CST March 2016 (newsletter)

CST

together March 2016

members of

Caritas Internationalis

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Note from the Country Representative

Patricia Wall It is with great pleasure that we present you with the first edition of our quarterly newsletter for the year 2016. The publication of this quarterly newsletter comes at a time where CST is looking towards developing its Country Strategic Plan (CSP) which will respond to the Ethiopian context and draw from the strategies of the three head offices namely CAFOD, SCIAF and Trocaire. The process is in full stride with CST staff and partners in Ethiopia thinking through the practical consequences of potential changes and the impact on programmes and the results framework. The need for developing our 2017-2021 Strategic Plan is in a bid to position CST and partners to better respond to development challenges in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia is a complex country and the scale is immense – it is a vast, stable county with almost 100m people living across at least five ecological zones.

The country has a long history and

people reference with ease events from hundreds of years ago. Although largely rural there is a growing urban population (20% urban). The country has shown incredible economic growth (over 10%) over recent years, has done well against the MDG targets, has one of the lowest levels of inequality on the continent between rich and poor, and is a leader within the Africa 2063 vision for the continent.

Ensuring sustained inclusive growth will be one to watch in the years ahead – I look forward to participating in early March at the UN Economic Commission for Africa here in Addis at a Roundtable on Economic Transformation in Africa – cofacilitated by CAFOD, Christian Aid, Third Work Network and Tax Justice Africa.

In terms of emerging challenges CST is currently scaling up its emergency response because of the ongoing drought in Ethiopia. The impacts of climate change and the severity of the El Nino weather phenomenon has left over 10m people in immediate need based on the country Humanitarian Requirements Document. In addition almost 8m people are supported through the government social protection programme known as the Productive Safety Net Programme – thus almost one-fifth of the population need critical assistance of one kind or another. Vital at the moment is access to water and availability of seeds. FAO has confirmed that seed reserves are severely depleted – at least 838 000 households require seed support in the upcoming planting season (March -April)– the planting season is dependent on adequate rainfall as Ethiopian farmers and livestock herders

mainly depend on rain fed water sources.

The government has imported food supplies, and mobilised local businesses, the civil society sector and the international community to support the response. We as Caritas agencies, including our sister agency, Canadian Development and Peace, are working with the Ethiopian Catholic Church structures as well as other local actors to play our part.

As well as immediate response work we are also looking at more long term strategies. In late 2015 we launched a Climate Change project in Tigray with support from the public in Northern Ireland through Trocaire and UK Aid Match – this is an innovative and welcome approach whereby the UK government matches pound for pound money donated by individuals and communities. Our thanks to all the people of Northern Ireland who contributed generously and enabled this project to be funded. For 2016 we are hoping once again to secure support form UK Aid Match – this time with the help of SCIAF and the Scottish public during lent. We have also been inspired in 2015 by the ground-breaking social teaching from the Catholic Pope Francis. ‘Laudato Si’ calls for profound changes in the world including calling for an equitable response in how we deal with climate change – last year partners and staff held a series of reflections on what this social teaching document could mean for our practical climate change work in communities. We are challenged yet inspired to move forward in 2016 and live the lesson!

Editorial Team Patricia Wall, CST Country Representative Samson Haileyesus, CST Communication Officer Photos: Samson Haileyesus Layout: Samson Haileyesus ‘CST-Together’ is a quarterly magazine for CST Together staff, CST headquarters staff, oversight management team (JAM-the Joint Agency Meeting), local partners, and international development partners.

Cover Photo: Carfi Sara with his familythe faces of SCIAF’s Lenten appeal. from a new water distribution point.

CST Magazine: round-up news, success stories, interviews and updates from CAFOD, SCIAF and Trócaire (CST Together) Address: CAFOD / SCIAF / Trócaire P O Box 1875, Addis Ababa, Gulele Subcity, Swaziland Street, Enqulal Fabrika, Ethiopian Catholic Bishops Conference Centre Tel: +251-(0)11-278-8843/44/45 Fax: +251-(0)11-278-8846 Email: reception@cst-together.org Website: www.trocaire.org / www.cafod.org.uk / www.sciaf.org.uk

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Contents 6

CST holds 2015 Annual Partnership Consultations

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SCIAF delegation – from Addis to Moyale and back!

