Ethiopia - OCHANet

The office of the HC is supported in the coordination and leadership role by a well established and
well functioning OCHA office.
Figure 16: humanitarian coordination in Ethiopia.
140. OCHA plays an important role facilitating humanitarian access and advocacy, providing information
and coordination services to partners and overseeing the HRF. Having field presence has enabled
OCHA to play this role effectively. Another innovation in coordination at the strategic level was
the production of sector road maps. This was introduced by the agriculture task force, jointly chaired
by FAO and the MoARD, who put in place a road map for the response over the course of the year.
141. Much of the operational planning and coordination is done at regional and zone level. This
reflects the reality of Ethiopia as a large and largely decentralised country. In Somali region the Aid
Coordinator and advisor to the regional president began calling for assistance to tackle the effects
of drought at the beginning of 2011 (releasing a drought response plan on 4 January). This was
partly due to an Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan (EPRP) that the regional government
had been developing with help from UNICEF and others. This was essentially put into action
as soon as it was developed.
142. The federal government contributed to regional coordination by deploying Incident Command
Posts (ICPs), modelled on the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Intended
to provide extra expertise and resources to a state dealing with a national emergency, in reality
they were felt to have duplicated the work of the regions but were appreciated for the fact that they
demonstrated increased federal engagement in the crisis.
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