Due to severe food insecurity brought on by conflict, extreme weather events like the worst drought in 40 years brought on by climate change, rising global food and fuel prices, and the pandemic’s effects, WHO is broadening its operations in eastern Africa.
In eastern Africa, there are over 80 million people who are food insecure and turn to desperate measures to feed their families. Acute malnutrition is widespread, particularly in children.
The region’s health needs, particularly for children, are growing as malnutrition rates rise, and clean water is getting harder to find. People are more vulnerable to disease outbreaks as they leave their homes in search of food because they can no longer access health services.
“The cost of inaction is high,” said Dr Ibrahima Socé Fall, WHO Assistant Director-General for Emergency Response. “While the clear priority is to prevent people from starving, we must simultaneously strengthen our health response to prevent disease and save lives. Even one life lost from a vaccine-preventable disease, diarrhoea, or medical complications from malnutrition in today’s world is one life too many.”
In Nairobi, where WHO held a two-day meeting [26–27 June 2022] to plan its response across the seven countries affected by the health emergency – Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda – and coordinate with other UN agencies and partners, Dr. Fall was speaking.
The primary goals of WHO’s emergency response are to ensure that affected populations have access to basic healthcare services, to treat severely malnourished sick children, and to stop, identify, and contain infectious disease outbreaks.
WHO is establishing a hub in Nairobi from which it will organize the delivery of life-saving medical supplies to where they are most needed and coordinate the response.
These supplies include medications, vaccines, and the equipment and supplies required to treat severely malnourished children.
In addition to providing these vital supplies, WHO is collaborating with the health ministries in the affected nations to establish effective disease surveillance systems that will enable quick detection and response to disease outbreaks.