In 2019, Ethiopia completed the individual comprehensive registration of all refugees and asylum-seekers, also referred to as the L3. The exercise was closed at 30 June 2019, with 628,585 refugees and asylum-seekers, who completed the L3 registration in Ethiopia. The operation ended the year with 735,204 refugees and asylum-seekers countrywide, as 12% increase from the closure of the L3 in June 2019. As per the 2019 projection based on the L3 trends, the planning figures were slightly lower than the exact figures that the operation reached by 31 December 2019, projecting 704,591 individuals. The end year figure 735,204 represented a 4% increase compared to the projected planning figures.
In the context of the CRRF, the L3 exercise provided a knowledge repository on refugee populations. Individual comprehensive registration (ICR L3) enabled UNHCR to provide analysis data on population variations (arrivals, births and spontaneous and facilitated departures), as well as population profiles based on place of origin, reasons for flight, date of arrival, age, sex, socioeconomic background and specific needs, among others. The L3 registration exercise included verification/re-validation, registration of new arrivals, data correction, data updates (including relating to return intention surveys, income, newborn babies, household splits or mergers), and documentation. The L3 registration exercise facilitated the signature of data-sharing agreements with Oxford University, the World Bank, GPPI, ILO, and the Government of Ethiopia; provided data on population variations; and supported consolidation of data and production of analyses that offered pragmatic orientation on appropriate responses and informed priorities of key stakeholders.
The UNHCR data consolidation tool generated a competitive and comparative advantage by facilitating a proactive approach to the refugee response in Ethiopia. Information is now prioritized as an organizational asset readily accessible to UNHCR staff to inform the operational response, but equally available to a wide range of external actors to ensure coherent planning and interventions for forcibly displaced populations.
Regarding other populations of concern, UNHCR extended its support to IDPs and Ethiopian refugee returnees. For IDPs, protection monitoring and assistance were strengthened. At the beginning of 2019, the total number of internally displaced persons in Ethiopia reached 3.19 million, including 1.3 million IDP returnees (according to OCHA’s Ethiopia Humanitarian Needs Overview – January 2020), of whom 80% were conflict-affected and 20% climate-affected. The Oromia and Somali regions had the highest number of IDPs in the country.