Honduras: Monitoring the Humanitarian Response, Bulletin N° 3 (September - December 2023)

Update on the situation and actions

Impact of El Niño

The El Niño phenomenon had a significant impact, leading to a 30-40% decrease in rainfall across the Dry Corridor during the final four months of the year. In the last trimester, response efforts within the Dry Corridor assisted over 22,000 people. The hardest hit areas were 12 municipalities in the southern, central and north regions where precipitation and humidity levels dropped below 40% and resulted in crop and livestock losses.

The Food Security and Nutrition cluster provided aid through food assistance, seed capital, livelihood recovery, and cash transfers to the hardest-hit regions, benefiting more than 14,000 people. The government pursued assistance support from the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) via the Food Security cluster, receiving technical support.
The cluster recognized the need to strengthen intergovernmental coordination and increased access to jointly compiled information.

Partners continue to provide humanitarian response to the drought, however, also recognize the need to refocus efforts due to changing weather patterns impacting geographic areas beyond the typical areas affected by the phenomenon.

The Anticipatory Actions (AA) group held two workshops with more than 30 participants from HCT organizations. Field visits were also undertaken to observe the experiences at the community level, with the goal of enhancing coordination among stakeholders for actions in 2024. These visits also aimed to diagnose challenges and identify gaps in anticipatory actions.

In September, a two-year regional Anticipatory Action framework was approved, focusing on the risks identified in the Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) as well as the inputs from several sectors: Food Security and Nutrition, Agriculture, WASH, and Health. The AA framework has the goal of mitigating potential impacts of El Niño and enable a more effective response.