Ethiopia Interim Country Strategic Plan (2019-2020)

ICSP approved at EB.1/2019

Revision 01 approved by the ED in July 2019. 

Revision 03 approved by the CD in May 2020.

In Ethiopia significant progress over the past decades has reduced poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition and improved access to critical basic services. About 30 million people still do not have access to adequate food throughout the year, however, and about 32 million people are undernourished. Persisting development challenges are grounded in the slow pace of transformation of the economy, vulnerability to climate shocks and the low level of human development. These challenges are exacerbated by significant humanitarian requirements caused by climate-induced shocks, conflict-related internal displacement of populations and the arrival of refugees from neighbouring countries.

Ethiopia’s current five-year growth and transformation plan has the aim of moving the country towards middle-income status by 2025 by sustaining accelerated growth and speeding up structural transformation. The national productive safety net programme is one of the largest social protection schemes in Africa, serving an average of 8 million people every year. The national nutrition programme has the aim of integrating nutrition-specific and -sensitive interventions in many sectors through a lifecycle approach to nutrition. The national school feeding programme is expected ultimately to attain national coverage. The recently adopted national comprehensive refugee response strategy has the aim of gradually phasing out refugee camps and facilitating the socio-economic integration of refugees into host communities enabling them to become self-reliant.

WFP will support the Government in implementing these plans, which have the ultimate aim of achieving zero hunger by 2030. The 18-month interim country strategic plan is based on WFP’s recognized strengths. While the bulk of operations will continue to address the immediate short-term needs of refugees, internally displaced persons and other food-insecure and undernourished people, the interim plan has the aim of positioning WFP for a gradual transformation of its role during implementation of the subsequent country strategic plan. During the shift, WFP will focus on the prevention of malnutrition, the achievement of increased resilience and ultimately self-sufficiency for households and communities, and the integration of nutrition concerns and women’s empowerment into the design of all operations, also contributing to the development of national standards.

The interim country strategic plan is structured under five strategic outcomes, which are aligned with WFP Strategic Results 1, 2, 5 and 8 and contribute to all the outcome pillars of the United Nations development assistance framework for 2016–2020:

• Strategic outcome 1: Refugees and crisis-affected populations in targeted areas are able to meet their basic food and nutrition needs throughout the year.
• Strategic outcome 2: Vulnerable and food-insecure populations are able to meet their essential food needs and establish climate-resilient livelihoods.
• Strategic outcome 3: Nutritionally vulnerable populations in targeted areas receive support aimed at preventing all forms of undernutrition.
• Strategic outcome 4: Government institutions and the private sector benefit from capacity strengthening in the areas of early warning and emergency preparedness systems, the design and implementation of safety net programmes and supply chain management.
• Strategic outcome 5: Government, humanitarian and development partners in Ethiopia have access to and benefit from effective and cost-efficient logistics services, including air transport, common coordination platforms and improved commodity supply chains.