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Press Release

1 March 2006

Benn: Further £15 million for drought response in Kenya

Drought-hit Kenya is set to receive a further £15 million in humanitarian assistance from the UK, International Development Secretary, Hilary Benn, announced in the House of Commons today.

The funding includes £10 million for the World Food Programme (WFP), to help buy and deliver food rations for around 223,000 of the most vulnerable people for 6 months.

It also includes £2 million which will support a larger United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) programme to provide: emergency feeding for 73,000 malnourished children under 5, and 7,200 pregnant and nursing mothers; and emergency healthcare for over 460,000 children. The remaining £3 million will be support further emergency assistance through non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

The most recent estimates from the Government of Kenya and the United Nations (UN) suggest that 3.5 million people are in need of emergency assistance. Today’s announcement brings the total UK contribution in response to the drought in Kenya to £21.7 million - spent on food aid, water supplies and emergency health - since December 2005.

Speaking in Parliament, Hilary Benn said:

“The drought in Kenya, and across the horn of Africa, is having a terrible effect. The increased UK contribution in response, which I’m announcing today, will help to provide food and emergency healthcare to the areas that desperately need it.

“Having recently visited Kenya and seen the effects of this crisis myself, I urge others in the international community to contribute quickly, and help save the lives of those at risk.

“But the current emergency must not mask the underlying causes of hunger in Kenya. Food aid is vital in saving lives in an emergency – but alone, it will not prevent another crisis happening.

“Each drought increases the number of people facing hunger over the long term. That’s why we are trying to break this cycle by looking at providing safety nets – timely, adequate and guaranteed payments – on a regular basis to the neediest. This can offer poor families an opportunity to escape destitution.”

The UK has now provided £35.9 million in the last year in response to the drought in the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and Eritrea), and is the second largest bilateral donor after the US.

The UN estimates that 7.4 million people are now in need of urgent humanitarian assistance in the Horn of Africa, with 17.75 million people suffering from food shortages in the region as a whole (Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia and Kenya).

The effects of drought are also being felt in Burundi, where the Department for International Development is providing £3 million to the WFP to deliver food aid to 1.5 million people. DFID has also provided £700,000 to help WFP provide assistance for over 500,000 people in Tanzania.

DFID is also helping to tackle the long-term causes of chronic hunger in the region. For example, we have committed £70 million over three years to Ethiopia’s "Productive Safety Nets" programme - which aims to tackle these problems before crises occur. This helped 5 million people in 2005 and aims to help 8.29 million people in 2006, and nearly 9 million people in 2007.

For further information, contact DFID Press Office on 020 7023 0600, e-mail pressoffice@dfid.gov.uk or call our Public Enquiries Point on 0845 300 4100.

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