Nonetheless, external support for Ethiopia has declined significantly over the last two decades as a proportion of revenues and GDP; the GoE should base future spending plans on continued reductions. However, the recommendations it generates are also relevant for development partners supporting the GoE, as well as for the broader social protection community. A number of the challenges that the GoE is confronting, such as how to scale up social protection amid declining donor support and how to deal with the long-term impact of climate change, have broad resonance in Africa and beyond. In every case, the outcomes showed it would be difficult to sustain these spending levels into the future. This reflects the dynamics of the underlying variables: social protection spending (including humanitarian relief) has grown much more strongly as a percentage of GDP than revenues and overall expenditure.