ETHIOPIA ACTION PLAN TO ADDRESS FOOD SECURITY SITUATION

UNCLAS ADDIS ABABA 001498


STATE DEPARTMENT AF/E, AF/PDPA, OES, AND PRM/AFR
USAID for AFR EGAST, CTHOMPSON
DCHA/AA SCROMER
DCHA/OFDA PMORRIS, KCHANNELL
DCHA/FFP JDWORKEN, PMOHAN, PBERTOLIN
LONDON, PARIS, ROME FOR AFRICA WATCHER
CJTF-HOA AND USCENTCOM FOR POLAD
USDA/FAS FOR U/S PENN, RTILSWORTH, AND LPANASUK
NAIROBI FOR OFDA/ECARO JMYER, GPLATT, RFFPO NCOX, RFFPO RDRAPCHO
USEU BRUSSELS
USMISSION UN ROME FOR RNEWBERG
NEW YORK FOR DMERCADO
USEU FOR PBROWN
GENEVA FOR NKYLOH, RMA
NSC FOR CPRATT

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EAID PHUM SENV EAGR PGOV ET
SUBJECT: ETHIOPIA ACTION PLAN TO ADDRESS FOOD SECURITY SITUATION

REF: Addis Ababa 1113
Addis Ababa 1348
Addis Ababa 1373

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Summary
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1. On June 17, 2009 the U.S. Ambassador convened a meeting with key
members of the humanitarian community to discuss an action plan to
address the worrisome food security situation exacerbated by
consecutive seasons of failed rains and an impending food relief
pipeline break in mid - July.


2. The U.S. Ambassador proposed an agenda with four main points:
(a) consensus on the actual food need; (b) consensus on the best
approach to convince the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) to increase
response efforts to meet the actual food security situation; (c)
discussion on what donors, United Nations (UN) agencies and
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can each contribute to the
effort; (d) discussion of the most effective and timely means to
deliver the assistance.


3. The agreed upon plan includes the following key actions:

a) The U.S. Ambassador will use his weekly meetings with the Prime
Minister (PM) to encourage acknowledgement of the actual extent of
the food security situation and appeal for assistance to at least
6.6 million people in addition to those already participating in the
Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP). The key message will be that
good governance is exemplified by effective and timely delivery of
services to the citizenry, and that there is no stigma in
acknowledging the effects of a natural disaster such as drought.

(b) The convened group will continue to meet regularly and will
raise (at least weekly) issues on the humanitarian situation with
the GoE to the level of the Minister of Agriculture and Deputy Prime
Minister. The main issues to be addressed will be the
prioritization and expedited entry of relief food assistance through
the Port of Djibouti and ensuring a transparent process of
allocation and distribution of food assistance.

(c) All stakeholders should invest in long term economic
development solutions comparable to the investment in humanitarian
assistance.

(d) The GoE and donors should use all effective means to deliver
the assistance including UN agencies and NGOs collaborating with
government agencies. End Summary

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Background
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4. On June 17, 2009 the U.S. Ambassador convened a meeting to
discuss an action plan to address the food security situation in
Ethiopia. Participants included the Ambassador of Japan;
USAID/Ethiopia and USAID/OFDA; the United Kingdom's Department for
International Development (DFID); the Embassy of the Netherlands;
the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA); Country
Directors from UNICEF, the UN Organization for Coordination of
Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA) and the UN World Food Program (WFP);
Country Directors of international NGOs CARE, Catholic Relief
Services (CRS),Save the Children (SC/US and SC/UK) and GOAL.


5. The U.S. Ambassador expressed grave concerns about the current

food security situation caused by the cumulative effects of four
very poor harvests including the most recent failure of the 2009
spring (belg) rains and its impact on crop production. He noted
that although the PSNP since 2005 has addressed the chronic needs of
more than seven million people, millions of people every year will
continue to require assistance. The U.S. Ambassador expressed
immediate concern over the shortage of food assistance in the
country; the impending relief food pipeline break in mid - July; the
GoE's reluctance to appeal for sufficient food and its failure to
acknowledge that the problem is beyond the GoE's current assessment
of 4.9 million people in need of assistance through June 2009.

-- How Many People in Need? --


6. The first agenda item was to agree on the actual number of
people in need and the situation on relief food available for
assistance. (Comment: Recent reports by the British Broadcasting
Corporation (BBC) that the GoE is blocking food aid entry into
Ethiopia from Djibouti Port and that more than nine million people
are near starvation has heightened concern worldwide. End
Comment).


7. WFP representatives noted the continuation of support for the
4.9 million people acknowledged by the GOE and an additional 'ad
hoc' 300,000 people bringing the GoE acknowledged emergency number
to 5.2 million through October 2009. USAID stated that available
evidence points to a figure nearer seven million people in need. In
addition, there are 2.4 million PSNP participants needing additional
food or cash assistance to make it through to the green maize
harvest in September. Several NGOs suggested the total could be
even higher. As well, the deteriorating complex emergency in the
Somali Region needs to be addressed urgently during the long dry
season currently underway. All donors, UN agencies and NGOs
expressed concern that the GoE does not intend to release new appeal
numbers until August when the final results (and probable
"massaging") of the belg season assessment are released.


