: August 2014 Expected timeframe: 9 months (May 2015)

Overall operation budget: CHF 8,512,016

Number of people affected: 2,108,233 Number of people to be assisted: 649,175

Host National Society presence: Branches in the targeted areas

Red Cross Red Crescent Movement partners actively involved in the operation (if available and relevant):

IFRC and various Participating National Societies

Other partner organizations actively involved in the operation: Government of Kenya, National Disaster Management Agency, UNICEF, OCHA and WFP.

A. Situation analysis

Description of the disaster

The poor performance of the long rains March – May 2014 in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands both in pastoral and marginal agriculture livelihood zones (the North Western, Northern, North Eastern, South Eastern and parts of Coast) has affected household food availability as well as livestock productivity. The situation has been worsened by increasing food prices (which continually erode household purchasing power)) driven by increase in costs of fuel, and general inflation.

The Kenya Food Security Steering Group 2013 short rains assessment conducted in February 2014 indicated that poor performance of the 2013 short rains had resulted in more people becoming food insecure. The National Disaster Management Authority, through its routine early warning system bulletins, January - June 2014, issued drought alerts in Mandera, Turkana, Baringo, Samburu, Wajir and Marsabit Counties with the trend either worsening or deteriorating. Earlier during the year in January 2014, the Government of Kenya declared an impending drought with an estimated 1.6 Million Kenyans being highlighted as requiring emergency food assistance. Short term food assistance was provided by the government to affected counties with an anticipation that the conditions will improve with the long rain seasons. Based on the short rains assessment report carried out, WFP increased the beneficiaries on food assistance from 800,000 to 1.3 million (Annex1).

According to the SMART survey results released by the Nutrition Information Working Group in June/July 2014, the nutritional status in the target counties has deteriorated as compared to June 2013. The worst hit sub-counties are Turkana Central, Mandera North and Marsabit North/Loiyangalani with global acute malnutrition (GAM) rates of up to 28.7%, 27.3% and 29.2% respectively as compared to the same time last year when the GAM rates were 17.2%, 16.8% and 24.5% respectively. Other affected counties include; Baringo (GAM 21.1%), Samburu (GAM 17.3%) and Wajir (highest GAM rates 20.7%).

These malnutrition levels are categorized from ‘critical’ to ‘very critical’, requiring urgent action combined with measures to reduce chances of recurrence in the future. Affected communities have resorted to negative coping mechanisms which include reduction in the number of meals per day, reduction in the amount and variety of food consumed, consumption of wild berries and fruits, reduced food diversity, purchase of food on credit, sharing of relief food (WFP beneficiaries sharing their food rations with non-beneficiaries), charcoal burning, rural-urban migration in search of menial jobs in urban centres and co-habitation with already impoverished relatives.

Emergency Plan of Action (EPoA)

Kenya: Drought

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A number of inter-tribal and inter-clan conflicts were experienced in 2013 in several counties and have continued into this year, contributing to the increase in food insecurity of the affected counties. The conflicts have also led to the destruction or looting of properties, disruption of livelihood activities due to displacement of communities and destruction of communal watering points. The current food insecurity and emerging drought conditions are expected to further aggravate the situation in these areas.

The World Food Programme increased its beneficiaries to 1.3 million for the period between April and August 2014 (following the short Rains Assessment), but had to skip distributions due to resource constraints. The WFP has recently issued an alert of a pipeline break by Mid-September and has appealed for allocation of additional resources to avert a food and nutrition crisis. The Kenya Informal Humanitarian Donor Group (annex 2) recommends a scale up of short-term response for the next five months to address the current food security challenges.

The KRCS intends to work with the central and county governments as well as humanitarian agencies in undertaking emergency interventions to reverse this situation, and to initiate longer-term measures to deal with malnutrition spikes in the future. The Key areas entail: School Feeding Programmes (SFP) to keep children in school -especially the Early Childhood Development Centres and primary schools not targeted by the World Food Programme/Government of Kenya (WFP/GoK) SFP. These will also address malnutrition cases, rehabilitation of water points in strategic places, livelihood support services, provision of essential health and nutrition activities and cash transfer to households presenting under five-year old children with malnutrition. Where feasible water sources are identified, the Kenya Red Cross Society will also implement food security activities in the hard hit areas in each of the counties.

Three years ago, governments and humanitarian community committed to stop drought emergency, and to invest more in early actions and risk management to prevent large-scale crisis. Three years later, gains and investments that have been made are about to fail. There is a very real risk that people still in need will not be reached and those already helped will fall back into crisis.

Food Security Situation

The performance of the March to May 2014 long rains was generally below average over most parts of the country. As a result of this, crops and forage have not grown at their usual season rates; in the Central Rift Valley of Narok and Kajiado Counties, the south eastern and coastal lowland areas in Kitui, Makueni, and TaitaTaveta Counties and the north western pastoral areas in Turkana, Baringo, Marsabit, and West Pokot Counties.

The food security situation has deteriorated since March 2014 in agro-pastoral areas, including Baringo, West Pokot, Laikipia, Narok, and Kajiado Counties. In the south-eastern and coastal marginal agricultural areas, maize is performing poorly at various stages of development. Current crop prices remain up to 50 percent above their respective five-year averages with the household income-earning opportunities becoming less available as agricultural labour decline. In pastoral areas seasonal improvements in grazing conditions were modest with the pasture, browse, and water availability deteriorating more rapidly than usual, especially in Turkana, Marsabit, Wajir, Mandera and Samburu. Household food access and purchasing power in the pastoral areas have been constrained by many factors including declined livestock to maize terms of trade; declined livestock prices and milk production. The FEWSNET report of June 2014 predicts further deterioration of food security outcomes.

