UN Ethiopia Head underlines coherence, strategic investment to drive impact in high-level engagements with UNDP and IOM teams

The United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator engaged with IOM and UNDP teams with a focus on ensuring a more coherent, strategic, and investment-oriented UN presence in the country. 

The discussions highlighted the need for system-wide transformation, upstream engagement, and integrated programming aligned with Ethiopia’s national development priorities.

During the meeting with IOM Ethiopia’s Chief of Mission, Ms. Abibatou Wane‑Fall, and her senior team, IOM’s broad operational reach and the strategic pillars of its 2025–2029 country programme were outlined: Saving lives and protecting people on the move; driving solutions to displacement and facilitating pathways for regular migration.

The Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator commended IOM’s operational scale and its focus on integrated, long-term solutions, noting that many protracted humanitarian settings in Ethiopia require development-oriented interventions, not only emergency response. He encouraged IOM to strengthen its upstream work on reintegration, return, and migration governance.

Ozonnia also underscored the need for coherent UN messaging, stronger coordination on durable solutions, and improved financing approaches that bridge the humanitarian-development divide.

Strengthening system leadership and portfolio-based transformation

The United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator also met with Mr. Sam Doe, Resident Representative and his senior leadership team. 

In the meeting, UNDP presented its new Country Programme Document (CPD), shaped by extensive consultations, lessons from past programme cycles, and alignment with the Common Country Analysis and UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework. 

UNDP emphasized its shift from fragmented, project-based implementation toward portfolio-based programming, designed to maximize coherence, scale, and transformational impact.

UNDP’s programming pillars include governance and peacebuilding; inclusive economic transformation; climate, resilience, and energy; and policy and macroeconomic advisory.

The Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator welcomed the strong alignment between UNDP’s strategic orientation and his vision for a more upstream, integrated UN development response. He emphasized that UNDP plays a central integrator role, uniquely positioned to help unify the UN system around financing strategies, structural transformation, and policy leadership.

He reiterated that the UN must shift from a funding model to a financing model, where interventions act as catalysts for large-scale investment from government, IFIs, and private sector partners. He encouraged UNDP to support system-wide efforts to improve coherence, strengthen joint programming, and develop bankable projects capable of attracting substantial financing.