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Borana

Meet SCIAF’s WEE BOX Lenten Family

Helping Women Become Strong

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Snapshot of current emergency in Ethiopia BACKGROUND: Ethiopia is experiencing one of the worst droughts in decades brought about by one of the strongest El Niño events. The two main rainy seasons that supply over 80 per cent of Ethiopia’s agricultural yield and employ 85 per cent of the workforce were not successful in 2015.

10.2 M PEOPLE WHO NEED HUMANITARIAN FOOD ASSISTANCE 1.4 BILLION FUNDING REQUIREMENTS (US$) 2.2 M FARMERS AND HERDERS NEED IMMEDIATE HUMANITARIAN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION SUPPORT. 2.1M COMPRISE THOSE WITH MODERATE ACUTE MALNUTRITION (MAM) AND SEVERE ACUTE MALNUTRITION (SAM)

CST’s Response

3.6M NEED EMERGENCY HEALTH CARE AND DISEASE CONTROL

As a network of Catholic agencies – CAFOD, Trocaire and SCIAF work through and with Catholic Church and local NGO partners, with communities and local government, who understand and know the context well.

CST is supporting different emergency response projects in 3 regions - the Southern Nations Nationalities People’s, Oromia and Tigray regions – CST works with sister Caritas agencies such as Canadian Development and Peace (C D&P) and development partners to respond to the crisis. Local partners include NGO partners (AFD, SOS Sahel, CIFA, ACCORD, REST), the Ethiopian Catholic Church Secretariat (ECS) and the Dioceses of Adigrat, Soddo and Hosanna.

Irish Aid, pooled Humanitarian Response Funds (HRF), CD&P and general organisational funds of CAFOD, SCIAF and Trocaire from the public in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland are contributing to the response in communities. Through the various funding sources mobilised we have been able to provide over €1m in support but given the scale of the crisis we still have large funding gaps and more people to reach.

Our partners are in communities identifying the most vulnerable families with emergency cash so that they can buy food, seeds and livestock feed. Support provided includes funding for health centres, for nutrition based livelihood activities; emergency seed and tools; livestock interventions, water point rehabilitation, and emergency food purchase support through cash transfer programming.

In northern Ethiopia, able-bodied men and women are being paid to work on useful community projects, such as terracing work, and creating access to water points, allowing families to buy basic food and other items they need for themselves, and for their livestock. In addition emergency seed and livestock feed is also being planned.

In Central Ethiopia we are working through Catholic health clinics – experienced in working on nutrition - targeting, under-fives, pregnant and breast-feeding women as well as with five local NGOs in the far south we are in Borena supporting pastoralist communities.

In addition CST staff and partners attend regular coordination meetings organised by the Government, the NGO sector and the UN.

The meher/ post-summer assessment and 2016 projections indicate the following priority needs: • 0.4M Severely Acute Malnourished • 1.7M Moderately Acute Malnourished • 2.0M Without safe drinking Water • 0.8M Displaced due to shocks Key Humanitarian Issues • Lives are at risk due to a lack of food and water, and the risk of disease outbreaks; • Livelihoods have been destroyed due to livestock death or poor health, or remain precarious due to limited access to seeds and other agricultural inputs for the coming year; • Flooding and other drought or conflict-related displacement will lead to critical needs for food, shelter and non-food items.

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Press clippings on CST’s work in Ethiopia

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CST holds 2015 Annual Partnership Consultations

CST along with 30 national partners conducted a day long annual review on December 8, 2015 at the International Livestock Research institute (ILRI) which aimed at taking stock of past performances of the year and also to look forward as we embark on a country level strategic planning process. This annual partnership review coincided with CST’s Joint Agencies Meeting (JAM) which addressed strategic and governance issues pertaining to CST’s operations in Ethiopia.

