Ethiopia

Child protection remains a paramount concern as various emergencies and resulting displacement continue to fuel and exacerbate children's exposure to protection risks, including abuse, exploitation, GBV, family separation, and harmful coping mechanisms. A key child protection concern involves children separated from their families, who are exposed to heightened risk of violence, abuse, and exploitation, and psychosocial distress with enduring impact on their mental health. More generally, as a result of school closures due to COVID-19 and ongoing conflicts, child marriage, female genital mutilation, and sexual violence have become more common, with families increasingly resorting to negative coping strategies. Protracted and repeated displacements and lack of economic options put an estimated 481,882 children at risk of exploitation and child labour, with Tigray and SNNP having the highest number of woredas with very high/ high severity of hazardous child labor, 65 per cent and 14 per cent, respectively. Children’s vulnerability is further exacerbated by lack of access to core CP services, including case management, FTR of UASC, and MHPSS. The number of children in need therefore increased by 23 per cent from 2.6 million in 2020 to 3.2 million in 2021.