SITUATION OVERVIEW
Significant funding was received from donors in August and September whose impulse spurred UN Agencies, INGOs and implementing partners to scale up their operations. Surge personnel were assigned to the country which OCHA deployed a Humanitarian Affairs Officer and an Information Management Officer in support of the Resident Coordinator’s Office. SETSAN produced its second assessment report that projected a significant increase in the numbers of persons potentially in need until March 2017. The government and partner organizations are waiting for an updated food security assessment to be done in November 2016.
From October to March 2017, approximately 1.5 million people will need emergency humanitarian assistance. This number is expected to increase by an additional 190,000 persons that may be affected by possible flooding, storms, and other climatic events during the coming rainy season. Significant below-average 2016 production is limiting household food availability and access, with many poor households already experiencing difficulty meeting their basic food needs in September 2016.
Crisis acute food security outcomes (IPC Phase 3) are expected to persist in the South and Central areas of the country, especially as staple food prices continue to be very high and are only likely to peak in February 2017. From July to August, maize grain prices rose by 12 percent on average and were above the five-year average and last year’s prices by 142 and 189 percent, respectively. August prices for substitutes, maize meal and rice, were, respectively, 86 and 78 percent higher than the five-year average.The devaluation of the Mozambican currency has continued, placing even greater pressure on Mozambican families to meet their needs.
The agricultural production season began in October and there are informal assessments indicating a gap in terms of seeds availability in country. If this is confirmed, the humanitarian partners may face challenges acquiring seeds to be distributed to affected farmers. Hence, this might create delays in the sowing dates affecting production. UN agencies, implementing partners and the government are in the process of procuring seeds to distribute to affected farmers. Moreover, these latter have access to informal seed networks through which to procure their seed stock although in undefined quantities.
STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES
To provide immediate life-saving and life-sustaining assistance to the population affected by droughts through provision of essential commodities
To support the restoration of the livelihoods of drought-affected population through resilience-building activities
Ensure the mainstreaming of cross cutting issues (Resilience initiatives and Gender) in drought response through coordination among the HCT members and with the government in the assessment, implementation and monitoring of the response