Title page

Contents

Abbreviations 2

Acknowledgements 4

Executive Summary 12

1. Introduction 19

1.1. How can we achieve better development outcomes for all? 22

1.2. How does Socio-Economic Survey of Refugees in Ethiopia (SESRE) contribute to the debate on policies? 24

2. Sociodemographic Profile 27

2.1. Demographic Characteristics 27

2.2. Education 30

2.3. Health and Nutrition 37

2.4. Living Conditions 41

3. Jobs and Livelihoods 45

3.1. Labor market outcomes of in-camp refugees and their hosts 48

3.2. Labor market outcomes of OCP refugees and their hosts 57

3.3. Refugee Youth 61

4. Refugees' Aspirations 64

5. Welfare and Equity 67

5.1. Welfare dimensions 67

5.1.1. Monetary Poverty and Inequality 67

5.1.2. Expenditure Patterns 69

5.1.3. Multidimensional Poverty 71

5.1.4. Food Security 73

5.1.5. Shocks and Coping Strategies 74

5.2. Determinants of Welfare 75

5.3. Cost of Basic Needs for Refugees 80

6. Markets and Opportunities 84

6.1. Spatial disparities in refugees labor market access and outcomes 85

6.2. Effects of local factors on refugees' labor market outcomes 89

7. Social Cohesion 92

7.1. Attitudes between refugees and hosts 92

7.2. Social interactions 98

8. Policy Recommendations 102

References 107

Annex A: Description of Refugees by Country of Origin 116

Annex B: Refugee Policies in Ethiopia 119

Annex C: Survey Design and Methodology 128

Sample population 128

Sampling design 130

Sample size estimation 130

Annex D: Descriptive Statistics and Regression Results 134

Results on Sociodemographic Profile 134

Results on Jobs and Livelihoods 144

Results on Refugees' Aspirations 150

Results on Welfare and Equity 151

Results on Markets and Opportunities 154

Results on Social Cohesion 159

Annex E: Robustness Checks of Refugees' Consumption 163

Annex F: Comparison of results from Skills Profile Survey and SESRE 167

Table 2.1. Household characte 30

Table 3.1. Labor force statistics 49

Table 3.2. Labor force statistics 58

Table 3.3. Youth labor force statistics (age 15-24) 62

Figure ES.1. Desired location in three years 14

Figure ES.2. Expected location in three years 14

Figure ES.3. Poverty incidence 15

Figure ES.4. Food insecurity scale 15

Figure ES.5. Refugee employment and proximity to resource hubs 16

Figure ES.6. Host response to "Refugees are good people" 17

Figure ES.7. Host response to "Would you feel comfortable having a refugee as a neighbor?" 17

Figure 1.1. Refugees and asylum seekers in Ethiopia by country of origin, 1984-2023 19

Figure 2.1. Refugees by survey domain 27

Figure 2.2. Country of birth 27

Figure 2.3. Refugees arrival in Ethiopia (15 years and above) 28

Figure 2.4. Age structure 29

Figure 2.5. Gender composition 29

Figure 2.6. Marital status (18 years and above) 29

Figure 2.7. Education level (18 years and above) 32

Figure 2.8. Youth (15 to 24) education level 32

Figure 2.9. Refugees' education outside of Ethiopia (18 years and above) 33

Figure 2.10. Children currently attending school 34

Figure 2.11. Gross Enrollment Rate (GER) 35

Figure 2.12. Net Enrollment Rate (NER) 35

Figure 2.13. Share of children and youth above school age in education 35

Figure 2.14. Reasons for not currently attending school 36

Figure 2.15. Faced any health problem 38

Figure 2.16. Received medical assistance when faced with health problem 38

Figure 2.17. Use of the national healthcare system when faced with health problems 39

Figure 2.18. Child nutritional indicators 41

Figure 2.19. Presence of any disability 41

Figure 2.20. Dwelling type 42

Figure 2.21. Housing quality 42

Figure 2.22. Access to drinking water and hygiene 43

Figure 2.23. Access to toilet facility and waste disposal 43

Figure 2.24. Source of lighting 44

Figure 3.1. Top 3 difficulties with being a refugee 46

Figure 3.2. Work status 49

Figure 3.3. Work type 50

Figure 3.4. Occupation 50

Figure 3.5. Work status by gender 50

Figure 3.6. In-camp refugee share employed by age 50

Figure 3.7. Female work type 51

Figure 3.8. Female occupations 51

Figure 3.9. Refugee work location 52

Figure 3.10. Hours per week 52

Figure 3.11. Hourly earnings 52

Figure 3.12. Share employed by age - camp refugees 53

Figure 3.13. Share employed by age - camp hosts 53

Figure 3.14. Household owns crops 54

Figure 3.15. Household owns livestock 54

Figure 3.16. Total value of livestock 55

Figure 3.17. Value per tropical livestock unit 55

Figure 3.18. Household has non-farm business 55

Figure 3.19. Value of productive assets among households with non-farm business 55

