SECRETARIAT - 150 route de Ferney, P.O. Box 2100, 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland - TEL: +41 22 791 6033 - FAX: +41 22 791 6506 www .actalliance.org Appeal Mali EMERGENCY SUPPORT TO DROUGHT AFFECTED FAMILIES IN NORTHERN MALI - MLI101 Appeal Target: US$ 1,416,075 Amount Requested: US$ 1,416,075 Geneva, 7 th June 2010 Dear Colleagues, In 2009, three regions of northern Mali - Timbuktu, Kidal and Gao - experienced low, sporadic rainfall barely reaching 90mm. This was half the usual average of 180mm/year for these desert areas. Low rainfall has resulted in depletion of underground aquifers, excessive levels of salt in the few remaining wells, and a complete loss of grass and leaves on desert trees. The traditionally nomadic population in these regions usually follow routes defined by access to water and fodder. These traditional sources have largely failed and by the end of April 2010 the little financial reserves used by the pastoralists to purchase and transport fodder and water for their families and livestock had been exhausted. Hardy livestock like goats and camels were by November 2009 moved to areas usually reserved for the last six months of a normal dry season. By April 2010 reports of animal deaths were common, closely followed by malnutrition in children and now increasingly in adults. Figures in April indicated 80 cases of malnutrition reported at one health centre in Gao. As most families are pastoralists living hundreds of kilometres from urban centres, these early figures are anticipated to be much higher as the situation develops. Families have been forced to move to non-traditional areas in search of food and water, causing tension between different ethnic groups where the hosting community has little choice but to try and protect its limited reserves. Emerg. Support fo Drought Aff. families, Northern Mali 2 Appeal No. MLI101 Hundreds of herders have moved to Gao from Burkina Faso and Niger, and on finding limited resources in Mali, are now too weak to return. The Malian Government’s Early Warning System estimated that 258,000 people in the main towns of Gao and Kidal were suffering from malnutrition in April. The Government distributed 6970 metric tonnes of food to 3310 families in the worst locations of Gao and Kidal. Families who have moved to look for fodder and water for their animals are not able to access the distribution centres. These families at the edge of the towns are the most vulnerable. Often, women and children are the ones left behind whilst the men go in search of water and fodder with the remaining animals. In a rapid assessment, NCA staff in Gao estimate at least 4,000 nomadic families are now camped on the edge of the town with dying animals. The situation is now critical with a need to distribute food, water and fodder to prevent major human death and a level of animal depletion from which it will take many years for families to recover. ACT Alliance member in the area is NCA. NCA works both directly with communities and through local partners. They have developed a network of grass roots community emergency committees that have already identified the most vulnerable. NCA has systems in place to distribute food, water and fodder as soon as funds are available, and should the situation deteriorate, NCA has the capacity to extend its work through partners to reach more locations in the area in close co-ordination with the Government and NGOs. The goal of this Appeal is to avert human and animal death in Northern Mali with an objective of meeting the food and water needs of 5,495 vulnerable families and their livestock in the two regions of Kidal and Gao until the next harvest in December 2010. The ACT member Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) in Mali is the requesting member in this Appeal. Project Completion Date : 31 st December 2010 Reporting schedule for NCA: Interim narrative and financial: 30 th November 2010 Final narrative and financial: 28 th February 2010 Audit: 31 st March 2011 Summary of Appeal Targets, Pledges/Contributions Received and Balance Requested: Appeal Target: US$ 1,416,545 Less: Pledges/Contr Recd: US$ 0 Balance Requested from ACT Alliance: US$ 1,416,545 Please kindly send your contributions to either of the following ACT bank accounts: US dollar Account Number - 240-432629.60A IBAN No: CH46 0024 0240 4326 2960A Euro Euro Bank Account Number - 240-432629.50Z IBAN No: CH84 0024 0240 4326 2950Z Account Name: ACT - Action by Churches Together Emerg. Support fo Drought Aff. families, Northern Mali 3 Appeal No. MLI101 UBS AG 8, rue du Rhône P.O. Box 2600 1211 Geneva 4, SWITZERLAND Swift address: UBSWCHZH80A Please also inform the Chief Finance Officer Jessie Kgoroeadira ([email protected]) and the Regional Programme Officer, Katherine Ireri ([email protected]), of all pledges/contributions and transfers, including funds sent direct to the implementers. We would appreciate being