At dawn in Chano Dorga, a small village in Ethiopia’s Gamo zone, 34-year-old Damenech Dima is already awake. Before the sun rises high enough to warm the fields, she has prepared breakfast, fetched water, tended to her three children, and begun helping her husband on their plot of land. Agriculture is the family’s only source of income, and earnings are often not enough to cover all their basic needs.

Her story unfolds against a challenging national backdrop. Ethiopia’s 2025 Human Development Index stands at 0.497, ranking it among countries with low human development. While decades of progress improved millions of lives, shocks, including conflict, and climate pressures, are compromising hard-won gains.

But through UNDP’s flexible thematic funding, people who are impacted by inequality, conflict, and climate shocks are turning loss into resilience, and fostering inclusion, as well as cross-border learning.

From displacement to durable solutions

In 2024, Ethiopia recorded 2.4 million internally displaced people, with hundreds of thousands more displaced by floods, droughts, and disease outbreaks overlapping with conflict, economic pressures, and deepening inequality.

In Geze Gofa, Southern Ethiopia, this reality took a devastating turn when a landslide buried homes and lives. Almaz Adala, 38, lost her two teenage children. “People had to dig us out,” she recalls. Nearby, Askal Bolado, 80, lost her daughter and infant grandchild.

In response, UNDP partnered with the Ethiopian Disaster Risk Management Commission to help women rebuild livelihoods through livestock packages and start-up grants – support that complemented other initiatives helping communities rebuild homes and schools. These interventions marked a shift from emergency aid to recovery rooted in dignity and resilience.

“This support gave me hope again,” says Habsa Mohammed, a beneficiary in East Imay. “With my goats and donkey, I can start over.”

Such transitions are at the heart of UNDP’s Durable Solutions Programme co-led with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which helps translate government commitments into long-term outcomes for displaced people and host communities. 

Thousands of returnees have also received support. In Afar, women received business training, grants, and livestock. In the Amhara region (Adiarkay), MSMEs were supported through cash grants, enabling them to engage in income-generating activities such as poultry farming, livestock rearing, and petty trade. In Tigray, women organized into cooperatives, focused on poultry and food processing are restoring incomes. More than 1000 women have been supported across regions.

Catalytic funding as a driver of peace 

Recovery cannot take root without justice. During the 2020-2022 conflict, courts fell silent, leaving cases unresolved. 85-year-old Kidan Weldemichael had almost given up on her land dispute. When courts reopened, she was able to return – hope restored.

In the Amhara region, local peace forums have played a pivotal role in reducing tensions and helping communities regain a sense of normalcy, while in Tigray region, rebuilding the judicial system is helping people to once again access justice.

Haile Amare, head of a rehabilitated local court, says mobile courts brought justice to remote communities. “I joined a year ago and have been rebuilding the court system from scratch,” says Dr. Tsegai, President of the Tigray Supreme Court, noting that COVID19 and conflict had caused a massive backlog of cases linked to sexual and gender‑based violence (SGBV), land disputes and human trafficking.

At the center of UNDP's stabilisation efforts is the Peace Support Facility in northern Ethiopia, which restored trust between communities and institutions, by helping to revive livelihoods, restore basic services, reduce community tensions, and rebuild confidence in governance – bridging humanitarian relief with long-term development.

These efforts illustrate how effective recovery goes beyond rebuilding infrastructure to restore hope and stability. 

From Damenech’s farm in Chano Dorga to courtrooms in Tigray and livestock rearing in the Somali Region of Ethiopia, rebuilding is more than infrastructure, it is about recovery driven by people’s resilience and a shared commitment to a more stable and inclusive future.

Why flexible funding matters

Supported by UNDP’s Funding Windows, these interventions  and individual stories show how development strengthens institutions while remaining rooted in local realities. Pooling resources allows the Funding Windows to reduce fragmentation, better align humanitarian, development, and peace efforts, while creating space for learning, adaptation, and scale. Such investments enable rapid response, spark innovation and are likely to mobilize additional funding for various donors.

In fact, UNDP’s work alongside communities is only made possible thanks to the support of our donors, including the Governments of Denmark, Luxembourg, and the Republic of Korea.