UNICEF RESPONDED TO THE IMMEDIATE HUMANITARIAN NEEDS CHILDREN AND WOMEN AFFECTED BY THE 2007 FLOOD AND CYCLONE EMERGENCIES
- UNICEF helped meet the basic needs of over 107,000 flood-affected people sheltered in accommodation centres along the Zambezi River Basin
- UNICEF supported over 35,000 people with basic shelter items in the cyclone affected areas of Inhambane Province
- UNICEF urgently requires US$ 5.7 million for preparation and response to the upcoming rainy season
1. ISSUES FOR CHILDREN AND WOMEN
In recent years, Mozambique has made encouraging strides in reducing its crippling poverty levels and is making gradual progress towards benchmarks set by the national Action Plan for the Reduction of Absolute Poverty (PARPA) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Nevertheless, Mozambique remains one of the least developed countries in the world, ranking 168 out of 177 countries on the 2005 Human Development Index, mainly due to the country’s chronic state of vulnerability and humanitarian crisis.
There are several factors impacting the persistent chronic vulnerability and humanitarian conditions in Mozambique. First, the country is still attempting to rebuild after more than a decade of civil war which decimated the infrastructure of basic social services. The rapidly escalating HIV/AIDS pandemic is weakening national capacities and considerably slowing the rate of development. Mozambique is also threatened by natural disasters including seasonal floods, cyclones and prolonged droughts, disrupting livelihoods and services, and exhausting limited coping mechanisms and exacerbating population vulnerabilities -- especially for women and children.
While the latest assessments indicate that overall national food security and nutrition have improved, households have not fully recovered from persistent drought conditions in the south of the country and will continue to experience humanitarian conditions. Preliminary results from the latest Vulnerability Assessment Committee (VAC) exercise indicate that flood and cyclone affected families in parts of the Zambezi River Basin and in the Province of Vilanculos will not have the capacity to recover from the shocks caused by the 2007 floods and cyclones – and will require continued humanitarian assistance.
Vulnerable populations face the constant threat of cholera outbreaks due to the poor availability of clean water and sanitation facilities. Diarrhoea resulting from water-borne diseases is still a major child killer, with a prevalence of 14 per cent among under-five children. Poor access to clean water affects women and girls directly as they are responsible for collecting most of the domestic water at the household level – leaving less time for school attendance and childcare. Nutritional problems are the underlying cause of almost 50 per cent of all child deaths in Mozambique: of an estimated 715,000 children born every year, about 89,000 will die before reaching age one and an additional 39,000 will die before reaching age five. Malaria is responsible for the majority of child deaths in the country.
Education activities are often threatened by natural disasters, most notably seasonal floods and drought. National and sub-national education authorities are missing the resources and the capacity to quickly resume educational activities after an emergency in order to return some normalcy to the lives of children affected.
In 2006, the number of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS was estimated at 380,000. This figure is expected to increase to 630,000 by the year 2010. Orphaned children are becoming more and more vulnerable as extended families are unable to meet their basic needs, particularly in areas where the worst humanitarian conditions prevail.