Section title Etiopía

Ethiopia ranks 175 out of 191 on the Human Development Index. It is a country afflicted by desertification and drought, which are becoming increasingly chronic due to climatic shocks that are taking their toll on the food security of the population, which suffers recurrent famines.

The Fifth Master Plan of the Spanish Cooperation (EC) considers Ethiopia as one of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), which translates into severe deprivation, low human development and high vulnerability. The Official Development Assistance (ODA) it receives is one of its main sources of external financing and constitutes a significant percentage of its gross national income. It is sensitive to commodity price fluctuations, trade in consumer commodities, climate catastrophes, armed conflict, migration, political tensions and institutional weaknesses.

In early 2023, the new Country Partnership Framework 2023-2027 was signed, a strategic instrument agreed with the Ethiopian government which, among others, sets out the geographical and sectoral priorities for the EC in the country and which will have a multi-pronged approach, considering the national level of public policies, but also the impact of initiatives at regional and EU level.

The priority sectors of work for AECID in Ethiopia are Health, Rural Development and Gender Equality, in which it has an important track record in the country.

On the other hand, AECID is responsible for managing projects financed by delegated funds from the European Union focused, on the one hand, on sustainable agricultural production with a gender approach and, more recently, on the promotion of the health sector, specifically training in specialised medicine.

Established in December 2013, the Shire Alliance is the first experience of a multi-stakeholder alliance in the humanitarian field, promoted by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID). It is made up of three leading companies in the energy sector (Acciona.org, Iberdrola and Signify), the Centre for Innovation in Technology for Human Development of the Polytechnic University of Madrid (itdUPM) and AECID, in collaboration with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The Alliance promotes energy solutions that improve the services and quality of life of the refugee population in camps, working in collaboration with collaborating partners and implementers in the camps themselves, and with the itdUPM as the facilitating entity, which is responsible for coordinating the Alliance.

In Ethiopia, the Shire Alliance works in collaboration with the Dutch NGO ZOA and the Administration for Refugee and Returnee Affairs (ARRA), the Ethiopian government agency in charge of refugee affairs. Following a first pilot project that benefited more than 8,000 people in the Shire region of Ethiopia, the Shire Alliance is developing a new project in the Dollo Ado refugee camps in south-eastern Ethiopia, close to the border with Somalia and Kenya.