Ethiopia

FAO completed the 1st phase of the CFSAM and the 3rd phase of the WFP/FAO CFSAM combining the FAO crop part; and the Meher needs assessment is expected in mid January 2009. The 1st part of the FAO mission indicated that crop performance is good and harvest could be average especially for the main crop growing areas in the western parts of the country. Teff production is likely to be below average due to the effect of the unseasonal rains. Harvest prospects are below average in the eastern half of the country. There is growing concern about the availability of water and adequate pasture in arid areas of Somali, Afar, Tigray and Oromiya regions should the current dry spell continue and belg rains come late.  

Somalia

Preparations for the implementation of blanket supplementary feeding and pilot of supplementary plumpy in south-Somalia have been completed. They include training of cooperating partners and WFP staff on the use of supplementary plumpy to address moderate malnutrition among children under five and pre-positioning of commodities required for the intervention. Implementation of the project is scheduled to start next week. WFP has finalized draft field level agreements for signature with 31 NGOs that have been selected to undertake relief food distributions in December in five areas formerly supported by CARE international in Hiran, Middle Shabelle and Gedo regions of south-central Somalia. A total of 8,440 mt has been planned by WFP as a response to the increased food insecurity and high malnutrition rates in the areas, which have a global acute malnutrition rate of above 20 percent.

DRC

Negotiations to resolve the conflict, between delegations from both the DRC Government and the Congrès National pour la Défense du Peuple (CNDP), which started on 8 December 2008 in Nairobi under the mediation of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General (SRSG) for eastern DRC, Olusegun Obasanjo and former Tanzanian president, Benjamin Mkapa, will resume again on 17 December 2008.  The SRSG remains optimistic concerning the outcome.

Kenya

On 2 December, the UNICEF Deputy Executive Director visited the Dadaab refugee camp. The total number of refugees in both camps stands at 276,000; 224,000 in Dadaab and 52,000 in Kakuma. The influx of refugees at the Dadaab camp continues with 4,000 new arrivals awaiting registration at the camp. Training for the Ministry of Education’s Home Grown School Feeding Project was concluded last week and guidelines for the rollout of the project shared with school feeding partners. The programme will be officially launched in January 2009 and will cover 450,000 children.