Climate Risk Management in Finnish Development Cooperation - Gaia

in 1991. Over 350,000 people were displaced at the start of the war from areas along the common
border of the Tigray and Afar regions. An additional 95,000 Ethiopians were deported from Eritrea,
and as the conflict escalated, people residing close to the borderlines were evacuated. Droughtinduced
and famine-induced displacements are chronic problems in Ethiopia and e.g. developmentinduced
displacement occurs due to road construction. Relevant issues concerning IDPs include the
presence of landmines, HIV/AIDS, and problems of the families of deceased soldiers. Refugees in
Ethiopia - principally Somalis, Sudanese, and Eritreans – often arrive as a result of ongoing political
and civil unrest in the Horn of Africa as well as natural disasters (mostly drought). Trafficking,
particularly of women and young girls, is another significant form of forced migration in Ethiopia. 102
Implications to Finland
In 2008, 668 Ethiopians immigrated to Finland. Out of the immigrants 430 were men and 238
women. The figures include Ethiopians who have lived a year or more in Finland. The largest group
of immigrants were 18-40 year old men. Overall, the amount of immigrants from Ethiopia to Finland
is small in comparison to the amount of all immigrants arriving to Finland. Asylum seekers represent
only a small proportion of Ethiopian immigrants as other reasons such as family, study and work
immigration are more dominant. 103
As mentioned in previous chapters, climate change could increase potentials of conflict and
therefore create refugees and asylum seekers even to Finland. Climate change itself will not create
Ethiopian immigrants to Finland as people tend to move to local areas when living conditions worsen.
Already now, Ethiopia’s politicised ethnicity, where the country has been divided up into a number
of self-determining ethnically defined and administrated territories, has left people less willing to
migrate into regions administered by ethnic groups other than their own 104 .
In development cooperation, actions mentioned in previous chapters are also valid in the case of
human displacement. Climate processes require long-term planning in development cooperation in
terms of adaptation measures and securing livelihoods. Sudden climate events may demand
increasing amounts of emergency relief and humanitarian assistance from Finland and other donor
countries. Both sudden and slow-onset disasters will require substantial protection and
humanitarian assistance because displacement creates new, or exacerbates pre-existing
vulnerabilities. Finland should support Ethiopia in reducing risks created by climate change and
vulnerabilities caused by it. In addition, Finland can support Ethiopia in protecting individuals
displaced by the effects of climate change. Adaptation measures should cover protection of and
assistance for the displaced. Measures to mitigate and reduce risks of disasters should include
measures such as disaster risk mapping, early warning systems, predetermination of evacuation
routes, prepositioning of humanitarian aid, building capacities of local communities to deal with
102 http://www.forcedmigration.org/browse/regional/ethiopia.htm
103 Telephone discussion with Leena Hiljanen, Finnish Immigration Service/10.6.2009
104 Morrissey (2008: 29)
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