According to the Food Security and Nutrition working Group July 2014 statement an estimated 20 million people (compared to 15.8 million people in 2013) in Burundi, Central Africa Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda face acute food insecurity with most areas being in Crisis and Emergency phases.

The Food Security Outlook April – September 2014 in the country is expected to remain Stressed (IPC Phase 2) in the south-eastern marginal agricultural areas and pastoral areas in the Northeast. Food availability and access is expected to decline from June through September 2014 as sources of food and income (casual labour income, income from livestock, and short-cycle crops) dissipate1. The areas of Wajir, Turkana, Marsabit, Mandera and Baringo are projected to deteriorate to IPC 3 as observed in figures 1 and 2 below.

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Fig 1: Projected food security outcomes, June 2014 Fig 2: Projected food security outcomes, July to September 2014 (Source: FEWSNET)

Nutrition Situation

SMART surveys were conducted in June/July 2014 (West Pokot, Garissa, Samburu, Turkana, Tana River, Marsabit, Mandera and Wajir) after the long rain season of Mid-March to May, 2014. The results of the surveys indicate an overall significant deterioration of the nutrition situation in Turkana, Baringo (East Pokot), Mandera, Wajir West from the same time last year and to Critical levels in Samburu and Wajir East/South (15-<20%). These results indicate on average 1 out of 4 children is acutely malnourished (refer to table 1 for details).

Fig 3: June 2014 Nutrition situation (Source: Nutrition Information Working Group June 2014)

The GAM rates in the priority counties have continued to increase as per the SMART survey conducted in June 2014 as compared to the rates in 2013. The highest GAM2 rates (very critical nutrition status) have been recorded in Marsabit (29.2%), Turkana (28.7%) and Mandera (27.3%). The nutrition situation is categorised as critical in Samburu (GAM rates of 17.3%).

From the trend analysis (as per Table 2 below) the GAM rates for 2014 exhibit similar trend to the ones witnessed in 2011 when KRCS launched a drought operation in the country (including target counties). The trend as observed has been increasing since 2012 as indicated in figure 4 below.

2

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Fig 4: Trend analysis on GAM rates in priority Counties 2010 - 2014

Rainfall Performance

According to the Kenya Meteorological Department , an assessment of the rainfall recorded from 1 March to 28 May 2013 (figure 5 and 6 below), indicates that the rainfall was generally depressed over most parts of the country including several parts of Western Kenya and the Central highlands including Nairobi. Most stations recorded less than 75 percent of their seasonal Long-Term Means for the period of March to May 2014. The worst conditions were observed over North western, Nairobi area and parts of central Rift Valley (Narok) where several meteorological stations recorded less than 50 percent of their long term means.

The rainfall distribution, both in time and space, was also generally poor over most parts of the country. However some stations recorded near-average to above-average rainfall such as Makindu station (327 percent of its March long term means) and Machakos station (254 percent that also accounted for 74 percent of its seasonal long term means). The most significant increase was observed along the Coastal strip where heavy rainfall was recorded during the month of March 2014.

Water and Sanitation situation

In the target areas the main sources of water are boreholes, shallow wells, earth pans, rivers (e.g River Daua in Mandera), underground water tanks and currently water trucking. The poor March-April-May rainfall performance has had a negative impact on the water sources; surface water sources drying up, low recharge of the underground and sub-surface water sources. According to the July 2014 long rains assessment report in pastoral and agro pastoral areas 70 – 80 percent of ground water sources are reported to be exhausted. Surface water sources; earth pans and tanks have dried up in the counties due to the on-going drought. A few water sources holding water are exhibiting a heavy concentration of livestock and humans, increasing the risk of disease outbreaks.

The target counties are water stressed. Water trucking is currently being undertaken in various areas in the target counties; Samburu, Mandera, Wajir and Marsabit counties. Other needs still exist e.g. Mandera (over 50 centres in areas of Mandera South need water trucking). There is increased distances ranging between seven to 12 kilometres for both livestock and human to the closest access to water. Cost of water ranges between two to five shillings per jerry cans while, those buying water from vendors are paying between 10-20 shilling per 20 litre jerry can in isolated places. Water treatment at household level is below 20 percent while latrine coverage across the counties ranges between 10 to 30 percent. Water related diseases reported include diarrhoea and malaria.

Within the target counties there is currently high congestion at available water sources including boreholes, a result of the constant influx of human and livestock populations on the move because of conflict and migrations made necessary by the search for water and pasture. The current load on the water points has increased the operation and maintenance costs.

According to the LRA 2014 the priority water, sanitation and hygiene promotion interventions for the arid and semi-arid lands areas in the country include; Fuel subsidy, purchases of fast moving spares, repair of storage facilities, water trucking to institutions and communities, hygiene and sanitation promotion, building capacity for water management committees, Survey, drilling and equipping of boreholes, excavations and de-silting of pans and dams, pipelines extension provision of water storage structures.

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 2010 % GAM 2011 % GAM 2012 % GAM 2013 % GAM 2014 % GAM

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Summary of the current response

Previous Kenya Red Cross Societydrought response

As part of the 2011 drought appeal and through donations from the Kenyans for Kenya initiative carried out on a mobile money transfer platform, the Kenya Red Cross Society initiated Integrated Food Security and Livelihoods projects aimed at providing long term solutions to the perennial droughts experienced in the regions through building community resilience and enhancing food security. The projects were set up in Walda, (Moyale sub county-Marsabit County), East Pokot sub county (Baringo County), Turkana North sub county (Turkana County). The interventions took an integrated approach for improved livelihoods with a holistic view of access to water, irrigation, and agriculture extension health. The projects executed anticipated assurance for food security for at least 7,000 households; 2,400 in East Pokot, 2,100 in Waldaa (Moyale) and 2,500 in Turkana North.

