The revised hotspot woredas list (December 2016) classified 34 additional hotspot woredas as compared with the last classification which took place in July 2016. Of the 192 hotspot woredas, 67 are found in the Somali region, 43 are in Oromia, nine are in SNNP and 23 are in Afar region. 
UNICEF has procured 200,000 tubes of scabies treatment cream permethrin 5 per cent, and 200,000 more tubes are in the pipeline. A total of 750,000 tubes have been procured by UNICEF since early 2016. 
In Somali region, with UNICEF support, the Regional Water Bureau (RWB) deployed a mobile maintenance team (three more teams to be deployed soon) to accelerate the rehabilitation of boreholes. UNICEF is supporting the RWB in the rehabilitation of 56 non-functional boreholes across the region. 
In January, a new influx of 3,062 asylum seekers from Somalia arrived in Ethiopia. The asylum seekers are fleeing conflict compounded by food insecurity. 

The Humanitarian Requirements Document (HRD) for 2017 was launched on 17 January in Addis Ababa and communicates the humanitarian situation in Ethiopia and the humanitarian needs for 2017. The HRD is based on the meher harvest assessment, which shows that normal 2016 meher rains (June to September) produced good harvests from November 2016. For this reason, the number of people that require food assistance decreased to 5.6 million from 10.2 million in 2016. The HRD also gives an overview of needs across other sectors including education, health, nutrition, protection and water and sanitation. 

The estimated number of children that require treatment for severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in 2017 is 303,000 plus the 2.7 million children and pregnant and lactating women in need of treatment for moderate acute. The WASH cluster will target 9.2 million people, and the health cluster will target 4.37 million people for provision of access to essential health services and for prevention against communicable disease outbreaks. In addition, 2 million children are expected to benefit from school feeding programme and provision of school materials in order to continue their education. Children affected by drought will also be assisted to prevent child separation, labour and abuse. 

Failed rains in pastoral areas from late September to December due to the IOD (Indian Ocean Dipole) caused a new drought in the Horn of Africa (HoA). The HoA drought is affecting pastoralist and agro-pastoralist communities in Bale, Borena, Guji, and East Hararghe zones of the Oromia region, nine out of 11 zones in the Somali region, as well as Gamo Gofa, Segen and South Omo zones of the SNNP region. Of the 5.6 million people targeted for food aid in the 2017 HRD, 74 per cent (4.2 million) are found in these three regions. Acute water shortages, poor harvests in agro pastoral areas, lack of pasture for livestock, and decrease in milk production are negatively affecting food security. Moreover, increased competition over scarce resources, in particular pasture and water, is increasing tensions among communities in drought affected areas. 
To strengthen the coordination of drought response in the Somali region and southern parts of Oromia and SNNP regions, the National Disaster Risk Management Commission (NDRMC) announced the immediate establishment of an incident command post. Afar Region is also experiencing a drought situation following the absence of rains during the dedda’a (3-6 days) rainy season in December. However, ongoing (mid-February) spring rains in most parts of Afar could alleviate the drought situation. 

