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

Good, Good afternoon everyone and welcome 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, on this panel.

Then they in turn will give some introduction 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 Ambassador Shivuda, 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 your my far left you are far right, we have Doctor Ramesh, who is our own United Nations Assistant Secretary General and resident and humanitarian coordinator in Ethiopia.

So very warm welcome to all of you.

I will give Ambassador Sivarav the first opportunity to address you.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Thank you so much.

Yes, I think this a great opportunity for all of us to be with my colleagues right here who we have been working all the time, including towards the preparation of these events, the pledging as well.

Why we are here is to make really a call, a joint call to the humanitarian reasons in Ethiopia.

And this call is particularly based on the partnership and solidarity split which we, all of us are have been working together.

The humanitarian situation, the size of the problem which is very much known by all of us, the severity, the volume, the the coverage has been increasing day on day basis.

And there are several consequences, climate induced ones like drought, flooding, landslides, epidemics, lot locusts and this has all 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 call for partnership and solidarity that means to act before it's too late.

That that's the very reason.

So far the government is investing in its own capacity close to 250 million U.S.

dollars in addition to sectors intervention as well as regions and community contributions as well.

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

The first one is saving lives and livelihoods and the second one is compound 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 U.S.

dollars for the HRP 2024.

So that what is financed less than 5% and we have a period of three to six months is a gap which we calculated the target of 1 billion USD which we will be working through this pledging event this evening.

So total of about 10.4 million individuals, beneficiaries are looking and waiting for our support and our action as we speak.

And hopefully see this mechanism we will be able to reach before everything is getting too late.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, 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, right.

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 that the Ambassador has said and that the international community should intervene and intervene further.

The the problems inside Ethiopia were had obviously changed during the year on the one had you'd have the Pretoria agreement, 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 Abe, very helpfully.

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, our brilliant embassy, that I'm delighted that the British ambassador is with us today.

What 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 the because of climate change particularly, but also because of the displacement of people, internally displaced people.

We, we, 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, so we saw a, 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, 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 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 198,000,000 lbs, 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 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, that 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, Secretary Mitchell, not least for this promise of fetchers.

And I'll give the floor now to Doctor Ramiz.

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 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's also sanitation, protection, shelter.

And the all of this is really for women and girls and disabled and young and, and those who are on the forefront of taking the hardship of what is happening.

The humanitarian situation itself, the crisis we're 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 ten countries in the world who are on the side of the climate change are actually have done anything about the climate change.

It's not something of their own making.

And as we look at what it means for the people, it means that livestocks has been affected, there's less water, drier pastures, smaller harvests.

The critically food insecure people will unless we do something as you have referred and it will try to stop that ball.

We'll reach about nearly 11 million, 10.8 million people by by the July and September.

And we already could see that in places in the north such as Afar, Amhara, Tigray, Northern Highlands, there's quite a considerable amount of population with critical level of thresholds 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 ten 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're working with the government of Ethiopia and international partners to make our attention and focus on the most vulnerable.

We're working to strengthen national systems, and that means strengthening governance structures and working with state institutions.

But equally, we're working to strengthen civil society, which is an integral part of our humanitarian response and often carry response on their shoulders.

So today's conference and the event we also is an opportunity for us to recommit our resolute Resolve support to address the challenges which we face.

And the challenges are we're working on improving the access.

Right now it's fluid, sometimes in far reach to 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.

The that situation needs to improve.

And it's just along with the situation as of the general population because of the context of the, of the insecurity and the conflict.

And of course, we are working and committing to remove the bureaucratic impediments and such as visas, import tariffs and other administrative matters.

And we have take 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're committed to heal the wounds and to put and that puts emphasis on issues of transitional justice for general population justice, accountability for the losses of life of humanitarians and lessons learnt 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 faces of women, children, elderly and disabled.

The effort they make, the trust to build the partnership we have is only for one and our 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 we'll focus more on building resilience and recovery to support durable solutions for future of Ethiopia.

And today's even we at the United Nations call for solidarity with the people of Ethiopia, call for partnership call to rally around this important event.

And it's, 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 that those who needs our help today.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much, Doctor Ramiz.

We'll now take your questions.