The Head-office representatives - Fergus Conmee, CAFOD Africa Director; and Robert Angove, SCIAF Programme Manager SCIAF and Eoin Wrenn, Trocaire Head of Region - presented on the organisational direction of each agency.

The annual day provided an opportunity for partners to learn about changes within the three organisations; and partners offered advice on how they could engage with the process. It provides an important forum for Partners to raise issues, network and exchange views with CST. Over the years, the Annual Partnership Consultations (APC) have proven to be an increasingly critical moment where CST is able to strengthen strategic dialogue with senior leadership of partner organisations. It builds on the annual technical thematic meetings that focus in detail on livelihoods and Natural Resources, HIV & Gender, Emergency Response and Civil Society strengthening. The format of the annual partners’ meeting aims to place CST’s partners in a leadership role, allowing for open dialogue focusing on practical recommendations for enhancing programme impact together in the future.

CST staff, partners and JAM holdings discussions at the Annual Partnership Consultations

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SCIAF DELEGATION – FROM ADDIS TO MOYALE AND BACK! Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund’s (SCIAF) Board member James Gallagher; SCIAF Director Alistair Dutton and SCIAF Head of Communications and Education Charlotte Imbert, visited CST staff, partners and projects in January 2016. They held meetings with existing partners and potential stakeholders from the Ethiopian Catholic Secretariat (ECS), the Apostolic Vicariate of Hosanna (AVH), the Spiritan Community Outreach Ethiopia (SCORE); Department for International Development (DfID), United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) and others during their week-long visit. A highlight from the visit was meeting the recently appointed Cardinal His Eminence Cardinal Berhaneyesus C.M..They were delighted to also meet Bishop Woldeghiorghis Mathewos, Vicar Apostolic of Hosanna; Bishop Tsegaye Keneni Vicar Apostolic of Soddo; and Abba Hagos Hayish, Secretary General of the Ethiopian Catholic Secretariat.

The SCIAF delegation travelled to the far south of the country to Moyale on the border with Kenya. They met with the WEE BOX FAMILY around Mega- the Carfi family, through their life story, are supporting SCIAF to raise awareness with the Scottish Public on the impact of climate change.

It was an intensive visit and included time at the Taza Health centre and nutrition support clinic; visiting Desalech Gobana who received supporting including a cow within the Livelihoods project. In Borana they learnt about CIFA supported Index Based Livestock Insurance scheme, work of the SOS supported Arero Soap Cooperative while back in Addis they learnt more about the employment opportunities being enable for people living with HIV through support from Timret Le hiwot office.

The SCIAF delegation also concluded their visit with discussions on the economic growth and the current drought crisis at DFID with George Turkington Head of DFID, Emma

Development and Peace staff and volunteers at a water point developed with the support of CST (left) and at briefing with ADCS about disaster risk reduction project.

9 Williams, Wealth Creation and Climate Change and Matt Butler, Senior Economic Advisor and Paul Handley, Head of Office at UNOCHA. The SCIAF delegation follows a November visit by a team of Scottish print and broadcast media who also concluded a week-long tour of projects.

The purpose of the visit was to gather more knowledge on CST’s work in Ethiopia, to inform the SCIAF Lent 2015 campaign on climate change.

Visitors included Paul O’Hare, from the Daily Record; Linda Sinclair who covers all independent radio stations in Scotland; Ian Dunn from the Scottish Catholic Observer newspaper; and Simon Murphy, pool photographer accompanied by Val Morgan, SCIAF’s Communication Officer.

Clockwise from top left: meeting with WEE Box family; inducted into the Borana; meeting Dadi Hunde beneficiary from Index Based Livestock Insurance scheme; Scottish print and broadcast media posing with Carfi and family; inspecting an ella water hole; meeting with George Turkington and Emma Williams from DFID

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Meet SCIAF’s WEE BOX Lenten Family When a severe drought hit Borana in 2011, Carfi Sara’s family and many others like him who depend on their cows, goats and camels for milk, food, and to earn money faced were faced a desperate situation.

