Summary action points based on findings

• Implement a casualty reporting system.
• Identify a reliable supply—domestic or international—for the raw materials for prosthetic devices.

Victim assistance commitments

The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia is responsible for landmine survivors, cluster munition victims, and survivors of other explosive remnants of war (ERW). Ethiopia has made a commitment to victim assistance through the Mine Ban Treaty.

There are at least 7,401 known mine survivors in Ethiopia.[1] The total number of mine/ERW survivors is unknown as there is no centralized data collection; many survivors, particularly veterans, live in urban locations, including the capital, which were not surveyed by the Landmine Impact Survey (LIS).[2]

Victim assistance since 2015

Many survivors and other persons with disabilities continued to live in poverty and far from existing facilities, which prevented them from accessing assistance services.

Improvements in the quality and accessibility of physical rehabilitation services were reported for the period of the Cartagena Action Plan through 2015, but recent reductions in support from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have meant that physical rehabilitation services, including the provision of prosthetics, have become more costly and less available.

The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (MoLSA) was responsible for the national coordination of the physical rehabilitation sector and for issues concerning persons with disabilities more broadly, while services were coordinated by the regional Bureaus of Labor and Social Affairs offices (BoLSA) with support from the ICRC. The National Plan of Action on Disability 2012–2021 was a tool for increasing progress in victim assistance and upholding the rights of persons with disabilities more generally.

Psychosocial support and economic reintegration services, mostly operated by NGOs, remained limited and were inadequate to deal with the needs of mine/ERW survivors and other persons with disabilities. Former Landmine Survivors Network staff members established the Survivors Recovery and Rehabilitation Organization (SRaRO) in 2014 to provide limited psychosocial, physical, and economic support to landmine survivors, amputees, and persons with disabilities from all causes.[3]

Victim assistance in 2016

Assessing victim assistance needs

No targeted assessment of landmine and ERW survivor needs was conducted in 2016, but the government of Ethiopia conducted a nationwide assessment of persons with disabilities in accordance with the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).[4]

Victim assistance coordination[5]

Ethiopia has reported that there is no specific victim assistance program and that the needs of mine/ERW survivors are addressed through programs for persons with disabilities more generally.[6]

The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (MoLSA) is responsible for issues relating to persons with disabilities, including mine/ERW survivors, and is the international focal point for victim assistance. Within MoLSA, the Social Welfare Development Promotion Directorate serves as the focal point of contact for disability issues.[7] Bureaus of Labor and Social Affairs (BoLSAs) in each region of the country managed disability-related issues in a regional context using MoLSA policy framework.[8] BoLSAs are responsible for coordinating both public and private services for persons with disabilities in their respective regions. MoLSA developed national policies with the input of the BoLSAs.[9]

Other relevant ministries also have disability departments.[10] MoLSA is the focal point for implementation of the CRPD and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission is tasked with the supervision of MoLSA’s implementation, just as the commission is responsible for supervision of other human rights treaties. To assist with implementation of the CRPD, MoLSA established a committee with representatives from relevant ministries and members of civil society. Ethiopia’s federal model of government has meant that each region of the country is also involved in implementation. In the South Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ region, a region-specific task force of 14 government agencies and six disabled people’s organizations (DPOs) has been established. DPOs are also able to participate in the implementation process through the National Council of Persons with Disabilities in two ways. They can participate as individual organizations, as well as through the Federation of Ethiopian National Associations of People with Disabilities (FENAPD). FENAPD is an umbrella organization for six national associations: Ethiopian National Association of the Deaf (ENAD); Ethiopian National Association of Persons Affected by Leprosy (ENAPAL); Ethiopian National Association on Persons with Intellectual Disabilities (ENAID); Ethiopian National Association of the Deaf-Blind (ENADB); Ethiopian National Association of the Blind (ENAB); and National Development Association of Persons with Physical Disabilities.[11]

The National Disability Forum is a government structure, comprised of representatives from relevant sector ministries and DPOs and is coordinated by MOLSA, and has as its main responsibility planning and evaluating the implementation of the CRPD. The structure of the National Disability Forum has been linked to the regions of Ethiopia for which there is also a Regional Disability Forum for following up on implementation at the local level.[12]

