UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : OCHA - Press Conference: Humanitarian Situation in Ethiopia

good

afternoon, everyone. And we come to this press briefing

just in advance of the conference that we're having on Ethiopia a

bit later today to that conference that happens in Room 23.

You're also welcome to come and

observe there, and it will be live streamed on Web

TV

as well.

I will just quickly introduce the three people we have that we're proud to have,

I should say on this panel.

Then they, in turn,

will give some introductory remarks and then we'll go

to your questions in the room and online.

We do not have that much time, approximately a little bit less than half an hour.

Then we will have to wrap it up. So we will do it short and sweet

as we always try to do

so. Just to my left, I have ambassadors

who is commissioner of the Ethiopian Disaster Risk Management Commission

to his left right honourable Andrew Mitchell,

deputy foreign secretary of the United Kingdom,

and to

my far left, you are far right. We have

Dr

Rames,

who is our own United Nations assistant secretary general

and resident and humanitarian co ordinator in Ethiopia.

So very warm. Welcome to all of you. I will give ambassadors

the first opportunity to address you. Thank you.

Thanks. Thank you so much. Uh, Jens, I think this, uh, a

great opportunity for all of us to be with my colleagues right here who

we have been working all the time, including to

the preparation of these events.

The pledging as well.

Why we are here is, uh, to make really a call, a joint call,

uh, to the humanitarian reasons in Ethiopia.

And this call is particularly based on the partnership and Solidarity spirit

which we, all of us are have been working together.

The humanitarian situation, the size of the problem, which is, uh,

very much known by all of us.

The severity,

the volume that the coverage has been, uh,

increasing day on day basis.

And there are several consequences climate induced ones like drought, flooding,

landslides, epidemics, local locus.

And this has also resulted in the various displacement as well,

which require really a very, very close attention and intervention as well.

Now the reason today is to make that very calm

for partnership and solidarity. That means

to act before it's too late.

That's the very reason.

So far, the government is investing in its own capacity close to

$250

million in addition to sectors

intervention as well as regions and community contributions as well.

Of course, we have two issuess which we have to address all the time.

The first one is saving lives and livelihoods,

and the second one is comp

complement the same with long term

interventions, resilience,

building and coping mechanism as well Where we have to do this all the time.

So the gap remains very wide. We have the $3.2

billion for the HR P 2024 period

so that what is financed less than 5%

and we have a period of 3 to 6 months.

This gap which we calculated the target of 1 billion US D,

which we will be working, uh, through this, uh pledging event

this evening. So a total of about 10.4 million

uh,

individuals beneficiaries are looking and waiting for our support and

our action as we speak and hopefully through this mechanism,

we will be able to reach before everything is getting too late.

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

Ambassador now give the floor to Deputy Foreign Secretary Mitchell

over to you. Thank you.

Thank you very much indeed.

I want to say three things. The first is that

it became clear

last year that

because of climate change, because of the

disorder and conflict within Ethiopia, a

humanitarian situation was developing very much in the

along, the lines of the ambassador has said,

and that the international community should

intervene and intervene further.

The problems inside Ethiopia were

obviously changed during the year.

On the one hand, you'd have the Pretoria agreements, but also

you'd have the difficulty with food distribution and the disagreement,

particularly with the Americans and the government of Ethiopia

as well.

And as a result of those concerns and having spoken in detail to

the European Union, USAID,

the Germans

and others,

I went to Ethiopia to talk to the government and

see for myself what internationally the humanitarians could do to

assist. I had a very good visit,

Prime Minister

Abby Very.

Hopefully we were all on the same page.

What we were saying was that there were increasingly worrying famine conditions,

but that the international community,

working very closely with the government of Ethiopia

was in a position to head it off and

what I found when I went to Ethiopia

working with the Ethiopian government, a brilliant embassy.

I'm delighted that the British ambassador is with us today

what we found when we went up into Tigre

and looked at the areas where

the marginalisation and the difficulties were

taking place, we found an increasing number of people,

particularly Children suffering from malnutrition with the pipeline growing

and also that because of climate change, particularly,

but also because of the displacement of people internally displaced people,

we saw that the coping mechanisms were being seriously degraded.

