This Inter-Agency Humanitarian Evaluation (IAHE) is an independent assessment of the collective humanitarian response of Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) members, to the droughts in Ethiopia between 2015 and 2018. This is the first IAHE to assess the response to a slow-onset, recurrent natural disaster. The UNFPA Evaluation Office was part of the management group driving this evaluation.

The purpose of the IAHE is to improve the effectiveness of the humanitarian system and to ensure that coordinated and accountable humanitarian action helps address the most urgent needs of people affected by crises. Specifically, the evaluation provides opportunities to identify lessons and good practices to improve preparedness and future responses to droughts in Ethiopia, as well as to similar crises elsewhere.

The IAHE concluded that in its well-coordinated efforts, supported by strong government leadership, the collective humanitarian drought response in Ethiopia saved many lives. It found that a majority of respondents received the aid they urgently needed to survive and felt treated with respect. People in four affected regions reported that the assistance provided enabled them to keep their homes and assets. The cluster system introduced in 2015 effectively strengthened the coordination efforts and collective resource mobilization was successful in many aspects. Areas requiring improvement include strengthening of early action, prioritizing resilience support and accountability to affected people.

The lessons from the IAHE are informing ongoing IASC work streams on resilience, risk, anticipatory action and humanitarian-development collaboration, while also helping local responders make targeted improvements to the ongoing response.