UN and partners seek $3.99 billion to help more than 20 million people in Ethiopia

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Crisis Context and Impact

In 2022 Ethiopia has faced multiple overlapping humanitarian crises, putting at risk the lives and livelihoods of millions of people and driving continued high and urgent needs for humanitarian support. The 2023 Ethiopia Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) requires US$3.99 billion to target more than 20 million people across the country. This includes an estimated 4.6 million internally displaced people (IDPs).

Ethiopia is highly vulnerable to climatic shocks and is one of the most drought-prone countries in the world1, and the severe drought that began in late 2020 has continued into 2023 with the passing of five poor to failed rainy seasons. Under this HRP, an estimated 13 million people are targeted for humanitarian response in drought affected areas. The situation is getting more critical with each failed rainy season and has severely impacted pastoralist and agro-pastoralist communities, particularly in the eastern and southern parts of the country, aggravating food insecurity, malnutrition, access to water and a worsening health situation with an increase of disease outbreaks. Worth noting is that some parts of Ethiopia are critically affected by both drought and conflict simultaneously, including Oromia and Somali regions.

Although the end of 2022 brought about peace and improved access in Northern Ethiopia (Afar, Amhara and Tigray) with the signing of the cessation of hostilities agreement (COHA), humanitarian needs stemming from a two-year conflict are still high, and increased support is required to facilitate returns and scale-up recovery efforts. Conflict has continued or escalated in other parts of the country, most notably in Oromia, impeding humanitarian access and driving high needs and displacement within the region and to neighboring Amhara region. In Benishangul Gumuz region, hundreds of thousands of people remained displaced for most of 2022. As hostilities with armed groups receded throughout the year, small numbers of IDPs started returning spontaneously while the regional government unveiled plans to return the several thousands of IDPs to their original areas by end of first quarter 2023. However, the frequent blockage of the main supply routes by conflict in neighboring Oromia is economically isolating Benishangul Gumuz, causing serious economic shocks and price inflation. Inter-communal violence in several regions, including Oromia, Sidama, Somali and SNNP, also continues to trigger displacement and ensuing humanitarian needs.

In 2023, the prioritized humanitarian response is structured around three strategic objectives, aiming to address immediate lifesaving needs, provide safe and inclusive access to essential services, and contribute to support and build linkages towards recovery and resilience. A key component of the HRP also involves ensuring that gender, protection, accountability to affected people (AAP), and prevention from sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA) are well integrated across the different segments of the response plan.

The 2023 HRP targets the most vulnerable people across the country, both displaced and non-displaced, including those who face serious protection concerns due to conflict and violence, and those who have critical needs caused by the extreme drought, which is affecting the lives of millions of Ethiopians. Particular attention will be given to building the capacity of local and national NGOs, and enabling their meaningful engagement in humanitarian response, in line with the ongoing operationalization of the HCT NNGO Engagement Strategy and building on efforts and achievements made in 2022.

Strengthening the Humanitarian-Development-Peace nexus

The HDP nexus approach

The idea behind the humanitarian-development-peace (HDP) nexus approach stems from the recognition that humanitarian action alone cannot address the causes and drivers that lead to humanitarian needs in the first place. The goal of the approach is straightforward: to promote deliberate and targeted collaboration among humanitarian, development and peace actors to reduce humanitarian needs and vulnerabilities over time. To do this, HDP actors must collaborate and coordinate, often in specific geographic areas or on priority structural issues – building on the unique comparative advantage, roles and mandates of each. Joint analysis, goal setting (collective outcomes), planning, implementation and learning by humanitarian, development and peace actors aiming to reduce needs are foundational elements of the approach.

Reducing humanitarian needs and vulnerabilities often involves inter-related and complementary actions by HDP actors that aim to: 1) prevent or minimize the risks of crises and shocks materializing that create humanitarian needs; 2) develop individual, community and institutional capacities to mitigate or cope with the impact of shocks and stresses when they do materialize, to reduce humanitarian caseloads and exacerbation of vulnerabilities; 3) engage in concerted action to support early recovery and transitions out of humanitarian needs. At the same time, there is recognition that the phases of emergency response, recovery and development are not always linear and therefore the HDP approach requires often intersecting engagement across these areas.

