Ethiopia
Rural development is at the centre of Ethiopia’s national development agenda. Indeed, the Government of Ethiopia has put considerable efforts and resources in establishing an explicit rural development strategy, as well as launching a series of sectoral programmes targeting the multidimensional needs of rural areas. This chapter reviews the evolution of Ethiopia’s rural development policies since 1991. Moreover, given the growth in Ethiopia’s urbanisation, and its catalyst role for rural development, it also reviews the progression of Ethiopia’s urban policies and their interactions with rural policy. It highlights that, although national development plans are evolving and recognising the role of urban areas for structural transformation, rural and urban policies remain fragmented. It argues that fragmented policies can limit the scope for stronger rural‑urban linkages. Thus, the chapter calls for better co-ordination of urban and rural policies in order to reap the benefits of Ethiopia’s ongoing changes and facilitate rural-urban transformation.
Climate-resilient development requires 1) political vision and leadership; 2) a development planning process that has climate resilience at its core; 3) an institutional structure that facilitates central co-ordination and targeted engagement; 4) a strong evidence base and methods for dealing with uncertainty; 5) sufficient financing, combining the effective use of domestic and international resources; and 6) mechanisms for monitoring, evaluating and learning including strong feedback between lessons learned and policy design. The chapter outlines experience to date in implementing these building blocks.
Governments and providers of development co-operation increasingly use Sustainable Development Goal indicators to guide their policies and practices. The close examination of three large recipients of development co-operation: Ethiopia, Kenya and Myanmar across the sectors of Education, Sanitation and Energy reveals four inter-related challenges in using SDG indicators at country level. First, the cost of using specific SDG indicators varies in relation to indicator complexity – complementary investments in country statistical systems may be necessary. Second, providers synchronising their country-level results planning with partner countries find it easier to align to and measure SDG indicators together with the partner country and other providers. Third, reliance on joint monitoring approaches is helping providers reduce the cost of SDG monitoring. Finally, while disaggregating SDG data by gender and by urban-rural dimensions is common, other data disaggregation relevant to ensure that no one is left behind are rare.
Ethiopia is now at a critical moment of its rural-urban transformation process. Ethiopia’s fast changing socio-economic landscape brings a series of new challenges and opportunities. This chapter builds on the analysis of Ethiopia’s rural-urban transformation (Chapter 1), the role of intermediary cities for rural development (Chapter 2), and the evolution of rural policy (Chapter 3), as well as the extensive consultations held with key Ethiopian government representatives, academic and international experts. It highlights the need for a shift in paradigm towards rural development strategies and argues that the ADLI should be updated in order to effectively address Ethiopia’s future development challenges. To this end, four main areas of reform are proposed: a new approach to agricultural development; mobilising resources and scaling up investment to improve the well-being of rural populations; enhancing co-ordination between rural and urban policies; and complementing the existing policy framework with a territorial approach.
This strategic foresight report assesses the interaction between demographics, economic development, climate change and social protection in six countries in East Africa between now and 2065: Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. The report combines population projections with trends in health, urbanisation, migration and climate change and identifies the implications for economic development and poverty. It concludes by identifying policies to address seven grand challenges for social protection planners in national governments and donor agencies which emerge from the projections. These include: eliminating extreme poverty; extending social insurance in a context of high informality; the rapid growth of the working-age population, in particular the youth; adapting social protection to urban settings; protecting the poor from the effects of climate change; harnessing a demographic dividend; and substantially increasing funding for social protection.
Addressing rural development is key for Ethiopia’s growth process. A series of government-led structural reforms have contributed to sustained growth in the country over the last two decades as well as to considerable poverty reduction in rural areas. However, Ethiopia faces critical challenges it will need to overcome to meet the needs of a growing rural population. In practice, this will require updating the existing rural development strategy in order to better integrate the interaction of rural and urban areas. Policy approaches that account for the fast urbanisation process experienced in the country will therefore be key to improving the well-being of rural populations and promoting national growth.
This report takes a spatial approach to study Ethiopia’s rural development strategies. It highlights the need to develop stronger and more functional linkages between rural and urban areas. As such, the development of intermediary cities and small urban centres provides large scope for inclusive rural transformation. The report is the result of rigorous analysis, and extensive consultations with national and international stakeholders. It identifies some of the key challenges faced by rural areas and provides a series of recommendations to enhance Ethiopia’s rural development strategies.
This working paper is a case study on Ethiopia and Uganda as countries of destination for refugees. The case study looks at the approaches adopted in Ethiopia and Uganda to promote refugee self-reliance and enable refugees to work to earn income. It compares outcomes in the countries, with a specific focus on access to employment and business creation, including legal and socio-economic barriers. The case study draws from a number of evaluations of efforts by the international community to support Ethiopian and Ugandan initiatives. The case study was undertaken as part of a wider research project on learning from evaluations to improve responses to refugee crises in developing countries and supports the synthesis paper "Responding to Refugee Crises in Developing Countries: What Can We Learn From Evaluations?"
Disaster risk management and private sector involvement are both important for climate resilience. Improved integration of disaster risk management and climate change adaptation is needed to address current risks while preparing for future challenges. The chapter suggests ways of integrating the two approaches into development planning, focusing on institutions, risk reduction, and financial instruments to reduce the long-term impacts of disasters. The private sector is another important piece in the climate resilience puzzle, given its fundamental role in securing economic growth, and its potential for investing in resilience measures. The second part of the chapter examines how public policy can support private sector climate resilience. Priorities for this include raising awareness, providing data, and ensuring that regulatory frameworks and spending policies are conducive to building resilience.