There are three national strategic plans relevant to victim assistance: the second Growth and Transformation Plan, 2015/16–2019/20; the National Plan of Action on Disability, 2012–2021; and a five-year National Physical Rehabilitation Strategy. The National Physical Rehabilitation Strategy was included in the National Social Welfare Policy in 2010, and a plan of action for the practical implementation of the National Physical Rehabilitation Strategy was drafted and under discussion in 2012.[13] Under the second Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP II), availability of physical rehabilitation services is expected to increase such that the number of people receiving services will triple by the conclusion of the plan.[14]

Ethiopia did not provide any updates on victim assistance within the national disability framework at the 15^th Meeting of States Parties in Santiago, Chile. Ethiopia has not reported on victim assistance in accordance with the Mine Ban Treaty’s Article 7 since 2009, but did submit its first Article 7 report in five years in 2017.[15]

Participation and inclusion in victim assistance

There was no participation of mine/ERW victims specifically in coordination mechanisms, but they are represented as persons with disabilities regardless of the cause of impairment. The six national associations of persons with disabilities that are members of FENAPD represent the interests of mine/ERW survivors based on the type of impairment according to the corresponding category of the national association.[16]

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Victim assistance activities[17]

Physical rehabilitation, including prosthetics

Availability of prosthetics in Ethiopia declined sharply in 2016. The ICRC stopped supporting the Mekele orthopedic center (operated by the TDVA), which in 2015 had the highest total number of beneficiaries and delivered the most prostheses.[18] The Mekele center did not experience a budget problem, but sourcing a supply of materials locally was a challenge. While trying to import some materials from abroad, it also diversified production to include other types of prostheses and assistive devices.[19]

Also, while the ICRC has begun to provide technical support to the Ethiopia Mine Action Office for landmine clearance activities, the ICRC stopped providing support to the Prosthetic and Orthotic Center in Addis Ababa[20] and no longer imported raw materials to Ethiopia for the manufacture of prosthetics and orthotics.[21]

MoLSA has started to source raw materials from within the country,[22] but the supply has not been sufficient to avoid a substantial increase in the price of prosthetics and orthotics, as well as a consequent limitation on who can receive them.[23]

Mekele University, in partnership with the TDVA, provided 26 motorized wheelchairs to veterans with disabilities.[24]

The human resource capacity to produce orthopedic devices continued to improve, with MoLSA and the ICRC graduating 15 new technicians from the Orthopaedic Vocational and Educational Training College.[25]

The availability and quality of physical therapy appears unchanged.

Economic and social inclusion

The Ethiopian Center for Disability and Development (ECDD) and the Federation of Ethiopian National Associations of Persons with Disabilities (FENAPD) collaborated with the Federal Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) agency to increase vocational training opportunities for persons with disabilities. FENAPD also provided start-up capital and small business training to persons who had completed their vocational studies.[26] SRaRO provided small business trainings and economic support packages to some survivors.[27]

The ICRC continued supporting sports for persons with disabilities by expanding wheelchair basketball programs with donations of sport wheelchairs to the Ethiopian Basketball Federation (EBF).[28] In recognition of the annual observance of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the ICRC and EBF hosted a wheelchair basketball tournament.

The Ministry of Education (MoE) adopted a master plan for disability-inclusive education in 2016.[29] HI supported an inclusive education programming for children with disabilities in several regions in the country benefiting thousands of children with disability by mainstreaming them into primary schools.[30] SRaRO participated in a survey supported by the Civil Society Support Program to identify gaps in inclusive education opportunities in Addis Ababa.[31] Despite these efforts, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities expressed concern at the lack of inclusive education opportunities, especially for girls with disabilities.[32]

Psychological support

SRaRO remains one of the few providers of psychosocial support for landmine survivors in Ethiopia. Using the peer support model developed by Landmine Survivors Network, SRaRO reaches a modest beneficiary pool through hospital-based outreach and individualized follow-up.[33]

Laws and policies

Ethiopia ratified the CRPD on 7 July 2010. As the CRPD is implemented in Ethiopia, many new policies and guidelines have been issued to localize the provisions of the Convention. These policies include guidelines on disability mainstreaming in the national health service, the national social protection action plan, and a revision of the national action plan for persons with disabilities for the next decade to reflect the changes in government structures needed to implement the convention.[34]