 
To scale up its response to conflict induced displacement, UNICEF Ethiopia has finalized a comprehensive, multi-sectoral-strategy to meet the immediate lifesaving needs of 500,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Oromia and Somali regions. 
UNICEF provided access to safe water to 176,000 conflict-affected IDPs in densely populated IDP sites in East and West Hararghe and Bale zones in Oromia region. 
In advance of the launch of the Ethiopian Humanitarian and Disaster Resilience Plan, UNOCHA has released Immediate Humanitarian Funding Priorities for 2018 amounting to US$242 million to address critical gaps in the humanitarian response. UNICEF’s 2018 humanitarian funding gap is US$86.5 million. 
Recurrent attacks on the South Sudanese border continue to pose security threats to the delivery of services on bordering woredas (districts) in Ethiopia in the Nuer and Anuak zones. 

Current weather forecasts show that there is a high probability that the spring gu/genna rains will again be erratic or underperform in southern and southeastern Ethiopia leading to continued food insecurity and water shortages. If the rains fail, it will be the fourth consecutive year of inadequate rains in some of these areas. Global weather forecasts have identified Ethiopia as one of four countries at highest risk of La Niña, which will further extend the dry season. An estimated 7.9million people will need food and cash assistance in 2018. Malnutrition, disease outbreaks and internal displacement, aggravated by drought and conflict, are expected to remain risks throughout 2018. 
Immediate life-saving assistance for conflict displaced populations around the border areas of Somali and Oromia regions needs to be urgently scaled up while partners participate in Government-led efforts to find durable solutions which include voluntary returns and resettlement or integration of IDPs into host communities. 
Since January 2018, 7,895 refugees have arrived in Ethiopia. Refugees came mainly from South Sudan (5,960) and Eritrea (1,639), bringing the total number of refugees in Ethiopia to 901,235. 

The humanitarian response in Ethiopia is led by the National Disaster Risk Management Commission through the federal and regional Disaster Risk Management Technical Working Groups (DRMTWGs). UNOCHA coordinates the humanitarian response with UN agencies and NGOs in support of Government-led humanitarian interventions. The Government prioritizes its emergency response based on target hotspot woredas.1 UNICEF continues to provide the Government of Ethiopia with crucial support in cluster coordination at varying administrative levels in water, sanitation and hygiene, nutrition, and education (with Save the Children International). 
UNICEF also provides coordination support to the child protection and gender-based violence sub-clusters and plays a key supporting role in Health Cluster Coordination (with WHO). UNICEF has eight field offices in the regions of Afar, Amhara, Benishangul-Gumuz, Gambella, Oromia, Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s (SNNP), Somali, and Tigray that serve the population through regional and zonal interventions. 

The 2018 Ethiopia Humanitarian and Disaster Resilience Plan (HDRP)2 is currently being finalized and represents a first step in the development of a multi-year planning framework. More specifically, the HDRP will seek to increase the quality and predictability of delivery of a required multi-sectoral humanitarian response, mitigate future needs in areas that experience recurrent climate-induced shock, and support the strengthening of national service provision to address chronic and acute needs and the recovery of affected communities. The current HDRP seeks to provide assistance across three pillars: 1) Prevention and Mitigation; 2) Response and Response Preparedness; and 3) National Systems Strengthening and Recovery. 
In line with its Core Commitments for Children in Humanitarian Action, UNICEF will support the Government under Pillar 2 to respond to humanitarian situations and through its regular programming contribute to Pillars 1 and 3. UNICEF is working with its partners to ensure that children have access to health, nutrition, education, protection, safe water, sanitation, and hygiene during emergencies. 
To respond to rapid onset of crises in a timely manner, UNICEF has pre-positioned supplies to meet the immediate life- saving needs of 120,000 people. Prepositioned stocks are kept in Addis Ababa and in two regional hubs in Gambella and Somali Region. 

