Ethiopia

HI works to improve the inclusion of people with disabilities by seeking to ensure that children can go to school and adults can work and participate in community life. HI also provides rehabilitation care and helps communities build climate resilience. Our teams of deminers clear contaminated areas and others educate the population about the risks of explosive devices.

Une adolescente est assise sur un tricycle, à côté d'un homme de sa famille. Ils sourient.

Gambella, 2021. Nyaduoth sits on her tricycle next to her uncle. The tricycle allows her to be mobile and more independent in a world where there are many barriers for a young girl with a physical disability. | © Till Mayer / HI

Actions in process

HI is currently working to improve the living conditions of vulnerable people in Ethiopia and to promote the inclusion of refugees and internally displaced people. For several years, HI has been working to ensure that children with disabilities have access to educational services and that adults with disabilities can work and participate in community life. Our teams provide physical and functional rehabilitation services to vulnerable people. They also provide protection assistance and community support, including psychosocial services, to refugees, conflict-affected communities, people with specific needs and vulnerable children.
In the Tigray region, HI runs risk education activities, provides support for victims of armed violence and is undertaking a humanitarian demining project to release land contaminated by explosive devices during past conflicts back to the communities.
In 2024, HI began developing a project to strengthen the resilience of people with disabilities to climate change. Actions include raising institutional awareness of the specific needs of people with disabilities and implementing local adaptation and resilience-building plans in collaboration with organisations of people with disabilities, local governments and humanitarian actors working on climate change

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Situation of the country

Map of Humanity & Inclusion's interventions in Ethiopia

Ethiopia is the second most populous country in Africa, with over 126 million inhabitants. Its population is being swollen by the influx of refugees, whose needs are barely being met.

Ethiopia has long been considered a stable country, but major tensions and inter-community violence persist. In November 2020, this triggered a conflict between Tigrayan forces and the central government that is still ongoing. Twenty years of conflict in the Ogaden region in the southeast have had a serious impact on the Ethiopian population of Somali origin.

The country is regularly hit by terrible droughts. Consequently, the number of people dependent on humanitarian aid is rising, increasing from 8.4 million in 2019 to 13 million in 2022. The country is home to people displaced by cross-border movements caused by drought, conflict, political upheaval and conflicts in neighbouring countries (Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan). There are also large numbers of internally displaced people fleeing the consequences of drought and conflict.

Number of HI staff: 102
Programme created in: 1986

Over the past 15 years, Ethiopia has undergone significant economic and social change and has recorded one of the highest growth rates in the world (over 10% in some years). However, Ethiopia's Human Development Index and ranking have not changed significantly in the last 10 years. Health services are limited, particularly those for people with disabilities. Ethiopia is also one of the countries most affected by HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.

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