In East Pokot, construction of Chesirimion Dam with a capacity of 321,000 cubic meters was completed. The dam will be used in the long term to serve domestic, livestock and irrigation needs for the communities and has a potential to serve approximately 75 acres of high production drip irrigation farming. In Turkana North, four boreholes out of a total of 12 boreholes drilled had successful yields. The boreholes, Long’olemwar-(1.8m3/h), Kang’itulae (6m3/h), Nakinomet (10.6m3/h) and Loitanit (7m3/h), have supported irrigation projects in Kaikor with a variety of crops being planted in the installed 80 shade net houses.

In Walda (Moyale), over 240 acres of land were cleared and ploughed. After ground exploration, Kenya Red Cross Society drilled 4 boreholes out of which 3 gave high yields. A total of 4 boreholes were equipped to provide water for 60 acres of land under drip irrigation. Since the commissioning of the project, the Walda project has been able to provide adequate food for over 350 households, which are also able to sell the fresh produce in the local market. As part of the lessons learnt in 2011 drought, Kenya Red Cross Society with the support of ECHO in 2012 implemented Drought Risk Reduction and Drought Response project that focused on Surge capacity of Community-based Red Cross volunteers to provide essential nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene promotion and education services, during and in between drought, food-insecurity and nutrition crisis to support and complement government’s work. Simple curriculums were developed that will be used by volunteers and during emergencies. This has greatly contributed to skilled human resource at the community who will be engaged during the emergency response. The National Society implemented pilot cash transfer projects most of which have been short term during natural disasters such as famines (2011-2012) and floods (2013). The target counties have been Samburu, Marsabit, Turkana, Isiolo and Garissa. The programmes have been undertaken in collaboration with different partner organizations including International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, World Food Programme, OFDA, American Red Cross, SADC and UNICEF. Cash for Assets Programming is currently implemented under the Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation Programme developed by Kenya Red Cross Society in collaboration with World Food Programme and Government of Kenya covering Malindi and Kwale counties, and reaching out to 95,000 beneficiaries. During the previous drought in 2011, Kenya Red Cross Society partnered with UNICEF to implement unconditional cash transfer programme with an aim of strengthening systems for cash based responses to children in emergencies and contribute to reduced vulnerability to the adverse effects of drought. An external evaluation was conducted and the lessons from the cash transfer programming showed it’s an appropriate delivery mechanism that increases household purchasing power while at the same time stimulating local markets. (Annex 3)

Based on lessons learnt from the 2011 drought response, Kenya Red Cross Society and IFRC have been working closely together to drive the ‘working differently and no regrets’ agenda by driving both operational research and advocacy at national and regional levels. IFRC, Kenya Red Cross Society and partners committed to work differently, to focus on early actions rather than late response and to manage risks rather than crises within a long term strengthening community resilience strategy. Early action means ‘different ’, not just ‘earlier’. Early actions such as the Kenya Red Cross Society surge model explained above are not traditional humanitarian activities, although they need to be undertaken with a humanitarian sense of urgency. Indeed, any ‘humanitarian’ response to a slow-onset disaster is a late response. Early action is a paradigm shift for people and agencies which have grown accustomed to equating humanitarian action with crisis response. Communities which have adopted this paradigm shift appreciate the opportunity to make decisions about how to avoid recurrent extreme losses.

Governments, regional and international actors all called for change, for transformative action to ensure that the next drought does not turn into another humanitarian crisis.

It is therefore critical for Kenya Red Cross Society to be able to respond to the needs and scale up its activities now, to protect the gains made over the past three years and to prevent the disaster to deteriorate further.

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In Turkana, Narok, Wajir, Mandera, Garissa, Isiolo, Makueni, Marsabit, Baringo, West Pokot, Kilifi, Kwale, Mombasa, TaitaTaveta, Tana River, Kitui, Kajiado and Samburu counties, Kenya Red Cross Society has been enhancing nutrition surveillance actions by supporting community level actions related to early identification, referral and treatment of malnourished children, pregnant and lactating women as well as prepositioning of essential nutrition supplies across the sub counties and within facilities in counties mentioned above. The Kenya Red Cross Society continues to advocate for full-scale implementation of food security, water, sanitation and hygiene promotion and health interventions aimed at addressing the direct and underlying causes of acute malnutrition. To this end, the nutrition officers working with the National Society have been directly supporting development and review of contingency plans in the counties mentioned in addition to ensuring the same is planned and activated in a timely manner. The National Society has teams who have also worked closely with the National Disaster Management Agency at field level to monitor the situation with a view of further strengthening their capacity in nutrition assessments. Rapid assessments have been conducted across various counties with the support of National Disaster Management Agency. The assessments inform the contingency and response plans for the counties.

Overview of Red Cross Red Crescent Movement in the country

The IFRC Eastern Africa and Indian Ocean Islands office is located in the country and supports operations in 15 countries across the region and Kenya Red Cross Society hosts a number of Participating National Societies including: Australian Austrian, British, Canadian, Danish, Finnish, German, Japanese, Netherlands, Norwegian, and Swedish Red Cross. The ICRC regional delegation is also hosted in Nairobi which serves as a hub for operations in Eastern and Central African countries.

