Lifesaving Emergency Shelter and Non-Food Items Response for El-Nino Affected IDPs and Scabies Affected Population The projection in the HRD 2016 mid-year review within the ES/NFI sector maintains the original projection of 821,400 people displaced due to flooding, drought and conflict. The National Flood Contingency Plan for the Kiremt 2016 projects 92,071 households in need of ES/NFI assistance. The current gap in ES/NFI projected by the cluster for the remainder of 2016 is 66,000 kits and existing ES/NFI cluster pipeline kits are expected to be exhausted on flood response in the current Kiremt rainy season with peak displacement anticipated in late September/October. Even though, the level of internal displacement and needs of ES/NFI are in line with the projected needs for 2016, the funding gap remains at 52% to adequately meet the needs. Therefore, the ES/NFI cluster will need to procure and distribute at least 66,000 ES/NFI kits and an additional prepositioning of 25,000 buffer kits to ensure timely assistance.  

In response to this critical gap, IOM through this project will aim at procuring, distributing, and prepositioning a total of 10,000 ES/NFI kits (3,000 distributed during project period, 7,000 pre-positioned in key locations) and an alternative pilot cash assistance in areas of displacement where there is proved advantage to tailor an immediate cash based assistance and available market access that can sustain their needs. In addition, IOM will continue to track internal displacements through Protection Enhanced Displacement Tracking Matrix (PE-DTM) programming on timely basis to be able to collect, analyze and report on internal displacements to facilitate coordination and collaboration for timeliness and adequacy of assistance to IDPs.

Moreover, a joint scabies assessment was conducted in July 2016 by UNICEF, WHO and IOM in all four affected regions. The assessment revealed that, there was a notable reduction of Scabies in both Amhara (reported 21,789 cases) and Tigray Region (reported 563 cases) and no requirement in Oromia and SNNP regions. However, Amhara and Tigray Regional Health Bureaus requested for continued assistance to address the residual caseload in Health, WASH and NFI sectors. Based on the assessment, the scabies coordination forum revised the operational plan by reducing the target number to a total of 22,352 cases identified since June, representing roughly 5% of the 402,470 cases that were identified initially between September 2015 and May 2016.

In line with the scabies coordination forum revised operational plan, IOM plans to respond to the residual caseload in Amhara and Tigray regions targeting a total of 11,444 beneficiaries. The revised beneficiary numbers reflect the target percentages contained in the original response plan with 28% of total cases reflecting children under 5, elderly and persons with disabilities (6,283 targeted for clothing and bedding) and 23% of total cases reflecting reproductive age girls and women between 15-49 years of age (5,161 targeted for hygiene kits).

This proposed re-programming project aims to utilize unspent balance of scabies funding to address the lifesaving Emergency Shelter and Non-Food Items (ES/NFI) needs of drought, flood and conflict affected displaced persons in Ethiopia whose coping capacity have deteriorated due to the combined effects of El Nino and La Nina weather conditions. The project will also launch a pilot cash assistance initiative and support the on-going PE-DTM programming. At the same time, the proposed project will address the residual but significantly decreasing NFI needs related to the scabies outbreak as per the findings of the latest joist scabies assessment findings.