People were selling what they had,

they were planting the plant.

The harvest then failed and the lean season approaches. And so

we saw a extremely worrying position

which when I got back from that visit to Ethiopia,

I described to colleagues across the humanitarian system as

being a situation where a football was being kicked at a plate glass window.

If nothing was done, the football would smash the window.

But as a international humanitarian community

helping the government working together,

we had the ability to deflect the football away from

the plate glass window and that brings us to today.

This pledging conference

today is not the end of the matter. It is the start of the matter.

Britain will put £100 million more than $125 million on the table.

We are increasing significantly. Our bilateral support for Ethiopia

in the last financial year just ended. It was £136 million.

This year it will be £198 million our biggest programme anywhere in the world

and we are putting our money where our mouth is.

We have a very close, warm partnership with Ethiopia.

It's long lasting, long standing

and we are seeking to

help in a very fundamental way

through this conference which I am co chairing today

and corral others in the international community to give similar support.

And I hope that during this conference,

which as I say is a beginning and not an end,

we will show that we are serious about supporting the Ethiopian

government in this endeavour and encourage others to come in particularly,

we hope that more colleagues from the Gulf will come in

and support this very important effort. The

final thing I'd like to say is this that

this close partnership with the Ethiopian

government gives us the opportunity to look

carefully at the systems that we're using.

The way we work together,

how we effect change and secure results.

And I'm very confident for my conversations with Prime Minister Abby and others,

including

the ambassador who has come here today,

the Commissioner of the Ethiopian Disaster Risk Management Commission,

that working together, we can really head off that football,

which I described. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Uh, Secretary Mitchell, Uh, not least for this, uh,

promise of pledges.

Uh, and I'll give the floor now to Dr Ramis.

Thank you very much.

First of all, I would like to start with my very sincere appreciation

to the government of Ethiopia and the government of the UK. Specifically to you.

Ambassador Mitchell, Deputy Foreign Secretary. For all that you have done

in catalysing and organising this event and the leadership you have taken

and for the field visit which you have made, it was really, really remarkable

to bring us to this moment today. Thank you so very much for your leadership

and

coming to the topic today. Of course, Ethiopia is facing a humanitarian crisis

with needs in all sectors. These are food, security and nutrition.

We spoke about that, but it's also health. It's also water.

It is also sanitation, protection, shelter.

And all of this is really for women and girls and disabled and young and

those who are on the forefront of taking the hardship of what is happening.

The humanitarian situation itself, the crisis we are dealing with

is a result of back to back climate shocks

and the conflicts and the compounded effects of them

is quite devastating.

We must be frank that none of the top 10 countries in the world who

are on the side of the climate change

actually have done anything about climate change.

It's not something of their own making,

and as we look at what it means for the people, it means that

livestock has been affected.

There is less water, drier pastures, smaller harvests,

the critically food insecure people.

Unless we do something as you have referred and they will try to stop that ball,

we will reach about nearly 11,000,010 0.8 million people

by July and September

and We already could see that in places in the north such as Afar, Amhara,

Tigray,

Northern Highlands,

there is quite a considerable amount of population with critical level of

threshold in terms of malnutrition which have been passed

on top of it. We have 4.5 million people who have left their homes,

and it is also Ethiopia among the top 10 countries with the

highest level of internal displacement caused by all of those elements,

needless to mention, but

we all know.

But let's also say that conflicts have destroyed and damaged thousands of schools,

health facilities,

water systems and other community infrastructure in a number of regions,

and that adds

to the difficulty.

So as the UN,

we are working with the government of Ethiopia and international partners

to make our attention and focus on the most vulnerable.

We are working to strengthen national systems,

and that means strengthening governance structures

and working with state institutions.

But equally we are working to strengthen civil society,

which is an integral part of our humanitarian response, and often carry a

response on their shoulders.