The National Society has held two meetings with the Participating National Societies and IFRC on the current drought situation.

Summary of the Current Kenya Red Cross Society Inventions in the affected Counties.

In Samburu, National Society is implementing mass screening activities and some food security/livelihoods interventions for 550 farmers; such program is also implemented in Marsabit for approximately 2,100 households. In Baringo some nutrition capacity enhancement is taking place in partnership with UNICEF. A long term food security program is also being carried out for 1000 farmers. In Wajir, non-food items and food items are being distributed as well as water, sanitation and hygiene promotion and health activities. In Turkana, an integrated health and nutrition program is finishing in September. A specific community resilience program focusing on food security is also implemented for around 12,354 beneficiaries as well as a school feeding program for children. In Mandera, a distribution of food and non-food items is taking place as well as some Wash projects for irrigation or sanitation. For more details on these interventions and the support of partners please refer to the table in Annex.

External Coordination

The National Society has been working closely with the county and the central governments in monitoring the drought and food security situation in the affected counties. These include the Ministry of Special Programmes, The National Drought Management Authority, The County Governments, the County Disaster Steering Group and others. National Society also participates in County and National Coordination Forums and Technical Working Groups. These include the County and National Nutrition Technical Forum, The Water and Environmental Sanitation Coordination and others. The organization participates in the Kenya and East Africa Cash Technical Working groups coordinated by Cash Learning Partnership in Nairobi.

The National Society also works in partnership with Humanitarian Organisations supporting similar humanitarian interventions. These Include the UN Agencies (WFP, The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, UNICEF and WHO, Non-Governmental Organisations including World Vision, Merlin, Save the Children (UK), IRC, Islamic Relief. The Kenya Red Cross Society is a member of the Kenya Food Security Steering Group, which is the main organ for coordination of food security matters and the Strategic Advisory Group which sets agenda, direction and policy matters relating the Water and Environmental Sanitation interventions within the country. It co-chairs the Rapid-Onset Disaster Committee with the Office of the President. The committee is a body that also comprises international humanitarian agencies, UN agencies and Government ministries.

Kenya Red Cross Society, in partnership with Government of Kenya and the World Food Programme and under the Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation, is currently providing food aid in six sub-counties (Garissa, Tana river, Ijara, Malindi, Kwale, and Makueni (Kibwezi)), reaching an estimated 291,800 beneficiaries in the unified food pipeline. WFP is currently supporting school feeding programme to all schools in Wajir and Samburu counties. The National Society, in partnership with UNICEF, is also implementing a Nutrition Early Action and Scalable Response for Emergencies programmed across all counties in Kenya. The National Society works closely with the Ministry of Health, National Disaster Management Agency and other nutrition specific and sensitive partners to scale up emergency response through support for coordination, advocacy for increased funding, capacity development and behaviour change communication. The priority emergency actions include: Capacity building of Ministry of Health

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staff in development of contingency plans, development and activation of nutrition sector contingency and response plans, increased active case finding and referral of acutely malnourished children, support the remapping of outreach sites and conducting of integrated outreach services to increase geographical coverage, prepositioning of emergency nutrition supplies and accelerate monitoring of the nutrition situation and program quality. Through this partnership KRCS has impacted the lives of children under five and pregnant and lactating women and the community at large and plans to continue this activity.

By using community volunteers, community health workers and working through the Ministry of Health, the National Society has been instrumental in promoting early warning and linking this to early actions during emergencies. Despite this, there are gaps in resources for conducting active case finding and follow-up of referred cases, integrated outreaches, capacity building and behaviour change communication.

IFRC is part of the Inter Agency Working Group on Disaster Preparedness core group member and co-chairs the Advocacy group, leading on the ‘working differently agenda’- to invest in early actions and risk management rather than late response. IFRC is also part of the Food Security and Nutrition Working group Steering Committee. The purpose of the above forums is to exchange knowledge, information and experiences with respect to disasters occurring in the region as well as discuss implications for preparedness and response. IFRC is also leading the Early Warning Early action agenda at the regional level with numbers of partners (FAO, WFP, Save the Children, OXFAM.) and actively support Inter-Governmental Authority on Development resilience agenda together with the National Society.

The National Society has over the past five years, developed operational research capacity through the set-up of International Centre for Humanitarian Affairs to coordinate Operational Research and foster knowledge exchange experiences critical for quality programming, advocacy and policy diffusion within and beyond the organization. This was further strengthened by the creation of Research and Knowledge management structure within Programmes and Regional Development to provide linkage in harmonization of coordination of operational research, knowledge management and partnership coordination with programmes. As a result of this, operational research initiatives have been advanced between the Kenya Red Cross Society and distinguished research institutions like London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine focussing on mainstreaming of nutrition in disabilities within humanitarian settings in Turkana, advocacy and policy studies with Tuft University and technical support by the National Society to support post-graduate students from Maastricht University in Netherlands. The Kenya Red Cross Society is currently working with Inter-Governmental Authority on Development and IFRC Climate Centre to implement Resilience Operational research study in partnership with British Red Cross. The National Society Has employed the services of top research scientists at ICHA to steer research activities in collaboration with Government of Kenya and other distinguished research institutions.

Overview of non-Red Cross Red Crescent actors in the priority counties

In Samburu the main actors in drought related activities are the national and County Government but also IMC, WVI and WFP. In Marsabit the main actors in drought related activities are the national and County Government but also Concern Worldwide, GOAL, UNICEF and WFP. In Baringo the main actors are the national and County Government but also WVI, Catholic Mission and National Disaster Management Agency. In Wajir they are the County government, Islamic Relief, UNICEF and NDMA. For Turkana, it is the County/National government as well and WVI, Save the Children, UNICEF, WFP, and Oxfam. In Madera the main actors are the government, WFP, SCUK, UNICEF, Islamic Relief and National Disaster Management Agency.

