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January 2003 2002 UN Country Team and Resident Coordinator Report, Ethiopia On behalf of the UN Country Team for Ethiopia, I am pleased to submit to you our 2002 Annual Report in line with the guidelines provided. The preparation of the report has been both consultative and participatory. All UN Agencies and organizations that constitute the Country Team for Ethiopia have been involved in the preparation of the report. Ethiopia continues to face major challenges including humanitarian and developmental issues. In 2002 the UNCT has provided strategic support to important national processes such as preparation of the PRSP and promotion of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD). In addition, the UNCT has played an active role in the discussions on more effective aid delivery and harmonization. With regard to the Ethiopian-Eritrea peace process the UNCT has continued to provide and coordinate humanitarian aid and support to the peace process as well as implementation of the decisions of the Boundary Commission. The UNCT has also played an important role in the formulation of a series of appeals to respond to the drought situation, which have affected significant number of people and areas in Ethiopia. The appeals emphasizes interventions should not be restricted solely to delivery of relief assistance, but also focus on recovery initiatives and linkages to long-term development activities.
H. E. Mr. Kofi Annan Secretary-General United Nations HIV/AIDS remains a major challenge in Ethiopia. During 2002 the UNCT conducted intensive awareness and advocacy campaigns. Through its campaigns and collaboration with other development partners the UNCT has succeeded in having HIV/AIDS incorporated in important national processes and policies. I am pleased to report that the UNCT has made significant progress on the implementation of your reform programme and that the Heads of Agencies have showed great commitment and team spirit. The UNCT is committed to intensifying our joint efforts and we look forward to a new year with opportunities and challenges to reach further tangible results. Please accept, the assurance of our commitment.
Samuel Nyambi UN Resident Coordinator
Country Context
Ethiopia remains one of the poorest countries in the world. The 2001 Human Development Index for the country was 0.327, with the country ranking 168 out of 173 countries covered. The GDP per capita is USD 100 with an inflation rate for 2001/02 on 7.20 %. During 2001/02 real GDP growth was 5%, a good performance, even though agricultural output decelerated to 4.5%. The increase in investment rate has maintained at 20% of GDP in 2001/02.
Ethiopia remains vulnerable to drought, which is threatening the livelihoods and survival of large proportion of the population. Moreover, it undermines the efforts of affected households to improve their own livelihoods, diverts the energies of Government from long-term development efforts and shifts the flow of development assistance from development efforts to humanitarian relief. ODA to Ethiopia is currently increasing, after a period of decrease due to the recent conflict with Eritrea. However, most of the ODA is coming as humanitarian assistance and it is the Governments target to gradually reverse this trend.
In July 2001 the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) finalised the Sustainable Development and Poverty Reduction Programme (SDPRP)2, which was formulated through a participatory process. Development partners coordinated their support to the formulation process through the Development Assistance Group (DAG). The DAG continues to support the implementation of the SDPRP.
The Ethiopian-Eritrea peace process has made significant progress. Both parties are committed to the process outlined by the Boundary Commission. The mapping and establishment of the border is currently ongoing and it is envisaged that the demarcation process will commence in April 2003 and end in October 2003. It is hoped that the peace with Eritrea will lead to increased development assistance to Ethiopia in the coming years.
UNCT in Ethiopia
The UNCT in Ethiopia is one of the largest in Africa, bringing together UN Agencies, as well as the Bretton Woods Institutions, UN Economic Commission for Africa and other institutions of the UN family. The UNCT is further enriched with members with regional and sub-regional functions, such as the UN Liaison Office to AU and ECA. The UNCT has in total 21 members. UNDAF The UNCT started 2002 with the operationalization of the UNDAF. The Technical Working Groups (TWGs) that was established during the formulation of the UNDAF have been working on concrete proposals for the operationalization of the UNDAF. The suggestions made by the various TWGs were discussed with the Resident Coordinator and the Heads of Agencies on numerous occasions (special UNCT meetings, a series of half-day workshops, the UNCT Retreat). The UNDAF Technical Committee has been guiding the process, discussing issues of general concern and ensuring linkage with the MDGs and the SDPRP. A specially created Task Force on Advocacy and Resource Mobilisation will assist the Theme Working Groups in mobilising the resources to implement their proposals. The Harmonisation and Simplification Task Force, based its work on the work that is being done at Headquarters and on the UN Agencies’ experiences working with Government, and listed a number of issues that the UNCT in Ethiopia can work on and that will have immediate benefit to the Government. These issues include harmonization of operational and administrative procedures, monitoring and evaluation, national execution and decentralization approaches. Within the context of implementation of the SDPRP, the Government and the DAG have actively pursued harmonization to reduce transactions costs of aid. Consequently the Government has set up a Government/DAG Harmonization Taskforce in which UNDP and World Bank represent the UNCT. UNs support to national processesTo assess the extend of and address the poverty situation in the country, the Government prepared the SDPRP for Ethiopia in July 2002. The Government incorporated the MDGs in the SDPRP objectives, monitoring and reporting. UN Agencies, through the DAG and Donor Theme Working Groups provided technical and financial support to the SDPRP, both in content and process. UNDP chairs the DAG-CG on SDPRP and manages a pooled multi donor fund for SDPRP, which have so far been used for technical and financial assistance for the consultation process, participation in the DAG review of the draft SDPRP, Joint Partner Review (JPR) and the consolidated in-country donor position, which informed the BWI’s board meeting in September 2002, during which the SDPRP was endorsed. UN Agencies continue to contribute in the next phase, which include defining strategic areas of support to the SDPRP implementation and monitoring, contributing to the discussions on more effective aid delivery, harmonisation, and MDG/SDPRP consolidated poverty analysis and reporting.