So today's conference and the event also is an opportunity for us to recommit

our

resolve support to address the challenges which we face

and the challenges are. We are working on improving the access. Right now.

It's fluid, sometimes in far,

far to reach areas.

We are prevented from reaching people and

people cannot reach us because of insecurity.

Safety of aid workers and security of aid workers is paramount

in many parts of Ethiopia.

That situation needs to improve and it's just

along with the situation of the general population

because of the context of the insecurity and the conflict.

And of course we are working and committing

to remove the bureaucratic impediments such as visas,

import tariffs and other administrative matters.

And we have taken the necessary steps to work together to address these matters.

As we look forward to address these needs, we also will not forget of the past.

We are committed to heal the wounds and

that puts emphasis on issues of transitional justice for the general population,

justice, accountability for the losses of life of humanitarians

and lessons learned for our security for the future delivery of humanitarian need.

Addressing these matters of the past is both our formal and moral responsibility.

As we move forward,

it is also of absolute importance that as we gather today that we

put the people of Ethiopia at the centre of what we do.

The face of the people in need in Ethiopia today are the faces of women, Children,

elderly and disabled.

The effort they make, the trust they build,

the partnership they have is only for one and only outcome.

It is to save lives, provide support and dignity to those who are most in need. We also

need to focus more and will focus more on building resilience

and recovery to support durable solutions for the future of Ethiopia

and today's event.

We at the United Nations call for solidarity with the people of Ethiopia,

call for partnership, call to rally around this important event.

And as you said, Your Excellency, this is not the end of the road.

This is just the beginning

because we need to be in solidarity with those who need our help today.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much. Uh, Dr

Ramiz, um,

we'll now take your questions. I want to go to the room first to see,

uh,

and we will start with Nina Larson from a FP.

Please let us know to whom you address your question.

Thank you. Um, I actually have a couple of questions, if I may

1st of all, uh, to, uh, Minister Mitchell, I was,

uh I know that Britain announced 100 million in fresh aid already in February.

I'm wondering, uh, if this is on top of that, or, um, if this is,

uh, included in that amount, uh, if you could, uh, address that

and, uh, to all of you, I was wondering how much, uh,

you would expect this conference to raise in total, Um,

and what would be considered, uh, a success?

And finally, um, maybe for, um,

uh, the Ethiopian ambassador.

I was wondering if you could address the issue of, uh, aid diversion

And what, uh,

Ethiopia has committed to in terms of ensuring that

the aid gets to where it's supposed to go.

Thank you.

Thank you. Please,

where you're from?

Sorry. Nina Larson.

AFP

from

so first of all, the 100 million that was announced during the visit to Ethiopia

is from the ending preventable deaths programme,

and it's a five year programme.

So it is in addition to the funding that is announced today.

This is funding from our bilateral programme for the coming year, which,

as I say is the largest Britain has.

So

I want to emphasise that because in the past few years

Britain has not been in a leadership position on international development.

We are putting our money where our mouth is and

that gives us, I believe, the ability to seek to persuade others to do likewise,

which obviously you don't have if you're not putting your own

money on the table,

So that's the answer to your question. On your second question,

we are seeking to raise billion pounds. We do not expect to raise it all today,

but we expect today to be a firm platform. Britain has put down about 12

per cent of that.

Today is the start and

we will go back from tonight

with a greater or lesser degree of satisfaction. The closer we get to the billion.

But I emphasise we do not expect to raise that all today.

We do expect to raise it all over the coming months.

Thank you very much. Maybe

Ramis.

If you could address that particular question about expectations for today,

I think it was for all three panellists

and then we'll go to you, Ambassador, for your two questions.

The overall funding gap for the ask if you wish

for the country for this year is actually about

$3 billion

and what we are looking at is 1 billion for the next

several months to address that very situation which was described today,

which is towards July.

So we will not stop the effort. Right?

So the announcements which will be made today,

we will see at the end of the conference where we end up.

But we do believe they will give us a very solid foundation to build on.

First of all, to address the gap by

July, which is the one important gap.

But also we will need to continue to push it through the end of the year.