For more details about their programs please refer to the table in Annex.

Needs analysis, beneficiary selection, risk assessment and scenario planning

In addressing the gaps, the National Society will build upon current interventions by the central and county governments and other non-governmental organizations to promote synergy and maximum benefits at minimum possible costs. Coordination mechanisms within and with government (central and county) units, humanitarian agencies and UN Agencies at county and national level will be avenues for mapping various actors and their interventions thereby avoiding duplication.

Immediate needs:

The immediate needs include support to the school meals programme, targeting primary school children and Early Childhood Development Centres. This shall improve the school enrolment rate and continuity of the school curriculum. The nutrition sector has undertaken gap analysis revealing pipeline disruption in commodities required for supplementary feeding, targeting the pregnant and lactating women (to be expanded to include persons with chronic diseases and the elderly) as well as citing the need to further scale up access to essential health and nutrition services through integrated outreach service packages. There is also an immediate need to intensify, health promotion and

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surveillance activities for diseases with outbreak potential and supporting Ministry of Health facilities scale up routine services.

Further, there is need to increase more effort to reduce malnutrition levels amongst under five children in the counties with highest Global Acute Malnutrition levels by directly targeting households with malnourished children with cash or supplementary food. Drought reports indicate that there is decreased milk supply and diminished purchasing power of pastoralist households (those remaining i.e. women and children) due to livestock migrations. Livestock is main source of food and income for the pastoralists thus shocks and hazards that impact on livestock has immediate repercussions for livelihoods, assets, nutrition, education and health. In response to the increasing malnutrition levels and decreased purchasing power of the drought affected households, nutrition sensitive activities such as, vegetable and fodder production, school feeding programmes (food) as well as cash transfer programing (targeting households with malnourished children will be undertaken in Marsabit, Mandera and Turkana counties with an aim of enabling access to basic food and other priority needs minimizing negative coping strategies. The transfer will apply soft conditionality where cash recipients mainly mothers will attend nutrition education sessions for behaviour change communication. In the health and nutrition sector, the National Society will support the Ministry of Health in implementing the emergency response plan focusing on nutrition interventions to address the current crisis as well as integrated health out reaches which targets the communities who will not be able to access the health facilities which are far from their homes that will focus on increasing community based surveillance, scaling up routine immunisation, deworming, health education and nutrition messaging, treatment of minor ailments, continued nutrition screening (including mass screening) and establish referral linkages for malnourished. In addition the National Society will implement nutrition sensitive activities such as cash transfers targeting households with malnourished under-fives, school feeding. Vegetable and fodder production.

In addition provide replanting kits to farmers who were supported by 2011 Kenyans for Kenya initiative for food security in Turkana (Kaikor), Marsabit (Walda) and other previously implemented long term food security projects. In the water, sanitation and hygiene promotion sector, the National Society will focus on rehabilitation of key community watering points, household water treatment options, conduct hygiene awareness campaigns in the community and schools using applicable methodologies and targeted sanitation at the water points due to the high population. The National Society will lobby with the relevant Government departments to undertake water trucking in isolated situations, targeting learning institutions and community centres.

The Kenya Red Cross Society will continue to support its peace building initiatives in targeted counties which have experienced conflict in the past. These will include organising peace meetings, constitution of peace committees where necessary, and dialogue forums.

The current long-term programmes within the National Society will be avenues to create synergies and complementarity in the implementation of the drought operations.

Medium to Longer-term needs:

The appeal will be revised to include these long term programmes once the feasibility studies have been conducted and the full extent of the drought is known. The proposed activities will include:

To construct strategic water supply/ harvesting options (Water pans, earth dams, sub surface dams) for human and livestock to impound water during the expected March-April-May long rains season to further cushion the communities on the impacts of drought. Appropriate and feasible water options (Water pans, earth dams, sub surface dams) shall be implemented through cash for work programme. In perennial areas of water trucking, the National Society proposes to promote water access through feasible water supply options mainly newly drilled boreholes to curb future costs for water trucking.

Implementation of food security activities in the hard hit areas in each of the counties in areas where feasible water sources are identified. Where farrow / canals are feasible cash for work programming will be used, the National Society will also spearhead dry land farming employing conservation agricultural technologies and also scale up the use of drought resistant crop production.

Cash transfer / support interventions (e.g. livestock fares using voucher system) will be used as an alternative means of providing intervention to populations in need, and to protect, establish or re-establish livelihoods. This will represent a shift of power from the aid agency to the beneficiary, increase the purchasing power and increase access to essential commodities by the affected populations. However detailed assessments and market surveys will be conducted to determine the feasibility of the proposed programme.

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Beneficiary selection

Kenya Red Cross Society has prioritized 6 out of 17 counties that require emergency assistance to mitigate the effects of the current food insecurity and drought situation. These include Mandera, Turkana, Baringo, Samburu, Wajir and Marsabit, counties. Within these counties, the attention will be concentrated on sub-counties that are most severely affected and those that are hard to reach (based on poor road network and insecurity which limits participation of other humanitarian actors). Wajir and Mandera have had recurrent ethnic conflicts coupled with intermittent terror attacks, border towns of Wajir and Moyale (Marsabit) also poses threat of abduction of humanitarian workers due to its proximity to the border with Somalia; the threat of abduction led to withdrawal by humanitarian agencies in the county in 2011 and 2012). Moyale (in Marsabit County) has been in a state of inter-ethnic conflict and the National Society has taken the front line in mediating peace talks between the warring ethnic groups. Samburu, West pokot and Turkana continue to experience clan conflicts as a result of cattle rustling between the neighbouring communities (this extends to neighbouring Isiolo County).

