FOOD CRISIS IN THE HORN OF AFRICA - Oxfam International

distribution. Where shallow wells can be dug or
cleaned out, Oxfam can pay communities to dig
them. Trucking water is expensive and is used
only as a short-term measure, so water might be
trucked to communities while a local supply is
found or a pipeline is run in from another source.
Sanitation and hygiene promotion activities
were largely restricted to camps for internally
displaced people and places where displaced
people were crowded together. The link between
poor hygiene and malnutrition is strong in
overcrowded environments, especially where
people are used to living in more spacious rural
environments. The risks of disease are high, as
diarrhea inhibits the absorption of food and can
set off a downward spiral of physical decline
which can kill very young, old, or sick people.
The sprawling settlements along the Afgoye
corridor constitute a huge displacement camp,
where partners’ public health teams have been
constantly employed in siting and maintaining
latrines, mobilizing community groups to
run campaigns promoting good hygiene and
awareness of the most serious diseases, such
as cholera, and distributing basic hygiene items
like soap.
Given that WASH is one of Oxfam’s principal
professional competencies, it was frustrating not
to be able to provide the level of direct technical
support desired. However, Oxfam carried out
detailed monitoring of its partners’ activities,
which included water quantity and quality,
physical facilities, latrine coverage, what essential
hygiene items had been distributed, how the
needs of men and women had been specifically
met, and how the beneficiary communities had
been involved in the whole process.
Over the first nine months of this response,
Oxfam supported more than 980,000 people
in Somalia specifically with clean water- and
health-related activities.
Why give cash in a famine?
In areas where there is some food production
or there are existing trade routes bringing it in,
Oxfam always advocates giving people cash to
enable them to buy their own food, rather than
taking on food distributions of its own. Contrary
to what the term ‘famine’ implies, in Somalia’s
case the problem was not that there was no food
available: markets were still functioning, selling
local and imported food – but at high prices.
Oxfam therefore took the decision to inject cash
into the economy, giving the most vulnerable
households the wherewithal to buy what they
needed. The organization worked with partners
in Juba, Gedo, Lower and Middle Shabelle, Hiran,
Banadir, and Mogadishu to identify beneficiaries,
prioritizing families with highly malnourished
children and female-headed households. Then it
used local remittance companies to manage the
disbursements of cash, in amounts of between
Oxfam partner Hijra has
been providing safe
drinking water, sanitation
facilities, and public
health advice, to over one
hundred thousand people
living in makeshift camps.
Part of this involves setting
up street signs promoting
good hygiene practice.
Photo: Caroline Gluck.
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