The impact of the drought is serious with increasing rates of malnutrition among children, a high number of children dropping out of school, severe water shortages as well as a large number of livestock deaths. Large scale population movements in many parts of the region are also being reported since end-December 2016 with people settling around water points. It is currently estimated that there are 24,400 families, mainly from pastoralist communities, who have settled around water points. Living conditions of these temporarily displaced people are often inadequate, vaccination coverage among children is very low and widespread open defecation poses a risk of disease outbreaks. 
The number of displaced people is rapidly increasing as the migration in search of water for people and livestock continues. Humanitarian partners, including UNICEF, have scaled up their response in the region. 
The current meteorological outlook for Ethiopia does not suggest an improvement of the drought situation in the next few months. According to the National Meteorological Agency’s outlook for the belg 2017 season (February to May), below normal rainfall is expected in the southern and south-eastern parts of the country, which may further limit the availability of water and pasture in these areas. 
The current drought is also affecting Ethiopia’s neighbouring countries, in particular Somalia. UNHCR is reporting an increasing influx of refugees across the Dollo Ado border into Ethiopia. According to UNHCR reports, in January 2017, a total of 3,092 refugees arrived in the country, 108 people per day on average. UNHCR advises there is a high probability of an increase in refugees from Somalia as the drought situation in the country is expected to deteriorate. 
Children constitute 72 per cent of the new arrivals while children and women together account for 88 per cent of the new arrivals. Available statistics indicate high prevalence of acute malnutrition among the newly arriving children. The new refugees are being provided with food, water, sanitation and health services. UNICEF is also supporting UNHCR to ensure that refugees receive adequate preventive and curative nutrition services. In addition, South Sudanese refugees continue to arrive to Ethiopia with 3,189 new arrivals in January 2017. Ethiopia hosts the fifth largest refugee population in the world, and second largest in Africa with 793,321 refugees in the country. The majority of the refugees are South Sudanese (42.7 per cent), Somalis (30.4 per cent), Eritreans (20.8 per cent) and Sudanese (5 per cent). 
 The HRD is based on a multi-sectoral, multi-agency needs assessment which was undertaken in November-December 2016 in all regions of the country. Led by the Government, representatives from various governmental agencies, NGOs, UN agencies and donors participated. The HRD forms the basis for humanitarian partners to respond to prioritized sectoral needs as detailed in the document. The NDRMC will lead the monitoring of progress of the humanitarian assistance to affected people against targets set out in the HRD. To this end, a programme monitoring report is prepared on a quarterly basis. 
There are currently a number of UN agencies and NGOs that are supporting the Government-led humanitarian response. The Government of Ethiopia’s NDRMC leads the overall humanitarian coordination through the federal and regional level Disaster Risk Management Technical Working Groups (DRMTWGs) and brings together various taskforces and sector cluster partners to coordinate drought, flood and other arising emergency response efforts. 
Together with the Government of Ethiopia, UNICEF continues to provide cluster leadership for WASH, nutrition and co-leadership with Save the Children International in education. UNICEF is also sub-cluster co-leadership with UNFPA for child protection and gender based violence and plays a key role in the health cluster coordination. 

In line with its Core Commitments for Children in Humanitarian Action, UNICEF is supporting the Government of Ethiopia to achieve priorities one and three. UNICEF is working with all partners to ensure that children have access to health and nutrition care, education, child protection and safe water, sanitation and hygiene services during emergencies. - Ongoing support is provided to community resilience-building efforts aimed at reducing the vulnerability of women and children. - In drought-affected pastoralist areas, UNICEF is supporting Mobile Health and Nutrition Teams (MHNTs) to provide access to life-saving health and nutrition services. - UNICEF and partners are supporting the Ministry of Health in the prevention and control of diseases, including scabies, measles, meningitis, and acute watery diarrhoea (AWD). - UNICEF is supporting the treatment of severely acutely malnourished children through the community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) programme. - In addition, UNICEF is complementing life-saving WASH interventions with the establishment and rehabilitation of water sources and the dissemination of water treatment chemicals as well as sanitation and hygiene information. - UNICEF supports the Government to provide education for crisis affected children as well as minimum packages for child protection in emergencies. 

In order to be able to respond to any rapid onset crisis in a timely manner, UNICEF prepositioned non-food item (NFI) stocks for 120,000 people in Addis Ababa and at two regional hubs. These supplies are being used to provide immediate assistance to drought and flood affected populations based on requests from regional governments and other partners. UNICEF established long-term agreements with suppliers of key emergency supplies and for drilling shallow boreholes, which enable scaling up quick responses if needed. 
In the refugee response context, UNICEF supports UNHCR and the Government of Ethiopia’s Administration for Refugees and Returnees Affairs (ARRA) to spearhead emergency response coordination. The partnership is based on a new Memorandum of Understanding which was signed in 2016 between the two sister agencies and a tripartite agreement signed in 2007 with ARRA and UNHCR to establish a framework of collaboration for the delivery of services and assistance for refugees. 

