Ethiopia - OCHANet

Section 1.
Introduction
1. The crisis of food security and severe drought that hit parts of the Horn of Africa in 2011
affected up to 13 million 1 people. In Somalia tens of thousands died due to starvation and famine.
2. The international community, through various appeals in four principally affected countries
(Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti), mobilised over US $2.8 billion, 2 with another US $721
million 3 pledged. As is required by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) for such a largescale
response, the Emergency Relief Coordinator called for an IASC Real Time Evaluation (RTE)
to assess the overall response. The full RTE process comprises four separate assessment missions
leading to four different reports (plus an additional synthesis report) covering country responses
in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia, and regional mechanisms and support structures.
3. This evaluation report looks at the response in Ethiopia primarily in 2011 but includes analysis
from when rains first failed in 2010 into 2012 when the evaluation was conducted.
1.1 Objectives and purpose
4. The main objective of the IASC RTE process is to provide real-time feedback to the Humanitarian
Country Teams, look at the lessons learned for the future and to get the views of affected people
on the quality of the response. The scope is the provision of relief and the transition to recovery.
5. The RTE was broadly asked to look at four areas. These were:
n situation, context and needs
n strategic and operational planning and resource mobilisation
n coordination and connectedness
n response covering the needs and set standards
6. A set of more specific questions are elaborated in the Terms of Reference (at annex 1).
1.2 Method
7. A RTE is conceived of as a light, participatory process, able to provide a snapshot of the response
and enable those in charge to make strategic adjustments where necessary. In reality the Ethiopia
RTE took place as the main relief operations were winding down, or moving into a different phase.
This meant there was the opportunity to adopt some of the characteristics of a standard evaluation,
marrying the best of both techniques.
1. Source: OCHA (2011a). Horn of Africa Drought: Country-based Pooled Funds in 2011.
2.Source: http://fts.unocha.org Accessed on 24/04/2012.
3. Source: http://fts.unocha.org Accessed on 24/04/2012.
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