Building Resilience in Ethiopia

The challenge

Recent decades have witnessed a marked rise in the number, severity and impact of climatic and humanitarian disasters on vulnerable people in Ethiopia. The last few years have been particularly challenging, with massive internal conflict, locust invasions damaging crops, the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as severe droughts affecting pastoral areas. These crises have a heavy human and economic cost on the country, constraining its development. Despite these factors severely straining the government’s budget and ability to respond to shocks, it is pressing ahead with reforms and investments in disaster risk management and climate change adaptation measures. These reforms aim to develop the integrated systems and institutional capacity needed to prepare for and manage crises efficiently and effectively.

The UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) are co-funding a five-year (2019-2024) £26m demand-driven technical assistance facility aimed at strengthening the government’s capacity to prepare for and respond to disasters. The facility is managed by Oxford Policy Management (OPM).

Our approach

The Building Resilience in Ethiopia – Technical Assistance (BRE-TA) facility supports federal, regional and sub-regional governments to strengthen their life-saving humanitarian response capability. The purpose is to reduce the effects of climatic and humanitarian shocks on vulnerable people and the economy by reducing the depth (severity) and length (duration) of a shock, thereby saving lives and protecting livelihoods.

BRE-TA’s works with the government across the policy cycle in order to create systemic and sustained change. All TA is provided in partnership with government, at the government’s pace, and on the issues that the government wants help with. The graphic below captures how BRE-TA works to strengthen government’s capacity to prepare for and respond to climate and humanitarian shocks.