Figure 3.20. Household primary income source 56

Figure 3.21. Household primary income source 58

Figure 3.22. Work status by gender 59

Figure 3.23. Work type by gender 59

Figure 3.24. Occupation 59

Figure 3.25. Occupation among completed secondary or more 60

Figure 3.26. Refugee Occupation Concentration 61

Figure 3.27. Youth work status 62

Figure 3.28. Male youth work status 63

Figure 3.29. Female youth work status 63

Figure 4.1. Desired location in three years 64

Figure 4.2. Expected location in three years 64

Figure 4.3. Locus of control 66

Figure 4.4. Locus of control by type of control 66

Figure 5.1. Poverty incidence 68

Figure 5.2. Income inequality, Gini index 68

Figure 5.3. Expenditure components (in birr) 69

Figure 5.4. Shares of food expenditure 69

Figure 5.5. Food and non-food expenditures shares by sources 70

Figure 5.6. Food expenditure shares by food groups 71

Figure 5.7. Multidimensional poverty incidence, severity, and vulnerability 72

Figure 5.8. Perceived changes in household living standards 73

Figure 5.9. Food insecurity scale for refugees and host 74

Figure 5.10. Dietary diversity and food consumption status 74

Figure 5.11. Type of shocks experienced 75

Figure 5.12. Shock coping strategies 75

Figure 5.13. Household composition by quintiles 76

Figure 5.14. Demographic characteristics by quintile 76

Figure 5.15. Poverty headcount rate for in-camp refugees and their hosts, by domain 77

Figure 5.16. Poverty incidence decreases with education of the household head 77

Figure 5.17. Household wealth indicators by expenditure quintiles 78

Figure 5.18. Labor market outcomes by expenditure quintiles 79

Figure 5.19. Poverty rates and employment for refugees and host 80

Figure 5.20. Share of consumption provided in-kind or for free by consumption per capita quintiles among in-camp refugees 81

Figure 5.21. Poverty incidence at consumption and pre-assistance consumption levels 81

Figure 5.22. Costs of basic needs per refugee per year under different scenarios 83

Figure 6.1. Refugee incidence 86

Figure 6.2. Labor force participation rate by proximity to resource hub, market accessibility 87

Figure 6.3. Refugees' labor market outcomes 87

Figure 6.4. Sectoral employment 88

Figure 6.5. The share of refugee youth who are NEET 88

Figure 6.6. Local labor supply effect of refugee's odds of employment 90

Figure 6.7. Local unemployment level matters to obtain jobs 90

Figure 6.8. Distance to the nearest city and the chance of obtaining a job for refugees 90

Figure 6.9. Employment and proximity to resource hubs 90

Figure 7.1. Host response to "Refugees are good people" 93

Figure 7.2. Host response to "Would you feel comfortable having a refugee as a neighbor?" 93

Figure 7.3. Host response to "Refugees are good people" by gender 94

Figure 7.4. Host response to "Would you feel comfortable having a refugee as a neighbor?" by gender 94

Figure 7.5. Share of hosts who agree refugees 94

Figure 7.6. Host beliefs about refugee 94

Figure 7.7. Negative experiences due to refugees 96

Figure 7.8. Positive experience due to refugees 96

Figure 7.9. Are most Ethiopians/refugees in Ethiopia trustworthy? 96

Figure 7.10. Host Attitudes Index 97

Figure 7.11. Host Attitudes Index by Gender 97

Figure 7.12. Share with family or friends in Ethiopia 98

Figure 7.13. Share with friends in Ethiopia by demographic group 98

Figure 7.14. Share of refugees who think 99

Figure 7.15. Who do refugees rely on in times of need 99

Figure 7.16. Share of refugees who agree they are "culturally similar to hosts" 100

Figure 7.17. Share or refugees involved in a community representative body 101

Figure 7.18. Share or refugees engaged in a community representative body by demographic group 101

