The East and Horn of Africa (EHoA) region experiences rising humanitarian needs and displacement, driven by a combination of instability, conflict, climate shocks, acute food insecurity and widening inequality. In 2022, an estimated 43.8 million people in the EHoA region required humanitarian assistance. 

As the leading UN agency working on migration, we are committed to saving lives and helping populations move out of harm’s way. We protect and assist those displaced or stranded by crisis, and support populations and their communities to recover. We work to mitigate adverse drivers that force people from their homes, help build resilience and focus on reducing disaster risk so that movement and migration can be a choice.

Drought Response

The 2019-2023 drought in the Horn of Africa has surpassed the devastating droughts in 2010-2011 and 2016-2017, both in duration and severity, and is estimated to continue to deepen in the months ahead, with catastrophic consequences. With five consecutive failed rainy seasons and a likely sixth one in 2023, the region is facing its most severe drought in the last 40 years.

More than 16.3 million people cannot access enough water for drinking, cooking and cleaning across the Horn of Africa, including 8.5 million in Ethiopia, 5.2 million in Somalia and 2.6 million in Kenya, with has led to increasing needs for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), nutrition and health assistance. Additionally, protection risks, such as gender-based violence (GBV), have been exacerbated due to the drought, with women and girls having to walk longer distances to access water. 

IOM integrates the delivery of early recovery approaches and peacebuilding programming, strengthening the resilience of drought-affected communities in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia based on IOM’s Humanitarian Development Peace Nexus (HDPN) approach.   

Preparedness (before crisis)

At the preparedness stage, IOM works:

• With a well-coordinated network of partners, in addition to, IOM's Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM), to detect early signs of crises, such as climatic shocks or insecurity, and subsequent trends in displacement.
• In partnership with humanitarian partners to correctly identify risks and needs of populations in need.
• With several early warning systems, including government’s Multi-hazard Early Warning Centre. Information sharing is also a vital part of preparing vulnerable populations to crises.
• With communities to conduct a wide range of hygiene and health sensitization and awareness campaigns.
• With local vendors for our cash-based interventions that allows for e-cards to be activated and distributed immediately to affected communities. Supply-chain scalability and the pre-positioning of emergency relief items in high-risk areas allow for on-demand activation during a crisis.

Rapid Response (during crisis)

At the onset of a humanitarian emergency, IOM responds immediately by tracking the event, identifying the needs, and mobilizing field teams directly or implementing partners to meet the needs of the affected populations.

• DTM’s Emergency Event Tracking (EET) mechanism tracks sudden population movements, while conducting multi-sector needs assessments. This allows for teams to enhance their coordination to deliver immediate life-saving services, such as medicine, water trucking, emergency shelter kits, essential, and hygiene kits, whether in-kind or via a cash-based modality.
• To ensure accountability to the affected communities IOM operates a complaints and feedback mechanisms that is operational both prior to and throughout an emergency response 

Shock Resilience (post-crisis)

Once the humanitarian emergency has subsided, IOM works to build resilience in the affected communities so that the crisis can be averted in the future. This includes:

• Development of public land for displaced populations facing evictions.
• Flood mitigation through installation of drainage and berm construction.
• Infrastructure such as boreholes for durable water supplies.
• Sanitation facilities such as latrines and handwashing stations.
• Economic resiliency and livelihoods such as value chains and markets through cash-based interventions, skill training, women’s markets, and livestock support.