And

we are factoring in

the difficult situation at the global development market. So what we have done,

we have really put a very well defined request based on objective data. It

is a request which is absolutely prioritised,

and these are the most important needs.

So we really have done a lot of homework not to ask even a penny more than is needed.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ambassador Sho.

Thank you so much. Uh, I think these are very valid points.

The

what we would be expecting, I think as it has been said

by a minister as well as by UN resident co ordinator, it looks

we already prioritised

what we could ask. In fact,

we are talking about 10.4 which is, uh, basically food and food items.

Uh, this number would have been even 15.1

if we were able to calculate those who are in need.

So now the point which we are trying to do is to identify those who are targeted.

And, uh,

this is a bare minimum, which we are coming with,

as, uh Dr

Rams mentioned would have gone to 3.2 billion.

But this goes to September. So what it means is

that the remaining MSs

require additional and as already said, it's like an ongoing process to say.

Of course, uh, there are also domestic mobilisation towards this end, uh,

which we are very much

happy to report what I said earlier. And also I really appreciate the the partners

UK government's pounding role and we were also having the same

preparatory meeting in London which was feeding to this one,

and subsequent platforms definitely will take place

on the second item on the diversion related issues.

Of course, there are a number of movements already that we have a very much revised

disaster risk management policy that addresses

issues of all kinds of accountability,

including strengthening the legal system.

And we even gone to the extent of reviewing the legal framework

where the legal system will be very robust and addressing those issues,

we have also jointly developing what we call a national guideline on targeting.

So there are a number of safeguard mechanisms inclusion exclusion criteria.

And when we identify papers,

we also introduce what we call a vulnerability based targeting to make sure

those who need it will receive it

and those who do not need

they do not receive it, including the

accountability scheme. I mentioned

the final one. We also put a structure in place.

This structure is the monitoring and evaluation structure

where it goes all the way to the community level

and the same structure as a full time

uh, deployment. They will check and recheck whenever this is happening.

Of course. In a country like Ethiopia where we have a massive programme,

uh, always individuals may be here and there who would like to

maximise whatever is possible. But we have at the same time

really brought it to the to the picture

that everyone will be very much aware and everyone will be accountable as well.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Ambassador. We will

go online first to Voice of America, Lisa Schlein.

And then we'll go to you, Emma from Brussels. Lisa, over to you.

Hi.

It took a while for me to be unmuted.

Uh, I think I am now. So yes. Uh, hello there, I. I have a few questions here.

Uh

um I'd like to know more about the conflict areas. Uh, Tigray

and Har

FR and so forth.

Uh, we don't get very much news about the fighting that is going on there.

How active is it? And what is this?

What does this mean in terms of, uh, people, actually, well,

aid agencies able to access these regions

securely are they able to distribute aid to the people?

What is the situation in terms of hunger

and famine?

Uh, is Is that, uh is that a very acute situation?

And in terms of the diversion of food aid,

have, uh, the World Food Programme and, uh, the United States,

um, been distributing? Have they resumed distribution of, uh, food aid,

or is looting still

a problem? Uh, I if if you could talk about how that is being handled. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Lisa, I think on your second question, we will have

Dr Rami say something about that because it pertains to a UN agency

on the conflict.

Ambassador,

please go ahead.

Yeah, thank you so much. Again, uh,

for this engagement, I think it's

a very much now on.

And I think the international community is very much aware

of the what was happening in the northern part of Ethiopia

and, uh, as excellence Minister mentioned earlier,

the Pretoria peace agreement has really brought a big big

relief to all of us, including the beneficiaries who

we are addressing trying to address today

this process

through its own maturity

processes. It's taking place. And as we see

and as we testify,

probably silencing the guns in Tre

has taken place.

Most of the beneficiaries around has been accessible as we speak

and also they are very much receiving

all kinds of humanitarian support. And as of December last year,

the UC I assisted

the FP programme as well as the joint Emergency Operation Programme,

including Catholic relief services.

