Authors
Endashaw Beshir, Developmental Evaluation (DE) Team Member; Tseday Tilahun, DE Team Member; Dr. Yitbarek Woldetensay, Developmental Evaluation Lead – Disaster Risk Management; Julie Mandolini-Trummel, CLAME Specialist; Maxine Secskas, CLAME Associate; Rebecca Herrington, CEO of Headlight Consulting Services; Alison Harrell, CLAME Specialist and DE Administrator; and Chelsie Kuhn, CLAME Specialist and DE Administrator.
Description
Ethiopia has been facing a higher frequency and intensity of disasters due to long-term environmental degradation and shifting global weather patterns, which are further exacerbated by climate change. Within this context, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Ethiopia is carrying out the Resilience In Pastoral Areas (RiPA) North Program, implemented by MercyCorps, which builds community resilience in pastoral lowlands. The program component, “Improved Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Systems,” engages with different task forces to support the Government of Ethiopia (GOE) in transforming these groups to become action-oriented, joint planning bodies.
One of the DRM task forces RiPA North has participated in since early 2020 is the Afar Regional Flood Task Force, which consists of government officials, community leaders, RiPA North staff, other development actors, and private sector entities. In 2021, the Flood Response Task Force took early action that included RiPA North facilitating joint DRM system-strengthening action planning; helping the government own task management, budget allocation, and implementation of DRM; strengthening early warning systems; and improving coordination and communication among DRM actors. As a result of this enhanced Flood Task Force Response, early indications were that the flooding from the 2021 kiremt season was not nearly as devastating as the 2020 kiremt season.
In anticipation of the predicted severity of climate effects and shocks of the La Niña season (June to September 2022), USAID wanted to learn from the Afar Regional Flood Task Force’s approach to the 2021 kiremt season given its perceived effectiveness. The objectives of this evaluative effort were twofold: to help USAID better understand why this particular flood response was effective, how it was implemented, and what its challenges were to potentially replicate and share these lessons with others who are in a position to adapt and improve future climate shock response efforts; and to inform USAID’s La Niña imminent intervention designs and budget decisions, help other regional Development Actors and implementing partners learn and leverage learnings to inform future flood roadmaps.
View resource: 2021 Afar Flood Response Case Study_06282022
