HC’s Vision Paper for the Ethiopia Humanitarian Fund, 22 June 2022

Introduction

The paper intends to explain the vision and the overall strategies for setting‐out priorities of the Ethiopia Humanitarian Fund (EHF). It aims to provide guidance on the principles of engagement and programmatic focus of the EHF to eligible partners, the Advisory Board members, and cluster/sector representatives. It highlights key principles of inclusive programming and selected programme areas of contextualization which the Fund will champion. The Vision Paper will be closely monitored by the Humanitarian Coordinator (HC) and be revisited by the EHF Advisory Board annually.

Vision Statement

Coupled with climatic shocks including drought and floods, armed conflict and inter‐communal violence remain the major drivers of humanitarian needs across Ethiopia as the country undergoes a political transition. In 2021 alone, more than two million individuals were forced to flee their homes. With an estimated 5.8 million internally displaced people in Ethiopia, some of whom displaced many times, as a result of insecurity in Tigray, Afar, Amhara, Benishangul Gumuz, Oromia, SNNP and Somali regions, Ethiopia is experiencing increasing protection risks. In many regions, humanitarian access remains constrained, preventing timely delivery of aid and protection to those in need.

Ethiopia is also particularly vulnerable to climate change and its consequences. Three failed rainy seasons in a row have resulted in severe drought, affecting at least eight million people in lowland areas. In 2022, the Ethiopia Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) requires US$3.09 billion to provide targeted humanitarian response to 23.6 million people across the country, including 5.5 million internally displaced people (IDPs), and 18 million people affected (non‐displaced) and 42 thousand returned migrants.

The Ethiopia Humanitarian Fund (EHF) is a coordinated, flexible and principled humanitarian financing mechanism with emphasize on emergency readiness, emergency response and anticipatory financing. It primarily focuses on timely, lifesaving, and needs‐based humanitarian response and aspires to establish linkages with development projects. Short‐ term, multi‐sector, non‐food assistance remains its key priority of intervention with consideration of critical lifesaving pipeline, if necessary. It will strengthen its commitment to place the most vulnerable people, particularly women, girls and persons with disabilities, in the centre of intervention through meaningful inclusion of accountability to affected people (AAP), protection from sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA) and age, gender and diversity in its programming, while continue to champion its localization agenda, translating the commitments made in the HCT‐National NGO Engagement Strategy, and pursuing for an anticipatory action approach, which may be complemented by pre‐ positioning of funding to enable a ’48‐hour response’ in coordination with contingency planning processes.