The specific locations where the National Society interventions will be carried out will be finalized at the county stakeholder sector specific coordination committees and forums. The primary beneficiaries will be the most vulnerable groups including children under the age of five years, pregnant and lactating women, the elderly, and children of school going age, especially those in Early Childhood Development Centres and lower primary schools. Other priority beneficiaries shall be the displaced populations away from their normal settlements either in displaced camps or integrated as internally displaced persons within the host population. The cash transfer programming will target the most vulnerable children identified during the Health and Nutrition outreach in the counties with the highest Global Acute Malnutrition rates.

The National Society is the lead agency in Mandera and Wajir, where humanitarian access is limited because of the counties’ proximity to the border with Somalia. The Kenya Red Cross will leverage its privileged access to these areas to provide humanitarian services. The total affected population in the affected areas are 2,108,233; however the National Society emergency response will target approximately 649,175 men, women and children as tabulated per county in the table below. The targeting has been based on areas where the National Society is the lead agency, on the severity of the situation based on the number of people affected, on the number of partners currently involved in emergency interventions as per the stakeholder matrix and the high risk areas where intervention is either limited or on low scale as a result of security concerns.

County Mandera Turkana Baringo Samburu Wajir Marsabit

Affected population based on NDMA and County steering groups 698,007 440,000 402,206 65,400 436,765 65,855 Targeted by KRCS (% of affected population) 244,302 (35%) 110,000 (30%) 131,030 (30%) 16,350 (25%) 131,030 (30%) 16,464 (25%) Beneficiary communication

For accountability purposes, appropriate communication materials will be developed in local languages in the targeted counties and distributed widely before cash transfer disbursements. Messages will be on the objective of the project and timeframe for the cash transfer to manage expectations.

Complaints and feedback mechanisms will also be established to serve as a platform through which target and community members can air their grievances in regards to the cash transfer programme.

Key messages on Hygiene Promotion and Nutrition will be developed. Radio programming will be aired in the local stations to promote the key information good practices in Hygiene and Nutrition.

Scenario planning

The Kenya Red Cross Society envisages various scenarios in the implementation of the drought interventions in the priority counties.

Scale Up on Coverage

In case of continued failed or low rainfall performance there may be an upscale of drought-affected counties thereby increase in the affected populations. Kenya has a total of 23 counties (out of 47) which are at risk of drought. These would be the most likely areas of upscale of drought operations. The Kenya Red Cross Society will then need to revise the drought appeal to reflect the changing needs. Continuous monitoring of drought related indicators is currently being undertaken by the disaster management operations departments. The appeal revisions will be based on any emerging needs and the interventions.

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Scale up to medium to long-term interventions

The country has experienced successive drought episodes in 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2014, which have had devastating effects (deaths, displacements, conflict, loss of livelihoods etc.) on the affected populations. To mitigate further effects of the current and cyclic drought situations long term food security and livelihood interventions would be proposed during the revision of the appeal. The Kenya Red Cross Society proposes integrated interventions in the medium to long term on health, water, sanitation and hygiene promotion, food security and livelihoods.

B. Operational strategy and plan

Overall objective

To contribute to the reduction of high rates of acute Malnutrition through provision of humanitarian assistance to the affected population in the priority counties in Kenya.

Proposed strategy

The Kenya Red Cross Society will work with the national and county governments and in partnership with humanitarian agencies involved in drought relief, in scaling up humanitarian interventions to the communities affected by the drought. The interventions will focus on improving access to safe water (for both human consumption and for livestock), essential health and nutrition services, support to school feeding programmes as well as support to livelihood activities such as distribution of seeds in marginal agricultural areas to maximise on potential for early planting in the coming long rainy season and procurement of replanting kits for farmers in previously implemented integrated food security and livelihood projects.

The overall appeal is of nine months but most of the activities will be concentrated on the first 6 months of the operation to respond to the immediate needs.

• In the health and nutrition sector, the National Society will support the Ministry of Health in implementing the emergency response plan focusing on nutrition interventions to address the current crisis as well as integrated health out reaches that will focus on increasing community based surveillance, scaling up routine immunisation, deworming, health education and nutrition messaging and education, treatment of minor ailments, screen and establish referral linkages for malnourished. In addition, the National Society will implement nutrition sensitive activities: cash transfers targeting households with malnourished under-fives, school feeding. Vegetable and fodder production. Where market permits Kenya Red Cross proposes to deliver 2 unconditional cash transfers of shilling 2600 at two monthly intervals, from September 2014 to 18,059 drought affected households with nutritionally vulnerable under 5 year old children in three counties with highest Global Acute Malnutrition rates. The cash transfer will apply a soft conditionality through promotion of nutrition behaviour change communication targeting mothers in beneficiary households. Review of existing payment service providers will be done to deliver the cash in a more efficient and effective manner.

• In addition provide replanting kits to farmers who were supported by 2011 Kenyans for Kenya initiative for food security in Turkana (Kaikor), Marsabit (Walda) and other previously implemented long term food security projects. • In the water, sanitation and hygiene promotion sector, will focus, household water treatment options, conduct hygiene awareness campaigns in the community and schools using applicable methodologies. The Kenya Red Cross will lobby with the relevant Government departments to undertake water trucking in isolated situations, targeting learning institutions and community centres.

