Dry season conditions place pressure on acutely food insecure households

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Crisis (IPC Phase 3) outcomes are expected in Angola’s drought-affected southern and eastern provinces (Cunene, Cuando Cubango, Moxico, and Huila). Households in these areas have low food stocks and reduced agricultural labor opportunities which have led to a significant decrease in purchasing power among poor households at a time when they are increasingly reliant on markets to meet their food needs. Households in several of these areas had exceptionally poor harvests of beans, cassava, maize, and sorghum, and are most likely completely market reliant.
In other provinces that were either less or unaffected by drought, Minimal (IPC Phase 1) outcomes are expected, with a proportion of poor households facing Stressed (IPC Phase 2) outcomes. Atypically high food prices are placing pressure on the ability of rural and urban poor households to meet their basic food needs without foregoing some essential non-food needs.
June to September marks the dry season in Angola, and drought-affected areas of the south have remained dry since May. Poor vegetation growth and inadequate replenishment of water resources during the rainy season have placed pressure on available pasture, browse, and water resources for small ruminants and cattle, which typically provide a supplementary source of income for agropastoral households in these areas. The negative effect on livestock body conditions, saleability, and value – or the increase in expenditures on fodder and water required to sustain them – is driving some households to preemptively sell more livestock than normal to mitigate these risks; there is concern that this strategy will erode household capacity to cope with insufficient access to food in the medium-to-long term.
The impacts of drought on water availability are also affecting access to potable water among poor households in the south. While quantitative estimates of access to water are unavailable, many of the water springs that poor households previously accessed have either dried up due to the drought or are being used by animals, further compromising water quality. Given that lack of access to clean water and poor hygiene practices are major causes of infectious diseases, there is heightened concern that this situation will exacerbate already-elevated cases of malnutrition and child mortality.
In line with previous forecasts, headline inflation has continued to rise for the 15^th consecutive month. In July, inflation reached 31.09 percent year-on-year, though the pace of increase has slowed since May. In Luanda, where most of the population lives, inflation topped 42 percent. According to key informants, atypically high agricultural input prices is of concern heading into the 2024/25 crop production season beginning in September/October. Fertilizer prices in the central and coastal provinces (Benguela, Bie, Cuanza Sul, Huambo, Luanda, Moxico, and Zaire) have nearly doubled over the past year, rising from around 25,000 AOA/50 kg bag of NPK fertilizer last year to roughly 50,000 AOA (58 USD) as of June 2024. The government is facilitating some competitively priced imports, but subsidized fertilizer is limited, and domestic fertilizer factory production is expected only in 2025.
In response to the challenges imposed by the 2023/24 El Niño-induced drought, a 3 million USD UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) was allocated in July to provide food security, nutrition, and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services to some drought-affected people in Huíla and Cunene provinces. The allocation provides humanitarian assistance to 13,075 men, 21,737 women, and 98,188 children, including 1,575 persons with disabilities. However, the scale of funded assistance is low compared to FEWS NET’s estimate of the population in need of humanitarian food assistance across Angola – 1.0-1.5 million people – most of whom are in the south and east, and is much lower than other humanitarian agency estimates, which range up to 2.8 million people.

Recommended citation: FEWS NET. Angola Key Message Update August 2024: Dry season conditions place pressure on acutely food insecure households, 2024.

This Key Message Update provides a high-level analysis of current acute food insecurity conditions and any changes to FEWS NET's latest projection of acute food insecurity outcomes in the specified geography. Learn more here.