Highlights
- Shlter/NFI cluster identified 2.2M people as a PIN that consists of 1.49M IDPs, 1.02M Returnees and 197,367 Non-displaced people.
- The cluster has targeted 2.0M people consisting of 1.3M IDPs, 635K Returnees, and 75K non-displaced people during MYR 2020.
- From the 2.0M overall cluster’s target, the cluster targeted 0.53M people for COVID-19 related responses.
- As per the MYR, cluster’s overall funding requirement for the year 2020 is $101.1 Million (77.7M for Non-COVID-19 and 23.4M for COVID) to address SNFI cluster needs.
- Shelter/NFI Cluster assisted 22% out of 2.0M IDPs and Returnees across Seven Regions.
NFI
Shelter
Coverage against targets
Need analysis
The key issues intensifying vulnerability in Ethiopians are conflict and climate-induced displacements such as floods and droughts. In May 2020, the Humanitarian Response Plan is revised to include some of the changes in the humanitarian situation in Ethiopia. Notably, the changes to the IDPs and returnees’ landscape and the anticipated need and mitigation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Shelter/NFI sector continues to prioritize the safety and health of the most vulnerable households through the provision of timely, targeted, and appropriate shelter assistance, including relief items. Assistance gaps range from lack of household items to lack of privacy, exposure to harsh weather conditions, and overcrowded shelters, the latter being particularly severe in the current COVID-19 pandemic with a disproportionate impact on women and girls who also experience protection risks.
IDPs living in Collective Centers, Spontaneous and Planned sites, rental accommodations, or shared shelters with relatives in host communities are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 since many such spaces are congested and unsanitary. Migrants and deportees who have recently arrived in Ethiopia are currently confined to under serviced Quarantine Centers without basic NFIs and are similarly at higher risk.
Besides, the displaced generally have difficulty accessing essential services, such as adequate shelter, WASH, and healthcare. And those fleeing conflict or natural disasters often struggle with underlying health conditions, including malnutrition, and opted to carry minimal items.
Response
The Shelter/NFI Cluster targets 2.4 million IDPs, returnees, affected host communities, deportees and migrants with emphasis on a child- and female-headed households, the elderly, separated children, people with disabilities and households at higher risk of illness. In the COVID-19 context, the cluster prioritizes collective, spontaneous, and planned sites where people are at high risk of morbidity because of overcrowding, limited access to healthcare, hygiene & sanitation facilities, poor nutrition, limited access to public health communications, and reliance upon distributions that may involve large gatherings.
The cluster has diversified its shelter response to the displaced affected population, to mitigate COVID-19 transmission and provide privacy and safety. The Shelter/NFI response includes emergency shelter kits and rental support to build partitions in communal spaces, expand structures, and protect households that are renting in host communities from eviction. Distributions of Emergency Shelter and NFI items to newly displaced households and shelter repair materials to households who have returned to destroyed shelters are designed to improve the living conditions of the displaced affected population as well as enable vulnerable groups to adopt COVID-19 prevention.
In the second quarter of 2020, the Cluster has progressively assisted 252,505 vulnerable displacements affected population, inclusive of IDPs and returnees across Afar, Amhara, Benishangul Gumuz, Dire Dawa, Oromia, Somali, and SNNP regions. Component of response includes Cash for rent/Shelter, ENSFI in-kind, ESNFI in-cash, and mixed ESNFI (156,180), partial ES/NFI kits (79,250) and (17,076) with shelter reconstruction and repair (Repair kit full, partial and mixed, minor shelter repairs kit) support. With this, the shelter & NFI cluster has achieved 22.46% of its target for the 2020 Response plan.
The shelter/NFI cluster has been working with the government and partners to adopt working practices to mitigate the spread of the virus. So far, the Cluster and the government have supported quarantine centers with 42K NFIs.
Gaps / challenges
A combination of factors ranging from insufficient funding, restricted access to vulnerably displaced population, the fragility of the security situation, and frequent population movement continues to pose a significant challenge for Shelter & NFI cluster partners to address overwhelming needs and gaps.
Besides, limited resources to address the frequent needs of climate-induced displacement remains a challenge for the Cluster. The resurgence of ethnic conflict, after a period of clam in key return areas, limits the delivery of timely shelter and settlement response. Housing, Land, and Property (HLP) issues remains a bottleneck to provide longer-lasting shelter solution to many-affected population. Secondary occupation of homes, Loss of land, and titled documents were spotted as critical challenges to delivering timely repair/reconstruction assistance to vulnerable returnee population.