They, uh, resumed their services

and as we speak now,

they have gone to the extent of covering like this

the second quarter and then now we are planning for the

third quarter as of this April as well.

So the the situation as a whole

is as we were describing earlier by Minister

Dr

Ramis

and myself,

the climate change on one hand and also the various conflict that we

described earlier

and also it's very much complicated

and well, we are coming out of the Covid pandemic

and at the same time, several disasters,

including epidemics. Locust displacements,

as we have already

raised,

is an issue which we have to address. And that's what we were saying.

We have really to act before it's too late.

So the the current analysis, as we have been saying all the time,

there are a number of studies

that are taken through household economic analysis

and the colleagues from the F

net. They also

someone produced the

I PC tool to know exactly where they are.

So the current understanding is there are emergency

requirements which we need to respond. And that's the very reason why we are here.

And that's the word which we are using

to act before it's too late. And that's, I think, very

important. Otherwise

this situation, you cannot let it go

and we are moving to the lean season now.

In the last season we were supporting 6.6.

Now in this season we have to support close to

8.3 million and next season

it will go up to 10.8 million. And we are talking here,

referring the food, non food

and if we factor all sectors that are required to respond,

including about 10 clusters who are operating around,

this may mean even further. As we said from the 3.2 billion now

which we are working on 1 billion means as already said, it is like

the path

or the work and progress

which we have to move forward

in terms of access to various of these places.

Of course, when it comes to

Tigray,

for sure,

in a number of places, this may not be an issue at all,

but there are small pockets here and there, which we have to work out as we move on.

We really take this as a challenge

and as already said, we have several initiatives

to bring some of these activities in place. The first one is

to bring everyone

with a different idea to come through the national dialogue process on board

and also some of the justice related issues to come

into reality through the transitional justice process as well

as we speak. Those are ongoing processes. In fact,

the transitional justice.

The framework is now

with the cabinet. Probably sooner or later it will be

finalised so that the process will be ignited

Otherwise. Again, I would like to say what I have said earlier.

The partnership, the solidarity which we are working through

also be with the government and government intervention,

including the regional administrations

and the committee level. Engagement

is very, very important and to complement the same

the resilience building, coping mechanism,

the longer term vision

so that we will be able to minimise the case load so that we don't really. All the time

in

the same cycle would be of paramount importance. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Ramis.

I

don't know if you want to say a quick word about a diversion,

and then I'm told we will have to wrap it up.

But I also want to give Deputy Foreign Secretary Mitchell a chance to say

just a final word before we wrap it up. Thank you.

I think Ambassador covered it quite comprehensively.

Indeed. The distributions resumed as of the last quarter of the past year

through the WFP

and through the NGO consortia.

We do have a vulnerability based, targeted

targeting process, which is one of the most detailed

and the most verified processes I have ever observed in my life.

And that includes it actually has,

I believe, about 30 verification points, including issuance of digital IDs,

creation of community complaint mechanisms and

and all sorts of digital tracking of every bag of items.

So I think we are quite advanced in that particular place.

The problem is that we don't have enough to distribute at the moment. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I think just in terms of the voice of America

question for which many thanks.

I just add that I've come from a meeting with the chief executive

and deputy director of the World Food Programme

just now

and he reflected that the process of working

on food distribution with the government of Ethiopia

is substantially better than it's been in the past

and is working better than it has in the past.

It's

there's far more joint

between

the government of Ethiopia and the World Food Programme, which is

very good news on the subject of the fighting. Clearly the Pretoria agreement

has

led to a very significant diminution in that there is still

tensions need to be resolved

and

the ambassador referred to those

and so there is encouragement in terms of

the performance of the World Food Programme,

the fact that the system has moved on from the

very serious allegations of misappropriation of food

which the international community quite rightly sought to stop.

So I think there are grounds for optimism, which is another reason why

this pledging conference today

is an opportunity to drive forward the humanitarian objectives we all share.

Thank you so much. We will wrap it up here. Thank you.

Very much to those in the room and join us online.

And, of course, a big thank you to our guests today.

And good luck at the conference. Thank you.