• Due to the specific security situation in 4 of the 6 targeted counties, the Kenya Red Cross Society needs to initiate and continue the peace building activities for safe access in order to undertake the proposed interventions. These activities will allow sustainability of the implemented activities within the operation. To respond to the protracted humanitarian crisis, these activities will allow the National Society to continue implementing activities in these counties for the future. These will include organising peace meetings, constitution of peace committees where necessary, and dialogue forums. The National Society will undertake integrated programming with peace building activities integrated in food security, nutrition and wash intervention.

• The current long-term programmes within the Kenya Red Cross will be avenues to create synergies and complementarity in the implementation of the drought operations.

Operational support services Human resources

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In order to support the operation, The Kenya Red Cross Society will use 300 volunteers, 30 full time equivalent staff and additional temporary surge technical staff. The core positions (including Relief officer and Cash transfer officer for example) have been fully budgeted while some others positions that are necessary to implement this program have been partially included according to the amount of workload they will have to dedicate to this operation. This include technical staff like WatSan advisor, nutrition advisor, nutrition officer and others.

The IFRC will support the implementation of this program through an Operations Manager.

Communications

The Kenya Red Cross Society public relations Office aims to coordinate various awareness and publicity activities, to sensitise the public and media on the situation on the ground and humanitarian response. Beneficiary community will be updated on assessments and programme activity plans and necessary feedback received through open community forums, meetings, committees and Information Education and Communication materials. The Kenya Red Cross Society public relations office aims to share lessons learnt and best practices not only to respond to this emergency but to prevent the next one. Additionally, a communication and advocacy strategy will be developed targeting donors, media, private sector and key stakeholders.

Planning, monitoring, evaluation, & reporting (PMER)

Monitoring of the activities will be done by a team comprised of county branch managers and representatives of the governance team at the branch level. Monitoring will be done per sector, and this team will be supported by the regional management and governance teams. Technical support will be provided by the operations team at the headquarters, with field visits as may be necessary.

The national level monitoring will be conducted by the Kenya Red Cross Society monitoring and Evaluation unit, as well as by the IFRC, Planning Monitoring Evaluation and Reporting Team. The two teams will conduct joint monitoring visits subject to security clearance by the security unit at Kenya Red Cross Society and IFRC.

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C. DETAILED OPERATIONAL PLAN

Water, sanitation and hygiene promotion

Outcome 1: Immediate reduction in risk of waterborne and water related diseases in targeted communities

Output 1.1: Daily access to safe water which meets Sphere and WHO standards in terms of quantity and quality is provided to target population

Activities planned Month 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Identify water points for rehabilitation with Ministry of Water x

Procure stocks of Point of Use Water Treatment chemicals for 60,000 beneficiaries for household water treatment x x

Train volunteers and beneficiaries on use of water treatment chemicals during distributions x x

Conduct household level monitoring visits to ensure proper use x x x x x x

Rehabilitate and upgrade 18 water supply schemes that have boreholes to reduce the load on current system x x x x x

Reconstitute and capacity build water management committees to manage the constructed/rehabilitated water facilities x x x x x x

Output 1.2: Adequate sanitation which meets Sphere standards in terms of quantity and quality is provided to target population

Activities planned Month 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Construct 36 latrines in areas of watering points x x x x x

Output 1.3 Hygiene promotion activities which meet Sphere standards in terms of the identification and use of hygiene items provided to target population

Activities planned Month 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Train 120 trainers on applicable hygiene promotion techniques x x

Conduct hygiene promotion campaigns targeting institutions, communal areas, in the target / migration areas x x x x x

Adapt and produce information, education and communication materials on hygiene promotion x x

Disseminate information, education and communication materials x x

Food security, nutrition and livelihoods

Outcome 1: Reduced food insecurity among affected households

Output 1.1: Productive assets/inputs for primary production provided in accordance with the seasonal calendar, via in-kind distribution, cash grants or vouchers

Activities planned Month 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Procure and distribute seeds and fruits for fast maturing crops x x x x x

Procure and distribute fodder seeds x x x x x

Procure and distribute replanting kits for farmers with greenhouses and nettings x x x x x

Output 1.2: Critical nutritional status of the targeted community is improved

Activities planned Month 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Participate in sector coordination and technical forums for nutrition at county and national levels x x x x x x

Identify vulnerable beneficiaries to be included in the cash transfer programing x x

Train community health workers and volunteers on health education and promotion messages x

Conduct health education sensitization sessions with focus water related infections, early case detection and treatment x x x x

Conduct regular outreach services in partnership with the Ministry of Health x x x x

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Provide linkages and referral service for children requiring nutrition stabilization (in-patient therapeutic feeding) x x x x x

Procure commodities for supplementary feeding x x

Output 1.3: Sufficient nutritious food accessed by children at schools

Activities planned Month 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Identify schools to benefit in collaboration with education boards school feeding coordinators and World Food Programme x

Procure and distribute food supplements to schools x x x x x x

Monitor implementation to ensure compliance on recommended rations per child and adherence to hygiene practices x x x x x

Output 1.4: Cash transfers are provided to households to purchase food

Activities planned Month 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Conduct rapid market and household economic assessment x

Training staff and volunteers on cash based programming x

Register and enrol beneficiaries x x

Establish complaint and feedback mechanisms x

Establish beneficiary communication systems x

Implement planned cash disbursements x x

Carry out post distribution monitoring of the cash transfer activities x x

Output 1.5: Key advocacy messages and lessons learnt are shared and endorsed to improve Kenya Red Cross systems to slow onset disasters.