As per the Immediate Humanitarian Funding Priorities for Ethiopia (February 2018), it is estimated that 7.9 million people will need food or cash assistance in 2018 and 350,111 children will need treatment for severe acute malnutrition (SAM). An additional 13,500 refugee children will need treatment for SAM.3 There are significant concerns about pipeline breaks for the treatment of moderately malnourished (MAM) and SAM requiring an immediate commitment of US$39 million for the nutrition cluster partners. 
In the Somali and Oromia regions, the IDP situation remains critical, with just a marginal decrease in new SAM admissions in Somali region: a total of 8,896 children were admitted in the month of December 2017, compared to 8,943 in November. 
Zones with the highest caseloads include Shebelle (1,780), Afder (998), Jarar (887), Liben (772), and Korahay (705). In East and West Hararghe in Oromia region in January 2018, 16,643 children under 5 were screened (76 per cent coverage). 
Of these, 2,311 were diagnosed with moderate malnutrition and 155 with severe acute malnutrition. A total of 6,558 pregnant and lactating women were screened (91 per cent coverage) and 2,552 identified with moderate malnutrition. All malnourished children and women were referred to a CMAM programme for appropriate treatment. 

The Health Cluster has identified a significant gap in essential medicines and financial resources to support operational costs of the health emergency response. Key concerns, particularly in the IDP response, include lack of essential drugs, limited visits of mobile health and nutrition team (MHNTs) to IDP sites, and significant WASH gaps. These gaps have left IDPs extremely vulnerable to AWD and other communicable diseases driven by poor hygiene and sanitation. One key gap is the lack of funding for 316 primary health care kits required to treat 36,000 AWD cases projected for 2018. Moreover, when medicines are not available in health facilities, staff are using SAM management commodities, thus compromising the SAM treatment programme. The Health Cluster immediately requires US$12.7 million to cover priority needs. 
Measles cases have been reported in Somali, Oromia and SNNP regions and UNICEF, together with WHO, is providing technical assistance and support to the relevant regional health bureaus. 
Scabies has been widely reported in communities in Amhara, Benishangul-Gumuz, Oromia, SNNP and Tigray regions. 
UNICEF continues to provide technical support within multi-disciplinary rapid response teams and most recently conducted an assessment in Amhara whose findings are yet to be finalized. However, emphasis is being placed on supporting the Government to develop a long-term sustained strategy to address recurrent, seasonal outbreaks. 

The WASH Cluster is requesting US$29.4 million to meet its prioritized WASH needs until June 2018. Key activities include water trucking, sanitation (construction of latrines), hygiene promotion, WASH NFIs4, and rehabilitation and expansion of water supply systems. The meher assessment noted that levels of access to safe water have deteriorated, particularly in priority woredas in SNNP, Tigray, Afar, Amhara, Oromia and Somali regions. 
Currently, plans are in place to expand water trucking to conflict IDPs. in the Oromia region as the current response remains inadequate and falls short of the agreed national standards for safe water access for IDPs in Oromia and Somali regions. As an immediate bridge, UNICEF is exploring how to improve NFI distribution and scale-up water trucking with WASH Cluster NGO partners. In Somali region, a contract has been signed for strategic borehole rehabilitation in drought-affected areas. A total of 15 boreholes are planned for rehabilitation in the next four months. 
A WASH Cluster Review Workshop was held in the last week of February to inform the WASH Cluster 2018 annual work plan. 

