Over the past year, the drought emergency has shown how climate change and natural hazards are increasing humanitarian needs in Ethiopia. As communities cope with shocks in agricultural and livestock production and access to food, national humanitarian organisations working with these communities find themselves apart from the decision-making spaces.
An assessment on the humanitarian architecture in Ethiopia found that Local and National NGOs have so far lacked a platform to advocate on and influence humanitarian decisions. On 7 September 2017, the first Ethiopian national humanitarian forum was launched within the Consortium of Christian Relief and Development Association (CCRDA), the country’s biggest and oldest national NGO umbrella association.
In Ethiopia, the government leads humanitarian coordination, however the official mechanisms include just donors, UN agencies and INGOs, and exclude local and national NGOs at the federal level. The Shifting the Power project, has worked together with its 10 partners in Ethiopia to create a new space for these organisations to operate and contribute with their expertise in disaster preparedness and response.
One of the project’s early successes was to fully integrate national organisations in networks and official coordination mechanisms at the local level. In some districts, local organisations became proactive members of the humanitarian task force, alongside government and INGOs. Shifting the Power signed a Memorandum of Understanding with CCRDA to facilitate the launch of the forum, and provide financial and technical support for its functioning.
The forum will act as a single, collective voice for front line humanitarian responders in the country, it is expected to become a reference point for discussions on localisation of aid and the implementation of the Grand Bargain commitments in Ethiopia. The platform is also fully integrated in the CCRDA structure, which ensures its sustainability for years to come.
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