In combination, the results of the LEAP and LIAS tools can therefore provide a more detailed picture of drought and associated food insecurity in Ethiopia; this was proposed already early during the development of the LEAP tool in 2006.

# IV.4 Bottom-up Early Warning System

Recognizing the need to closely monitor droughts based on early warning data, the GoE has developed a bottom-up early warning framework through which monthly food security reports are produced. These are based on the use of checklists, as well as incident command systems. The bottom-up early warning system provides early warning data on a more continual, and less discrete, collection of early warning data, and could be used to replace the current seasonal needs assessment process. The bottom-up early warning systems could also be used to enable early action, as the gradual development of droughts is identifiable based on the collected data.

The successful deployment and maintenance of a bottom-up early warning system is likely to depend on strong implementation mechanisms at all levels of government, as well as the availability of technically qualified staff to collect and analyze early warning data. Moreover, to employ data collected through a bottom-up early warning process to inform early action, it is necessary to establish a clear connection between the collected data and drought-related need; this requires detailed data analysis, as well as a process to store and share data. Moreover, in employing a bottom-up early warning system within a drought response framework, it may be useful to combine and triangulate results obtained from different data sources, to enable the verification and comparison of results obtained through each source of early warning data individually.

# IV.5 Hotspots assessments

Additionally to the use of the LEAP and LIAS tools to detect droughts and their impacts, the NDRMC (former EWRD) conducts hotspots assessments on a quarterly basis. The objective of the assessments is to monitor the food security situation in Ethiopia, to be able to initiate early action where hotspots are identified. Hotspots assessments as well as other _ad hoc_ assessments can also be launched by the NDRMC to monitor a deteriorating food security situation and enable early action.

Hotspots analyses are conducted using a uniform set of food security and nutritional criteria to ensure comparability across regions. Hotspots analyses have two key objectives: (i) to prioritize the allocation of scarce financial resources, and (ii) to conduct Targeted Supplementary Feeding (TSF) in identified hotspot _woredas_ . Table 3 below details the classes of hotspots assessments and their description.

TABLE 3: HOTSPOT CLASSES AND THEIR DESCRIPTION (REPRODUCED FROM FDRE 2014B).

||**Area**<br>**of**<br>**concern**<br>**/**<br>**hotspot**<br>**level**<br>**classification**|**Class description**|**General IPC Equivalent**|
|---|---|---|---|
|Priority 1|Very severe|Hazards of high damaging level have occurred and<br>affected the lives and livelihoods of the population<br>with very severe lack of adequate food security and<br>may include excess mortality, very high and<br>increasing malnutrition, and irreversible livelihood<br>depletion.|Humanitarian Emergency|
|Priority 2|Severe|Hazards of high damaging level have occurred and<br>affected the lives and livelihoods of thepopulation|Acute<br>Food<br>and<br>Livelihood Crisis|

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