Planning assumption
Over the next 12 months, compounded risks are expected to make vulnerable communities even less resilient than before, generating new and more severe humanitarian needs.
Meanwhile, drought and flooding are anticipated to exacerbate existing humanitarian needs. Consecutive failed rainy seasons since 2020 have eroded livelihoods and worsened food insecurity and acute malnutrition. Above-normal rainfall forecasted in parts of the country will likely result in floods, displacing communities, and damaging infrastructure.
Malaria, cholera, and measles outbreaks are expected to continue, fueled by favorable weather conditions, low vaccination coverage, and inadequate Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) and health services. With malaria endemic in 75 per cent of the country already, warmer temperatures may expand transmission to highland areas. Ethiopia's long-running cholera outbreak could also worsen with heavy rainfall and contaminated water sources. Measles cases could continue to rise after increasing five-fold from 2021 to 2022.
The humanitarian response will address the crit-ical needs of internally displaced persons (IDPs), returning IDPs, returning migrants, and non-displaced populations living in drought, flood, and conflict-af-fected areas.
Communities impacted by the El-Nino-driven drought will face worsening food security challenges, including malnutrition, until at-least the start of the next Meher seasonal harvest, expected in September.
Insecurity, notably in Amhara and Oromia regions, will continue to present access challenges for people to reach essential services, and for humanitarians to deliver needed assistance.
Scope of the HRP
This response plan will address the humanitarian needs of vulnerable people in all regions of Ethiopia, resulting from the shocks identified in the 2024 Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO), namely conflicts, climate shocks, and disease outbreaks. The scope of the HRP has been determined based on the analysis of the severity, magnitude, underlying causes, trends, and projections of humanitarian conditions.
Whilst this HRP includes some elements to support communities impacted by previous droughts to recover, and to support durable solutions for those displaced, more comprehensive development investments are required to support these communities to achieve sustainable and resilient livelihoods – outside the scope of this humanitarian plan.
The response plan will also address protection risks faced by affected populations, including gender-based violence, child protection concerns, forced displacement, and violations of human rights. The HRP prioritizes addressing these risks and ensuring the safety and well-being of affected communities.
Targeting considerations
The humanitarian response plan will target affected population groups identified in the HNO including the internally displaced persons (IDPs), returning IDPs, returning migrants, and non-displaced populations living in drought/flood and conflict crisis-affected areas. Additionally, priority population sub-groups include rural households, female-headed households, children, poor households, child-headed households, and older people.
The targeted population, among the identified population groups, is determined based on the inter-sectoral severity 4 and 5 at the zone level for all sectoral interventions, Sectoral Severity 4 and 5, and selected cases of population living in areas sectoral severity 3 identified by clusters based on sectoral vulnerability criteria. This ensures the inclusion of vulnerable population groups with severe needs which might be masked by zonal severity computation, or in need of humanitarian assistance based on specific sectoral criteria such as those affected by disease outbreaks, acute malnutrition, or in need of sectoral humanitarian interventions. All programmatic response activities will target sub-groups based on age, sex (women, men, girls, and boys), and disability, with a priority on reaching the most marginalized and vulnerable populations.