UNOCHA Faces Funding Gap for Humanitarian Response in Ethiopia

Jan 15 , 2022

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) is facing a 1.2 billion dollar funding gap for its humanitarian assistance efforts in northern Ethiopia and other parts of the country, according to its latest report. An estimated 618.6 million dollars has been mobilised towards the Northern Ethiopia Response Plan, and 655.6 million dollars for the response towards the Mid-Year Review Humanitarian Response Plan. "However, this is far from sufficient to cover the increasing humanitarian needs," reads the report released last week. At the start of 2022, the Ethiopia Humanitarian Fund carried over a balance of 3.8 million dollars from the preceding year. UN-OCHA estimated 9.4 million people are in need of food assistance in northern Ethiopia, including internally displaced persons (IDPs) and people in the host communities. An additional eight million dollars has been received in confirmed pledges from the governments of Canada, Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland in the new year, which increased the fund's balance to 11.8 million dollars, stated the report. Low funding, insufficient fuel supply, and limited access to affected areas have been the major impediments in the humanitarian organisation's activities to provide assistance. The report shows, consequently, some assistance, such as the delivery of emergency kits and livestock, has been suspended.