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Benin

Benin Emergency Humanitarian Action Plan 2010

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1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Benin, a country in West Africa with an area of 116,700 square kilometres and 8.9 million people, is currently experiencing a nutritional and food security crisis arising from successive and unexpected climatic shocks. Beginning in the middle of September, unseasonably heavy rains have struck the entire country. Whereas 136 mm of rain fell from January to September 2009, this year 128 mm was recorded on September 10 alone and the monthly total was 344mm. The extremely heavy September rains hit before the crops were fully grown and prevented the planting of vegetable seedlings.

The flooding has left hundreds of thousands of people homeless and caused massive destruction of community and individual assets. The number of affected people has risen to about 680,000. Overall, latest reports show 55 municipalities out of 77 in Benin have been affected. The flooding has caused at least 43 deaths, 1,000 injuries, more than 105,000 people without shelter, 55,000 demolished houses, and 81,000 livestock lost. Approximately 12,000 metric tons of stocks have been lost due to destroyed storage facilities, and over 128,000 hectares of crops and farmland have been ruined. These numbers are expected to increase given continued heavy rains, especially in the north of the country at least until November, and therefore constitute a conservative baseline with a risk of continued deterioration of the situation.

Although assessment of all affected areas is still in progress, the immediately necessary actions identified so far include:

- support for food security, including activities in support of agriculture.

- health, including preventive medicine, basic care, and waterborne diseases.

- improvement of access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene.

- support the rehabilitation of schools and health facilities.

- provision of non-food items.

The United Nations agencies, the Red Cross of Benin and non-governmental organizations, jointly with the government, have identified two areas of priority: ensuring adequate care for affected vulnerable groups; and providing nutritional care to children and food assistance to their households to save lives. Furthermore, the families hosting homeless people need nutritional support since they are sharing their resources with the displaced people and therefore also face challenges in feeding themselves. The planned actions will increase access to and consumption of food, thereby improving household food security for all of the targeted beneficiaries.

In consultation with the Government of Benin and the Red Cross of Benin, the United Nations system, participating non-governmental organizations, and other partners are seeking to mobilize a total of $46,847,399 for actions over six months, to provide emergency relief and support affected families and communities in regaining their dignity and livelihoods. The appeal includes 21 projects.

(This Emergency Humanitarian Action Plan serves the purpose of a flash appeal. In accordance with inter-agency appeal policy, it will be counted as part of the 2010 West Africa Regional Consolidated Appeal.)

Please note that appeals are revised regularly. The latest version of this document is available on http://www.humanitarianappeal.net.

Full project details can be viewed, downloaded and printed from www.reliefweb.int/fts.

Note: The full text of this appeal is available on-line in Adobe Acrobat (pdf) format and may also be downloaded in zipped MS Word format.

Full Original Mid-Year Review [pdf* format] [zipped MS Word format]

* Get the Adobe Acrobat Viewer (free)

For additional copies, please contact:

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Palais des Nations
8-14 Avenue de la Paix
CH - 1211 Geneva, Switzerland

Tel.: (41 22) 917.1972
Fax: (41 22) 917.0368
E-Mail: cap@reliefweb.int

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