In 2016, 1,690 additional therapeutic feeding sites for the treatment of children with SAM were established, bringing the total to 16,687 sites throughout the country. From January to December 2016, 320,883 children with SAM (89 per cent reporting rate) were treated under the CMAM programme. Among these children, 25,114 had medical complications and were admitted in stabilization centres. UNICEF supported the establishment of treatment sites through the provision of supplies, training of health workers as well as technical support. 
December 2016 admissions (23,836) showed a slight decrease at national level compared to 24,710 in November 2016 (Figure 1). However, in regional areas affected by the current IOD-induced drought, admissions have increased or remained high. 
 While the meher assessment conducted by the Government and partners informed that the food and nutrition situation is likely to improve in agrarian highlands in 2017; Somali, Afar, and southern and eastern parts of Oromia and SNNP populations are experiencing increasing malnutrition trends due to the IOD-induced drought. 
In December 2016, the revised hotspot woredas list was released. As compared to the July 2016 classification, 34 additional woredas are classified as hotspot. While the number of hotspot 1 woredas decreased by 7 per cent, the number of hotspot woredas 2 and 3 increased by 13 and 46 per cent, respectively. Of the 192 hotspot 1 woredas, 67 are found in Somali region, 43 are in Oromia, nine are in SNNP and 23 are in Afar regions. The regular revision of hotspot woredas classification is intended to guide nutrition partners and other stakeholders to prioritize resource allocation and implement and strengthen emergency nutrition responses. The classification of woredas as “hotspot” is based on indicators including food insecurity, malnutrition levels, availability of water and other vulnerability factors. 
Priority 1 woredas require the most urgent interventions. 
In response to the IOD-induced drought in the southern zones of the Somali region, the Government is planning to open 100 additional therapeutic feeding sites for the treatment of children with SAM in the first quarter of 2017. To support the establishment of these treatment units, UNICEF has dispatched therapeutic food, milk, treatment sites opening kits, stabilization centre treatment kits and drugs. All centres will be staffed by one to two health workers trained on CMAM and infant and young child feeding in emergencies (IYCF-E). 
In December 2016, UNICEF supported ad hoc mass screening in all priority 1 woredas including in Somali region. 
UNICEF also deployed 32 CMAM monitors to provide quality assurance of nutrition services in all regions. Sixteen of these 32 CMAM monitors are currently deployed in drought affected regions, five in Somali, four in Afar, three in SNNP and four in Oromia regions. 

The AWD outbreak that started in November 2015 has declined significantly across the country (Figure 2). AWD remains of concern in two zones of Somali region, Korahe and Jarar, though there is a significant reduction in the trend for the last week of January. However, sporadic and suspected cases continue to be reported in other regions (including Afar, Oromia, SNNP and Tigray) and monitoring and prevention activities continue. In Afar, a team composed of the Federal Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization conducted supportive supervision and monitoring to Buremudayto and Dubti Sugar project areas and provided technical assistance on case management as well as AWD prevention and control measures. UNICEF also supported the Afar Regional Health Bureau to provide training on AWD case management and infection prevention to 60 health workers. 
 Scabies cases are still being reported with increasing incidence in SNNP and Amhara regions. Oromia and Tigray regions continue to report a low number of cases. UNICEF is procuring Permethrin to support the response. 200,000 tubes of permethrin (5 per cent) have already been procured while additional 200,000 tubes are in the pipeline. A total of 750,000 tubes have been procured by UNICEF since early 2016. 
UNICEF provides support to 49 MHNTs in Somali and Afar regions to provide essential health and nutrition services to drought affected communities. UNICEF continues to provide supplies and technical support to these teams. While maintaining these 49 teams, discussions are ongoing to amend service delivery modalities for the expected scaling up of interventions in response to the Horn of Africa drought. The proposed new modality aims for increased woreda- led, community-based, and system-linked outreach services to ensure sustainability and strengthening of the health delivery system. 
UNICEF continues to support vaccination screening at refugee camp entry points, providing South Sudanese refugee children arriving in Ethiopia with polio and measles vaccinations. In January, 3,554 children aged 6 months to 14 years were vaccinated against measles, and 3,820 children aged 0 to 15 years were vaccinated polio. Since September 2016, the total number of children vaccinated against measles and polio is 39,958 and 43,016, respectively. 
In Nguenyiel refugee camp, 943 refugees (of which 550 were children under five) received clinical consultation at the ARRA Health Centre, including through UNICEF supported emergency drug kits. The Nguenyiel refugee camp was established in October 2016 following the new influx of South Sudanese refuges. The camp is currently at 50 per cent capacity with 27,037 residents. 

The drought situation in the southern and south-eastern regions of the country has become serious. The drought is compounded by poor water infrastructure. Even where water points and schemes exist, it is estimated that 38 per cent are non-functional. As surface water and rivers have dried, motorized water schemes face repeated damage due to overpressure. As a result, humanitarian WASH partners are undertaking maintenance and rehabilitation of existing water schemes in addition to emergency water trucking interventions. 

In Oromia, the number of required water trucks has increased to 251 from 146 during the last reporting period. The Oromia Water, Mines and Energy Bureau (OWMEB) and UNICEF (supporting 58 trucks) have deployed 124 trucks which provide safe water to an estimated 310,000 people. UNICEF also supported the OWMEB to rehabilitate and maintain 15 water supply schemes. 

