Summary: CHF 174,092 was allocated from the IFRC’s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) on 12 January 2012 to support the Mali Red Cross (CRM) in delivering assistance to 8,200 beneficiaries In late 2011, assessments and early warning systems alerted that a food crisis would hit the country during 2012, primarily due to the poor harvest and drought situation. Reports indicated that up to 1.8 million persons in the regions of Kayes, Koulikoro, Gao, Kidal, Mopti and Segou would have difficulties to provide food for themselves. The government launched an international appeal for assistance to address the situation of food insecurity in the country. A deteriorating security situation due to clashes between the government and rebels in the northern part of the country contributed to worsen the situation and displaced thousands of people.
This DREF operation enabled the Malian Red Cross (CRM) to respond to the emergency needs of 1,640 vulnerable households due the food crisis situation in the country. 1,640 families (10,640 persons) in the Kayes region were provided with food relief and education in food hygiene practices to reduce their vulnerability and risks for diseases. At the end of the operation, 78 percent of vulnerable households in the Kayes region were provided with food relief.
This operation provided emergency food relief response and reduced vulnerability among the targeted families. With the continued needs identified in the target area, a Food Insecurity Emergency Appeal was prepared and launched by IFRC in June 2012 and is currently ongoing in the same areas covered by the DREF operation.
In the financial report, some expenses relating to the Regional Disaster Response Team (RDRT) deployment were erroneously booked in the wrong budget lines (utensils and tools, consultant, medical and first aid) which explains the variances in these budget lines. The RDRT mission was also extended to cover the operation timeframe, which was longer than planned and budgeted resulting in higher costs in the final financial report. A financial monitoring mission that was not budgeted for was undertaken at the end of the operation by the regional finance officer to assist the National Society in finalizing the financial reports, thus the variance in the budget and expenditure.Additionally,no storage expenses were incurred due to the fact that relief items were distributed immediately after purchase. A total of CHF 1,484 that was unspent at the close of the operation will be returned to DREF.
Lessons learned and recommendations from this operation include:
· IFRC needs to be present in Mali to monitor the evolution of the food crisis and assist in developing partnerships with other actors, such as the World Food Programme.
· The logistics and operations departments of the National Society need to be strengthened, including their emergency response systems and processes.
· The finance department and its procedures for emergency operations need to be strengthened.
The Netherlands Red Cross /Government and the Belgian Red Cross /Government contributed towards the DREF replenishment of the allocation made for this operation.The Belgian Red Cross/Government has contributed to the replenishment of the DREF allocated for this operation. The major donors and partners of DREF include the Australian, American and Belgian governments, the Austrian Red Cross, the Canadian Red Cross and government, Danish Red Cross and government, the European Commission Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO), the Irish and the Italian governments, the Japanese Red Cross Society, the Luxembourg government, the Monaco Red Cross and government, the Netherlands Red Cross and government, the Norwegian Red Cross and government, the Spanish Government, the Swedish Red Cross and government, the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID), the Medtronic and Z Zurich Foundations, and other corporate and private donors. The IFRC, on behalf of Rwanda Red Cross Society, would like to extend thanks to all partners for their generous contributions.
Details of all donors can be found on http://www.ifrc.org/docs/appeals/Active/MAA00010_2012.pdf
All operations-related appeals, reports, updates and information are available on the Appeals, plans and updates section of the web site: http://www.ifrc.org/en/publications-and-reports/appeals/
