The Humanitarian Reset in Ethiopia: A Critical Examination
For over a decade, the global humanitarian community has promoted "localization": a shift of power and funding to local actors. From the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit to initiatives like the Grand Bargain pledged to direct at least 25% of humanitarian financing to local organizations, the rhetoric has been consistent. However, despite these commitments, many countries continue to struggle with translating them into meaningful action.
According to a 2025 study by the Consortium of Christian Relief and Development Association (CCRDA), Ethiopia continues to lag behind in translating localization commitments into reality. Local actors still face significant challenges in accessing resources, influencing decisions, and forming equitable partnerships. Coordination remains externally driven, funding is centralized, and "local" often remains an afterthought rather than a foundation. This pattern reflects a broader trend in many countries with high demand for humanitarian assistance.
To address this, Martin Griffiths, former UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, launched the Humanitarian Reset initiative in 2023, further advanced through 2025 by Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator at the United Nations (UN). Conceived as a systemic overhaul, the initiative responds to the growing scale and complexity of global crises, from climate shocks and armed conflict to economic instability. It is built upon three core pillars: Regroup, Reform, and Renewal.
The first pillar, Regroup, focuses on prioritizing urgent, life-saving needs while adapting to constraints in access and funding. The second, Reform, aims to streamline coordination, reduce duplication, and improve cost-efficiency. Finally, the third pillar, Renewal, seeks to embed innovation, local leadership, and community voices at the very heart of humanitarian action.
In Ethiopia, where the Reset is currently under discussion, the proposal has been met with cautious optimism. But one critical question remains: Will this Reset finally deliver or simply recycle old approaches under new branding?
Local and national NGOs have consistently demonstrated their value: delivering rapid, context-specific responses grounded in community trust. Yet they remain chronically underfunded, sidelined from key decisions, and treated as junior partners in a system that too often prioritizes international actors.
Now, as the Reset shifts from concept to potential implementation, its success will hinge not on design alone, but on delivery. Will it bring resources closer to the front lines? Will it streamline bloated systems, elevate local voices, and shift entrenched power dynamics? Or will it remain yet another top-down reform with little impact where it's needed most?
Survey Insights: Local Perspectives on the Reset
To shed light on the topic, a Humanitarian Reset Priorities Survey was conducted in mid-2025 through the CCRDA Humanitarian Forum, engaging 34 civil society organizations, primarily Ethiopian NGOs operating across diverse regions and sectors. The goal was straightforward: to gather grounded perspectives that could shape how the Reset is implemented in Ethiopia.
The survey focused on three core areas of the Reset agenda: awareness and readiness for the Reset, perspectives on Area-Based Humanitarian Coordination (ABHC), and involvement in and capacity for Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA).
Key Findings from the Survey
1. Reset: Familiar in Name, Foreign in Practice
While 44% of Ethiopian CSO respondents had heard of the Humanitarian Reset, only 23% felt well-informed about it. The majority had not been consulted in any meaningful way. Similarly, most participants were unfamiliar with Area-Based Humanitarian Coordination (ABHC), despite two-thirds expressing support for the model in principle.
The Reset cannot deliver real change if local actors are left out of early-stage discussions, design processes, and decision-making spaces. A reform that claims to shift power must begin by sharing information and enabling access, not just at launch, but from the outset.
Both the ICVA's Reset Hub and OCHA's Reset Brief emphasize inclusion, transparency, and local ownership as central to the Reset's success. For the Reset to be more than rhetoric, inclusion must begin with informed participation, not post-facto validation.
2. Local Priorities Go Beyond Survival
When asked what "life-saving" assistance means in the Ethiopian context, respondents naturally named food, shelter, and protection. But they also highlighted livelihoods, education, and psychosocial support as equally critical. This signals a deeper, more holistic understanding of what it takes for communities not just to survive, but to recover and rebuild.
Respondents define survival through the lens of dignity, continuity, and resilience, not narrow humanitarian checklists. In Ethiopia's crisis-affected context, peace must be recognized as a life-saving necessity. Tigrayan refugees in Sudan, for example, staged a peaceful protest to demand urgent humanitarian assistance, explicitly connecting their suffering to the stalled implementation of the Pretoria Peace Agreement.
3. Area-Based Humanitarian Coordination: Endorsed in Theory, Vague in Practice
Findings from the survey reveal serious challenges in implementing Area-Based Humanitarian Coordination (ABHC) in the future. While 66.7% of respondents said ABHC is "very appropriate," 71% were either unfamiliar or uncertain about what the model actually entails, exposing a critical awareness and communication gap.
Key challenges include limited funding alignment, local capacity gaps, and lack of role clarity. Respondents also flagged concerns over overlap with existing coordination structures, the influence of ethnic politics, insecurity, and data inconsistencies.
4. Cash and Voucher Assistance: Trusted, But Trapped
In Ethiopia, 53% of local organizations included in the survey are already implementing Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA), and another 20% expressed strong interest in initiating such programs. CVA is viewed as a flexible, dignified, and efficient modality of aid. However, respondents raised systemic obstacles, including infrastructure deficits, security risks, donor rigidity, and weak local market systems.
These challenges echo broader advocacy from the global humanitarian community, which calls for CVA systems to be designed, owned, and delivered by local actors.
5. Reset Without Resources Is Just Rebranding
The survey reveals a critical insight: over 60% of organizations say they are ready to lead humanitarian coordination. Yet, they remain sidelined, receiving subgrants without decision-making power, while funding and leadership stay in international hands. Without shifts in power, financing, and trust, the Reset risks becoming empty rhetoric.
Recommendations for Real Change
For years, localization has filled conference agendas and strategy documents. But in Ethiopia's crisis-affected landscape, it is not an option; it is a necessity. Local actors are already first responders and long-term partners. But leadership doesn't happen by default. It must be deliberately enabled through policy, financing, and political will.
The Humanitarian Reset presents a rare chance to transform aid in Ethiopia, but only if it is co-owned, co-led, and co-financed by those on the frontlines. Several key actions are imperative: reform funding flows, localize Area-Based Humanitarian Coordination (ABHC), scale cash and voucher assistance (CVA) sustainably, develop local leadership, and raise awareness and foster inclusion.
The Humanitarian Reset in Ethiopia is not destined to fail—but it will not succeed on good intentions alone. If donors, UN agencies, and international NGOs are truly committed to meaningful change, they must adopt a fundamentally different approach. A key priority is funding local actors directly by setting measurable targets and tracking progress transparently—not merely through statements, but through actual financial allocations.
In short, the Reset's success in Ethiopia depends on action, not intention. UN agencies and international NGOs must provide direct funding to local actors, share decision-making power, support autonomy rather than foster dependency, and transparently track progress through clear localization metrics.
The Humanitarian Reset presents a rare chance to transform aid in Ethiopia, but only if it is co-owned, co-led, and co-financed by those on the frontlines. Anything less is simply a rebrand of the status quo.