In Somali region, with UNICEF support, the RWB deployed a mobile maintenance team to accelerate the rehabilitation of boreholes. Three additional maintenance teams are planned to be deployed. UNICEF is supporting the RWB in the rehabilitation of 56 non-functional boreholes across the region. 
In SNNP region, 12 water trucks were deployed with RWB to support most affected woredas: Male, Benatsemay, Hamer, Selamago, Konso, Zala, Tembaro, Halaba and Alicho Woriro as well as Dila town. However, RWB faces a critical shortage of operational budget to continue water trucking in affected areas and is preparing to request additional support from the Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Electricity and UNICEF. Eleven additional water trucks are urgently needed to respond to the WASH emergency in South Omo, Gamo Gofa and in Segen zones. 

The Government and education partners estimate that more than 2 million children are affected by the drought and will be targeted in 2017 for school feeding and educational material support. The Ministry of Education (MoE) has finalized the planning process to start an emergency school feeding programme for 1,122,555 school children in drought affected areas of the country. The programme will benefit 842,179 students in Somali, Oromia and SNNP (Somali: 126,904, Oromia: 404,969 and SNNP: 310,306) regions. The Government has allocated 198,608,070 ETB (US$8.7 million) for the programme. 
In January 2017, UNICEF undertook an assessment of the education situation in Somali region. Findings show that, while temporarily displaced families would like to send their children to school, their primary concern is the provision of food and water. UNICEF is planning to provide access to education to these children. 
UNICEF provided eight tents for the establishment of temporary learning spaces in Nguenyiel refugee camp, Gambella for South Sudanese refugee children. 

Child protection issues remain an area of great concern as the drought situation prevails. Families are bound to migrate leading to migration associated child protection challenges including separation, child labour and abuse. 
UNICEF has targeted 61 woredas in Afar, Amhara, Oromia, Somali and Tigray regions affected by the drought. The five regional bureaus, with UNICEF support, established child friendly spaces where trained social workers are providing recreational activities to prevent distress and enhance the psychological wellbeing of children. In 2016, UNICEF and its partners have reached 65,187 children with critical child protection in emergencies interventions. 

In response to temporarily displaced families, the Ethiopian Red Cross Society (ERCS), in partnership with UNICEF, is distributing 10,528 NFI kits to drought displaced families in Afar, SNNP and Somali regions. These kits include shelter material, blankets, sleeping mats and kitchen utensils. 

In a continued effort to curb the spread of AWD, communication for development (C4D) has been instrumental to provide information to the public and to bring about positive behavioural change. To this end, UNICEF has signed a project cooperation agreement with the ERCS which targets religious celebrations for social mobilization activities. In January 2017, ERCS conducted social mobilization activities in Lalibela, Amhara, where Ethiopian Christmas was celebrated in the presence of some 500,000 people from all over the country. The ERCS disseminated messages on AWD using audio vans, documentary film and drama shows and distributed 10,000 information, education and communication materials from 1 to 8 January 2017. These public gatherings pose a threat for the transmission of AWD due to the large number of people which stay for up to one week in the absence of water and appropriate sanitation facilities. 
UNICEF conducted a two-day training in January 2017 for 26 ERCS staff members on emergency preparedness, response and communication. ERCS is one of UNICEF’s key partners for the successful control of AWD in affected regions. This training provided participants with the necessary skills and systems for strategic C4D planning, response and monitoring. 
 In light of the evolving humanitarian situation, UNICEF Ethiopia has developed a response plan for 2017 and is mobilizing resources necessary to implement the response plan. 
Through its Humanitarian Action for Children (HAC) for 2017, UNICEF Ethiopia requests US$110.5 million to reach women and children that continue to be affected by the El Niño-induced drought as well as women and children affected by the current Horn of Africa drought in the southern and south eastern pastoral areas. UNICEF is currently using carry-over of funds from 2016 and multi-year funds. UNICEF is calling for an urgent fundraising effort to be able to address immediate needs of affected people and vulnerable groups, such as internally displaced people. 
Out of the US$110.5 million, US$93.1 million will be to respond to people affected by drought while US$17.38 million will be to support refugee response. US$13.58 million will go to respond to South Sudanese refugees. 
In 2017, UNICEF Ethiopia received US$2.5 million from the UNOCHA-managed Emergency Humanitarian Fund. 


