WB approves 180 million USD to step-up support for refugees, host communities in Ethiopia

Addis Ababa, July 2, 2022 (FBC) – The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved 180 million USD to step-up support for refuges and host communities in Ethiopia.

The second phase of the Development Response to Displacement Impacts Project in the Horn of Africa (DRDIP II) in International Development Association (IDA) financing will help Ethiopia improve access to basic social and economic services, expand livelihood opportunities, and enhance environmental management for refugees and their host communities.

Approximately 2.5 million people in Ethiopia, of whom one-third are refugees and at least 50 percent are women, will benefit from the new financing to DRDIP.

This ongoing project has already assisted over 5 million people in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda since 2016, it was indicated.

DRDIP II will expand the geographic scope of the project to cover all communities in Ethiopia affected by refugees’ presence and to deepen support for the implementation of the government’s refugee inclusion policies.

Refugees are included as direct beneficiaries of this new phase, and their concerns will be better integrated into local development planning with a special focus on women’s economic and social empowerment.

World Bank Director of Regional Integration for Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, Boutheina Guermazi said DRDIP II activities will complement humanitarian support for refugees and host communities.

“This will help the ongoing transformation of the government’s refugee response approach from a short-term humanitarian model into a more sustainable and long-term development approach,” Guermazi added.

Ethiopia has long been a generous host to refugees and its policy response to forced displacement has been progressive. It is the third largest refugee hosting country in Africa and the ninth largest worldwide. Most refugees in Ethiopia originate from South Sudan, Somalia, and Eritrea.