Key facts: Ethiopia
Last updated: May 2008
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- Population:
77.2 million (World Development Indicators (WDI), 2008).
- Average life expectancy:
52 years (Human Development Index, 2007). UK: 78 years (UN Statistics Division (UNSD), 2007).
- Average per capita income: US$630 (purchasing power parity (PPP) rate) (International Monetary Fund (IMF),
2006). UK: US$69,560 (£37,600) (World Bank
development data, 2005).
- Gross national income (GNI): US$49 billion (PPP rate) (WDI, 2006).
- Average annual growth rate: 10.7% (IMF Article IV report, 2007).
- Percentage of people not meeting
daily food needs: 44% (Millennium Development Goals Database, 2000).
- Women dying in childbirth: 673 per 100,000 (Demographic and Health Survey Report, 2005). UK: 13 per 100,000 (UNSD, 2007).
- Children dying before age 5: 123 per 1,000 live births (Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey, 2005). UK: 6 per 1,000 (UNSD, 2005).
- Percentage of children receiving primary education: 70% (Ethiopia Ministry of Education 2006/07).
- Percentage of people aged 15-49
living with HIV/AIDS: 1.4% (Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey, 2005). UK: 0.2% (UNSD, 2005).
- Percentage of people with access to
safe, clean water: 52% (Ethiopia Poverty Reduction Strategy annual progress report 2005/06).
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DFID: Working to reduce poverty in Ethiopia
Governance | Health | HIV/AIDS
| Education |
Hunger and humanitarian aid
| Water, sanitation
and infrastructure |
Rural
access and mobility
| Millennium Development Goals
Between 2001 and 2005, Ethiopia received £4.7 billion in aid, of
which DFID provided over £195.7 million. Since then, we have
significantly increased our aid, from £60 million in 2004/05 to £130
million in 2007/08.
Since June 2006, most of our aid has been in the form of a
contribution to the Protection of Basic Services (PBS) programme. So
far, DFID has spent £142.5 million through PBS and we expect to
spend a further £25 million before the end of June 2008. This money
supplements government funding on education, health, agriculture,
and water and sanitation, while requiring regular monitoring of
expenditure. In addition, PBS aims to make local government more
accountable to citizens for delivering these services.
We are currently finalising our 2008/09–2010/11 business plan for
Ethiopia, which will focus on:
- supporting a more accountable, capable and responsive state
- improving education, health, agriculture, water and
sanitation services and making them more widely available
- creating more opportunities for the poor to become
productive.
DFID’s programme is designed to help the Ethiopian government implement its own poverty reduction strategy: the Plan for Accelerated and Sustained Development to End Poverty. As far as possible, we do this in partnership with other donors using government systems.
Poor governance is a cause of poverty. People suffer when
governments don’t allow participation in political life, provide
access to justice, deliver adequate public services or control
corruption.
DFID is working to develop a more capable state in Ethiopia – for
example, by contributing £25 million to a major programme designed
to improve the management of public sector resources. We have also
allocated £5 million to strengthen such institutions as the
judiciary, the Human Rights Commission and the regional and federal
parliaments, so that citizens can hold government to account.
In addition, we are helping citizens to voice their demands so that
government responds to their needs and rights.
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Our main support for the health sector comes from the PBS
programme – for instance, funding the salaries of over 16,000
doctors and nurses. In addition, DFID is providing £15 million to
help the Ministry of Health procure and distribute 6.5 million
insecticide-treated bed nets, 2 million doses of malaria treatment
and contraceptives for 3 million women.
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Ethiopia receives a large amount of money from global and
disease-specific funds for HIV/AIDS. DFID concentrates on improving
the systems that are essential for delivering the services provided
through these other funds.
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Most of our support for the education sector is provided through
the PBS programme. More children are now going to school, and we
hope to help get an extra 3.7 million children into primary school
over the next two years.
Unfortunately, the large increase in the number of children
attending school has had a negative effect on the quality of the
education provided. We are working on a new programme designed to
strengthen education system management, improve teaching and make
more textbooks available.
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Failure of rains and rising food prices are making food supply in
parts of Ethiopia increasingly insecure. According to the government
and the UN, about 4.6 million people require emergency food aid and
more than 100,000 children need medical care for severe
malnutrition.
In May 2008, DFID provided £5 million that, with contributions from
other donors, was channelled through the UN-managed Humanitarian
Response Fund and used for emergency nutrition programmes
implemented by UN agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
in the worst-affected areas. Between June and September, we gave a
further £45 million in response to the emergency appeal jointly made
by the Ethiopian government and UN.
DFID is also contributing around £25 million annually to Ethiopia’s
Productive Safety Net Programme, which ensures that 7.2 million of
the poorest families get enough food and maintain a basic standard
of living through the year, even during times of harvest failure. We
intend to provide additional funding to the beneficiaries of the
safety net, to tide them over until the next harvest.
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We are contributing £75 million towards a World Bank project that
supports the Ethiopian government’s plans for improving water,
sanitation and hygiene. Our finance will help an extra 3.2 million
people get safe water. We are assisting the Ministry of Water
Resources through an evidence-based research programme and the
secondment of a policy adviser.
In 2006/07, 52% of the population has access to a safe drinking
water supply, up from 35% two years earlier.
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DFID is providing around £1 million per year to improve rural
access roads and increase transportation in remote areas. The
Ethiopian Rural Travel and Transport Project, administered by the
Ethiopian Roads Authority, is piloting different types of planning,
construction and transport technologies. Improving the transport
infrastructure in this way is having a direct impact on rural growth
and employment.
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Poverty indicators in Ethiopia are improving, although not fast
enough to ensure that any will achieve the Millennium Development
Goal targets by 2015.
MDG 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
The proportion of people living below the national poverty line has
fallen from 46% to 39% between 1995/96 and 2004/05.
MDG 2: Achieve universal primary education
In 2006/07, 14 million children attended primary school, some 70% of
the total.
MDG 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
Between 1996 and 2004, gender equality substantially improved – from
0.75 to 0.95 – in primary education, as measured by the Gender
Parity Index. However, the level of gender equality in secondary
education fell considerably, from 0.99 to 0.75.
MDG 4: Reduce child mortality
Between 2000 and 2005, deaths of children under five fell from 166
per 1,000 live births to 123.
MDG 5: Improve maternal health
Between 2000 and 2005, maternal mortality fell from 871 per 100,000
live births to 673.
MDG 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
The rate at which young people became infected with HIV declined
from 0.64% in 1998 to 0.41% in 2005. There were no malaria epidemics
in 2006/07, and new cases fell by 50% in just two years.
MDG 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
The proportion of the population with access to safe drinking water
almost doubled between 1996 to 2006, increasing from 19% to 52%.
MDG 8: Develop a global partnership for development
Coffee exports increased from $223 million in 2003/04 to $363
million in 2006/07, and the income from exporting pulses, oilseeds
and spices was $267.6 million in 2007/08, four times higher than the
expanding flower export industry.
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