Ethiopia
2023-12 Factsheet - Ethiopia
Highlights
By the end of 2023, the ESNFI Cluster has managed to secure about half (USD 62M) of its required funding of USD 124.8M and cluster partners have reported reaching almost half (45%) of the cluster’s 3.2M target plus 8% more committed through ongoing activities and items in stock. This leaves the cluster with a gap of 47% (1.5M people), whose continuing shelter and NFI needs would be part of a response plan in 2024.
The 4th quarter of 2023 saw heavy rains and seasonal floods continuing into October and November especially in parts of Afar, Gambela, Oromia, and Somali regions. The cluster contributed to the Joint Government and Humanitarian Partners Flood Contingency Plan 2023/2024 for the Bega rainy season (Oct-Dec) that estimated around 800K people affected and 400K people likely to be displaced by the floods. In Q4, despite severe resource constraints, cluster partners have reported providing emergency shelter and NFI assistance to 78K people affected by floods in Afar, Gambela, Oromia, SNNP, and Somali regions.
Even as flood was a major cause of displacement during this period, severe drought conditions have been also developing in both northern and southern parts of the country. The cluster is working with its partners and the rest of the humanitarian community to be able to respond to shelter and household needs of people having to move due to water shortage, poor crop yields, and shortage of food for both people and livestock.
Meanwhile, issues around the relocation of IDPs facing evictions from collective centers Tigray persist even as the influx of IDPs continue into major towns of the North Western zone of the region. The continuing need to help returnees repair and rehabilitate their damaged homes remain a priority for the cluster. In Q4, cluster partners have reported assisting around 83K returning IDPs in Afar, Benishangul Gumz, Oromia, SNNP, and Tigray.
To increase the quality of its response activities, the cluster continued to deliver trainings in targeting guidelines, good distribution, shelter programming, and community engagement for partners in Somali in October and in Addis Ababa in December.
NFI
Shelter
Coverage against targets
Need analysis
Prioritization for the 3rd quarter, based on factors such as access, security, recurring displacement, neglected responses, and the number of displacements and existing cluster capacities, has identified 35 woredas in Afar, Amhara, Benishangul Gumz, Oromia, and Tigray regions under the Extreme severity category, 94 Woredas as Severe, and the rest of the woredas as Mildly moderate.
Oromia and Tigray were identified as having the highest number of woredas under the "Extreme" and "Severe" categories. This was due to IDP returns that were taking place and the relocation of the IDPs from schools in Tigray and access and limited responses in the Oromia region. These prioritizations were also informed by the MYR and CCPM exercises in July.
Adjustments to these prioritizations were made as changes to the operational context emerged.
Response
By the end of the 3rd quarter of 2023, the cluster has reached a little over a third (35%) of its 3.2M target population and committed to 10% more through ongoing activities, leaving a gap of 55% to fill for the last quarter of the year.
By activity, NFI and ESNFI assistance, in kind and in cash, account for 79% of the population reached across the eight regions targeted by the cluster. However, NFI and ESNFI assistance make up only 2% and 25%, respectively, of the population covered by ongoing activities as the cluster strategizes to provide further NFIs primarily for the newly displaced or for those who have lost NFIs in flash floods and other events outside of their control.
Shelter Repair assistance so far has reached only 10% of the total reached, in the form of shelter repair kits (full and minor) provided to 111K beneficiaries, largely to returning IDPs in six regions (Afar, Amhara, Benishangul Gumz, SNNP, Somali, and Tigray). However, Shelter Repair now accounts for 32% of the population covered by ongoing activities, demonstrating the cluster’s prioritization of Shelter Repair in areas of returns where homes are damaged and in IDP sites where existing shelters have started to deteriorate. Ongoing Shelter Repair activities are committed to populations in Amhara, Benishangul Gumz, and Tigray.
As with Shelter Repair, Emergency Shelter (ES) assistance also shows a big percentage (41%) of the population covered by ongoing activities compared to only 11% of the population reached through completed activities. The majority of ongoing ES activities are Cash for Rent committed to populations in Amhara, Oromia, and Tigray.
Gaps / challenges
With only 47% of the required funding secured by the end of the 3rd quarter, the cluster faces the challenge of mobilizing and prioritizing limited resources to reach the remaining 55% (1.8M) target population in the last three months of 2023. The cluster has over 60 partners and 45 have so far contributed to the overall response. But many projects and activities are short-lived or one-off resulting in the number of partners actively reporting fluctuating month by month as partners struggle to secure new funds.
Added to the funding constraints are access constraints in some parts of Oromia, Tigray, Amhara, Afar, and Amhara leading to some targeted populations hard to reach.
Limited financial and technology infrastructure to support cash modalities for delivering shelter and NFI assistance are also a challenge but the cluster is coordinating with other clusters and the Cash Working Group to overcome these challenges.
