marrying off their children as a coping strategy. It is anticipated that education will be adversely affected by drought, due to unavailability of food and inability to pay school fees/levies. Children in Matabeleland North are reported to be skipping classes, citing hunger and the need to help out with household or farm work. Key Humanitarian Needs • Targeted food assistance to address immediate food and nutrition needs of households and communities, and basic provision of crop and livestock inputs to food insecure farmers • Provision of life-saving nutrition treatment to all children and pregnant and lactating women affected by acute malnutrition. • Continuous monitoring and disease surveillance to allow for early warning and early action and ensuring prompt case management of diseases aggravated by the drought. • School feeding programmes and capacity building of education systems for better preparedness. • With the number of protection cases reportedly on the increase, approximately 255,952 women will need protection from SGBV. It is expected that 72,000 children will require protection services and support in the next 12 months. • In the WASH sector, restoration of access to sufficient water of appropriate quality and quantity to fulfil basic needs is required, as is the provision of access to critical WASH related non-food items. Increased awareness of safe hygiene and sanitation practices among urban and rural populations and institutions. Macro Financial Strategy Options Regional and international external support reported that Government plans to draw a credit line from Afrexim Bank for $200 million for the purchase of maize and will allocate $46 million from its national budget. Targeting Food Security and Agriculture: 4.07 million people in households who are deemed food insecure, having no production and having lost their livelihoods. 66 Health and Nutrition: 491,981 people living in food insecure households located in the 15 most droughtaffected districts who will require basic healthcare; support and supplementary and therapeutic feeding targeting children under age 5 and pregnant and lactating women. WASH targets: 1.4 million people in the most drought-affected districts and peri-urban areas whose needs arise from, and are aggravated by, reduced availability of water and the potential incidence of WASH-related diseases. Education: 8287 Schools in the most affected areas targeted to receive school feeding. 400,000 school children in the most severely affected provinces and schools within districts with the highest populations affected by drought. Protection: Scaling up of social protection safety nets in the most affected areas to assist 400,000 people. This includes 16,511 of the most vulnerable, including women and children; response to child protection violations and SGBV resulting from the worsening food insecurity and drought. Response to date Government has established a Cabinet Committee on Emergency Response to the El Niño-induced Drought Disaster, chaired by a Vice President. This Cabinet Committee has been mandated to coordinate responses to meet immediate and medium-term needs of the current drought. With the phase-out of the cluster system, the current response is being coordinated by sector platforms led by Government Ministries, supported by the UN and NGOs. In order to provide strategic guidance a Humanitarian Country Team was established in 2015 and an inter-sectoral coordination group established in April to coordinate between sectors and to provide a platform for inter-sectoral discussion. Sectoral meetings are ongoing among the five sectors and an early recovery sectoral working group has been established.