Urgent need to work differently in Ethiopia

The humanitarian needs in Ethiopia are immense, and they continue to grow year after year. Climatic shocks such as drought and floods are recurring events, but the frequency and duration of droughts is increasing; further intensifying the needs of affected people and causing greater devastation to lives and livelihoods. The situation is further exacerbated by fragile social service systems that are unable to respond to the needs of the population. These systems and institutions are in turn heavily affected by humanitarian shocks, which further limits their ability to provide quality services. Conflict and insecurity add another layer of instability, increasing risks and needs as well as creating barriers for humanitarian and development actors alike to access affected people. Additionally, the majority of Ethiopia’s population live in rural areas and depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. This leaves them highly vulnerable during crises, and millions of households in rural parts of the country are chronically food insecure and dependent on emergency food assistance2 . Emergencies and shocks require urgent humanitarian assistance and usually reverse progress towards sustainable development and contribute to underdevelopment, while underdevelopment in turn exacerbates humanitarian emergencies and can even trigger them, for example in the case of conflict. This vicious cycle highlights the importance for humanitarian, development and peace actors to work together to effectively meet needs, reduce vulnerabilities and achieve lasting improvements to people’s lives.

The various overlapping humanitarian crises in Ethiopia have led to a surge in internal displacement, with an estimated total of 4.6 million IDPs across the country. However, internal displacement is not a new phenomenon in Ethiopia, and among the displaced people there is a high number in protracted displacement. This includes 886,000 IDPs who had been displaced for under one year; 1 million IDPs who had been displaced for 1-4 years; and as many as 745,000 IDPs who had been displaced for 5+ years as of September 20223 .

The main shocks that have triggered protracted displacement in the country are related to ethnic and/ or territorial conflict and drought. Some of the major recent historical shocks that have driven waves of displacement in Ethiopia include territorial disputes along the Oromia-Somali border, which escalated in 2017 displacing an estimated 857,000 people4 . In 2018 conflict erupted in West Guji between Guji Oromo and Gedeo tribes over land and resources, displacing an estimated 748,499 people by August of that year. In Benishangul Gumuz region, numerous attacks by unidentified armed groups (UAGs) in September 2020 drove displacement into Awi zone of Amhara region, with displacement peaking in January 2021 at 76,000. In 2020 the Northern Ethiopia conflict broke out, resulting in mass displacement and eventually coming to an end in November 2022 with the signing of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement in Tigray. In April 2021, conflict erupted in Amhara’s North Shewa zone, leading to the displacement of an estimated 310,000 people at its peak.

In addition to the myriad conflicts over the past years, displacement has also been also induced by climate change. Ethiopia faced a major drought in 2015-2016 triggered by a particularly strong El Niño, affecting the south and south-eastern parts of the country. This was followed by another drought in 2017 brought on by a deep Indian Ocean dipole, which also affected south and southeastern Ethiopia, and by early January 2018 there were 528,658 climate induced IDPs in the country5. The current ongoing drought is affecting the same parts of the country, which are highly susceptible to drought and accordingly to climate-induced displacement; particularly the Somali region. As of September 2022, drought had driven 516,269 individuals in the Somali, Afar and Oromia regions into displacement6 .

The substantial number of protracted IDPs demonstrates that displacement is not only a humanitarian concern, but also a peace and development challenge. Considering that conflict is a main driver of displacement, peace-building initiatives are crucial both to prevent future displacement and to restore peace and enable returns. Development action is also essential to reduce vulnerabilities and enable improved conditions for returns through systems strengthening, as well as to prevent future displacement by sustainably building the resilience of communities, infrastructure and social services to recurring climatic shocks.

The growing trends in humanitarian needs in Ethiopia represent a significant challenge and they have led to a recognition that there is an urgent need to fully adopt and accelerate the implementation of the HDP nexus approach. This 2023 HRP represents an effort by the humanitarian community to sharpen its own contributions to building resilience, where possible, while at the same time acting as an urgent call for increased engagement and coordination with development and peace actors to work to address the root causes and drivers of humanitarian needs and vulnerabilities – whether this is via area-based approaches or on addressing broader structural drivers, or both.
This is especially important as the ability of humanitarian actors to meet growing needs in Ethiopia is reaching its limit.

Disclaimer

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

To learn more about OCHA’s activities, please visit https://www.unocha.org/.

UN and partners seek $3.99 billion to help more than 20 million people in Ethiopia
Source: Philippines Legacy PH