World Vision Ethiopia Strategy | 2026 – 2030
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, place-based Area Programmes: Long-term Area Programmes remain the backbone of our work. They provide the platform for deep 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 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 by our Christian identity and a commitment to serve with humility and respect across Ethiopia’s diverse cultural and faith contexts.
Our Purpose and Principles Do Not Change.
Strategic Priorities for Child Wellbeing
1. Reducing Malnutrition & Enhancing Child Health
Target: 9 million children directly impacted
Key Interventions:
- Nutrition programs, including Positive Deviance Hearth and Growth Monitoring & Promotion
- Maternal and child health services, WASH, and climate-resilient livelihoods
- Household economic strengthening through Savings for Transformation, Inclusive Markets, and Ultra-Poor Graduation initiatives
2. Preventing Violence & Protecting Children
Target: 3.7 million most vulnerable children
Key Interventions:
- Comprehensive child protection systems, including PROTECT, case management, and psychosocial support
- Community engagement to transform harmful social norms such as child marriage, FGM, and child labour
- Faith-based collaboration for advocacy and positive parenting
3. Improving Learning Outcomes
Target: 2.3 million children
Key Interventions:
- Strengthening literacy, numeracy, and life skills through inclusive, child-centred programmes (Learning Roots, Go Baby Go, iMPACT+)
- Teacher capacity-building and school infrastructure improvements
- Alternative education for conflict-affected and out-of-school children
THE OUTCOMES OF THESE PRIORITIES
Child Health and Nutrition
Reduce stunting under five years by 9%
Reduce underweight prevalence by 70%
Improved access to nutritious foods and clean water for children and families
Child Protection
Child marriage prevalence will be reduced by 50%.
Reduced physical and psychological violence against children.
Learning and Development
Improved reading and math proficiency; higher self-efficacy and life skills for adolescents.
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 children not only have their needs met but also a real voice in shaping solutions, setting priorities, and validating results. By deepening their participation, we make sure our work genuinely reflects their well-being and hopes for a safe, better future.
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 will strategically sequence interventions, aligning immediate relief with recovery and long-term development. This ensures immediate life-saving support while simultaneously investing in the foundational systems that prevent future crises.
Peacebuilding and Social Cohesion
Children’s well-being is closely linked to peace and social stability. This focus addresses the drivers of conflict and exclusion by strengthening trust within and between communities, supporting local peacebuilding and dialogue initiatives, promoting inclusion of women, youth, and marginalised groups, and integrating protection and conflict sensitivity across all programs.
Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus (HDP)
The strategy links emergency response, development, and peacebuilding to protect progress from being undone by future shocks and to strengthen resilience in fragile contexts.
Local Leadership, Systems Strengthening, and Localisation
Sustainable change requires strong local leadership and systems. This focus shifts power, capacity, and decision-making closer to communities by strengthening local civil society, faith actors, and community institutions, working with government systems to improve service delivery, and increasing the role of local partners in design, implementation, and learning.
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