Period covered by this Ops Update: 1 June 2013 to 31 December 2013
Appeal target (current): CHF 1,390,816 Appeal coverage: 78%
Appeal history:
This Appeal was originally launched on 28 June 2013 for CHF 1,372,054 to assist 11,000 households for 12 months. An allocation of CHF 150,000 was initially allocated for IFRC’s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) to support the National Society to respond.
Two operations updates have been posted, the first on 15 July 2013, the second on 31 July 2013.
A Revised Emergency Appeal was posted and included the addition of a cash transfer element of NAD 300 (approximately CHF 28) a month, targeting 2,000 households for six months.
Summary:
While the December rains have started to relieve the drought conditions of northern Namibia, relief to the food insecurity and water shortages of the affected communities has only come from government and NGOs assistance programs.
To date, two separate cash distributions of 300 NAD have reached over 1000 rural households. This has helped them help meet their basic food needs as well as to prevent them from resorting to more severe negative coping strategies. To date, approximately 190,000 meals have been served to the most vulnerable children, mothers and elderly served by Red Cross volunteers. Through hygiene promotion and the distribution of jerry cans, water dispenser, water purifiers and soap, 19,422 people now have access to clean water for drinking and cooking.
The WASH rapid assessment indicated that access to water is a significant need for the drought affected areas. This appeal has purchased the motorised pump assemblies to rehabilitate 5 priority water points and is assessing 3 more for a similar solution. The NRCS through a bilateral agreement with UNICEF has begun the distribution of water tanks to schools to improve their capacity to store clean water at schools and health centres. This appeal has funded the transportation and volunteer allowances for many of these activities. It also supports this key sector by deploying two separate Regional Disaster Response Team members. Their responsibilities include the implementation of hygiene training and WASH distributions.
To date, cash contributions have been received by American Red Cross, European Commission – DG ECHO, Japanese Red Cross Society, Luxembourg Government, Red Cross of Monaco, Swedish Red Cross, The Canadian Red Cross Society (from the Canadian Government), and The Netherlands Red Cross and USAID. What appears as a slow rate of spending on this appeal may due in part to a lengthy process of invoicing and payment delays exacerbated by slow finance reporting from the unstaffed regional offices. There are a few variances between the budget and expenses on this appeal. Firstly, the construction materials bought were used to reinforce the foundation of the housing structure. Therefore, this amount can be reallocated to Shelter and Relief. The items under the sections Utensils and Tools, and Other supplies and services were used for water, sanitation and hygiene promotion activities, and therefore should fall under WASH in the budget. Road transportation of tarpaulins form Walvis Bay port involved higher costs than anticipated, as did logistic services costs. The costs for volunteers in the budget were unfortunately also under budgeted. Lastly, financial charges were higher than anticipated due to bank charges and currency losses.