Horn of Africa Two Years On Report: Response and Resilience in East Africa

In 2011, in the midst of the devastating Horn of Africa drought, Save the Children launched the largest ever multi-country humanitarian response covering three countries: Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, the most severely impacted by the drought. Thousands of women, men, boys and girls were pushed to the brink of starvation and tens of thousands died. Since then, Save the Children has been working to help those affected by the crisis with food, water, healthcare, and nutritional support, as well as education and child protection. Two years on, Save the Children’s emergency response interventions across the three countries have reached a total of 4.5 million people (2.9 million in Ethiopia alone, over 650,000 in Kenya and over 950,000 in Somalia).

The East African region shows a slow recovery in 2013 from the 2011/12 drought and associated loss of life, extreme hunger, malnutrition, impact on health, and loss of livelihoods. This recovery remains fragile. In Somalia, due to ongoing conflict and an unstable political environment, more than 1 million people remain in a state of crisis and extreme vulnerability. Building resilience is a priority for Save the Children and implies a substantial shift in both ways of working and in strategic priorities, from crisis to risk management. Over the last two years Save the Children has continually improved the humanitarian system to better prepare for, mitigate the impact of, and respond to crisis.  .