Due to the ongoing and protracted El Nino phenomenon, IOM’s quarterly Internal Displacement Monitoring Report (IDMR) is ever more relevant and crucial to help partners in providing coordinated, efficient and timely response to displaced persons. The 15^th (IDMR) workshop held on the 21^st of April, 2016 with participants from the government, UN agencies, donors, INGOs and local NGOs highlighted the alarming increase in numbers of displaced persons and the aggravating hazards caused by the El Nino phenomenon mainly in the regions of Afar, Amhara, Oromia and Somali. The workshop focused on the displacements that occurred during the quarter, including information on newly displaced persons and the protracted caseloads, as well as displacement attributable to El Nino in previous quarters, so that partners could coordinate and provide a timely response.

The International Organization for Migration Special Liaison Office (IOM SLO) in Addis Ababa collects data on displacement and drivers of displacement on a quarterly basis through the IDMR, as part of IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) programming. It aims to strengthen information dissemination on internal displacements and thereby support a timely inter-cluster humanitarian response. Since August 2015, the quarterly IDMR started presenting information on displacements and its drivers – drought, drought-related social-tension and unseasonal flooding - caused by the El Nino phenomenon in addition to other casual factors - conflict, fire, flooding and effects of volcano.

During discussion, a new strategy to scale up IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) programming was also announced and will be implemented in mid-May.  More specifically, the new plan of action will employ three layers of data collection tools at three levels (zone, woreda and site). Prior to this, the IDMR focused data collection on woreda and site levels. IOM will work closely with the Government of Ethiopia, Danish Refugee Council and Ethiopian Red Cross Society in implementing the new strategy, and as a major outcome, it is expected to provide a comprehensive nationwide data primarily on displaced persons disaggregated, inter alia, by age and sex, but also on the drivers of displacement. This information will help enhance coordination mechanisms amongst humanitarian partners to provide more timely, expedited, efficient and targeted response.

Since August 2015, Emergency Shelter / Non-Food Items (ES/NFI) cluster members distributed at total of 16,927 full and 9,135 partial NFI kits as well as 18,015 full and 3,657 partial ES kits. The gaps on ES/NFI provision remains significant and less than 50 percent of the needs of displaced people are being addressed. This calls for an urgent need to combine and raise humanitarian efforts not only in the delivery of services but mainly in sourcing the necessary funds to cover the financial lacunae.