Catholic and Enjoying It!
Dear Board Members,
I wanted to send you a quick update on the leading role Mercy Corps is taking in response to the Horn of Africa crisis. We are presently helping more than one million people to survive and are ramping up to help even more. While we move to provide humanitarian assistance to drought affected families in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia, we have also mobilized in the United States and Europe to lead policy advocacy and fundraising efforts at home. Our humanitarian response is driven by the worst regional drought in 60 years, which has created a severe food crisis affecting 12 million people. The United Nations has declared five areas of southern Somalia famine zones. Meanwhile, U.S. officials announced that an estimated 29,000 children under five have died in the last 90 days in southern Somalia and that another 600,000 are at risk.
Our Humanitarian Response: Mercy Corps has been working in the Horn of Africa for years and has teams up and running in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia. Our primary goal is to intervene in villages and towns to keep people from having to flee to camps in desperation. This approach saves both lives and limited financial resources. Our drought response work in the region includes: a) programs in 20+ Kenyan villages providing life-saving support to 120,000 people; b) assessments in Somali regions of Ethiopia to be followed by the provision of water, cash for work, and plastic sheeting for shelter; and c) programs in Somalia aiding 260,000 drought-affected Somalis with lifesaving essentials such as water and food, as well as preexisting work in education, governance, and peace-building. As with all of our work, we are also keeping an eye toward building communities back better so as to prepare for, if not prevent, future crises.
Our Policy Advocacy: The crisis in the Horn of Africa is not only a natural disaster, but also a man made one. The effects of drought have been compounded by insecurity, slow and inadequate support from funders, and legal restrictions limiting aid to areas of Somalia. Effective humanitarian response therefore hinges on strong advocacy to increase institutional funding, ease legal restrictions on aid in southern Somalia, and enhance media coverage driving private giving. Mercy Corps has successfully positioned itself as a leader in Horn of Africa advocacy through media pieces on CNN, the Huffington Post, and other national media; on-air interviews with NPR’s Morning Edition; and Congressional testimony for the Senate Foreign Relations Sub-Committee on African Affairs (starting at minute 58). Mercy Corps’ advocacy has helped create an additional $105 million in U.S. funding for the Horn of Africa as well as a much needed easing of the restrictions on humanitarian assistance to civilians living in Al Shabab-controlled southern Somalia.
Our Fund-Raising: Mercy Corps has also led in fund raising for the Horn of Africa, although we would be among the first to concede that families in the Horn of Africa both need and deserve much more. As is so often the case with slow onset humanitarian emergencies, both private and institutional support have room to improve. Despite a difficult funding environment, we have already raised $2 million in private funds for the drought and have another $1.2 million in institutional funds pending grant approval. Mercy Corps’ has also succeeded in stoking early media coverage of the crisis, leading this week to feature stories on the Horn of Africa in most major media outlets. Our advocacy breakthroughs in this area are encouraging, as enhanced media coverage of the drought is critical to growing private giving.
Looking forward, Mercy Corps will continue to expand its lifesaving drought response programs in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia. We will also continue preexisting work on livelihoods, food security, governance, education, and peace building, as these programs are critical to building resilient communities capable of surviving, if not preventing, future crises. As always, we greatly appreciate your support of our programs as well as your efforts to enhance our advocacy through your own network of influencers. To those ends, attached please find a brief factsheet on Mercy Corps and the Horn of Africa that I hope you will share with your professional and personal contacts.
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