Figure 7.19. Discrimination and harassment 101

Figure 7.20. Discrimination and harassment by demographic group 101

Boxes

Box 1.1. Comparison of SPS 2017 and SESRE 2023 25

Box 2.1. Education system for refugees in Ethiopia 31

Box 2.2. Refugees under the Out-of-Camp Policy (OCP) 32

Box 3.1. Eritrean refugee sample in the SESRE 47

Box 3.2. OCP Refugees under the Amnesty Program 48

Box 3.3. Refugee Vocational Training and Cooperatives 57

Box 5.1. Consumption aggregation and poverty measurement 68

Box 5.2. Disparity between refugee ration aid and reported consumption quantities 69

Box 5.3. MPI methodology 72

Box 5.4. Estimation of the cost of basic needs for refugees 81

Box 6.1. Measurement of proximity and market access index in Ethiopia 85

Box 7.1. Socio-political tensions in the Gambella Region 93

Annex Tables

Table B.1. Pledges made at 2016 UN Leaders' Summit and progress 123

Table B.2. GRF pledges and implementation progress 125

Table C.3. The distribution of sampled and surveyed households by domains 130

Table D.4. Demographic characteristics by survey domains 134

Table D.5. Education outcomes by survey domains 134

Table D.6. Health outcomes by survey domains 135

Table D.7. Living conditions by survey domains 136

Table D.8. Labor force statistics by survey domains 144

Table D.9. Determinants of refugee-host earnings gap 144

Table D.10. Determinants of employment outcomes 144

Table D.11. Refugee Household Reliance on NGOs/Donations 145

Table D.12. Determinants of refugee-host earnings gap 145

Table D.13. Refugee intention to migrate abroad 150

Table D.14. Poverty headcount rate by subgroups 151

Table D.15. Determinants of welfare (total expenditure per capita) 151

Table D.16. Determinants of welfare for in-camp refugees 153

Table D.17. Variables used to estimate employment outcomes 155

Table D.18. Factors determining the odds of obtaining a job for refugees: logit model 156

Table D.19. Proximity and market accessibility effects on engagement in agriculture activity: logit model 157

Table D.20. Proximity and market accessibility effects on engagement in service sector: logit model 158

Table D.21. Regression analysis of host and refugee attitudes 159

Table D.22. Regression analysis of social integration outcomes 161

Table D.23. Regression analysis of social integration and labor market outcomes 162

Table E.24. Food aid data/information received from UNHCR 163

Table E.25. Food aid and consumption comparisons 164

Table E.26. Aggregate food expenditures 164

Table E.27. Food aid data/information received from WFP 165

Table E.28. Food quantity and expenditure comparisons 165

Table E.29. Aggregate food expenditures 166

Table F.30/Table F.1. Results on common indicators from SPS 2017 and SESRE 2023 167

Annex Figures

Figure D.1. Age group by gender 136

Figure D.2. Refugees' education document 137

Figure D.3. Share of school-age children in education per household 137

Figure D.4. School-age children currently attending school by gender 138

Figure D.5. Reasons for not currently attending school by gender 138

Figure D.6. Average annual household education expenditure (in ETB) 139

Figure D.7. Type of health institutions 139

Figure D.8. Problems faced in health institutions 140

Figure D.9. Stunting by gender of children 140

Figure D.10. Childbirth in health institutions (children under five years) 141

Figure D.11. No birth evidence available (children under five years) 141

Figure D.12. Average annual per capita health expenditure 142

Figure D.13. Types of disability 142

Figure D.14. Rent expenditure (Refugees and hosts in Addis Ababa) 143

Figure D.15. Hand washing facility 143

Figure D.16. Top 3 difficulties with being a refugee by survey domains 146

Figure D.17. Work status by survey domains 147

Figure D.18. Type of work by survey domains 147

Figure D.19. Occupation by survey domains 147

Figure D.20. Work location by survey domains 148

Figure D.21. Hours per week by survey domains 148

Figure D.22. Hourly earnings by survey domains 148

Figure D.23. Household owns crops 148

Figure D.24. Household owns livestock 148

Figure D.25. Total value of livestock 149

Figure D.26. Value per tropical livestock unit 149

Figure D.27. Household has non-farm business 149

Figure D.28. Value of productive assets in households with business 149

Figure D.29. Primary source of income pre-post migration by survey domains 149

Figure D.30. Youth work status by survey domains 150

Figure D.31. In-camp refugee locations by ecological Zone 154

Figure D.32. Refugee's labor market performance 154

Figure D.33. Economic secto 155

Annex Boxes

Box B.0.1. Employment pathways of refugees 122