\n\t\t\t\tEtienne Peterschmitt\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\nQ.<\/strong> <\/span>What does that mean in terms of impact for the local population?<\/span><\/p>\nA.<\/strong><\/span> It means that rural areas and populations will unfortunately be most affected by the infestation. This includes riverine farmers, agro-pastoralists, pastoralists, and rural internally displaced people. Livelihoods are at immediate risk.<\/p>\nQ.<\/strong><\/span> How is the United Nations collaborating with the Federal Government of Somalia?<\/span><\/p>\nA.<\/strong> <\/span>The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is leading the response to the United Nations. We have been working in coordination with the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation of the Federal Government of Somalia since the early stages of the outbreak. Together we have prepared a comprehensive Action Plan, which is aligned with the regional efforts coordinated by FAO \u2013 we must not forget that this is a regional endeavor. We have also recently reinforced our partnership to scale up local capacities, surveillance, and control operations to combat the desert locust upsurge. We have done so not only with the Federal Government but also with different government institutions at the state level across the country. We are satisfied with the enhanced cooperation.<\/p>\nQ.<\/strong><\/span> In a nutshell, what does the Action Plan consist of?<\/span><\/p>\nA.<\/strong> The plan has two main components or goals. The first one is to control desert locust. That includes scaling up capacities, control operations on the ground, spraying, surveillance, and so on. The second pillar is to protect lives and livelihoods. As I said before, and according to the projections, we are preparing for the shocks that this crisis can trigger at the humanitarian level. With funds received to-date, we will be able to reach 24, 000 families, with farming inputs, and a further 30 000 households with supplementary animal feed.<\/p>\nQ.<\/span><\/strong> In practical terms, how is FAO supporting the government-led Action Plan to fight the upsurge of desert locusts?<\/span><\/p>\nA.<\/strong> FAO is providing technical expertise, mobilizing resources from the international community, procuring key items in the international market \u2013 like biopesticides, vehicles, and mounted-vehicle sprayers, as well as knapsacks \u2013 recruiting desert locust officers, and providing technology like the eLocust3 GPS tracking system, which is coordinated from our headquarters in Rome. We are also coordinating the regional response in East Africa, which is fundamental in a crisis that doesn\u2019t understand borders.<\/p>\nQ.<\/span><\/strong> How does this translate into concrete actions on the ground?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nA.<\/strong> Well, we can say that capacity for ground control has been strengthened with the purchase of 18 Land Cruiser vehicles. They complement another 15 vehicles currently on hire for surveillance and control in the north and central Somalia. Twelve vehicle-mounted sprayers and ten backpack sprayers have also been delivered in Hargeisa and Mogadishu, in addition to ten vehicle-mounted sprayers triangulated from Morocco and Mali to support control efforts in Somalia.\u00a0\u00a0Three helicopters are being mobilized to Somalia to carry out aerial control operations. A new consignment of 2 000 kg of biopesticides has also been delivered. Two Somali desert locust officers have recently been hired by FAO in Somalia to support surveillance and control operations in the main breeding grounds; one is stationed in Garowe, Puntland, and one in Hargeisa, Somaliland. As a result of the concerted efforts between the Government and FAO, by mid-April, some 31 000 hectares had already been covered out of the 360 000 hectares estimated to be affected across the country.<\/p>\nQ. <\/strong><\/span>In terms of funding, FAO has recently updated its total requirement up to USD 57 million. Why?<\/span><\/p>\nA.<\/strong> That\u2019s correct. Let me first say that we are very grateful to the international community, which has committed USD 24.2 million so far to support FAO and the government-led Desert Locust 2020 Somalia Action Plan. Our initial appeal did not cover the whole year, and this is why we have now updated it to include all needs through 2020, against a total requirement of USD 57 million. Top contributors so far include the United States and Germany, followed by the United Kingdom, Sweden, the UN Central Emergency Response Fund, the European Union, the Gates Foundation, France, and Mastercard, among others.<\/p>\nQ.<\/span><\/strong> How is Covid-19 hindering FAO and government efforts to tackle this crisis?<\/span><\/p>\nA.<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0We are experiencing some delays with consignments, for example with biopesticides. International experts cannot travel to breeding grounds and quarantine upon arrival is also a constraint for aerial operations. All in all, it is not optimal, but we are doing our best and remain fully committed to carrying out the response.<\/p>\nSource: ReliefWeb+FAO\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While\u00a0Somalia\u00a0and its partners, including the United Nations, focus on the response to the\u00a0COVID-19 pandemic, other parts of the international organization remain concentrated on supporting the Somali authorities in a range of areas \u2013 including the current desert locust infestation.\u00a0The pests continue laying eggs and hatching in their breeding grounds in Somalia, and a new generation …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-intvs-insights"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5148"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6602,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5148\/revisions\/6602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Etienne](\"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/88-3.jpg\")
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