Afar Emergency Drought Response Project Final Draft Report (October 2011 –June 2012) Addis Ababa July 2012 1. Basic data Project Title Afar Emergency Drought Response Contact Details: Name of Organisation: Farm Africa Name of Contract holder Farm Africa Address: P.O. Box 5746, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Telephone: +251- 1-467-4129/ 1-467-55156 Fax: + 251 14674281 PROJECT SUMMARY Location of Project Amibara, Burimodayitu and Gewane Woredas of Afar Regional State , Ethiopia Project Number: 106605 Duration: Start Date: 1st October 2011 End Date: 31, March 2012 Budget Neutral extension period: from 1 st April to 30 th June, 2012 (Ref. No. 00.190.461) Reporting Period: From: 1, October 2011 To: 30, June 2012 Total budget ETB 4,391,261 CORDAID Contribution ETB 4, 200,000 (= EUR 175,000) Other contributions Contribution ETB 191,261 Sector of Intervention : Emergency livestock feeding and animal health service (vaccination) Target Population: The total number of people directly benefiting from the project are 7252 households out of which, 20% of the beneficiaries are female- headed households. 2 Acronyms AEDRP Afar Emergency Drought Response Project AHAs Animal Health Assistants AHTs Animal Health Technicians CAHWs Community Animal Health Workers CSA Central Statistical Authority CBPP Contagious Bovine Pleuro -Pneumonia DA Development Agent DPFSB Disaster Prevention and Food Security Bureau FA Farm Africa FAO Food and Agriculture Organisation LEGS Livestock Emergency Guideline and Standards PARDB Pastoral Agriculture and Rural Development Bureau PARDO Pastoral Agriculture and Rural Development Office PPR Peste des Petits Ruminants WRDO Water resource development Office 3 2. INFORMATION ON CONTEXT Afar region is predominantly pastoral region with 90 % of the population depending on livestock production. According toCSA, there are there are 10,179,277 livestock in the region of which 4,267,969 or 41.93%, 2,463,632; 24.20%, 2336483 or 22.95%, 852016 or 8.37% are goat, sheep, cattle and camel respectively1. Livestock production in the region depends on rain fed natural pasture which, its productivity is declining as a result of recurrent droughts, land degradation, encroachment of agriculture, conflicts and invasion of prosopis. Livestock production is further constrained by, seasonal water shortage, livestock disease, poor infrastructure, and lack of markets. Livestock productivity is constrained by wide spread livestock disease. Bacterial, viral, protozoal diseases and internal and external parasites commonly exist in all species of livestock. Anthrax and Black leg occur sporadically in cattle. Agro-pastoralism is the second important source of livelihood in the region, where about 10% of the people who depend on it. Agro-pastoralism is common in Awsa-Gewane areas and specific woredas adjacent to Oromiya, Amhara, Tigray regions. These woredas include: Argoba special woreda, Afambo, Assyaita, and parts of Abala, Megale and koneba. According to the 1997 survey 29,760 ha is used for crop production. The major crops cultivated include teff, Barley, wheat, Maize, Sorghum, millet, pulses, and cotton and oil crops such as Neug, Linseed, and Rapeseed. In 2011, the region state suffered from a very poor Sugum and Kerma rains. According to the multi-agency humanitarian needs assessment and regional DPPFSB’s November 2011monthly food security and early warning reports indicated that the food security situation in the Region was deteriorating. The loss of productive assets and increasing household food insecurity due to drought, have become defining features of the region. The region has faced numerous problems such as declining livestock population and productivity, caused from erratic rainfall conditions, especially the recurrence of drought, land degradation, invasion of prosopis, expansion of commercial agriculture, inability to access markets and population pressure. 1 Livestock Populations in pastoral areas of Ethiopia are often ‘contested’. Sandford and Habtu, (2000) estimate Afar livestock population as 3,600,000, 2,000,000, 3,000,000, and 900,000 for cattle, sheep, goats and camels respectively 4 In recent years, Afar has experienced regular cycles of below average rainfall which has delayed pastoral livelihood recovery. In addition, very poor Sugum and Kerma rains in 2011, meant that the drought situation in Afar region became a serious concern. The multi- agency Mid-Kerma humanitarian needs assessment and regional DPPFSB July r 2011 monthly food security and early warning report, indicated that the food security situation in the region was deteriorating and warned that, unless addressed on time, the situation would cause serious livelihood and humanitarian crises. The rapid food security assessment jointly undertaken