Bridging Hope: How Communities in Tigray Are Reclaiming Their Lives

Every year, thousands of members of the humanitarian community come together at the AidEx event. The first thing that catches the eye is vendor stalls showcasing everything from satellite phones to bulletproof vehicles to portable operating theaters. AidEx is also where practitioners come together to share lessons for navigating the increasingly complex challenges facing the humanitarian community.

Betseit Sisay, Helvetas’ Country Director for Ethiopia, was a panelist at a session on the humanitarian-development-peace nexus. She offered insights from Helvetas’ experience responding to humanitarian needs in Ethiopia, using the Tigray crisis as a case study. Following the panel, I spoke with her about the intricacies of working in such a fragile setting.

Where is Tigray?

Tigray is a mountainous region at the very north of Ethiopia, bordering Eritrea and Sudan. It is home to around six million people. It occupies a strategic position as a gateway to the Horn of Africa. Before armed conflict broke out, the region was developing relatively well as part of Ethiopia’s decentralized governance system.

What happened?

The conflict in Tigray pitted Ethiopia’s federal government against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, the region’s former ruling party. After some 20 years of calm, violence broke out in November 2020. It quickly escalated.

The region was not accessible during the conflict. It only reopened after a ceasefire was brokered by the African Union in late 2022. Millions were displaced and infrastructure was left in tatters.

Was Helvetas present?

Helvetas had overseen development initiatives in Tigray over the last few decades. For example, we had supported construction of a number of trail bridges that had done wonders for connecting rural populations across jagged terrain. Helvetas exited the region before the war since our projects had reached sustainability. But we returned as soon as access was re-established in November 2022. We did not know what to expect.

What did Helvetas find?

The war did not just take place in Tigray. Fighting also occurred in neighboring Amhara. Many areas were razed to the ground. It was disheartening. Some parts had been relatively spared, including the center of Tigray’s capital city of Mekelle. But the areas around it were hit hard.

Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced and traumatized by the war. They lost their very basic means to make a living. What struck me most was the resilience and the dignity of the people. When talking to the local women, for example, the did not ask for handouts. They just wanted to get back on their feet, rebuild their lives and carry on.

How did Helvetas respond?

A number of Swiss donors stepped up quickly, including the City of Zurich, Swiss Solidarity and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. Their support – and that of other generous donors after them – was vital to helping replenish productive assets such as seeds, chicks and tools. All had been lost during the war.

But it takes time for the seeds to grow into food and for the chicks to turn into a source of protein. That’s why we moved in early to deploy multipurpose cash assistance. This allowed households to use the money for their daily needs until the seeds and chicks were ready. These interventions also helped jump-start local markets, which then acted as a locomotive that pulled in fledging supply chains.

The sequencing was key. First, our projects took care of immediate survival needs for those who had been rendered most vulnerable. In parallel, we set up market-driven systems to help restart the economy.  Over time, the communities got their bearings again. They restarted agricultural work, not just for self-consumption, but also for sale in the markets. Our assistance helped organize people into self-help groups where they could pool savings, thus helping their members invest and further diversify their incomes.

I was especially touched by one lady who had lost her husband and two of her children during the war. She was thankful, not just because she was now able to feed the rest of her family, but also because – in her words – she could “work the fields again and was too busy and too tired to dwell all day on what happened.” She said it was “a way to get her sanity back.

What about the trail bridges?

Many of the bridges sustained heavy damage. Others were still functioning. Repairing them had systemic importance since connectivity is critical to market recovery. These bridges provide essential access for communities. Without them, produce cannot reach the markets. Vital inputs, such as medicine, may not make it to the communities, either. 

We’ve worked alongside our government partners and Bridges to Prosperity to repair the bridges. The local communities contributed with labor, and Helvetas helped with engineering advice and specialized tools and materials.

We sent in a monitoring team not long ago; the bridges are now functional and being maintained without Helvetas’ involvement. In many cases, young girls are using them every day to go to school. It’s such a pleasure to see life reclaiming its course after such terrible times.

At AidEx you mentioned “layering” the assistance, what did you mean by that?

As soon as the area was open for humanitarians again, one thing became clear: Quick fixes would be insufficient to address the crisis caused by the war. The only way out was by coordinating the assistance, not just among national and international NGOs, but also with local government and numerous other stakeholders. Helvetas focused on immediate needs and the economic recovery side of things. Others concentrated on shelter repair, water and sanitation and psychosocial support.

Different types of interventions need to be slotted in at the right time and in the right way. They also need to be trauma and conflict sensitive. The goal is not just to bring in short-term relief and go. We are committed to working alongside the local communities in their own efforts to rebuild their economies and societies, bringing about social cohesion by healing so many open wounds.

Countless families lost so many loved ones. We thus “layered” our assistance by coordinating with a local NGO called Nexus Ethiopia which focused on psychosocial care. We could each concentrate on our strengths, but without working in a vacuum.

The same holds true for water and sanitation, shelter, health and education activities … multi-dimensional disasters require multi-dimensional responses. No one can do it all on their own.

How are things now?

The people of Tigray and Amhara are an example of resilience. During my last visit to project sites, I saw chickens clucking around. Neatly laid patches of land were almost ready for harvesting. People were going up and down those bridges, on their way to creating shared prosperity.

We have also been working with local governments to strengthen their ability to provide services to the population. Getting back up after such a shock is not easy. Helvetas Ethiopia remains active in conflict-sensitive programming. This is critical for our team, as conflicts loom. 

Our support in Tigray has transitioned from humanitarian support to the next phase. Instead of direct assistance, we are now focusing on systemic sustainability. This includes self-help groups, which have proven their value for economic diversification and resilience-building. We see them accessing credit, setting seeds aside for the next planting season, and disseminating what fellow members learn about climate-smart agriculture. There was a strong tradition of such groupings before the war. We are doing our best to ensure that their revival is not just a blip.