Ethiopia Humanitarian Fund Annual Report 2024

LETTER FROM THE HC

In 2024 the Ethiopia Humanitarian Fund (EHF) allowed for life-saving assistance to reach approximately 4.4 million people, including 2.4 million women and girls and over 400,000 people living with disabilities. With the support of 15 donors, the EHF launched five allocations totaling $62.7 million.

These allocations, implemented through 75 projects and 38 partners, responded to life-threatening needs and critical gaps across diverse thematic areas. The year started with widespread food insecurity and malnutrition, driven by El-Nino drought that had impacted harvests across northern and highland areas in the second half of 2023. In complement to UN partner actions, the EHF enabled geographically prioritized response by NGOs including integrated nutrition, health, and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programming to address malnutrition, interventions targeting conflict-affected areas, and responses to internal displacements, gender-based violence, and other natural disasters such as earthquake and volcano, floods and landslides. The Fund enabled partners to deliver assistance in hard-to-reach areas, particularly those affected by conflict, where humanitarian support had been limited or entirely absent.

All EHF allocations were strategically aligned with priorities established by the Humanitarian Country Team, based on our quarterly Priority Humanitarian Response and Critical Funding Gaps analysis, prepared by the Inter-Cluster Coordination Group (ICCG) in coordination with field-based teams – an approach that will also be applied in 2025.

The EHF continued to be a leading humanitarian tool to support advancement of the localization agenda in Ethiopia. In 2024, 49 per cent of funding was allocated to local/national actors. 40 per cent was allocated directly to local/national actors, representing a 10 per cent increase in direct funding to local/national NGOs compared to 2023 and a 21 per cent increase compared to 2022. EHF will continue to prioritize localization and increasing direct funding to local/national NGOs in 2025. Beyond the quantity of funding, in 2024 EHF ensured greater participation, decision-making, and empowerment of local/national actors, including women-led organizations. With its localization efforts and achievements, the Fund contributes to a gender-transformative humanitarian response and power-shifting in the overall global humanitarian system.

Drawing on detailed climate forecasting, the Ethiopian Disaster Risk Management Commission and Humanitarian Country Team launched a ‘Call for anticipatory action’ in September 2024, ahead of anticipated poor rains impacting southern, lowland areas. I was pleased that we were able to orchestrate complementary funding allocations from the EHF and the globally-managed Central Emergency Relief Fund (CERF), with related anticipatory actions and resource allocations undertaken also by Federal and Regional Government authorities – a world first! With a combined allocation of $18 million, 12 NGO partners and five UN agencies were able to implement pre-emptive measures, working together to protect livelihoods and prevent a nutrition crisis across Somali, Oromia and South Ethiopia regions, assisting approximately 1.9 million people. In 2025, EHF will continue responding through anticipatory actions, contributing to a cost-effective, and dignified response in a country that faces frequent natural disasters.

In 2024, the Fund proved to be a catalytic, flexible and innovative funding mechanism, responding with speed through its large pool of pre-assessed organizations. Considerable progress was also made in overall Fund management, including in the Fund’s risk and compliance. Regrettably, the outlook of the financial situation for humanitarian programming, including at the country level is deeply concerning. Combined with the ever-evolving context in the country, more than ever, agile and rapid funding mechanisms such as EHF will be crucial in preventing loss of life and upholding the dignity of the most vulnerable populations in Ethiopia.

Finally, I sincerely thank all donors to the EHF for their continued support and confidence. I also thank all UN, NGO and donor representatives serving as part of the EHF Advisory Board for their support and guidance to me and the OCHA management team in our oversight of this critical resource, which has played such a significant role in our response efforts over the past year.

Sincerely,

Dr Ramiz Alakbarov
Humanitarian Coordinator for Ethiopia