2011 was one of the driest years since 1950-51 in many pastoral zones in Ethiopia, leading to extreme food insecurity in the Somali region of the country.This assessment was conducted by Oxfam, Save the Children and Concern in order to determine the market systems' capacities to provide basic food products, including rice, pasta and sorghum, to the rural pastoralist communities during a severe drought and to judge what types of humanitarian responses might be required and feasible to ensure food security of these people during such a crisis situation. It found that all market systems studied seem to have the capacity to meet the respective needs of the population in Siti Zone – even during a severe drought. It suggests that cash based programming is a feasible alternative to in-kind distributions of food in Siti Zone. In this respect it would make sense to advocate for a policy change in the Somali region and try to motivate the responsible authorities to some pilot projects in which the government starts to distribute cash.
