I thank the committee for its invitation to discuss the crisis in the Horn of Africa. This is a situation that deserves all of our attention.
During my recent visit to Kenya and South Sudan, I witnessed in stark terms the devastation being wrought on vulnerable communities across the region by a set of interlocking crises: drought; climate change; global and regional conflict; and unsustainable food systems. Communities stricken by drought in Turkana, Kenya, told me of their fears that the rains would fail once again. It has now sadly come to pass that those rains have failed and their worst fears have been confirmed. The overall scale of the crisis in the region is staggering. There are 36 million people affected by a five-season drought in the Horn of Africa,. The drought is focused particularly in Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya. More than 21 million people face acute levels of food insecurity and malnutrition. Current estimates indicate that this figure will rise to 26 million by February next year.
In addition to drought, some regions have experienced wide-scale flooding year after year. When I visited South Sudan in September, I heard from communities that they were already grappling with decades of conflict and that they are being forced to flee again by repeated floods. In Juba, I saw the most fragile of dams - it is difficult to describe how fragile these dams are - that are the only thing holding back vast expanses of water. If, for any reason, these dams were to break, the entire makeshift camp where hundreds of thousands of people are trying to survive on a day-to-day basis would be engulfed. Humanitarian agencies stress the need to ensure South Sudan does not become a forgotten crisis against a worrying backdrop of donor fatigue and competing needs, within the region and globally, of which we are all aware.
The primary driver of these environmental crises is undeniably and categorically climate change. Average annual temperatures in the region are increasing at almost double the global rate, with changing weather patterns and environmental degradation having a huge impact, shaping conflict cycles, impacting food production, threatening livelihoods and destroying ways of life. These climate-induced shocks are closely intertwined with what were already effectively unsustainable food systems. Those systems have continued to deteriorate as the crisis shows no signs of ending.
New and ongoing conflicts, political tensions and the global impact of the war in Ukraine have also exacerbated what was already a terrible situation. In Sudan, where a military coup last year halted the democratic transition that was under way, about 14 million people are experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity, classified as crisis phase 3, or worse. While the food crisis is being felt right across the region, the drought in the heart of the Horn of Africa is perhaps having the most acute effects. With famine-like conditions already experienced by communities, there is a narrow window of opportunity to prevent famine in parts of, in particular, Somalia, South Sudan and Ethiopia on a scale that we have not seen in decades. Humanitarian agencies and partners have appealed for $3.4 billion to provide assistance to respond to the drought. However, the appeal is only 50% funded, severely limiting humanitarian agencies’ capacity to respond and save lives. In the context of this crisis, we need to focus on that 50% funding figure compared with the response to other situations globally. It is vital that the international community responds urgently to prevent large-scale starvation and death.
Ireland is playing its part. Following my visit, the Government announced that it would provide an additional €30 million in immediate humanitarian assistance to respond to the urgency of the crisis in the region. This package is a top-up on the €3.2 million in additional humanitarian aid disbursed in October, including €1.5 million to Irish NGOs active on the ground. Those NGOs are doing an incredible job and are operating well above and beyond their scale and size. There was also €500,000 for UNICEF’s work with malnourished children in Kenya. This will bring Ireland’s support to the Horn of Africa in 2022 to more than €100 million.
Working through trusted partners on the ground, including UN agencies and Irish NGOs, Ireland’s funding will support the most vulnerable communities across the most severely affected countries. These partners have been chosen based on their proven geographic, sectoral and thematic experience and, critically, on their capacity to deliver an effective and timely response to the needs of those worst affected. The focus will be on lifesaving health, nutrition, water and sanitation, and cash responses will align with Ireland’s commitment to always reach those who are furthest behind first. We will place a strong emphasis on supporting local humanitarian efforts. Special attention is being paid to the plight of women and girls, who have been disproportionately affected by the drought, in order to ensure that their needs are met.
This additional funding from Ireland complements support already provided through other channels including through multilateral agencies and pooled funds such as the UN OCHA central emergency response fund, CERF, which has been central to the response in the Horn of Africa and has already provided €143 million in 2022. Ireland is among the top ten donors to the CERF and provides €11.5 million annually. As part of the package we will support critical co-ordination and needs analyses in order to enhance the quality of the collective response. While our immediate priority is to save lives, this funding will also begin to lay the groundwork for longer term resilience and development. It is very much part of our key approach of linking immediate humanitarian response with the development response needed to prevent a recurrence.
In Somalia, for example, a €1 million contribution from Ireland to the International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD, is boosting agricultural productive capacity, food supply chains, and irrigation and domestic water supply. In September 2022, at a high-level event during the UN General Assembly, Ireland pledged to spend €50 million on addressing child wasting over the next three years with 1.5 million
children, nearly half of the under-five population, suffering from malnutrition in Somalia alone.
Meanwhile, our ongoing development funding in the region, from work on food systems to climate mitigation, and peace building, is being complemented by robust political interventions to protect civilians and resolve conflict. We recognise that humanitarian funding alone will not be sufficient to address the complex challenges facing the Horn of Africa and our development programme will look to target the underlying causes and drivers of conflict, instability and food insecurity in the region. We will prioritise actions targeting gender equality, strengthened governance and climate action as well as maintain a focus on food insecurity and malnutrition.
Our funding complements Ireland’s political engagement on the UN Security Council over the past two years where we have taken a leadership role on peace and security in the Horn, including as chair of the Somalia sanctions committee. We have also been to the fore on the council’s engagement on Ethiopia where two years of conflict in the north of the country has had a devastating impact on civilians. In that regard, I strongly welcome the peace agreement reached between the Ethiopian Government and the Tigray authorities. Implementation of all aspects will be key, and securing full humanitarian access to those in need is essential.
Further, as an informal focal point on hunger and conflict and through our work on climate and security at the council, Ireland has galvanised international attention on addressing the underlying causes of food insecurity including conflict, climate change and unsustainable food systems. In all our actions at the council, we have consistently maintained a principled position in line with our priorities of empathy, partnership and independence, and with a focus on addressing the human consequences of conflict and insecurity.
As the committee will be aware, in budget 2023, more than €1.2 billion has been allocated for international development. This is an increase of 17% on 2022 figures and represents an unprecedented investment in Ireland’s overseas development programme. Of this, €75 million will be used to address the humanitarian and other needs in Ukraine and in countries affected by the impact of Russia’s invasion, including in the Horn of Africa. An additional €25 million will be provided as part of the Government’s commitment to more than double our climate finance to €225 million per year by 2025. The vast majority of this will be channelled towards adaptation activities for vulnerable countries, including in the Horn. I should note too the role played by Ireland at COP27, where nationally, and as EU lead on loss and damage, we were central to reaching agreement on a critical new fund to provide finance for the most vulnerable countries suffering loss and damage caused by climate change.
Ireland also continues to work through the EU to address the crisis in the Horn of Africa. On 20 June, the foreign affairs council endorsed the Team Europe pledge of over €600 million for the Horn of Africa. An additional package of emergency aid for the region was recently announced by the EU as part of a new €210 million effort to address food insecurity in 15 countries. Yesterday, at my meeting of the Council of Development Ministers in Brussels I took the opportunity to emphasise not only the experience I have outlined here today but also the necessity for Europe to re-engage and be more involved than it has been to date.
Let me conclude by reiterating that Ireland will remain steadfast in its commitment to tackling the immediate and substantial needs in the Horn of Africa, while also continuing to advocate for sustainable solutions that address the underlying drivers of this crisis. This is in line with our values. It is also in keeping with our interests as global citizens.
