The IFRC Disaster Response Emergency Fund (DREF) has approved a total of CHF 469, 480 for Lesotho Red Cross Society. The approved amount consists of an immediate allocation of CHF 189, 621 for readiness, CHF 4,121 for Pre-Positioning and CHF 275,738 automatically allocated to implement early actions once the defined triggers are met.
Allocations are made from the Anticipatory Pillar of the DREF, under the DREF appeal code MDR00001. Unearmarked contributions to the DREF are encouraged to guarantee enough funding is available for the Early Action Protocols being developed.
Lesotho is situated on the highest part of the Drakensberg escarpment of the eastern rim of the Southern African plateau between 1,500m and 3,482m above sea level and its agro-ecologically divided into Lowlands (southern and northern), Senqu River Valley, Foothills, and the Mountains regions. The Southern Lowlands is characterized by flat to gently rolling topography, rising gradually towards the foothills along the northeast. The soil is sandy with significant clay in places, relatively less fertile compared with the northern lowlands’ soils and very fragile with high erodibility especially by wind and water. The Southern Lowlands are one of the driest and drought prone regions in Lesotho and normally experiences the least amount of rainfall compared to other agroecological zones, and erratic follow-up rains and uneven spread of rain through the season.
Lesotho experiences climate change impacts and shocks with drought being the most recurrent and impactful hazard over the last 100 years. Studies indicate that there is an increase in drought emergencies recorded over the 25-year period (1991/1992 – 2015/2016) in Lesotho and the most impactful drought events are agricultural and socio-economic in nature, as they deteriorate natural resource-based livelihoods along with reduced crop and livestock productivity undermining socio-economic assets bases and creating livelihood vulnerabilities. In the last 10 years, the country experienced three extreme drought episodes (2011/12, 2015/16,2018/19). The major impact of these past episodes was food insecurity. The situation is exacerbated by continuous crop failures, low incomes, and high food prices, with 41% of rural families spending more than half of their income on food. These extreme drought conditions required prompt interventions to reduce human suffering and loss of their livelihoods. Therefore, LRCS through this Early Action Protocol (EAP) aims to mitigate drought impacts through anticipatory actions (AA) in the districts that are anticipated to observe worst drought impacts.
The EAP will be implemented by LRCS in coordination and collaboration with other stakeholders, members of the Climate Change and Adaptation technical working group, Disaster Management Authority, Lesotho Meteorological Services, Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and Ministry of Forestry and with technical support from IFRC, Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre (RCCC) and German Red Cross Society (GRC). The preidentified early actions target 5140 HH (20 560 people) vulnerable communities living in the southern lowlands and Senqu valley. Through the pre-identified early actions, the EAP will target 5140 HH (20 560 people) vulnerable communities living in the southern lowlands and Senqu valley as these regions are classified as high and moderate risk areas.
Source: International Federation of Red Cross And Red Crescent Societies