Mekelle: 11 April 2024 (Tigray Herald)
ETHIOPIA – PARTNER COUNTRIES* POSITION PAPER ON HUMANITARIAN AID
Partners and friends of Ethiopia will come together for the upcoming High-level Pledging Event for the Humanitarian Crisis in Ethiopia co-hosted by the Government of Ethiopia, UNOCHA, and the UK Government in Geneva on 16/04/2024 to pledge new funding. Partner countries would like to express their common position for the Conference, reflecting a collective view on the current humanitarian situation and dynamics in Ethiopia.
Context:
Millions of people throughout Ethiopia are seriously affected by multiple and sometimes overlapping disasters, including conflicts, economic and climate shocks, and disease epidemics. These factors have contributed to alarming food insecurity and malnutrition in several regions of the country. Safety for civilians is not guaranteed in many areas. Aid diversion uncovered in 2023 shook donor confidence during a period of intensifying global competition for humanitarian funds.
Partners and friends of Ethiopia:
1. Recognize the pivotal role to be played by the Government of Ethiopia in responding to the humanitarian situation as the primary duty bearer, with support from the international community.
2. Strongly support this event and commit to mobilizing resources for assisting and protecting the most vulnerable populations in the most severely affected areas of the country, by drawing international attention to the crisis in Ethiopia, which risks being overshadowed by other acute crises globally.
3. Advocate for a substantial simultaneous scale-up of the development funding and further coordination with humanitarians in a Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus approach to improve the impact of actions and to foster durable solutions.
Asks:
While strongly supporting the call for expanded humanitarian funding, partner countries ask for the following actions to maximise efficiency and effectiveness of humanitarian support:
Of the Government of Ethiopia:
1. Prioritize public funding to the most pressing emergency needs, increase pro-poor policies, and routinely report on its assistance,
2. Reinforce accountability efforts to prevent diversion and ensure that assistance reaches the most vulnerable, including Internally Displaced People, on the basis of needs and vulnerability only,
3. Lift bureaucratic impediments imposed on humanitarian actors by:
a. Confirming a clear process for tax exemption for humanitarian goods, including vehicles and communications equipment.
b. Increased number of and faster approval of visas, work permits and Memorandums of Understanding for humanitarian NGOs.
4. Ensure the safety and protection of civilian populations, including aid workers, respecting International Humanitarian Law provisions, and continue to work towards peace across the country.
5. Ensure that Internally Displaced People (IDP) movements across the country are voluntary, safe, informed and dignified in the frame of planned and resourced Durable Solutions. Ethiopia’s IDPs Proclamation should be ratified and operationalized as early as possible.
6. Work with international humanitarian partners to have reliable and more independent assessments on food insecurity, including through reinstating IPC analysis.
Of international humanitarian partners:
1. Improve needs and vulnerability-based prioritization and targeting mechanisms to ensure lifesaving assistance reaches the most vulnerable. Pair this with:
2. A best-in-class humanitarian information management system, based on multi-sector analytical evidence, that better enables donor funding decisions and ensures more accurate prioritization.
3. Implement recommendations of the February 2024 UN Peer-to-Peer review mission, including re-focusing on International Humanitarian Law and the centrality of protection, enhancing humanitarian access and coordination, and mitigation of diversion risks. All Humanitarian Country Team members should commit to actively contributing to their implementation.
Annex – Prioritized list of expected commitments:
Short-term:
1. Communicate the Government of Ethiopia’s budget allocation for humanitarian aid (and
actual spend) to Partner countries with transparency and in a timely manner,
2. Reinstate IPC analysis in 2024 via activation of the necessary technical working groups (in coordination with the Global Support Unit), leading to a 2025 IPC report for Ethiopia.
3. Lift taxation of humanitarian supplies and vehicles used by humanitarian actors in 2024,
4. Ensure protection of humanitarian workers and that humanitarian assets are exclusively used for humanitarian purposes,
5. Increase the number of work permits including for surge capacity granted to INGOs and ease the process,
Longer-term:
1. Reform the humanitarian system gradually, with priority being given to resetting the entire data management and analysis system, bringing more independent and objective evidence by 2025,
2. Ensure transparent needs-and-vulnerability-based prioritization and targeting, and effective monitoring of the humanitarian response,
3. Pursue respect and enforcement of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) by combatting
impunity,
4. Prioritize peaceful solutions in Oromia, Tigray and Amhara, allowing displaced populations to move voluntarily, safely and settle durably, as per the Kampala convention (African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa),
5. Collectively adopt an ambitious and effective nexus approach with the aim of reducing chronic dependency on humanitarian aid and to build resilience to recurrent shock.
