Building Resilience in Ethiopia’s Lowlands: A Coordinated Approach to Overcoming Climate and Economic Challenges
Day two of the Partnership for Lowlands Resilience Activity (PLRA) Federal Multi-stakeholder Coordination Platform meeting kicked off with a panel discussion featuring three dynamic women leaders from civil society and the private sector.
On October 28, 2024, more than 100 leaders from diverse sectors of Afar, Oromia, Somali, and South Ethiopia regions convened in Hawassa for the Partnership for Lowlands Resilience Activity (PLRA) Federal Multi-stakeholder Coordination Platform meeting. This event highlighted the need to strengthen resilience across Ethiopia’s lowlands, a region rich in potential but facing challenges like erratic rainfall, food insecurity, and poverty.
The three-day workshop began with a blessing ceremony by traditional leaders, blending Ethiopia's heritage with modern strategies in resilience building. Dr. Anteneh Girma, Country Lead for the Policy LINK Ethiopia Champions for Food Security (C4FS) Activity, which implements PLRA, expressed his gratitude to all attendees for joining the Federal Multi-stakeholder Lowlands Resilience Coordination Platform in Hawassa, emphasizing the event as a significant opportunity for collaboration. He urged participants to focus on both immediate issues and long-term resilience in Ethiopia’s lowlands, aiming to establish sustainable, evidence-based programs.
USAID's Director of Economic Growth and Resilience, Amber Lily Kenny, highlighted the value of proactive cooperation to achieve sustainable solutions
Amber Lily Kenny, USAID's Director of Economic Growth and Resilience, shared insights from her extensive experience, emphasizing that proactive collaboration is essential. “Resilience-building requires multi-stakeholder collaboration for sustainable and scalable solutions and that this event is a very critical part of that journey,” she stressed.
In his keynote address, H.E. Dr. Endrias Geta, State Minister of the Ministry of Irrigation and Lowlands (MILLs), painted a comprehensive picture of the challenges and opportunities present in Ethiopia's lowlands. He highlighted the government’s commitment to developing this region, noting its vast potential as the source of 90% of Ethiopia's livestock exports, despite frequent climate-related adversities.
Following the keynote remarks, three presentations addressed key topics: the MILLs mandate and implementation guidelines framework, the PLRA project design, and the achievements and lessons learned in the first year of the PLRA.
The PLRA was launched on January 10, 2024. The three presenters—Solomon Wakgari, Jeffrey Campbell, and Dr. Daniel Temesgen—participated in a panel moderated by Ambassador Dr. Shiferaw Teklemariam, Commissioner of Ethiopian Disaster Risk Management Commission. Ambassador Dr. Shiferaw guided audience queries and comments, which were further addressed by Dr. Endrias Geta. Summarizing, Dr. Shiferaw noted the importance of elevating the PLRA platform to the Deputy Prime Minister’s attention. In the process, Ambassador Dr. Shiferaw reiterated the intrinsic value of Sequencing, Layering, and Integrating Programs (SLIP) to build resilience in the lowlands. SLIP is a strategy used to combine different support programs or services in a way that maximizes their impact on people's lives.
Overall, the three-day discussions reflected a unified commitment to a future where Ethiopia’s lowlands thrive against the odds, fostering economic growth and climate resilience across the nation.
During the afternoon learning and adaptation session, four USAID Implementing Partners--Mercy Corps, Global Communities, Palladium, and RTI’s Climate Resilience WASH Activity--showcased their efforts to collaborate, learn, and adapt. Their presentations highlighted work in market systems development, access to finance, early warning systems, and market-based sanitation.
The second day began with a panel discussion featuring three women leaders from civil society organizations and the private sector. The panelists highlighted the contributions of women in pastoral communities to resilience, despite cultural impediments. Panelists ignited a lively and rich discussion that on existing challenges that limit women’s contributions and advocated for improvements in project design to incorporate women-friendly technologies and activities to boost their productivity in resilience interventions.
The third day began with a panel composed of two pastoral-farming investors from Oromia, one from South Ethiopia, and two from Somali regions. After opening the panel discussion, each panelist summarized their type of business, own and social services, challenges encountered, mitigation measures taken, and their forward plan of actions. The panelists raised concerns over the implementation of past initiatives, such as the government-led livestock vaccination campaigns, where there was a shortage of vaccines to meet the needs of the animal population. They suggested that the private sector could play a crucial role in improving the delivery of services, such as livestock vaccination.
The participants were divided again into regional groups to plan for the launch of regional multistakeholder coordination platforms. The discussion groups focused on how the PLRA coordination platform can support anticipatory drought planning, assessed the current early warning systems, and explored gaps and opportunities for private sector engagement. A key takeaway was the need to linking the PLRA with the disaster risk management platform. Anticipatory planning for the next drought could also be used as a common agenda that binds efforts for collective action and impact.
Participants shared critical insights throughout each day, emphasizing the importance of tailored and targeted strategies for resilience. They advocated for separate approaches to policy, operational, and structural challenges as well as explicit resource allocation between regional and federal levels; incorporating innovation and technology into resilience initiatives, with stronger involvement from federal ministries; aligning federal and regional strategies on resilience, particularly regarding internally displaced persons (IDPs) and related policies; and establishing clear timelines and coordination frameworks to ensure a strategic, collaborative, and effective approach to resilience.
Overall, the three-day discussions reflected a unified commitment to a future where Ethiopia’s lowlands thrive against the odds, fostering economic growth and climate resilience across the nation.