Desert Locust Response and Resilience Building in Ethiopia The humanitarian situation in Ethiopia is complex. The desert locust adds to multiple humanitarian shocks since last year, such recurrent droughts and poor rainfall (e.g. 2015-2018), floods (e.g. 2019 and 2020), conflicts, macroeconomic challenges, vulnerability,  and most recently the global COVID-19 pandemic. 
Two-thirds of the past 12 (67%) rainy seasons have been below average across the target areas. Where above-average rains occurred, flooding has destroyed livelihoods, services and infrastructure, and caused displacement, especially in 2019 and 2020. The poor pastoralists,  agro-pastoralists and farmers in the target areas are not getting the agricultural inputs and technology to ensure household food security. Insecurity, inter-communal violence and military confrontations damaged livelihoods, caused displacement and undermined humanitarian access. The absence of job opportunities for agricultural labor due to loss of crops by desert locust damage and COVID-19 is also undermining food security. Access to food through markets has been compromised due to high inflation rates deterioration of the local currency, and spike in staple foods & essential commodities prices. Despite the gradual ease on movement restrictions, COVID-19 still poses a threat on households’ health and economic capability. Key impacts of COVID-19 include, loss of income earning opportunities, and disrupting trade activities. The desert locust has damaged extensive areas of crops and pasture and browse since 2019, compromising the food security situation for the affected households. The rapid incursion of desert locusts has resulted in significant cropland losses and jeopardized the livelihoods of smallholder farmers who depend on crops. The current desert locust plague poses additional threat to the food security of  millions of people, and likely to add further stress to an already fragile livelihood and food security situation.
According to Updated 2020 Ethiopia Humanitarian Response Plan, an estimated 20.9 million people (current and projected) are facing severe acute food insecurity and in need of assistance in Ethiopia. The updated number of people in need (PIN) due to non-Covid-19 related crises (including new displacements and desert locust affected people) is now 10.6 million persons, and 10.3 million are the projected number of people in need due to COVID-19 pandemic (combined food and health related needs). The underlying cause(s) of food insecurity in the project districts are population pressure, drought, shortage of farmland, weakening food production capacity, poor farming technologies and post-harvest loss outbreak of plant and animal disease, shortage of alternative income. Pastoralists, agro-pastoralists and farmers are heavily dependent on livestock and crop. This strong dependence on one source of income makes them extremely vulnerable. Development goal: Contribute to  8,294 households (49,762 people) in Ethiopia recover from the desert locust invasion and build their preparedness and resilience to shocks and crises

Project objective 1: Households of the targeted communities have rehabilitated from the immediate impacts of the desert locust invasion

Project objective 2: Target communities' adaptive capacity to withstand natural and human-made shocks is enhanced Beneficiaries of the project are youth (females and males),  women and men, poor female headed households, PLW and elders from the poor and vulnerable pastoralists, farmers and agro-pastoralists communities. Overall, 49,762 vulnerable individuals will directly benefit from the proposed project (the average household size is  6). Additional 99524 individuals also will benefit indirectly, bringing the number of direct and indirect beneficiaries to 149,286 individuals.