USAID Disaster Risk Management Activity (Ethiopia)

Deadline: 9-Oct-23

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission in Ethiopia is seeking applications for a cooperative agreement from qualified entities to implement the USAID Disaster Risk Management Activity.

Ethiopia faces frequent and severe shocks, but capacity to manage disaster risks is limited, particularly at subnational level. Critical investments are needed to strengthen DRM to enable anticipatory and early action and reduce humanitarian need.

USAID/Ethiopia intends to award a five-year assistance activity entitled “USAID Disaster Risk Management Activity” referred to henceforth as “the activity”. The purpose of the activity is to enable timely anticipatory and early action to preempt crises and reduce the impact of shocks in Ethiopia by strengthening disaster risk management (DRM) planning and preparedness, improving DRM coordination, and enhancing resource mobilization and management. The activity will also strengthen gender in emergencies (GiE) capacity, increase private sector engagement in DRM, and expand local organizations’ capacity to engage in DRM. The activity will support the implementation of Ethiopia’s new Disaster Risk Management Policy and Disaster Risk Finance Strategy.

Objectives

• Planning and preparedness capacities are strengthened: Having systems in place to respond when crises arise results in significant cost savings. This activity will strengthen local preparedness capacity, provide tools, prepare actions to identify and respond to shocks before they result in an emergency, and pre-plan financing.
  • Illustrative results:
    • 100 regions and woredas develop and regularly update DRM plans, with financing pre-identified.
    • 100 percent of disasters occurring in target areas trigger early or anticipatory action based on DRM plans.
    • 100 percent of disaster responses in target areas are reviewed through AARs and 100 percent of plans are updated based on findings.
• DRM coordination is improved: Adequate preparation for, mitigation and prevention of, and response to disasters requires effective coordination among stakeholders engaged in disaster risk management. This activity will strengthen DRM coordination platforms to ensure that they are well maintained and operational and provide an incentive for DRM actors to work together.
  • Illustrative results:
    • Four regional ECCs and 12 local ECCs are capacitated or strengthened.
    • 100 percent of disasters occurring in target areas are addressed through early activation of Ethiopia’s National Incident Management System (NIMS) coordination platforms.
    • 100 percent of response activations in target areas reviewed through AARs, and implement action items.
    • 100 percent of humanitarian access requests approved or responded to with reason for denial and guidance for resubmittal on time.
    • 100 percent of relief reaches intended beneficiaries.
    • Timely submission and sharing of response reports by GOE agencies to humanitarian sector clusters for better tracking and response decisions (e.g. submission/sharing of the food report by Ethiopian Disaster Risk Management Commission (EDRMC) to the Food Cluster.)
• Resource mobilization and management are enhanced: When local DRM actors will have access to sufficient resources to prepare for, mitigate and respond to disaster risks, and are engaged in decision making for resource mobilization and allocation, they are empowered to respond to shocks and the impact of shocks on lives, livelihoods and development gains will be reduced.
  • Illustrative results:
    • USD 5 million mobilized for DRM.
    • 100 regions and woredas have local contingency budget plans for predictable shocks with protocols in place to release early response funding.
    • 18 ECCs have dedicated DRM funding in their annual budgets.
    • At least one innovative finance mechanism from the forthcoming DRF strategy piloted.
    • Zero disaster responses delayed by lack of funding.

Guiding Principles

• Humanitarian principles.
• Climate Change.
• Systems.
• Local Ownership.
• Community-led Development.
• Good Governance and Accountability.
• Conflict Sensitivity.
• Shock Responsiveness.
• Learning.

Funding Information

• USAID/Ethiopia intends to award one Cooperative Agreement pursuant to this notice of funding opportunity. Subject to funding availability and at the discretion of the Agency, USAID intends to provide $49,000,000 in total USAID funding.
• The anticipated period of performance is five years. The estimated start date will be on or about April 2024.

Expected Results

• The activity will enable anticipatory and early action by strengthening preparedness and planning, improving DRM and response coordination, and enhancing resource mobilization and management. It will also support gender in emergencies capacity and partner with the private sector. The activity is expected to reduce the impact of shocks on very vulnerable people, reduce the need for costly humanitarian assistance and protect hard earned development gains by enabling timely local action.

Strategies and Programming

• The activity will complement USAID’s ongoing humanitarian and resilience efforts by targeting regions, zones, and woredas to strengthen locally-led DRM.
• The activity builds on USAID’s existing and past DRM programming and consolidates USAID/Ethiopia’s planned DRM activities under one activity.
• The new activity will contribute to USAID/Ethiopia’s Country Development Strategy (CDCS) Development Objective 1 Disaster Risk Management Strengthened, which aims to strengthen DRM capacity and commitment to support a shift from reactive emergency relief to proactive emergency preparedness, contingency planning and disaster risk reduction.
• It will also support more effective implementation of crisis modifiers in collaboration with the USAID/Ethiopia Mission’s Strategic Advisory Group for Emergencies.
• The activity will also contribute to USAID/Ethiopia DO2 Resilience of Vulnerable Populations to Key Shocks Increased and complements the Mission’s resilience investments, which aim to strengthen household and community capacities to absorb risk, recover from shocks and build pathways out of poverty.

 Eligibility Criteria

• Eligibility for this award is not restricted.

For more information, visit Grants.gov.