CERF allocates $3.7 million to people affected by a natural disaster in Mongolia

• Mongolia is experiencing a "dzud", a natural disaster consisting of a summer drought, resulting in insufficient production of hay, followed by very heavy winter snow, winds and lower-than-normal temperatures.
• From early January there has been heavy snowfall (10-350 cm) and extremely cold temperatures (minus 40 to -50).
• More than half of Mongolian provinces have now been declared disaster areas as the severe cold weather and heavy snow combine to further isolate herders and poor communities, cutting them off from food, fuel, and medicines.
• About 420,000 persons (15 % of the total population) make up the herder populations in the disaster and severely affected 133 soums (districs) - out of which 159,350 are children and 42, 818 are below the age of 5 years; 37,888 are older than 65 years; and 8,172 are pregnant women.

CERF has allocated $3.7 million to the humanitarian country team in Mongolia to assist more than 507,000 people affected by "dzud", a type of natural disaster unique to that country.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will receive $1.5 million for livestock carcass removal and income generation for 120,000 people who lost at least 50 percent of their livestock. Another $1.5 million will go to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to provide emergency medical supplies, food and fuel to 43,000 children under the age of 5, 8,200 pregnant women, and 17,200 school children in dormitories. Some $600,000 has been allocated to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for emergency livestock input for 1,100 dzud affected families, including women and children. The World Health Organization (WHO) will receive $227,000 for psychosocial support, medical supplies and communications tools. Another $227,000 has been allocated to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) for emergency reproductive health support for 7,000 pregnant women, lactating mothers and other vulnerable women of reproductive age.

Mongolia is experiencing a dzud, a natural disaster consisting of a summer drought, resulting in insufficient production of feed for livestock, followed by very heavy winter snow, winds and lower-than-normal temperatures. Unique to Mongolia, dzud results in frozen layers of ice that are inpenetratable to the livestock and which isolate herders and villages.

The humanitarian impact of dzud is worsening. Urgent attention is needed to address immediate humanitarian concerns faced by the herder and village communities. Assistance is needed to prevent death and maintain food security. There is a growing need to prevent more serious medium term problems, including: increased levels of poverty; higher chronic malnutrition and disease levels; massive in-migration to poorly serviced and overcrowded peri-urban areas; unemployment; destitution; and psychological problems.