8. A consensus was reached that current evidence indicates that a
minimum of 6.6 million people are in need of assistance from July
through October, above the PSNP recipients. While waiting for the
belg season assessment results to be officially released in an
appeal by the GOE, participants agreed to use this minimal figure as
a basis for seeking resources from donor governments, UN and NGO
headquarters.

-- How to Convince the GoE? --


9. The second agenda item was to agree how best to convince the GoE
to acknowledge a greater number of people in need and to appeal for
sufficient assistance to satisfy the projected larger requirements.
The US Ambassador noted that Ethiopia is not the only country facing
a food security crises and stressed the considerable competition for
limited resources. The U.S. Ambassador intends to again encourage
the GOE to request a sufficient amount of assistance for July to
October and to request it as soon as possible otherwise it may be
too late.


10. The UNICEF Representative made a statement that best summed up
the feeling of all participants stating that responding to the needs
of the people would reflect positively on the GoE and would be
extolled in the press, thus enhancing Ethiopia's image worldwide as
opposed to specters of suffering and death that would result if the
GoE is too embarrassed to admit the true extent of a natural
disaster.


11. A consensus was reached that the U.S. Ambassador will use his
scheduled meeting to continue to encourage the Prime Minister (PM)
to acknowledge the actual extent of the hunger and appeal for
sufficient assistance immediately.

-- What Can Stakeholders Contribute? --


12. The third agenda item (what contributions various stakeholders
could make) led to a debate on the GoE obstruction of assistance
delivery through (i) prioritizing cement and fertilizer transport
from Djibouti Port while transportation of relief food is delayed
for months; (ii) refusing to increase the number the trucks allowed
to even temporarily operate the Djibouti to Ethiopia route; (iii)
delaying appeals and deliberately reducing assessment numbers to a
more palatable number; (iv) blocking access of NGOs and UN agencies
to people in need; and (v) lack of transparency in accounting for
the delivery of humanitarian assistance, especially food aid. All
agreed that the regular meetings on these matters should be raised
to a higher level and that the U.S. Ambassador should continue to
use his meeting with the PM to highlight the concerns of the
humanitarian assistance community. All agreed that preliminary food
aid appeals should be made to donor governments, UN and NGO
headquarters but more evidence of the spirit of good governance for
humanitarian response would be needed from the GoE before actual
commitment of resources will be confirmed.


13. The Japanese Ambassador and several other representatives
emphasized the imbalance between investments in humanitarian
assistance and investments in development programs for agricultural
and economic growth. The U.S. Ambassador assured the group that the
USG intends to substantially increase its contributions to long term
agricultural development, but cautioned that the USG cannot
guarantee the same level of relief food assistance over the coming
years. A consensus was reached that the donor community needs to
respond to this crisis but at the same time resolve to invest
sufficient resources to assist Ethiopia to address the root causes
of poverty and food insecurity.

-- Effective Delivery of Humanitarian Assistance --


14. The fourth agenda item centered on effective delivery of
humanitarian assistance. USAID/Ethiopia pointed out that relief
food (USAID funded) for approximately 2.4 million people for two
months would be arriving at the Port of Djibouti in late June or
early July for distribution through NGO channels in coordination
with the GoE and WFP. USAID/OFDA noted it provides substantial
funds to therapeutic feeding programs for the treatment of severely
malnourished children, but that without adequate food security at
home these same children (and many more) will soon return to the
feeding programs.

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Conclusion
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15. Meeting participants agreed on a minimum number of 6.6 million
people in need of food aid as opposed to the GoE's current figure of
4.9 million.

-- Key actions to be taken include --

a) The U.S. Ambassador will use his scheduled meeting to encourage
the PM to acknowledge the actual extent of the hunger and appeal for

assistance for at least 6.6 million people in addition to those
already participating in the PSNP. The most important message to be
delivered is that good governance is exemplified by effective and
timely delivery of services to the citizenry and that there is no
stigma in acknowledging the effects of a natural disaster as
drought. However, lack of response is indicative of a failed
government.

(b) The same group of donors, UN agencies and NGOs will continue to
meet and will include GoE officials to the level of the Minister of
Agriculture and Deputy Prime Minister. Main issues to be addressed
are the prioritization and expedited entry of the food assistance
through the Port of Djibouti and ensuring a transparent process of
allocating assistance to the various regions and woredas.

(c) All stakeholders should invest in long term economic
development solutions to a comparable level as they invest in
humanitarian assistance.

(Comment: Chronic food shortages will be long term. The bottom
line is not food aid, but agricultural development, land reform,
distribution reform, expanded water resources, population control
and job creation in manufacturing to help diversify the economy and
resolution of conflict. The Nile River Basin agreement would help
expand water resources, ease regional conflict, create jobs and
expand economic development. End Comment).

YAMAMOTO