Ethiopia Climate Change Fact Sheet

by by the United States Agency for International Development

ETHIOPIA
CLIMATE CHANGE FACT SHEET

Ethiopia is a classic example of how severely degraded ecosystems, agricultural and pasture lands, and poorly utilized water resources can exacerbate poverty, food insecurity, loss of biodiversity, and even aggravate conflict. By incorporating environmental issues into USAID’s work in Ethiopia, we strive to promote sustainable development, livelihoods, resilience, and disaster readiness.

GOVERNMENT OF ETHIOPIA CLIMATE PRIORITIES

In 2021, as part of Ethiopia's updated Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement, the Government of Ethiopia announced ambitious emissions cuts and other commitments, including:

• Reduce emissions by 68 percent by 2030

• Reforest and restore up to 15 million hectares

USAID’S CLIMATE CHANGE PROGRAM: OBJECTIVES AND RESULTS

USAID supports Ethiopia’s development and climate priorities through a series of interlinked activities and partnerships. USAID is currently partnering with Ethiopian communities across the country to promote soil and water conservation. We are also protecting critical watersheds and promoting the sustainable use of water resources. By using innovative technologies USAID is also forecasting weather patterns to predict potential droughts or other climate shocks—and to strengthen disaster planning and improve food security.

USAID is also investing in sustaining Ethiopia’s pastoral and agricultural sectors. This includes partnering with local pastoral communities to improve land management. Supporting the disaster risk management of communities across the country is also key—which includes helping them to invest in climate resilient livelihoods, and to improve their adaptation to climate shocks. All told, these investments are improving food security for millions of the most vulnerable throughout the country.

ADAPTATION

USAID supports Ethiopian communities and households to adapt and respond to climate change impacts. As the cycle of droughts, floods, and other climate-related shocks has accelerated, USAID is investing in improving disaster risk management and response.

KEY RESULTS

• Households actively participating in USAID resilience interventions in Ethiopia’s lowlands experienced a 50 percent lower decline in food security than non-participating households during the extended 2015 to 2017 drought.

• During times of drought, USAID provides subsidies to livestock traders. These small subsidies helped cover the cost of transport, feed, and veterinary services, which helped livestock reach feedlots and markets. Because of USAID’s help, producers are able to get a fair price and traders are able to stay in business. Since 2017, with a subsidy of $78,000, USAID leveraged over $1.4 million in livestock sales that would have otherwise died due to the drought.

• From 2020 to 2021 USAID’s in-depth assistance on flood disaster preparedness and response in five sub-districts reduced the number of people affected by floods from 24,000 to only 600. More than 5,000 households relocated to safe zones before flooding occurred in 2021.

KEY ADAPTATION PROGRAMS

• USAID’s Household Economy Approach uses novel methods of identifying vulnerable households to provides climate-related monitoring, analysis, forecasting, and early warning capacity to local communities and local disaster risk management authorities

• USAID’s Disaster Leadership activity partners with young professionals to build a corps of disaster risk management professions, with skills including strengthening climate and disaster risk analysis and community-based contingency planning.

NATURAL CLIMATE SOLUTIONS

In Ethiopia USAID promotes sustainable forest, agricultural, and community land management to address the causes of land use change, promote sustainable livelihoods, and increase the effectiveness of environmental policies. Protecting forests and other key ecosystems sustains livelihoods, mitigates climate change risks, and maintains environmental services like biodiversity preservation, carbon capture, and water purification.

KEY RESULTS

• Invested in soil and water conservation of 63,614 hectares of land, including planting over 42 million tree seedlings.

• Mapped 4 million hectares of rangeland using satellite vegetation data to enable herders to manage their grazing lands.

• Supported 23 sub-districts to develop community-level disaster risk management assessments and action plans. USAID also provided training on climate vulnerability analysis.

KEY NATURAL CLIMATE SOLUTIONS PROGRAMS

• Feed the Future Ethiopia Highlands Resilience activity supports highland communities and households to strengthen their climate resilience and to pursue sustainable livelihoods that adapt to climate change impacts.

• Feed the Future Ethiopia Land Governance activity supports pastoral communities to get communal land titling and to use their land based on participatory land use plans. Community land governance entities managed the use of land by enforcing bylaws approved by community members. This ensures sustainable landscape helping to exercise climate smart agriculture, protect the environment and improve agriculture productivity.

• USAID’s Resilience in Pastoral Areas activities increases climate resilient growth in Ethiopia’s lowlands by promoting livelihood diversification. The activity also improves natural resource management, livestock and crop productivity, local use of weather information, and access to weather-based livestock insurance products.

• USAID’s Development Food Security activities improve rangeland and watershed management. This includes the restoration of degraded communal lands. The activity also supports communities to use land management techniques, such as terracing, moisture conservation, and rainwater harvesting, to promote a more sustainable ecosystem.

• Feed the Future Ethiopia Value Chain activity promotes climate-smart agricultural practices and technologies. The activity also increases access to improved agricultural inputs that contribute to soil and water conservation, and increases access/availability of drought-resistant seeds.

• USAID’s Health, Ecosystems, and Agriculture for Resilient, Thriving Societies program invests in sustainable conservation of threatened landscapes and the well-being and prosperity of communities that rely on those landscapes. By working with local communities, USAID community-led conservation efforts that promote biodiversity and local development.