A few months ago, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) launched the FWD Campaign – Famine, War, Drought – to call attention to the crisis in the Horn of Africa. Today is the campaign’s FWD>Day of Action, which hopes to reach the goal of 13.3 million forwards (via Facebook, Twitter or email) to represent the 13.3 million people in need in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti.

Why is a Day of Action needed?

Despite the numbers of people affected and the magnitude of the need, mobilizing resources for the Horn of Africa has proved challenging. A slow onset disaster, the crisis has not garnered the type of attention Haiti and Japan received. While, according to UN estimates, $2.4 billion is needed to assist the 13.3 million affected, just a little over $1.8 billion has been raised. Only $324 million of that is private funding from individuals and organizations. By comparison, organizations raised more than $1.3 billion in private funding in response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, where two million people were affected, and $580 million for Japan, a more prosperous country with a much stronger disaster response system in place. Given the cuts to foreign aid being considered in the United States and other donor countries, individual donations will be key to meeting the gap between the amount of resources needed and the amount of resources raised for the Horn of Africa crisis.

An analysis of information from InterAction’s Horn of Africa Aid Map – which highlights our members’ response to the crisis as well as their ongoing work to improve communities’ resilience to drought, increase access to clean water and sanitation, and improve health and nutrition – shows just how important these private donations are. Of the 194 active projects on the site that are being implemented to respond to the current crisis or to prevent such crises from arising, more than 40 percent are funded solely by private donations.

The map below shows the number of projects established by some of the InterAction members working in the countries affected by the crisis. Detailed project information can be found on Horn of Africa Aid Map, which provides a partial picture of the work being done. The site continues to grow as we receive information from other organizations working in the region.

Visit InterAction’s Horn of Africa Crisis Response List to learn how you can help. To learn more about the Horn of Africa Aid Map, contact us at mappinginfo@interaction.org.