Herders struggling with extreme winter conditions in Mongolia receive international assistance
The International Federation of Red Cross released US$ 277,000 from its Disaster Relief Emergency Fund to assist 2,500 herder families facing very severe winter conditions or Dzud in seven provinces.
Herders struggling with extreme winter conditions in Mongolia receive international assistance. The International Federation of Red Cross released US$ 277,000 from its Disaster Relief Emergency Fund to enable the Mongolian Red Cross Society (MRCS) to assist 2,500 herder families facing very severe winter conditions or Dzud in seven provinces with cash grants or emergency supplies. The current severe winter followed another summer drought and it is Mongolia’s third consecutive dzud disaster this year leaving millions of animals at risk of starvation. Herding supports at least 160,000 families in the country of roughly 3 million people and it makes up 40 percent of the total population. About 70 per cent of Mongolia is now covered in snow up to 45cm deep and temperatures approaching minus 50 Celsius were expected to continue through February, and it does not start to get properly warm in Mongolia until June. With support from the UK government through the British Red Cross, the MRCS launched a bilateral forecast-based financing (FbF) operation developed by the Climate Centre to reduce dzud impacts – the first in Mongolia. Two-thousand households in 40 sub-provinces got unconditional cash grants under FbF, and some may now also get animal-care kits to help them through the worst of the winter. Earlier this year the Red Cross distributed 20 bundles of hay to more than 600 vulnerable households in central provinces, assessed from government mapping to be at extreme risk.
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