Humanitarian Coordinator’s Vision Paper for the Ethiopia Humanitarian Fund, 21st March 2024

1. Introduction

This paper sets out the Humanitarian Coordinator’s vision and overall strategy for the Ethiopia Humanitarian Fund (EHF). It provides guidance on the principles of engagement and programmatic focus of the EHF to partners, Advisory Board members, OCHA personnel and cluster coordinators. It makes the case for the added value of the Pooled Funding as compared to bilateral funding. It highlights key principles of inclusive programming and program focus areas which the Fund will champion and demonstrate significant change. The paper will be updated annually by the Humanitarian Coordinator in consultation with the Advisory Board to align with the dynamic and evolving context.

2. Vision Statement

At the start of 2024, humanitarian partners are gearing up to mount a massive new response to El Niño-driven drought in Ethiopia, in addition to dealing with the continuing impacts of past droughts, floods, conflict and economic shocks. Early action is needed to prevent deterioration and widespread suffering. Conflict and insecurity in parts of the country has given rise to new and growing protection concerns, including displacement, destruction of social infrastructure, and gender-based violence. The 2024 Ethiopia Humanitarian Response Plan requires US$ 3.2 billion to reach over 15 million people with assistance. Ethiopia remains one of the largest refugee hosting countries in Africa and accepting more than 130,000 new arrivals in 2023.

Given the dramatic funding shortfalls, the Inter-Cluster Coordination Group conducts periodic prioritization of activities to respond to the most acute needs at woreda level and critical response and funding gap analysis. This approach, endorsed by the HCT, enables donors and partners, including the EHF, to target limited resources for maximum impact.

The EHF positions itself as a coordinated, adaptive, and principled humanitarian financing mechanism. It will be catalytic by promoting an integrated multi-sector area-based approach and exploring anticipatory financing. Given the limited funding available, lifesaving, non‐food assistance including cash, remains the key priority, targeting the most vulnerable, including those facing protection concerns.

The Fund will primarily support NGO partners with strong field presence and/or agility to respond in hard-to-reach and neglected areas, and will complement the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) for UN agencies. The EHF will continue to advance localization, through direct funding, capacity-strengthening, partnerships, and leadership of the humanitarian response.

The EHF will be used strategically to strengthen the overall humanitarian response, drawing on the knowledge of partners and inter-cluster coordination at the regional level and reinforcing linkages to national level coordination and expertise. Accountability to affected people will be strengthened by promoting their meaningful participation and leadership, and ensuring all persons with and without disabilities have access to all the humanitarian services provided without any barriers.

The EHF prioritizes gender transformative humanitarian response, gender equality and women’s leadership including addressing gender-based-violence.