The Borana zone is semi-arid with erratic and scattered rainfall which makes it particularly prone to drought. It has higher levels of poverty than the national average where up to 60% of people live below the poverty line surviving on less than 65p a day.

Most families in Borana are cattle herders who are heavily dependent on their animals but pastoralism as a way of life is under threat because of recurrent drought caused by climate change and the loss of natural resources. This, in turn is leading to increased levels of poverty and hunger. When a family doesn’t have enough food, it’s women and children that are hit hardest as they tend to be the ones responsible for collecting water and struggle to provide balanced diets for their families. A journey of 10 to 15kms to collect water was not uncommon.

Often villagers who have lost their animals, have set off on a two-week journey by foot for greener pastures some as far as 200km away.

Carfi, who is 46 year old, his wife Kabale and three children whose livestock was decimated by the drought had little prospects to recover from the loss. They faced a bleak and uncertain future. Often families hit hard by the drought would look

for other forms of income either looking for work as labourers or engaging in illegal charcoal production.

Since the Borana are proud pastoralists, their livestock are not only a means of sustenance but also the only way of life they knew. Having lost his only means of survival Carfi found himself at his wit’s end.

“Life is difficult here. We’re all farmers but lack of rain means we can’t grow crops and there’s no grazing. Our cattle are dying and there’s not enough food for our families.

Some people only eat once a day. Before your help, we were paralysed by poverty. I was desperate. My children would see their friends drinking milk and they would be envious”, said Carfi, a resident of Fuloromso district, 12km from Mega off road.

Carfi’s situation changed for the better when he was included in the Drought Recovery and Resilience Project which helps communities recover from the effects of drought and protect themselves from future disasters by improving grazing lands, access to water and water animal health.

The project, supported by our own resources and funding from the EU was run

by CST in partnership with three national partners in Borana Zone – the Agency for Cooperation and Research in Development (ACORD) working in the Dire and Miyo districts, Action for Development (AFD) and SOS Sahel also work in the Borana Zone.

Through the project the family was given one camel, one donkey and eight goats to

gain a new lease on life. Since the camel has given birth and provides additional milk for the family.

“I can’t believe how different life is for me and my family. Now my children have milk of their own to drink – and enough to share with others. I’m able to sell the milk of two camels at market. I bought my oldest daughter a uniform and shoes so she can go to school. I have been helped, and now I help others”, Carfi attests to the changes he has seen since the support he has received.

Carfi and his family’s inspiring story of recovery has prompted the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (SCIAF) to focus on Ethiopia and climate change for this year’s Lenten appeal in Scotland. This is an example of where the story from one family can make a difference and enable us to raise funds to support more families in Borana in the years ahead. This generosity of spirit by the Carfi family reflects the rich social capital that exists within Borana society.

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Helping Women Become Strong Entrepreneurs Wossen Tsige, is a 30 years old who has six children and lives in Durame, Hosana. Wossen comes from a poor family. Life was not easy for Wossen as the small plot of 1000 square meters could not generate enough income to sustain her family of eight. To make ends meet her husband would work as a hired labourer on other people’s farms and often his work took him away from his family for months without end. When work was scarce the family would rely on hand outs from family and neighbours.

“It was really tough on us initially we used to eat only twice a day that is if you can call it eating. Because in the morning our meal was to drink water, we ate what could be bought from the monies my husband brought from his daily labours as food for dinner. And when people in our family fell ill he would go out and try to take loans from his friends and relatives.

“And the loans would pile up, often our incomes would be dedicated towards servicing loans we had taken in the previous years. Because the loans would not come on time we could not get treatment for our sick children and they would only go to the clinic when the illness became severe”, said Wossen.

Having identified the needs of the family the Apostolic Vicariate of Hossana (AVH) and CST selected Wossen to help her embark in petty trade by providing her with seed money of 3600 birr, training on business plan development, saving and customer service.

