PROSPECTS Partners in Ethiopia review achievements and strengthen course ahead

© ILO

© ILO

Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA (ILO News) - The PROSPECTS partners in Ethiopia held a significant Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) session from 7 to 9 October 2024 in Addis Ababa. The session focused on reviewing lessons learned from Phase One of the PROSPECTS program, evaluating current progress, and planning for Phase Two. The three-day event gathered Country Directors and Representatives of PROSPECTS partners, the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and Senior Officials from the Refugee and Returnees Service (RRS) to discuss collaborative strategies aimed at improving support for forcibly displaced persons and host communities in Ethiopia.

In his opening remarks, Khumbula Ndaba, Country Director of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Addis Ababa, highlighted the program’s major achievements: “PROSPECTS has been instrumental in fostering refugee inclusion into socioeconomic opportunities in Ethiopia. Phase one of the programme has yielded commendable results across all three pillars: education and learning, economic inclusion, and protection.”

Christine Pirenne, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Ethiopia, affirmed her government’s strong commitment to the program, noting, “Education and learning, economic inclusion, protection and social protection, and critical infrastructure are chosen for Phase Two because we believe they are the prerequisites for strengthening the resilience and self-reliance of refugees, IDPs, and host communities.” She added, “PROSPECTS is our government’s flagship program when it comes to development approaches to forced displacement. It seeks to operationalize the humanitarian-development-peace nexus. It does so by having five partners with unique experience in humanitarian and development work come together on innovative approaches to forced displacement.”

Mulualem Desta, Deputy Director General of Refugees and Returnees Service (RRS), underscored the government’s commitment to the program: “PROSPECTS is pledge matching to the government of Ethiopia's 2023 Global Refugee Forum (GRF) pledges for which Ethiopia expects the programme to pave the way to the inclusion of refugees into the national systems.”

PROSPECTS, spearheaded by the Government of the Netherlands, unites the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), and the World Bank. Together, these organizations aim to redefine responses to forced displacement by engaging with government and private sector stakeholders. Insights and recommendations from the MEL session will provide a reference for Phase Two planning, with an emphasis on enhancing coordination and deepening impact across Ethiopia’s refugee-hosting regions.