Climate Change, Vulnerability and Food Insecurity LX. Global climate change is one of the most serious threats to the environment, health and general well being of any population. The starkest manifestation of the country’s environmental challenges is its vulnerability to recurrent food insecurity and famine. LXI. Ethiopia is already facing a number of environmental challenges, exacerbated by changes in climate. Ethiopia suffers from fundamental and pervasive food insecurity mainly as a result of periodic rain shortages. Droughts, the most important climate-related hazard affecting Ethiopia, are occurring more frequently, giving the country less time to recover before the next event, reducing agricultural yields, and sentencing millions to food insecurity. LXII. Despite some advances in reducing poverty indicators, the country currently has about 8.3 million people who are chronically food insecure and another 6.7 million who face transitory problems with food insecurity – a continuously growing population is only exacerbating this situation. There is now growing consensus among both Ethiopians and the donor community that emergency assistance alone will do little to address the sources of food insecurity and that a longerterm, more sustainable response is required. The challenge for the country is to correct the imbalance between humanitarian assistance and development assistance and build resiliency to withstand and manage shocks, while laying the foundation for sound economic recovery. LXIII. There are several main entry points for adaptation and risk reduction strategies aiming at increased food security in view of climate change which a country could adopt. Only by succeeding in making significant advances on all fronts – increasing food availability, enhancing access to food, and strengthening resilience and development –will Ethiopia reduce the risk of dramatic increases in the number of hungry people. But there is also the challenge of population and food. Aid Dependence LXIV. In Ethiopia, external resources are financing around a third of the national budget. A characteristic feature of the external assistance that Ethiopia receives is the large share of humanitarian and food aid, which tends to constitute between 3050 percent of total aid. LXV. Despite Ethiopia’s high aid dependence, the evaluation has noted the absence of a serious reflection and discourse on an aid exit strategy. Although the goal - 36 -