An evaluation of the 2003 emergency in Ethiopia finds the response overall a success but says weaknesses must be addressed

ADDIS ABABA, 18 October 2004 - A document on the joint evaluation report of the response to the 2003 drought in which more than 13 million people received humanitarian assistance was officially disclosed today in the presence of Mr. Martti Ahtisaari, the Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General for the Humanitarian Crisis in the Horn of Africa and Commissioner Simon Mechale at the DPPC meeting hall.
The joint evaluation of the response was conducted by a team of experts from the DPPC, United Nations, donor community and NGOs who reviewed the response from the highest to the lowest levels and made a series of recommendations and next steps that need to be implemented to help prevent future emergencies.

"Overall the evaluation found the emergency relief operations well managed and effective due to a high degree of coordination and transparency by the federal DPPC, which led the international community to respond as generously and effectively as it did," said Mr. Ahtisaari, in Addis Ababa launching the Evaluation Report on Monday, 18 October.

"Once the magnitude of the crisis was understood by the international community, large amounts of food became available very quickly, partly due to the fortuitous availability of shipments from the USA and other donors.

"1.5 million tonnes of food aid was shipped to Djibouti in 2003 and transported inland by private trucking to 1,200 distribution centers, far exceeding logistics capacities that were thought to exist." said Mr. Ahtisaari.

The Commissioner of the DPPC, Simone Mechalle said "the commitment and transparency of the Government of Ethiopia as well as the donor support and commitment attributed to the overall success of the response and stressed that this involvement must continue."

He also praised the concerted efforts made and the high degree of innovation in emergency programming in 2003.

The major weakness of the 2003 humanitarian response was in regards to meeting non-food needs such as health, agriculture, water and sanitation which were neglected in the early stages of the emergency.

"Specifically, non-food needs and coordination must be given more weight through the strengthening of sectoral task forces and emergency response capacity of line ministries" said Marc-André Fredette, CIDA Director for Ethiopia.

"Nutrition policy, surveillance and response, needs an institutional home in Ethiopia; non-food assessments need to match the sophisticated approaches used in food needs assessments and there remain gaps in early warning systems for non-food needs."

"Donors must also give more attention to the funding of these critical non-food needs." said Mr. Fredette, who also emphasized that much more attention is needed on gender issues in this context.

The evaluation recommends maintaining the strong emergency capacities of the DPPC and Government Ministries while the Safety Net Programme is implemented for chronic food insecure families.

At the regional levels UN Agencies and NGOs must maintain their strong field presence after an emergency to provide direct capacity building and development support, and the capacities of the country's trucking fleet must be assessed and maintained.

"Although the logistics response was more than expected, fundamentally it depends on an ageing trucking fleet. This needs to be addressed." said Simone Mechalle, DPPC Commissioner.

The Commissioner also noted the need to maintain a well stocked Emergency Food Security Reserve (EFSR), which the evaluation team found to be a vital link to quickly meeting emergency food needs during the crisis.

While the Government has policies addressing the root causes of vulnerability to disasters, the evaluation stresses that measures such as the urgent implementation of programs to provide access to contraceptives and family planning need to be stepped up, so that population pressures on land can begin to decrease in the long term.

"Alternative livelihood strategies for the rural poor, addressing environmental degradation, supporting market and small town development, continuing with land-tenure certification and facilitating and attracting external investment are all programs which need more Government attention," said Marcy Vigoda, Director of CARE Ethiopia.

"The challenges for long term food security must also be addressed with more focus on family planning, support for pastoralists, gender equity, and the HIV/AIDS pandemic." said Ms Vigoda.

The Evaluation Steering Committee is committed to seeing the recommendations acted upon and will continue to work towards implementing them and improving the existing emergency response mechanisms.