UNICEF Ethiopia Humanitarian Situation Report #18 – Reporting Period 6 November – 5 December 2017

UNICEF Ethiopia Humanitarian Situation Report #18 – Reporting Period 6 November – 5 December 2017

REPORT from UN Children’s Fund Published on 05 Dec 2017
The government-led multi-agency humanitarian needs assessment started on 18 November 2017 and will continue until 13 December 2017. The findings will inform the Humanitarian Requirements Document (HRD) for 2018. Preliminary estimates are that 5 to 7 million people will require food support and 7.4 million people will require access to safe water.

On 28 November 2017, the Government of Ethiopia launched the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) which promotes out-of-camp support to refugees and refugees’ integration within host communities.

Between January and November 2017, Mobile Health and Nutrition Teams (MHNTs) operating in Afar and Somali regions provided services to 411,338 people.

Critical needs remain across all sectors, in particular for shelter, food, nutrition and water and sanitation for the large caseload of 100,000s of people displaced as a result of the conflict along the border of Oromia and Somali regions.

SITUATION IN NUMBERS

8.5 million * People in need of relief food assistance in the second half of 2017

376,000 * Children in need of treatment for severe acute malnutrition in 2017

10.5 million * Children in need of access to safe drinking water and sanitation services

1.9 million * School-aged children in need of emergency school feeding and learning material assistance

889,071 Registered refugees in Ethiopia (UNHCR, October 2017)

*2017 HRD, mid-year review

UNICEF Appeal 2017 US$ 135.9 million

Situation Overview and Humanitarian Needs

The government-led multi-agency seasonal humanitarian needs assessment began on 18 November 2017 and will continue until 13 December 2017. Twenty teams are deployed to 208 woredas across all regions of Ethiopia. The findings will inform the development of the 2018 HRD, which is due to be launched in January In advance of these findings, which are informed by seasonal rainfall and harvest analyse, based on current regional and sectoral inputs, the National Disaster Risk Management Commission (NDRMC) estimated humanitarian needs for 2018 to be similar to those in 2017; with approximately 5 to 7 million people in need of food support and required humanitarian funding of between US$895 million to US$1 billion. The estimated requirements will be revised based upon the assessment findings. Based on this initial estimate of humanitarian needs, UNICEF Ethiopia has developed the 2018 Ethiopia Humanitarian Actions for Children (HAC). The HAC will be revised as necessary following the launch of the HRD.

Following the end of the fourth extension of the amnesty period on 16 November 2017, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has started to expel Ethiopian migrants who do not have adequate documentation. The Government of Ethiopia has reported that it is currently working with Saudi Arabia to safely return Ethiopian migrants. On 29 March 2017, Saudi Arabia had granted an initial amnesty of three months for all irregular migrants to leave voluntarily, during which more than 90,000 are estimated by IOM to have returned to Ethiopia. Among the returnees are unaccompanied children, single mothers and other vulnerable people requiring assistance for food, water and transportation to return to their home communities. IOM is leading the coordination of the response for returnees.

The IOM-led displacement tracking matrix (DTM) Round 7 reports that, as of October 2017, there were 1,327,066 internally displaced people (IDPs) in Ethiopia, 51 per cent from Somali region and 40 per cent from Oromia region. IOM also tracked an additional 288,378 displaced individuals through the emergency tracking tool.

There continues to be a large caseload of 100,000s of people displaced as a result of the ongoing conflict along the border of Oromia and Somali regions. Exact figures are difficult to ascertain given ongoing tensions and localised insecurity which is causing difficulty in accessing locations. Critical needs have been identified across all sectors. As a result of the insecurity induced by conflict, transportation of nutrition supplies to Dawa and Liban zones in Somali region has been challenging. In order to avoid stock-outs, UNICEF is working closely with WFP logistics and security teams, OCHA and other nutrition partners to explore alternative transportation routes and modalities.

On 28 November 2017, the Government of Ethiopia launched the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) that promotes out-of-camp support to refugees and refugee integration within host communities, gradually moving away from the current in-camp assistance to refugees. This is expected to improve the lives of refugees through providing additional livelihood opportunities, including employment and self-reliance. Ethiopia is the second largest refugee hosting country in Africa, with 889,071 refugees registered and living in the country as of October 2017. In 2017, 103,263 new refugees arrived in the country mainly from South Sudan (more than 73,900), Eritrea (more than 20,700) and from Somalia (more than 6,600).

Humanitarian Leadership and Coordination

The NDRMC leads the overall humanitarian coordination through the federal and regional level Disaster Risk Management Technical Working Groups (DRMTWGs) and brings together various task forces and sector cluster partners to coordinate emergency response efforts. UN agencies and NGOs are supporting the Government-led humanitarian response targeting priority hotspot woredas.

In support of the Government of Ethiopia, UNICEF continues to provide cluster leadership for WASH and nutrition, and coleadership with Save the Children International for education. UNICEF also provides sub-cluster co-leadership with UNFPA for child protection and gender based violence and plays a key role in the health cluster coordination.

As a cross-cutting strategy, UNICEF continues to support Communication for Development (C4D) interventions, including strengthening communication coordination mechanisms, enhancing capacity of social mobilization networks, and disseminating context specific key messages through multiple channels and platforms.

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