Activities planned Month 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Develop an advocacy strategy using a participatory methodology x

Produce key advocacy and policy documents to share lessons learnt and best practices on early actions on building community resilience

x x x x x

Organise events with key stakeholders and decision makers to improve emergency operations x x x x x

Support operational research and document best practice and lessons learnt x

Participate and contribute to national coordination mechanisms x

Identify and as required reinforce safer access mechanisms and methodology for community access x x x x x x

Support community dialogue and mediation meetings in conflict affected regions in order to increase community access x x x x x x Support peace building meetings with community and religious leaders and reinforce the role of Red Cross and access x x x x x x

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Budget

See attached IFRC Secretariat budget (Annex 1) for details.

Walter Cotte As Sy

Under Secretary General Secretary General

Programme Services Division

Contact information

For further information specifically related to this operation please contact:

In Kenya Red Cross Society: Abbas Gullet, Secretary General, Phone +254 20 60 35 93; Email; [email protected]

IFRC Regional Representation: Finnjarle Rode, Regional Representative for East Africa; Nairobi; phone: +254 254 20 28 35 124; Email: [email protected]

IFRC Africa Zone: Daniel Bolaños, Disaster Management Coordinator for Africa; Nairobi; phone: +254 731 067 489; email: [email protected]

IFRC Geneva: Christine South, Operations Quality Assurance Senior Officer; phone: +41 22 730 45 29; email: [email protected]

IFRC Zone Logistics Unit: Rishi Ramrakha, Head of zone logistics unit; phone: +254 733 888 022; email: [email protected]

For Resource Mobilization and Pledges:

IFRC Africa Zone: Martine Zoethoutmaar, Resource Mobilization Coordinator for Africa; Addis Ababa;phone: +251 93 003 4013; email: [email protected]

For Performance and Accountability (planning, monitoring, evaluation and reporting): IFRC Africa Zone: Robert Ondrusek, PMER Coordinator; Nairobi; phone: +254 731

067277; email: [email protected]

How we work

All IFRC assistance seeks to adhere to the Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) in Disaster Relief and the Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response (Sphere) in delivering assistance to the most vulnerable.

The IFRC’s vision is to inspire, encourage, facilitate and promote at all times all forms of humanitarian activities by National Societies, with a view to preventing and alleviating human suffering, and thereby contributing to the maintenance and promotion of human dignity and peace in the world.

The IFRC’s work is guided by Strategy 2020 which puts forward three strategic aims:

1. Save lives, protect livelihoods, and strengthen recovery from disaster and crises.

2. Enable healthy and safe living.

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EMERGENCY APPEAL OPERATION

Kenya: Drought EpoA Budget

Budget Group Shelter - Relief 0 0 Shelter - Transitional 0 0 Construction - Housing 0 0 Construction - Facilities 0 0 Construction - Materials 0 0

Clothing & Textiles 0 0

Food 818,526 818,526

Seeds & Plants 213,684 213,684

Water, Sanitation & Hygiene 1,754,352 1,754,352

Medical & First Aid 991,655 991,655

Teaching Materials 5,684 5,684

Utensils & Tools 0 0

Other Supplies & Services 0 0

Emergency Response Units 0 0

Cash Disbursements 988,493 988,493

Total RELIEF ITEMS, CONSTRUCTION AND SUPPLIES 4,772,394 0 0 4,772,394

Land & Buildings 0 0

Vehicles Purchase 0 0

Computer & Telecom Equipment 4,737 4,737

Office/Household Furniture & Equipment 0 0

Medical Equipment 0 0

Other Machinery & Equipment 0 0

Total LAND, VEHICLES AND EQUIPMENT 4,737 0 0 4,737

Storage, Warehousing 87,663 87,663

Distribution & Monitoring 56,421 56,421

Transport & Vehicle Costs 586,705 586,705

Logistics Services 0 0

Total LOGISTICS, TRANSPORT AND STORAGE 730,789 0 0 730,789

International Staff 135,000 135,000

National Staff 0 0

National Society Staff 773,588 773,588

Volunteers 250,331 250,331

Total PERSONNEL 1,158,919 0 0 1,158,919

Consultants 0 0

Professional Fees 10,526 10,526

Total CONSULTANTS & PROFESSIONAL FEES 10,526 0 0 10,526

Workshops & Training 131,444 131,444

Total WORKSHOP & TRAINING 131,444 0 0 131,444

Travel 16,526 16,526

Information & Public Relations 308,383 308,383

Office Costs 47,053 47,053

Communications 65,700 65,700

Financial Charges 26,316 26,316

Other General Expenses 719,716 719,716

Shared Support Services

Total GENERAL EXPENDITURES 1,183,694 0 0 1,183,694

Programme and Supplementary Services Recovery 519,513 0 0 519,513

Total INDIRECT COSTS 519,513 0 0 519,513

TOTAL BUDGET 8,512,016 0 0 8,512,016

Available Resources

Multilateral Contributions 0

Bilateral Contributions 0

TOTAL AVAILABLE RESOURCES 0 0 0 0

NET EMERGENCY APPEAL NEEDS 8,512,016 0 0 8,512,016

Figure

Fig 3: June 2014 Nutrition situation (Source: Nutrition Information Working Group June 2014)
Fig 4: Trend analysis on GAM rates in priority Counties 2010 - 2014

References

Related documents

The City Manager or his/her official designee may order the implementation of a drought response or water emergency stage when one or more of the trigger conditions for that stage is