Addis Ababa, February 29, 2024(Addis Walta) The Ministry of Finance and Ethiopia’s key development partners group heads of the agency have discussed climate change, food security and resilience-building efforts in the country.
State Minister of Finance Semereta Sewasew who chaired the meeting said the government is responding with humanitarian assistance in times of crisis, has been working on resilience-building programs and continued investment to expand agricultural productivity.
Accordingly, the government has been working to achieve substantially higher productivity using climate-resilient, sustainable practices, developing better economic linkages, and supporting household capacities to deal with shocks through programs such as productive safety nets.
Commissioner of the Ethiopian Disaster Risk Management Commission Ambassador Shiferaw Teklemariam made a short presentation on the current humanitarian needs and the departures of the new Disaster Risk Management policy, according to the Ministry of Finance.
He underlined that though there are efforts from development partners to address humanitarian responses, there is a significant resource gap and a shocking declining trend in humanitarian assistance.
The meeting focused on how to address current food shortages, particularly in northern Ethiopia, the continued assistance for drought-affected areas in the southern and southeastern regions as well as flood-affected areas in the country.
The declining trend of humanitarian assistance, challenges related to addressing humanitarian issues, and the options to fill these gaps were deliberated.
The development partners also emphasized that addressing the current humanitarian crisis with concerted efforts is needed in tandem with the efforts to build and strengthen resilience.
To this end, further coordination, alignment, and working towards a stronger humanitarian-peace-development nexus is the keyway forward, it was indicated.
The Meeting was Co-chaired by Ramiz Alkabarov, United Nations Resident Coordinator, and Paul Walters, UK Development Director.
The meeting was attended by ambassadors of the various countries and bilateral and multilateral development partners, ENA reported.