Ethiopia

UN-Habitat and FAO have provided settlement planning support in Ura, and the same technical advisory services need to now be extended to Aftit to guide the quantification and construction of infrastructure, services, and housing in the new settlements to meet the demands of the increasing population. 

In coordination with Regional Health Bureau authorities, health facilities in areas hosting refugees and returnees need to expand their services to meet the growing demand. This includes ensuring adequate stocks of medicines, medical supplies, vaccines, and cold-chain equipment to strengthen immunization services, as well as ambulances to serve the settlement population. Given that government health facilities are already understaffed, additional budgets will be required to recruit more personnel at Woreda health facilities across both regions. Pre-positioning of supplies and operational support for the prevention and control of disease outbreaks is also critical. Many returnees face significant mental health challenges, highlighting the need for expanded mental health support and treatment. Investments are also needed to strengthen community systems to promote the utilization of health services and improve risk communication. Furthermore, interventions to prevent and respond to gender-based violence, including the clinical management of rape, must be prioritized to address risks during migration and upon arrival.

With the projected arrival of 10,000 new students, the Regional Education Bureau will need to support education facilities technically and financially to expand their services in the refugee settlements so they can accommodate more students given the increasing population. (Already, refugee education for refugees from other countries is underfunded and the Regional Education Bureaus lack funds to support refugee schools.) This includes recruitment and deployment of additional teachers, provision of school/operational supplies, and support to language training. In both Amhara and Benishangul-Gumuz regions, investments are needed to support schooling facilities to be further expanded/renovated. More than 60% of school-aged refugee children from Sudan have no access to any form of learning.  They have been displaced from their country of origin due to security concerns, causing them to lose their properties, belongings, and, in some cases, family members. This displacement has significantly increased their stress levels. Implementing Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) programs/ Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) initiatives along with learning would help restore a sense of normalcy to these children. The learning platforms/ schools would also provide them with opportunities to access other basic services since schools/ learning spaces in emergencies usually provide a platform for intersectoral approaches in programming.

Significant investments are required to expand WASH infrastructure, including the drilling of new boreholes, solarization, capping of existing water springs, and the development of integrated water systems. Construction of shared family latrines and handwashing stations for vulnerable refugee communities and returnees is essential, alongside improving access to public sanitation facilities in schools and healthcare centers. Building local capacities to operate and maintain WASH infrastructure sustainably is critical. This includes establishing and strengthening town water utilities, developing business plans, and setting appropriate water tariffs.

The WASH response should be designed around the humanitarian-development-peace nexus to mitigate potential conflicts between displaced populations and host communities while ensuring program sustainability. Lessons learned from successful R-WASH projects in other parts of Ethiopia, supported by development partners, should be leveraged. These projects have strengthened the capacity of regional and zonal water offices in installing and managing integrated water systems, providing a strong foundation for scaling up similar interventions in targeted areas.

In both Aftit and Ura settlements, investments are needed to increase access to electricity for the health centers, communal kitchens, grinding mills, household electrifications, water system connections and economic activities. Such investments are needed to support private sector engagement in areas impacted by displacement and facilitating the economic productivity of both refugees and host community. 

Transforming food systems to prioritize children's nutrition requires a multi-faceted approach: boosting the production and consumption of nutrient-rich foods, strengthening value chains to ensure access to affordable, safe, sustainable, and context-relevant nutritious products. Investments in diversified agricultural practices are essential for improving productivity and nutritional outcomes for both refugee and host communities. Crucially, this transformation must include enhancing household production of nutrient-dense foods and expanding social protection programs, with strong integration of child-focused food and nutrition interventions.

Integrated preventive and curative nutrition services are essential for prevention of morbidity and mortality related with malnutrition. Rapid MUAC screening for early detection and treatment of children with severe acute malnutrition, micro-nutrient supplementation and maternal infant and young child feeding counselling (MIYCF) for prevention of malnutrition needs to be provided through health system and through deployment of mobile health and nutrition team in hard to reach areas and refugees camps.

Children may suffer severe physical injuries or long-term psychological trauma from exposure to violence, exploitation, or loss of caregivers. Lifesaving protection interventions are necessary to identify, document and report unaccompanied and separated children and trace their families towards reunification. Children and women who witnessed or were subject to violence, abuse or exploitation en route need psychosocial support and health services through a case management approach.  

System-related activities are necessary to ensure the effective implementation of these investments. This includes the identification and targeting of potential participants for settlement programs, biometric registration of refugees to enhance service delivery and accountability, and the integration of school feeding programs into education initiatives to improve child nutrition and school attendance.

Both new settlements are located on arable land, where agriculture is possible. Investments are needed for crop value chain development, institutional capacity building of market actors (cooperatives, unions, etc), farm inputs including mechanizations, warehousing, post-harvest handling, and market integration services. Support is also needed for integrating agro-pastoral farming for smallholder refugee and host community farmers to generate cash income. Support for the construction and establishment of new marketplaces in the new settlements would promote self-reliance and strengthen peaceful co-existence of refugees and host community through economic activities. Additional interventions are required to enhance livelihoods and improve resilience. These include training in good agricultural practices to increase productivity, financial empowerment through financial literacy training, training on individual and collective borrowing and lending mechanisms such as Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs)/Self-Help Groups, facilitation of access to favourable financial products in banks, provision of productive assets, and creating market linkages to boost incomes. Nutrition education programs are also essential to improve dietary diversity and nutrition outcomes for both refugees and host communities. In regions like Somali, the establishment of irrigation systems to support diversified crop production would further enhance food security and provide an additional dimension to livelihood opportunities.

Investments in environment and climate change adaptation are critical to ensuring the   protection of environmental resources that are shared with the host community is critical to reducing conflict. This includes the protection of existing vegetation and afforestation programs and natural resource management. Specific investments include nursery production and management, multi-purpose tree planting, and physical and biological erosion control structures, to reduce flooding of the settlement and other environmental hazards. These measures can reduce risks women and girls face when travelling long distances to collect wood

Partner: EU INTPA | Budget: USD 4.3 million (UNHCR) and USD 3.4 million (IOM)

Sectors: Early recovery, long-term peacebuilding, and resilience needs

Location: Benishangul Gumuz, Gambella, Amhara, Tigray  | Duration: 2024-2025

Implementing entities: UNHCR, IOM

Partner: ECA (Spain with UNHCR) | Budget: USD 217,000

Sectors: Agricultural Livelihoods and Environmental activities

Location: Sudan situation  | Duration: 1 year

Implementing entities: Good Neighbours Ethiopia (GNE) and Natural Resource and Environmental Protection (NRDEP)

Project: Inclusive Learning Opportunities for Refugees and Internally Displaced People in Benishangul-Gumuz, Ethiopia

Partner: Grundfos Foundation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark (MFA), LEGO Foundation 

Budget: DKK 15.4 M

Sectors: WASH, Education, Gender equality, Child protection, MHPSS

Location: Benishangul-Gumuz, Ethiopia  | Duration: 1 January 2024 – 30 June 2027

Implementing entities: UNICEF will have overall responsibility and will work with the Regional Water Bureau (RWB), Regional Health Bureau (RHB), Regional Education Bureau (REB), Bureau of Finance and Economic Development, private sector (consultants and contractors), and refugee partners including UNHCR and RRS