DanChurchAid Ethiopia 3317 views

DCA has been supporting food insecure communities in Ethiopia with humanitarian assistance and long term development since the mid-1970s through local churches and faith based organizations and has been legally registered in the country since 2004.

Despite a fast-growing economy Ethiopia remains one of the poorest countries in the world. The battle against food insecurity is one of the greatest challenges facing Ethiopia. Every year more than 10 million people depend upon relief food assistance; and even more people starve when the country – with shorter and shorter intervals – is hit by drought. The country’s too much dependency on rain for farming and water resource has made it extremely vulnerable to negative effects of climate changes. In addition, Ethiopia is host to some 800,000 refugees from neighboring countries mainly South Sudan, Eritrea and Somalia and due to an open door policy of the government more refugees are still coming.

DCA Ethiopia’s modality of implementation is a combination of co- and self- implementation and working with local partners and likeminded INGOs in consortia. DCA also works closely with communities and government structures at different levels to strengthen community resilience and disaster risk management, to create access to appropriate livelihoods and to economically empower, particularly rural women and girls to engage in decision-making. We also support and capacitate partners in projects as well as administrative and financial resource management. We work closely with refugee authorities (ARRA) and UNHCR when responding to needs of refugees and their hosting communities. We introduce innovative and appropriate technologies to address vulnerability, we fill in knowledge and skills gaps, build local capacity and when appropriate we work closely with private sector. Finally, we respond by the humanitarian imperative with timely relief in emergencies.

DCA and its partners operate in more than 20 woredas in Amhara, Afar, Oromia, and Gambella regional states. Since DCA works with vulnerable populations, the project sites are often in poor, remote and struggling communities who have little access to education, health, markets and infrastructure.