Wossen sells maize flour, honey and other consumer products in town earning a tidy sum to support her family. Within seven months of receiving

the loan she was able to repay the loan and is looking forward towards accessing more loans to further increase her business.

Wossen can now provide for her family not only food but also other essentials such as soap, clothes for her children and even sending her children to school.

“I have good customers, my products are good. I have a lot of customers and I am doing well. I stand by the quality of my products. There are no complaints from my customers. . In fact I can say my family is now much better off from those in my area since the area has been hard hit with the climate change. I have a monthly saving of 400 birr which I save for a rainy day”, beamed Wossen.

“I now have a cow which provides milk for my children and am now investing in beekeeping to expand my business”, said Wossen.

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UK Aid Match Funding to Help Farmers in North Ethiopia to fight El Nino induced drought Against the back drop of El Nino in Ethiopia,Trόcaire, on behalf of CAFOD, SCIAF and Trόcaire [CST Working Together in Ethiopia], has secured UK Aid Match Funding of around £2m to help farmers in North Ethiopia cope with climate change. The funding for the project entitled Enhancing Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Resilience were secured from Trόcaire’s Lent 2015 campaign. UK Aid Match is an innovation concept whereby the UK Government matches £ for £ the amount gathered from general donations from the public at home.

The aim of the project is to increase food and income security; and strengthen resilience and adaptation to climate extremes for vulnerable male and female headed households in five districts in Tigray region in North Ethiopia.

The El Nino weather pattern, marked by warming sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, causes extremes such as scorching weather in some regions of the globe and heavy rains and flooding in others.

Meteorologists expect El Nino anomaly to be one of the strongest on record.

A July 2014, CST study titled ‘Review of the CAFOD/ SCIAF/ Trocaire Joint Ethiopia Programme on Climate Change’ notes that millions of small scale farmers remain rooted in subsistence agriculture that is almost completely dependent on the weather.

“Inadequate rainfall has become a growing trend in recent years: there has been a variation in total amount and seasonality of rainfall, leading to frequent humanitarian responses. In addition to farmers, Ethiopia’s rural poor include families engaged in livestock herding for their livelihoods and, as in the case of farmers, herders’ assets are vulnerable to

increasingly frequent droughts”, indicates the study.

Furthermore Trocaire’s 2014 ‘Feeling the Heat’ study projects that warming is expected to continue in Ethiopia, for all seasons, in all regions, and even if emissions decrease. A medium high emissions scenario shows an annual warming across Ethiopia of 1.2o C by the 2020s, and warming of 2.2oC by the 2050s.

The current drought, caused by failed spring and summer rains and worsened by the El Nino weather phenomenon, has led to food and water shortages in the country. Despite the huge national effort led by the government, which has allocated nearly 200 million USD to deal with the food crisis and issued an additional international tender to purchase 70,000 tonnes of wheat,humanitarian agencies say more international aid is needed. At least 1.4 billion USD is urgently required to meet the emergency needs of up 10.2 million Ethiopians affected by drought. The most affected areas in Ethiopia include southern Tigray, eastern Amhara, Afar, and Siti zone of Somali region, eastern SNNP region, East and West Hararge, Arsi and West Arsi, and lower Bale zones of Oromia.

The project in Tigray will support 17,697 household (4430 female headed households; 8205 male headed households) of which 5062 are landless households, in addition the project has targeted 45,297 indirect beneficiaries (women- 21,653 women and 23,644 men).CST are implementing the three year project in a consortium with the Relief Society of Tigray (REST) and the Catholic Diocese of Adigrat (ADCS) and was launched in Mekelle in December 2015.

The project is designed to provide beneficiaries with increase and diversified productivity and income; sustainable access to and use of land and water, and improved hygiene and sanitation practices; and

protection and rehabilitation of natural resources.

Patricia Wall, CST’s Country representative noted that projects like these are key towards tackling the challenge of adaptation to climate change.

