The worst desert locust outbreak in decades is underway in East and the Greater Horn of Africa. According to experts, this is the worst outbreak in over 25 years in Ethiopia and Somalia and the worst observed in over 70 years in Kenya (The Guardian, April 2020).

Already, over 11.9 million people in the region are already experiencing severe acute food insecurity due to erratic/poor rains, floods, conflict, and the effects of border restriction brought about by COVID-19 pandemic within the five countries. The desert locust crisis poses an additional potential threat to the food security of another 20.1 million (FAO, January 2020).

Recent floods across the Horn and East Africa have created favourable breeding conditions for the desert locust. These conditions have allowed breeding to continue until July 2020 and the favourable conditions could lead to 500 times more locusts (according to FAO.

ACT Forums in Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda have consolidated a regional appeal in response to the Desert Locust Invasion.

Horn & East Africa_ Desert Locust Response (HEA201)

The Government of Lebanon declared a two-week state of emergency in Beirut after the Port explosion on August 4,2020. While Lebanon is already struggling from the financial crisis, economic contractions and the USD devaluation, and hosting large number of refugees, this explosion came to deepen the crises and put extra pressure on both the Lebanese population, the Lebanese government, and the refugee communities.

The explosion at Beirut Port caused widespread damage reaching more than 20 km from the port area.  Official reports estimate that more than 250 people were killed, around a 100 still missing, over 5,000 injured, and more than 300,000 people left homeless in the Greater Beirut area/Mount Lebanon.

RRF06- Beirut Explosion

On the morning of Thursday 12 to 14 March 2020, the country of Egypt was aggressively attacked by rainfall caused flooding in multiple populated areas (Eleven governorates in Egypt), causing massive property damages and loss of human life.

ACT local national member BLESS response will be providing immediate relief through the cash distribution to 60 houses in (6) affected communities, accompanied with hygiene promotion and awareness raising of flood safety and environment.

RRF03-Floods Emergency in Egypt

In just eleven weeks from January through to mid-March 2020, the outbreak of COVID-19 has progressed from a discrete outbreak in one Chinese city, to clusters of cases in many countries, through to a pandemic with most countries reporting cases, and many countries experiencing significant outbreaks. The current context in many countries is such that urban agglomerations and informal settlements have grown tremendously (e.g. Delhi, Kolkata, Dhaka, Manila, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Sao Paolo), and mega-camps have been maintained to cope with massive and protracted displacements (e.g. Darfur, Dadaab, Zaatari, Cox’s Bazar). In addition, people on the move (e.g., Venezuela, Central America, Turkey-Greece border, Syria-Turkey border, Sahel, etc.) are a major vulnerable group, with infections expected to rise exponentially when COVID-19 hits small shelters and holding/detention centers.

ACT Alliance Secretariat and members have established coordination mechanisms at the global, regional and national levels. ACT Forums/Forum Members are working on developing a Global Appeal that is largely grounded on the overall principles set out by the IASC in the Global Humanitarian Response Plan to respond to the emerging needs and aid the development and implementation of COVID-19 programs with a budget of USD 12,000,000.

COVID-19 Global ACT Appeal – updated

Annex 2 – Summary of Country Contexts and ACT Capacity

Call for Proposals – ACT COVID-19 Appeal

COVID 19 RRF Template

Summary of Approved RRF Proposals

Infographic of the appeal

Two-page summary of the appeal

Updated Call for Proposals – ACT COVID-19 Appeal

COVID 19 Appeal Template

COVID 19 Appeal Budget

Multiple disasters hit the Philippines in the past 4 months affecting about 5.8 million people across eight out of its 17 administrative regions. The consecutive disasters since October 2019 has overwhelmed the capacity of the government to support the affected population. From the typhoon and volcanic eruption in Luzon, followed by the strong typhoon in Visayas, and the series of earthquakes in Mindanao, the affected population had struggled to meet their basic needs such as food, restore their lost assets and much more, recover from the devastating impact of these disasters. The poorest households from marginalized and vulnerable sectors bear the heaviest brunt of these disasters.

ACT Alliance members’ National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) and World Renew (WR) will give assistance those most in need addressing food, WASH, shelter, and livelihood with an appeal budget of USD2,002,853 for one year.

PHL 201 Multiple Disasters in the Philippines Appeal

The humanitarian crisis in Iraq remains one of the largest and most volatile in the world. The pace of displacement over the past four and a half years is nearly without precedent with more than 5.4 million people displaced since the rise of the Islamic State (IS). The 2019 Iraq Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) states 6.7 million people continue to be in need, and although 4.3 million people have returned to their place of origin, 1.7 million people remain internally displaced. At present 721,000 IDP’s and 241, 000 Syrian refugees reside within the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) many of whom have remained in prolonged displacement since the beginning of the Syrian conflict in 2011. In federal Iraq, Ninawa governate remains the most effected by the continued influx caused by the rise of IS. Furthermore, the current Turkish military intervention in North East Syria (NES) has caused further insecurity across the region. Critical high explosive contamination, severe infrastructure damage, psychological trauma among local populations and significant loss of livelihood opportunities continue to compound the traumatic effects of 8 years of brutal fighting.

Act members: CA, DCA, HIA and LWF plan to support 38,964 beneficiaries directly affected by the Syrian Conflict and the rise of the Islamic state in Iraq addressing shelter/NFI, WASH, Protection/Psycho-social, Livelihood/Early Recovery, emergency preparedness and mine action sectors with a budget of USD 3,720,892.

Appeal_ Iraq_Conflict-IRQ201