Focus on Ethiopia - Oct 2007

HIGHLIGHTS IN THIS ISSUE:

- HRF: INNOVATIONS IN HUMANITARIAN FINANCING

- REGIONAL OVERVIEW

- UPCOMING & ONGOING MEETINGS

Focus on Ethiopia is produced by UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), in collaboration with other UN agencies and partner NGOs. Focus on Ethiopia provides a monthly overview of humanitarian trends and activities in Ethiopia, as well as focusing on particular issues of interest. Send comments, suggestions and contributions to ocha-eth@un.org

HUMANITARIN RESPONSE FUND (HRF): INNOVATIONS IN HUMANITARIAN FINANCING

Tall and gracious, clad in a vivid blue dress and a loose beige sweater, Marsa Gnamoac sits on a small wooden chair in her tukul discussing the hardships she has been forced to endure since returning to Akobo after being displaced by floods in early August. Marsa lives in a cramped tukul in Tiergol, Akobo, roughly 207 kilometers west of Gambella town in south-western Ethiopia. At age 34, she is raising four children on her own while her husband searches for work across the border in Sudan. Three of her children are of school age, yet there are no schools for them to attend in Tiergol. The children have had recurrent bouts of bloody/watery diarrhea and she complains that there is no adequate medication or clean water supplies available. Marsa's tukul bears witness to some relief items -- blankets, cooking pots, jerry cans, agricultural tools and plastic sheets she received from the humanitarian agency ZOA Refugee Care, funded by the Humanitarian Response Fund (HRF). Large seed sacks standing a metre high, emblazoned with the words "USAID", rest in the corner of her tukul ready for cultivation.

The assistance is the result of financing from the Humanitarian Response Fund in Ethiopia, a humanitarian resource pool committed to addressing acute emergencies throughout the country. As one- pillar of humanitarian reform, this emergency financing mechanism has contributed more than $19 million since its inception towards emergency assistance in three primary areas: the Horn of Africa drought, the Floods, and the Acute Watery Diarrhoea (AWD) outbreak.

Made possible by donor contributions from the governments of the UK, Netherlands and Norway, Sweden and Spain, the HRF has been a pioneer in the realm of humanitarian assistance for the last two years, responding to some of the most severe crises and marginalized people throughout Ethiopia. In March 2006, the HRF was instituted as a principal emergency funding mechanism under the auspices of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) and managed by the UN Humanitarian Coordinator.

The Fund is designed to minimize gaps in emergency response. Typically, areas of intervention include water and sanitation, health and nutrition, non-food items, emergency livestock and agricultural interventions. From March 2006 to July 2007, the HRF funded nearly 40 responses to emergencies throughout Ethiopia. Of these 40 response projects, approximately 50 percent of the funds were allocated to drought response, 30 percent to flood response, and 20 percent to address the AWD outbreak. These responses were completed by implementing agencies such as UNICEF, CARE, FHI, SC UK, Oxfam, CRS, IRC, WV, FAO, MERLIN, PSI, SC US, ACF, FHI, CCF, DPPA, ZOA, and IOM.

The largest project ever funded by the HRF was a versatile intervention through UNICEF, totalling $2.7 million benefiting 30,000 people with water interventions. Five major components - health, nutrition, hygiene, water and sanitation - for Somali Region and Borena Zone of Oromiya Region supported construction of hand dug wells, latrines, and bore holes and the rehabilitation of water schemes. Over 30,000 people benefited from these water interventions.