Inter-communal conflict along the Oromia and Somali border continues to exacerbate existing protection risks for children and women. The Protection Cluster requires US$4.5 million to meet the immediate protection needs of IDPs in 80 prioritized sites. Children displaced by drought and conflict are the most vulnerable and least able to access protection services or traditional community networks - now scattered through displacement. Their needs have been identified as immediate in the Protection Cluster prioritization exercise. 
 In February, UNICEF supported the Protection Cluster to organize a workshop on Protection Mobile Teams (PMTs). 
Participants, including the Bureau of Women and Children Affairs (BoWCA) from the Oromia and Somali regions and UN and NGO partners, are now better equipped to provide expert advice and referral through PMTs. With financial and technical support from Humanity Inclusion, Help Age and IRC, new PMTs will be launched shortly in Oromia and will include a BoWCA representative. 
In February, UNICEF supported BoWCA in the Oromia and Somali regions to finalise Child Protection and Gender-Based Violence Response Plans. In the Somali region, newly-recruited social workers and a UNICEF Child Protection in Emergencies Officer will actively support the roll-out of the response plans. 
With UNICEF support, BoWCA in the Oromia region will recruit additional social workers and community volunteers to scale up child protection initiatives in 12 targeted woredas. In February, Oromia BoWCA identified 267 separated and unaccompanied children; 119 were reunited with their families. In the same region, psychosocial support was provided to 491 children in the IDP settlement sites and BoWCA through community awareness campaigns reached 500 community members with key messages on violence prevention and the protection of children. In IDP sites in the Oromia region, 52 cases of sexual and physical violence against children were reported (47 girls and 5 boys). Appropriate referrals to services were made. In the Somali region, with UNICEF support, a multi-agency team of BoWCA, IRC and DRC registered 202 unaccompanied and separated children. 
In Gambella, a joint mission with child protection and GBV partners was organized by UNICEF to the One Stop Centre. The One Stop Centre offers multi-sectoral services, such as health, legal, and psychosocial, for survivors of violence. The aim of the mission was to introduce the centre to the agencies working in the refugee camps and explore opportunities to strengthen the referral and service network to ensure timely and relevant services. At Pamdong reception centre, Plan International, with UNICEF support, identified and registered new South Sudanese arrivals. Concurrently, new arrivals received information on protecting children and risks to children that make them vulnerable to violence, exploitation, abuse and neglect including family separation and abduction. 

The Education Cluster has identified 2.2 million children that require priority education support. Of these children, 1.2 million are affected by conflict and drought and require immediate support to ensure continuation of their education. In the next six months, the Cluster will prioritize 125,000 children with no access to education for back-to-school campaigns, temporary learning spaces, and school feeding in 62 woredas in Oromia and Somali regions. To meet these immediate needs, the Cluster requires US$3.8 million. 
In the Somali region, UNICEF has signed a Programme Cooperation Agreement (PCA) with a local NGO, Ogaden Welfare and Development in Action (OWDA), to provide access to education for 3,600 pre-and primary school-aged children in IDP sites through 10 Temporary Learning Spaces. 

The roll-out of the C4D plan that focuses on nutrition and integrated messaging on health, hygiene and sanitation, and child protection in 42 IDP sites in Somali region has continued in Jarar and Dollo zones. During the reporting period, 14 Safe Spaces (5 in Jarar zone and 9 in Dollo zone) have been established. The safe spaces provide an opportunity for discussions to be held on Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF), sanitation and hygiene, harmful traditional practices and other issues identified by the IDP community. In addition to accessing information in the camps, the Safe Spaces are used for encouraging participation, providing feedback, and active engagement of the community on issues that matter most to them. 
As part of AWD prevention, UNICEF has provided onsite technical support to social mobilization teams in the Shebelle zone of the Somali region. 

UNICEF Ethiopia actively monitors external media coverage to keep track of trends and highlights of UNICEF Ethiopia’s activities. UNICEF attends the Ethiopia Humanitarian Country Team (EHCT) Emergency Communications Working Group and the group has initiated the discussion for joint messaging and fundraising activities in line with the release of the Ethiopian Humanitarian and Disaster Resilience Plan. 

UNICEF Ethiopia is appealing for US$111.8 million for its emergency interventions in 2018. The amount includes US$15.3 million for the response to refugees. 
In February 2018, UNICEF Ethiopia received US$600,000 for nutrition and US$533,499 for WASH from CERF and US$11,947 from the Spanish National Committee for UNICEF. UNICEF currently has a funding gap of US$86.5 million. 