by relevant regional government sector offices, confirmed the growing crisis, due to the cumulative effect of very poor rains for consecutive seasons. The rapid assessment findings also highlighted a decline in livestock prices and fewer buyers, water and pasture shortages, livestock deaths in some areas, concerns regarding child nutrition, which is linked to poor livestock conditions, milk loss. In response to this emergency situation, Farm Africa designed Afar Emergency Drought Response Project (AEDRP), and secured funding from Cordaid (main donor) and small grants from other sources. The project was implemented in three drought affected Woredas of Afar Region. The targets were pastoralists and agro pastoralists living in 14 Kebeles Amibara, Buremodayitu and Gewane Woredas of Afar Regional State. The target Kebeles include: Amibara Woreda ( Arba, Andido, Halaydege, Angelele and Gelsa Kebeles), Burimodayitu Woreda (Debel, Gefrem, Bedafdero and Kudae Kebeles ) and Gewane Woreda ( Adbaro, Gebya bura, Kada bada, Bieda and Urafita Kebeles). The project was implemented for nine months from 1st October 2011 to 30 th June 2012 (the last three months from March to June 2012 is agreed as a budget neutral extension) with a total budget of ETB 4,391,261, . Therefore, this final report is intended to inform the project merits and demerits which were observed during the project life. 5 3. Progress towards achievement of project objectives Describe to what extent the project –according to the indicators stated in the original proposal has accomplished the specific objective of the project Project goal, objectives and indicators The main goal of the project is to assist targeted groups in Amibara, Buremudayitu and Gewane Woredas to meet their immediate needs and increase their resilience and capacity to recover from and shocks. Towards this goal, the project intended to achieve three specific objectives: Objective 1 : Support 7,252 households to withstand and recover from drought by immediately improving food security through improving livestock productivity and milk supply and protecting their major livelihood assets (livestock) through timely provision of animal feed and veterinary services. Drought induce emergency situations in pastoralist areas like situation in the three target Woredas (Amibara, Buremodayitu and Gewane) in Afar Region are characterized by a lack of food for human beings as well as feed for animals and depleted resources. The severity of the situation means that there would be a reduced off take rate or loss of livestock in drought affected areas increases. Though there are no official figures on death of animals due to the recent drought, the findings of a recent survey by Farm Africa field staff revealed that on average surveyed households lost more than 20 animals due to the recent drought. Furthermore, the majority of surveyed HHs (88 out of 94) indicated that many of their remaining animals have been weakened due to lack of adequate feed, disease and shortage of water. As animals are weakened due to lack of adequate feed and deteriorating condition means that the animals becomes more vulnerable to disease attack. Table 1: The effect of drought $drought effect*Woreda Crosstabulation t what was the effect of the recent drough Woreda Burem Amibara udayitu Gewane Total was there human illness due to Count 5 20 8 33 drought was there livestock death due to Count 33 27 28 88 drought were animal got weakened due to Count 1 2 3 6 drought 6 Total Count 35 31 28 94 Percentages and totals are based on respondents a. Dichotomy group tabulated at value 1. Source: HH survey Therefore, interventions that improve access to supplementary feed (concentrates) for animal and immunisation (vaccination) and treatment of animals note only protect household assets but also improve access to food for family members. To this effect, the Afar emergency drought response project provided supplied 3940 quintals 2 of supplementary animal feed (concentrate) to 1350 households (23% being female headed households). The feed (together for a piece 1m 2 sized plastic sheets) was then distributed to target households to feed a total of 6000 breeding shoats and 3000 cows for 43 days and 59 days respectively. This means that each target household should feed four shoats and two milking/pregnant cows only. For this purpose, the project allocated concentrate feed of 0.5Kg/day for each shoat and 1.5kg/day for each cow. Looking through the lens of LEGS, the daily quantity allocated to each heads of animals was very generous 3. At the time of writing this report, assessment was not conducted on the impact brought about by the distribution of supplementary feed. However, according to Livestock Emergency Guideline and Standards (LEGS), such a supplementary