informed of any intent to submit applications for EU, USAID and/or other back donor funding and the subsequent results. We thank you in advance for your kind cooperation. For further information please contact: ACT Deputy General Secretary, Jill Hawkey (phone +41 22 791 6069) or +41 79 376 1711 ACT Regional Program Officer, Katherine Ireri (phone +41 22 791 6040 or mobile phone +41 79 433 0592) Jill Hawkey Deputy General Secretary ACT Alliance Secretariat Emerg. Support fo Drought Aff. families, Northern Mali 4 Appeal No. MLI101 I. ACT MEMBER INFORMATION Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) is an international non-governmental organization with a long history of engaging in emergency relief, long-term development and advocacy. NCA works with partners in more than 50 countries on seven thematic areas: Peace building and conflict transformation, water, good governance, gender based violence, indigenous people, climate change and HIV and AIDS. NCA has worked in Mali since 1984 on peace building and conflict transformation with the focus on food security, water and environment, accountable governance, gender based violence and education. Emergency preparedness and response has also been a growing concern over the last years. NCA has a long history of responding to the needs of those most affected by disasters. NCA has and still works in numerous complex and natural emergencies including Darfur, Democratic Republic of Congo, recent typhoons in Vietnam, the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza and Pakistan and recent Cyclones Nargis and Sidr in Asia. II. IMPLEMENTING ACT MEMBER & PARTNER INFORMATION NCA Operationally and in Partnership: NCA will implement this project throughout the 24 communes (sub-districts) through 4 organisations. ASSADEC: was created in 2002 and works primarily with women in Kidal Region. ASSADEC’s long experience with small savings groups targeting the most vulnerable women makes it the perfect NGO to target groups of single female headed households. Such women do not have normal access to resources, government programmes or support through traditional links. ASADDECK was the first NGO to contact NCA during this drought period and has consistently pushed for a rapid response, relaying the needs and priorities of its target group. PADDECK: has formed NCA’s operational Team in Kidal since 1999 working closely on the decentralization process, to empower community members in this large and dispersed population. PADDECK has years of experience in emergency work and has been specifically developing systems for a rapid response during such drought periods, identifying and supporting leaders chosen by the community to represent their best needs and identify the most viable solutions to food, fodder and water shortages. GARI: NCA has been working with GARI since 2008 and recognizes GARI’s unique niche in being a truly ‘grass roots’ NGO that works with street children and poor families in both Gao and Menaka. This proposal concentrates efforts in Menaka where there has been considerable depletion of grazing and water by pastoralists moving into the area from Burkina Faso. GRAIP: has years of experience working with pastoralists to develop long term sustainable programmes, encouraging market farming through new techniques and micro-credit. The linkages developed closely with the targeted communities will enable GRAIP to respond quickly and efficiently as soon as funds are dispersed. III. DESCRIPTION of the EMERGENCY SITUATION Mali covers an area of 1,241,238 km2, two thirds of which are occupied by almost uninhabitable sand desert. The World Bank’s Human Development Index of 2009, ranked Mali 178 out of 182 countries. 70% of 13 million Malians live in rural areas. Poverty is widespread with 63.8% of the population living below the poverty line. The illiteracy rate stands at 70%. This proposal targets the nomadic and semi-nomadic communities of northern Mali where illiteracy is exceptionally high, at around 95%. Emerg. Support fo Drought Aff. families, Northern Mali 5 Appeal No. MLI101 Kidal and Gao have a very low population density of 1 person every 3.5km 2 with a traditional nomadic and semi-nomadic system of survival that has been in place since records began, enabling communities to survive in a region where the rainfall is often less than 100mm per year. Environmental Stresses: In 2009 the normal rain expected in June to September was in many locations less than a few millimetres, failing to replenish water holes, dams or pastureland. The common grazing areas in Kidal of Tinza, Boghassa, Tessalit, Timtaghen, Tinessako, Intejedit have received virtually no rain, meaning breeding camels and goats, which can usually survive in the worst of conditions, are suffering from serious malnutrition and death. Surface water lasts for only minutes and hand dug wells maintained usually by an age old pulley system can reach depths of 22 to 130m.