Strategy at a glance
Our Goal
By 2030, 15 million children in Ethiopia will be more resilient, nourished, safe, and educated, experiencing hope for a better future, the joy of childhood, and peace in their communities.
Why This Strategy Matters
Children in Ethiopia are increasingly affected by a convergence of climate-induced disasters, socio-economic instability, and ongoing conflict, which together undermine their survival, protection, and future opportunities.
41% of children are stunted, and 10.8% are wasted, with malnutrition still a major driver of illness, delayed development, and child death.
Food poverty starts early. 47% of children aged 6–23 months experience severe food poverty, locking in disadvantage before formal learning begins.
Violence against children remains widespread. Around 40% of girls are married before 18, and 65.2% of women aged 15–49 have undergone FGM.
Education is under severe strain. More than 8.3 million children are out of school, and about 90% cannot read and understand a simple text by age 10.
Displacement is now a defining feature of childhood. Ethiopia hosts around 4.5 million internally displaced people and over 1 million refugees, disrupting protection, learning, and care.
What Remains Foundational For Us
Focus on the most vulnerable children: We remain focused on the most vulnerable children, their families, and their communities, particularly those experiencing multiple vulnerabilities such as poverty, violence, displacement, disability, and exclusion.
Long-term Area Programmes: Long-term Area Programmes remain the backbone of our work. Having worked with this approach for over 20 years, we have learned they provide the platform for meaningful community presence, long-term accountability, and sustained change. By layering humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding funding within defined geographies, Area Programmes multiply the impact of each investment. Close collaboration with local authorities, faith leaders, and community structures ensures that progress for children is embedded in local systems and leadership.
Scale with depth: We continue to operate at a national scale, with deep community-level presence. Our reach across regions, woredas, and communities allows us to test, adapt, and scale what works, while maintaining proximity to the children and families we serve.
Community-based, child-focused, faith-inspired: We remain community-based and child-focused, guided and inspired by our Christian identity, putting love into action, with a commitment to serve with humility and respect across Ethiopia’s diverse cultural, belief and faith contexts.
Our Purpose and Principles Do Not Change.
Strategic Priorities for Child Well-being
1. Children are well nourished.
Stunting is reduced by 9% and underweight by 40%, reflecting sustained improvements in children’s nutrition and healthy growth.
2. Children are protected from violence, exploitation, abuse, neglect, and harmful practices.
Child marriage, FGM, and sexual violence are reduced by 50%, with children safer and better protected from harm.
3. Children have positive relationships within their families and communities.
Children grow up in safe, nurturing, and peaceful family and community environments that support their well-being and development.
4. Children experience improved learning and development.
Holistic development is improved by 20% and reading proficiency increased by 35%, learning foundations and future opportunity strengthened for vulnerable and hard-to-reach children.
What Marks Our Strategic Shifts
The strategy is anchored around the following shifts. These are not standalone themes. Together, they reflect how we will contribute to child well-being in Ethiopia over the next five years.
Child at the Centre
Children have always been at the heart of everything we do. However, in this five-year strategy, we are taking this even further, ensuring that every decision, investment, and partnership is judged by whether it improves real child wellbeing outcomes.
Integrated Programming
Nutrition, protection, learning, livelihoods, peace, and systems strengthening are deliberately integrated to reflect children’s lived realities and maximise impact and value for partners and donors.
Layered and Sequenced Interventions
We deliver the right combination of interventions for the same children and communities (layering), and we deliver them in the right order and timing (sequencing). This connects immediate response, recovery, and long-term development, so families see quick improvements now and lasting change over time.
Peace as both a focus and a lens
Peace is treated as both a dedicated area of work and a lens across all programming, recognising that child wellbeing cannot be sustained where trust, relationships, and social cohesion are broken.
Humanitarian-Development-Peace (HDP) Nexus
The strategy links emergency response, development, and peacebuilding to protect progress from being undone by future shocks and to strengthen resilience in fragile contexts.
Partner-Centred and Localised Ways Of Working
We are intentional about selecting and working with partners who share our vision and priorities, bring complementary expertise, and are committed to co-creating joint solutions for children. We work through a deliberate localisation approach, planning, implementing, and monitoring jointly with government structures, faith institutions, and local organisations. By strengthening local leadership, systems, and accountability, we multiply impact and ensure progress for children is sustained beyond any single project.
Together we can help ensure that one in four children across Ethiopia experiences real, lasting improvements in their wellbeing.
Together, let’s invest in multi-year programmes that deliver measurable outcomes while strengthening local systems.
Let’s co-create integrated solutions and scale evidence-based approaches.
Let’s bring markets, finance, innovation, and platforms that multiply impact beyond traditional aid.
Let’s bring faith leaders, local organisations, and community groups together to protect children and sustain change.
Resources
Strategy 2026 - 2030
World Vision Ethiopia’s 2026–2030 strategy sets out a clear ambition: to impact the lives of 15 million children, one in four children across the country. Grounded in evidence and shaped by the realities children face, the strategy focuses on four interconnected child wellbeing outcomes: improved nutrition, protection from violence, stronger learning and development, and positive relationships within families and communities.
Country Profile
Since 1971, we have worked alongside children, families, and communities in Ethiopia. From life saving emergency response to long term programmes in water, nutrition, education, and child protection, we help communities build a safer, healthier future for children across the country.
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