Patricia added that when it comes to adaptation and resilience, “We need these resources in the communities in a well-planned manner so that communities can use them fairly,” she stressed.

“Climate change affects us all, and adaptation is crucial if we are to be as prepared and resilient as possible to deal with its impacts here in Ethiopia – such as extreme weather events, flooding and erosion, and disruption to the lives of our communities and people”, said Patricia.

Patricia noted that CST’s interventions are inspired by the Catholic Pope Francis’ teaching in ‘Laudato Si’ which call for a global movement on climate equity and also grounded in the advanced policy frameworks in Ethiopia.

At the launch event Woldemariam Gebretsadik, from the Tigray region’s Bureau of Finance and Economic Development welcomed the launch of the project.

“We welcome the move to start a climate adaptation project in our region. The measure comes at a time when the world is grappling with the question on how best to mitigate climate change. Our office will continue supporting consortiums like these working to help our people”, said Woldemariam.

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Woldemariam Gebretsadik, from the Tigray region’s Bureau of Finance and Economic Development

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CST marks White Ribbon Day OnDecember 1, 2015 at our annual partner meeting CST staff and partners marked the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence, in a bid to renew the global commitment to free all women and girls from all forms of violence, by donning a white ribbon.

This international campaign engages men and boys in tackling violence against women and girls. By wearing a white ribbon, men pledge never to commit, condone or remain silent about violence against women.

Explaining the origins of the day, Mulumebet Alula, CST Civil Society Development Programme Officer said that the mission of the White Ribbon day aims at making women’s safety a man’s issue too. Globally, White Ribbon is the world’s largest male-led movement to end men’s violence against women. Originating in Canada in 1991, White Ribbon is now active in more than 60 countries.

Speaking at the formal launch of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence CST’s Masresha Yimam Hussen, CST’s HIV and Gender Programme Coordinator, called on the male staff of CST to work towards eliminating all forms of violence and discrimination against women.

CST’s women staff on March 6, 2016 participated at the 2016 edition of the Women First 5km race which included 6,400 women participating in it. The Women’s race was started in 2004 to recognize the achievements of Ethiopia’s great female athletes at the Athens Olympic and to support the broader changes regarding the role of women in Ethiopia’s economic and social life>>>>

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Trocaire’s Horn and East Africa regional meeting CST hosted Trocaire’s Horn and East Africa regional meeting on the week of February 8, 2016 to discuss on operationalisation of global strategy, possible areas of synergy, humanitarian work and regional collaboration

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CST deliberates on Country Strategic Plan On November 2015 CST staff conducted a day long meeting looking towards developing CST’s Country Strategic Plan (CSP) which will respond to the Ethiopian context and draw from the strategies of the three head offices namely CAFOD, SCIAF and Trocaire. The process included reflections on practical consequences of potential changes and the impact on programmes and the results framework. The need for developing our 2017-2021 Strategic Plan is in a bid to position CST and partners to better respond to development challenges in Ethiopia.

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Unique Ethiopian time and calendar

Where we work in Ethiopia

Ethiopia follows the Julian calendar, which consists of 12 months of 30 days each, and a 13th month of five or six days (on a leap year).

Public holidays are celebrated according to the Julian calendar. The calendar is seven years behind Western or Gregorian calendar, with the New Year falling in the month of September.

Ethiopia is therefore in 2008 when the rest of the world is in 2016! August is our twelveth month in 2008.

Public Holidays for Ethiopia (2016) • • • • • • • • • •

29 April Ethiopian Good Friday 1 May April Ethiopian Easter 1 May International Labor Day 5 May Patriots’ Victory Day 28 May Downfall of Dergue July 7 eid al Fitr [variable] 11 September Ethiopian New Year 13 September Eid al adha [variable] 27 September Finding of the True Cross 24 December The Prophet’s Birthday

www.trocaire.org

www.sciaf.org.uk

We hope you enjoyed this edition of CST-together. The next edition is due out in June 2016.

Please send your articles and photographs to reception@cst-together.org

www. cafod.org.uk

Websites