Countries like Ethiopia are placing rural areas at the centre of their national development efforts. With almost 80% of its total population residing in rural areas, and a similar share of employment in agriculture, Ethiopia has made rural development a priority in its development agenda. Starting in the mid-1990s, Ethiopia has implemented a series of reforms focusing on promoting agricultural development coupled with unprecedented public investment in pro-poor sectors. As a result, Ethiopia has achieved a two-digit economic growth rate and reduced rural poverty by half. However, as is the case of many countries in the region, Ethiopia is confronted today with a series of challenges that call for a revision of the existing policy framework for rural development.
This report provides an overview of the current state of knowledge on how countries can achieve climate-resilient development. As climate resilience strategies are still in an early stage in most countries, it is too early for a comprehensive assessment of existing policies and measures. Rather, this report focuses on the enabling factors for integrating climate resilience and development planning. This is supported with in-depth reviews of the role of disaster risk management and the private sector. The report aims to inform both policy makers in developing countries and practitioners in development co-operation agencies.
Social protection is at the centre of Ethiopia’s development policy. It is instrumental in reducing poverty and increasing the resilience of the population. The Government of Ethiopia (GoE) has published a new set of policy frameworks for social protection that envisage the expansion of social protection to cover a greater proportion of Ethiopians against a broader range of risks, and that call for social protection to be increasingly financed from domestic sources rather than by donors. A financing strategy for the implementation of this vision has been identified as a priority by the GoE. This study responds to this requirement. It provides a comprehensive mapping of social protection spending across the five focus areas of the national social protection policy and analyses the fiscal space available for different spending scenarios up to 2025/26. The study focuses on two issues in particular: the role of donor financing for social protection and the relationship between humanitarian relief and social protection spending.
This paper studies the development of indigenous insurance institutions set up to help cover the high costs of funerals, using evidence from rural areas in Tanzania and Ethiopia. Many of these institutions tend to co-exist within the same community and are based on well-defined rules and regulations, often offering premium-based insurance for funeral expenses, as well as, in many cases, other forms of insurance and credit to help address hardship. The paper argues that the characteristics and inclusiveness of these institutions make them well placed as models to broaden insurance provision and other development activities in these communities. In Ethiopia, there is some encouraging experience with using these institutions, as reviewed in this paper. However, the paper argues that their fragility as institutions is well illustrated by current pressures related to HIV/AIDS, as well as by their apparent resistance to engage more broadly with NGOs and government agencies. As a ...
Since the mid-1990s, Ethiopia has implemented a series of successful strategies to promote economic growth and social progress, and improve rural population well-being. These reforms have led Ethiopia to experience sustained growth between 2004 and 2018, with an average annual growth rate of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita of 7.4%, outperforming most sub-Saharan African countries. Moreover, large government investment has been directed at improving agricultural productivity, as well as addressing the multiple needs of rural populations. As a result, between 2000 and 2016, the share of rural population considered poor decreased from 45% to 25%.
There is an urgent need for countries to improve their resilience to current climate variability and prepare for the consequences of future changes. Without this, climate change threatens to perpetuate poverty and slow – or even prevent – the achievement of development goals. Climate-resilient development aims to ensure that economic growth, poverty reduction and other development objectives can be sustained in a changing climate. This is more fundamental than “climate-proofing” of policies or programmes, instead re-examining the development choices that are shaping vulnerability to climate risks. This means addressing current vulnerabilities in a way that anticipates and adapts to future changes.
Ethiopia has achieved sustained economic growth since early 2000s, which led to significant poverty reduction and an overall improvement in well-being in rural and urban areas. The growth was led by a series of structural reforms which started in mid-1990s, and promoted the Agricultural Development-Led Industrialisation (ADLI) strategy. Today Ethiopia’s socio-economic landscape is changing governed by three main trends: an economic, a demographic, and a spatial transformation. This chapter analyses the ways in which these changes are shaping Ethiopia’s rural-urban transformation. It highlights that these three transformations will have a significant impact in rural areas. Moreover, it also highlights that, although Ethiopia’s structural reforms have led to large improvements in rural and urban well-being, the poverty gap between the two territories is now widening. Addressing rural development will require strategies that account for these transformations, and consider the inherent linkages between rural and urban areas.
Ethiopia is urbanising at an unprecedented rate and intermediary cities are at the centre of its urbanisation process. The growth of Ethiopia’s intermediary cities can foster rural transformation and facilitate the development of a more balanced urban system. However, the potential for rural-urban transformation depends on creating strong reciprocal linkages. This chapter analyses a number of Ethiopian intermediary cities, and their roles in facilitating rural development. It highlights that Ethiopia’s intermediary cities serve as market hubs for rural goods, act as key destination for rural migrants, and provide employment opportunities. However, it is argued that some of the linkages between rural and urban areas remain weak, limiting the scope for rural-urban transformation. It calls for development of stronger knowledge base on Ethiopia’s intermediary cities and their roles for rural development, as well as better co-ordination between rural and urban policies in order to promote an inclusive rural transformation process.
Ethiopia: Stock of Total External Debt (percentage of GDP) and Debt Service (percentage of exports of goods and services) appears in African Economic Outlook 2009.