Oromia Region

The Oromia Region is comprised of 20 zones is the largest region in Ethiopia by both population and territory sizes. The Oromia region has been experiencing protracted humanitarian crises induced by the 2015-2016 El Niño emergencies, the 2017 Somali-Oromia border conflict and the Gedio-Guji conflict that erupted in April 2018 on the in-border areas between Oromia and its neighboring states of the Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples’ (SNNP) Region sparked by grievances over borders, land and resources.

In the aftermath of the 2017 conflict that caused high-intensity and rapid onset displacements, the regional government established the IDP Rehabilitation Committee and raised funds worth of ETB 8 billion through grassroots-level donations, facilitated provision of professional support in forms of health and educational services and channeled both in-kind and in-cash assistance through the Oromia Disaster Risk Management Commission (ODRMC).

As of mid-2021 there remain critical gaps in facilitating the recovery of displacement-affected communities. The majority of returning IDPs have already lost their livelihoods and assets, with basic services overstretched because of heavy damages to public facilities during conflicts. Such complexity and protracted nature of the displacement situation in the region demonstrated the importance of moving beyond the humanitarian assistance and addressing displacement-related needs from a more holistic perspective.  The relevance of durable solutions supports, and coordination has been increasingly acknowledged by actors with operational presence in the Oromia region and agree on the necessity of having a durable solution working group (DSWG) structure. This is in specific consideration of displacement-affected communities’ needs oriented towards socio-economic recovery, not least through basic services expansion and economic support.

The Oromia Region has set up three sub-regional Durable Solutions Working Group (DSWG) across the region, for humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding actors able to discuss on facilitation of durable solutions programming and address the needs of displacement affected communities in the region. The regional DSWG is chaired by the Disaster Risk Management Commission (DRMC) while the sub-regional WGs are chaired by the Disaster Risk Management Office, and holds coordination meetings between different sectoral bureaus, UN/NGOs, civil society organizations and donor agencies.