Attachments
Overview
The drought in parts of the country and the ongoing conflict across Northern Ethiopia exacerbated existing food insecurity levels across the country. A fifth failed rainy season in the south and the conflict in Afar, Amhara, and Tigray regions displaced millions. The estimated number of food insecure people increased from 18 million in 2021 to more than 22.6 million by the end of 2022[1].
The operating environment became increasingly challenging and complex as humanitarian needs outstretched WFP’s available resources, affecting WFP’s ability to deliver a response proportionate to the needs. 2022 saw an increase in security incidents and access constraints which caused significant delays and, at times, halted crucial activities such as climate resilience building and livelihood initiatives. Severe shortfalls in nutrition resources and supplies left WFP no choice but to cease distributions of nutrition prevention support in July and cut refugee rations by 50 percent from June. In 2022, WFP raised an unprecedented level of funding; however, despite raising more money than ever before, needs continued to outstrip resources. WFP received 69 percent (USD 1.1 billion) of the requirements (USD 1.6 billion).
Despite these challenges, WFP successfully reached 10.2 million [2] girls and boys, women, and men, including 614,370 persons with disabilities (PWD), through distribution of 507,786 metric tons(mt) of food and USD 25 million [3] in cash-based transfers across its activities in Ethiopia. Collaborating with five partners, WFP reached over 6.4 million people with relief assistance under the Humanitarian Response Plan in the Afar, Amhara, Tigray, and Somali regions, extending its assistance to conflict, drought and flood-affected people.
In efforts to contribute towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2, WFP adapted its crisis response activities by revising the WFP Ethiopia 2020-2025 Country Strategic Plan, increasing its 2022 budget by USD 1 billion.
In February 2022, WFP launched its drought response to which 94 percent of 3.5 million [4] people were assisted across Oromia, Somali, and Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' (SNNPR) regions through the provision of food assistance, nutritional support, livelihoods support, support to build and maintain productive assets, education and by augmenting logistics capacity.
As is too often the case in emergencies, women and girls were disproportionately affected by the conflict, leading to increased malnutrition among these groups[5]. WFP responded by providing specialized nutritious foods to 2 million children aged 6-59 months, as well as 1 million pregnant and breastfeeding women and girls, out of 7.5 million targeted [6] through the prevention and treatment of moderate acute malnutrition. To improve dietary diversity and access to nutrient dense foods (e.g., fruit, vegetables, eggs), WFP supported households with pregnant and breastfeeeding women and children under two years of age with fresh food vouchers.
Throughout 2022, WFP continued to build its ‘Changing Lives’ portfolio of activities which are critical to provide lasting solutions to the vulnerable communities. These included home-grown school feeding, resilience building for refugees and host communities, climate change adaptation through index insurance targeting pastoralists, and activities to prevent stunting in pregnant and breastfeeding women and girls and children, reaching about 347,666 people in total.
In 2022, WFP has piloted new resilience and livelihoods projects such as the re-greening of degraded land and the use of anticipatory actions helping communities respond early to climate shocks and build resilience and smallholder farmer support in production and market linkages. WFP continued to support the Government of Ethiopia with capacity strengthening initiatives, including the support provided to digitize their early warning systems.
In line with WFP’s commitment to the achievement of SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals), WFP continued to demonstrate its role as a partner of choice and key enabler of Ethiopia’s humanitarian response across sectors. The United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) played a critical role in providing transport to 8,000 passengers from UN agencies and partner organisations to hard-to-reach regions in Ethiopia. Confronted with infrastructure, insecurity and road accessibility challenges, WFP used its logistical expertise to move 600,000 mt of food through various corridors throughout 2022.
By the end of 2022, after a peace agreement was reached in November, WFP was operating via all four corridors into Tigray, providing urgently required humanitarian assistance after their closure for over 18 months.