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Mogadishu, 11 December 2022 – The Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) and the World Health Organization Country Office in Somalia recently signed an agreement to support WHO’s emergency health response to the current drought in the country.
In support of federal and state ministries of health in Somalia, this important contribution will enable WHO to prevent and reduce the adverse health effects of drought on the health of women, children and other vulnerable populations affected by the ongoing drought, one of the worst in recent memory. History.
The contribution from the UK Government will enable WHO to scale up and sustain its integrated health and nutrition interventions in some of the worst-affected, hard-to-reach and inaccessible areas where people have been deprived of basic health and nutrition services for decades. . The delivery of these interventions will support a “first-line integrated response framework” supported by Somalia’s Humanitarian Country Team (HCT). Under the rapid response mechanism of this framework, the 4 life-saving sectors – Health, Nutrition, WASH and Food Security are delivering a set of life-saving interventions in an integrated manner as part of the sector’s ongoing relief assistance to locations where these are vulnerable. Population currently resides. The delivery of these interventions targets women and children among other vulnerable groups, as they are the most affected by this drought.
WHO intends to deliver a portion of these preventive health interventions, such as risk communication, nutrition screening, referral and distribution of micronutrient supplements, including identification of those who are ill and those who have missed routine vaccinations by community health workers, who are mostly women and drawn is from the same communities in which these services will be delivered.
In addition, with this new UK funding, WHO will support the deployment of a number of mobile outreach teams to these areas to support the administration of childhood vaccines, the provision of iron and folic tablets to pregnant women, treatment and full antenatal care of sick referrals. and treatment and care of malnourished children, as well as women and children with common ailments. Improving access to health care and other preventive health and nutrition interventions for this vulnerable population, deprived of basic health services for decades, will mean that every vulnerable child and every woman of childbearing age, including pregnant and lactating women, survives this difficult situation. -To-reach and inaccessible areas will be protected from preventable diseases. Focusing on 16 operational priority districts severely affected by the ongoing drought, WHO expects to reach approximately 2 million people through these integrated health and nutrition activities.
“The situation is critical. Disease and lack of health care are the biggest threats to millions of Somalis affected by drought. WHO’s unique expertise and emergency health response is critical. This new UK support to WHO will save lives and avert drought and its consequences,” said UK Development Director, Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office Somalia Damon Bristow.
In addition, with the support of this funding, WHO will support the conduct of prospective and real-time mortality monitoring by national and international academic institutions to estimate “excess deaths” from all causes attributable to drought, a measure often used to declare droughts. is A proxy for better understanding the effectiveness of humanitarian operational response. Also, as part of this initiative, WHO will continue to collaborate with UNICEF and the World Food Program to support the integrated response framework supported by the HCT.
Appreciating the support provided by the UK Government, WHO Representative in Somalia Dr. Mamunur Rehman Malik said, “As the threat of drought looms large, this timely contribution from the UK will help us save lives among the most vulnerable populations affected by this drought, an unprecedented scale. This support will ensure that we continue to support our community-based health and Sustaining nutrition interventions, including surveillance for the early detection of epidemic-potential diseases in some of the most challenging and operational environments our agency has worked in recently. I also thank the Commonwealth and Development Office overseas for supporting our work on mortality estimates. This is the first time such work on mortality has been undertaken in this country. Data from such estimates will help us and other agencies make evidence-based decisions based on the quality of our response and target areas and populations that are most at risk of dying from hunger, disease and malnutrition in the country. I am very grateful to the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office for their partnership with us to advance health in Somalia. I take this opportunity to express my appreciation.”
For additional information, please contact:
Joey Odero
UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office
Head of Communications for Kenya and Somalia
joy.odero@fcdo.gov.uk
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