In spite of the many challenges facing Ethiopia there is promising prospects for the future, illustrated by the recent successful pledges of USD 3.6 billions at the CG meeting in 2002. Moreover, the partnership among Government, donors, NGOs, CSOs and the UN system is very strong and development partners are committed to support national processes and the Government’s commitment to NEPAD and AU. Millennium Development Goals The UNCT is pleased to report significant progress and results achieved in moving the MDGs agenda in Ethiopia forward. The process started formally early this year and the momentum is now high. The GoE is leading this process and has established a MDGs Task Force, consisting of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MoFED), UNDP, UNICEF and the World Bank. While the Task Force will be looking at all the building blocks, they have made considerably progress in preparing the contextualisation, the baseline note, the costing and the reporting. A first MDGs progress report is expected by the end of the third quarter of 2003. The draft documents will be further refined through a number of sensitization workshops planned for all stakeholders in early 2003. The Government and the UNDAF Theme Working Groups will collaborate on this overall campaign. Importantly, SDPRP has the MDGs as its longer-term goals and the annual MDG reporting will be combined with the annual SDPRP progress report. In addition to supporting the activities of the MDGs Task Force, the UNCT held a half-day workshop in September to develop a UNCT commitment and approach for supporting the MDGs and NEPAD at the country level. The implementation of the suggestions made, especially in the area of advocacy and campaigning will contribute to a more prominent promotion and support of the work that is taking place in Ethiopia. Ethio-Eritrea peace process The UNCT contributed to the Ethio-Eritrea peace process. Prior to the historic decision of the Boundary Commission in April 2002, Agency Heads and National Staff from UN Country Offices in both countries met in Addis Ababa for the first time to discuss possible joint humanitarian and development assistance activities to support peace building and initial steps were taken to look into the feasibility of bringing the media together. The two UNCTs developed an action plan and exchanged experiences related to the recovery of affected populations, reconciliation and confidence building measures and activities related to UN joint programming. The subcomponent of the action plan for support to recovery in Tigray is being implemented. Humanitarian crisis Despite the positive developments and progress made, Ethiopia's development efforts have been hard hit by the current humanitarian crisis. After a period of optimism following a second consecutive good "meher" (main) harvest at the end of 2001, Ethiopia experienced between February and May 2002 a near total failure of Belg (short) rains, which did not last long in most parts of the country. Kiremt (long) rains that normally begin in June were delayed from six to ten weeks thus prolonging the normally short dry season up to three months. The erratic nature of the rains had a detrimental effect on crop production, of which more than 97% is rain-fed. A FAO/WFP Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission estimated that the year 2002 cereals and pulse production is 25% lower than the year 2001 “meher” production.
Initially, the drought and its impact were believed to be isolated in a few regions, but it was soon learned through enhanced assessment and monitoring that the drought was more widely spread and affecting significant areas and populations of not less than six regions. The UNCT closely collaborated with the GoE in the formulation of a series of appeals to respond to the situation. A Joint Flash Appeal for non-food needs was launched on 30 August. This was followed by the Appeal for Immediate Food Needs and Scenarios of Likely Emergency Needs in 2003 that was launched jointly by the Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission (DPPC) and the UN USG for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mr. Kenzo Oshima, on 7 October 2002. The UNCT, in preparation for the launching of an appeal for 2003 submitted its UNCT Strategy for 2003 that was issued in conjunction with the worldwide Consolidated Appeals Process launch in November 2002. The environment of collaboration among Government, donors, NGOs, IOs and the UN led to the joint preparation of the Emergency Assistance Requirements and Implementation Options for 2003 giving comprehensive coverage to food and non-food requirements for the year. The DPPC and the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in the presence of H. E. the Prime Minister jointly launched the Appeal. Feeding into the process and elaboration of the document, the UN supported the coordination efforts of the Ministries of Water Resources, Agriculture and Health and the DPPC in the consolidation and analysis of assistance requirements. The appeal documents the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis confronting Ethiopia and identifies 11.3 million people in need of immediate humanitarian assistance across all sectors of intervention (including food, water, health, agriculture, livestock, education and HIV/AIDS) and calls for the close monitoring of an additional 3 million people bringing the total population at risk to 14.3 million (20% of the population!). HIV/AIDS
Hard to predict is how serious the HIV/AIDS epidemic is going to influence the pace of recovery and development in Ethiopia. The HIV prevalence rate is 6.8 % ranging from 3% in the rural areas to 22% in some urban areas. National structures have been established, policies are in place, resources have been allocated, but the implementation is not moving, as the UNCT would have wished. The UNCT therefore continued its intensive awareness and advocacy campaigns for various target groups at all levels. Through its advocacy work, the UNCT, in partnership with the Government and bilateral donors, succeeded in having HIV/AIDS incorporated in the SDPRP. This is one significant result that will set the example for further progress in addressing HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia. Other encouragements came from the visit of Mr. Steven Lewis in March and of Dr. Piot, who presided over the celebration of World AIDS Day in Ethiopia. The UNCT will continue its efforts and is, among others, preparing a national religious weekend on stigma and discrimination, scheduled for the first quarter of 2003. The weekend will involve prayers, visits, drama and songs in all regions, and most importantly, the religious leaders will reconfirm their commitment to fight stigma and discrimination against People Living with HIV/AIDS.
Conclusion
The progress made by the UNCT in the various areas mentioned above, and in the other areas reported on in this report is due to the excellent team spirit and commitment of the Heads of Agencies and the various Inter-Agency Theme Working Groups, Committees and Task Forces. As we seek new and innovative ways for implementing the UN reform programme and achieving greater harmony of purpose and results, we are committed to intensifying our joint efforts here as UNCT and look forward to a new year of challenges and tangible results. Results of the UN Coordination System 2002in Ethiopia
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