The El Niño global climatic event has had a devastating impact on millions of people across the globe in 2015 and 2016. East Africa, Southern Africa, the Pacific Islands, South East Asia and Central America will continue to be at risk of extreme weather, including below-normal rains and flooding. The humanitarian fallout in certain areas includes increased food insecurity due to low crop yields and rising prices; higher malnutrition rates; devastated livelihoods; and forced displacement.
The Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) has been one of the quickest and largest supporters of early humanitarian action in response to the El Niño phenomenon.
Since 2015, the Fund alone has provided almost $64 million for life-saving activities in response to drought, drought-like conditions, floods, food insecurity and other disasters that can be linked to El Niño in El Salvador ($3 million), Eritrea ($2.5 million), Ethiopia ($25.5 million),
Guatemala ($4.8 million), Haiti ($3 million), Honduras ($2.2 million),
Malawi ($9.9 million), Somalia ($4.9 million) and Zimbabwe ($8.1 million).
An additional $17 million has been allocated for response to extreme weather conditions bringing the total for climate related allocations to almost $81 million.