I want to go to the room 1st to see and we will start with Nina Larson from AFP.

Please let us know to whom you address your question.

Thank you.

I actually have a couple questions if I may.

1st of all, to Minister Mitchell, I was, I know that Britain announced 100 million in fresh aid already in February.

I'm wondering if this is on top of that or if this is included in that amount, if you could address that.

And to all of you, I was wondering how much you would expect this conference to raise in total and what would be considered a success.

And finally, maybe for the Ethiopian ambassador, I was wondering if you could address the issue of aid diversion and what Ethiopia has committed to in terms of ensuring that the aid gets to where it's supposed to go.

Thank you.

Please where you're from.

Sorry.

Nina Larsen, AFP from AFP Jean Francois So first of all, the 100 million that was announced during the visit to Ethiopia is the 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 because in the, in the past few years, Britain has not been in a leadership position on International Development.

You know, we are, 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, so that's the answer to your question on on your second question, we are, we are seeking to raise a 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 1/2% of that.

Today is the start and you know 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 Doctor Ramis, if you could address that, 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, the overall funding gap for the, the ask if you wish for the country for this year is actually about $3 billion.

And what we're looking is 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 will give us a very solid foundation to build on.

First of all to address the gap by 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 an absolutely prioritised and these are the most important needs.

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

Thank you.

Thank you Ambassador Schiffman, thanks so much.

I think these are very valid points the what we would be expecting.

I think as it has been said by minister as well as by UN resident Coordinator, it looks we already prioritised what we could ask.

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

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 this is a bare minimum which we are coming with as Doctor Rams mentioned would have gone to 3.2 billion but this goes to September.

So what it means is the remaining demands this require additional and has already said it's like an ongoing process to say, of course there are also domestic mobilisation towards this end 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 the legal system will be very robust and addressing those issues.

We have also jointly developing what you 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 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 deployment.

They will check and recheck whenever this is happening.

Of course, in a country like Ethiopia where we have a massive programme, always individuals maybe here and there who will 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, Ed Thank you, Ambassador.

We will go online first to Voice of America, Lisa Shrine, and then we'll go to you, Emma from Rochos.

Lisa, over to you.

Hi.

It took a while for me to be unmuted.

I think I am now.

So yes, hello there.

I, I have a few questions here.

I'd like to know more about the conflict areas, Tigray, Amhara, far and so forth.

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 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 Is is that, is that a very acute situation?

And in terms of the diversion of food aid, have the World Food Programme and the United States been distributing?

Have they resumed distribution of food aid or is looting still a problem?

If if you could talk about how that is being handled?

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Lisa, I think on your on your second question, we will have Doug Ramis say something about that because it pertains to Aun agency on the conflict.

Ambassador, please go ahead.

Thank you so much again for this engagement.

I think it's very much known and I think the international community is very much aware of the what was happening in the northern part of Ethiopia.

And as Excellence Minister mentioned earlier, the Pretoria peace agreement has really brought big, big relief to all of us, including the beneficiaries whom 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 selling the guns and TEGRE 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 USAID assisted WFP programme as well as the Joint Emergency Operation programme including Catholic Relief Services.

They zoomed their services and as we speak now, they have gone to the extent of covering like the second quarter and then 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 Doctor 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 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 number of studies that are taken through household economic analysis and the colleagues from the FUSNET, they also someone produced the IPC tool to know exactly where, where they are.

So the, 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 were using to act before it's too late.

And that's I think a very important otherwise that this situation you cannot let it go.

And we are moving to the lean season now in the last season we were supporting like 6.6 and 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 has already said it's like the past or the work and progress which we have to move forward in terms of access to on 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 those 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 realities 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 to say what I've said earlier, the the partnership, the solidarity which we are working through also be with the government and government intervention including the regional administration and the community 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 when we're in the same cycle would be of paramount importance.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Ramiz.

I don't know if you want to say a quick word about a diversion and then I'm told we will have to 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.

Well, 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 issues 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 I 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, it's far, there's far more sort of jointly 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, a, a, a very significant diminution in that there is still tensions which need to be resolved and the, 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 which we all share.

Thank you so much.

We will wrap it up here.

Thank you very much to 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.