Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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422. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the level of resources being deployed to Ethiopia to offset the worst effects of the drought caused by El Niño. [21113/16]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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As a result of the El Niño weather effect, Ethiopia has experienced its worst drought in decades, with 10.2 million people in need of assistance. This is in addition to 7.9 million people already receiving food and cash transfers through the Ethiopian Government’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP), which Ireland funds. The humanitarian situation in the country is now considered to constitute the third largest humanitarian crisis in the world.

This year, Ireland’s bilateral aid programme in Ethiopia will provide over €27 million, over half of which will directly address the humanitarian crisis. This includes €3.5 million for the World Food Programme, which provided therapeutic supplementary feeding to 148,000 mothers and children. Ireland will also contribute €10.4 million to the Productive Safety Net Programme for food and cash transfers to 7.9 million of the most marginalised in Ethiopian society.

In addition, Irish Aid provided €577,160 to Trócaire last month for emergency nutrition services in southern Ethiopia. €100,000 was provided to Concern Worldwide in April for emergency assistance for vulnerable households in the Amhara region of Ethiopia.

Ireland has also responded to the humanitarian situation in Ethiopia through our Rapid Response Initiative. To date, Irish Aid has deployed three members of its Rapid Response Corps to our UN partners in Ethiopia for much needed surge capacity for their humanitarian response operations in the country. We have also airlifted two consignments of emergency relief items to Ethiopia in 2016, with a total value of €260,000.

Last year, Ireland also made a significant contribution to the humanitarian response in Ethiopia, with support of €16.09 million.

Our Embassy in Addis Ababa is playing a leading role in advocating for a stronger response to the crisis, on behalf of development partners, as co-chair of the Development Assistance Group. The Group has been crucial in leading dialogue with the Ethiopian Government and in advocating for a greater response from the international community, including the UN, bilateral donors and International Financial Institutions.