Ethiopia Development

From the Millennium Development Goals to the Sustainable Development Goals

Closer to the Mercato

Ethiopia is one of 189 states that committed in 2000 to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) by 2015. The main goal of the Ethiopian government was to eradicate extreme poverty.

The integration of the Millennium Development Goals into national development policy began in 2005 with an “MDG Needs Assessment” process in which the Ethiopian government, the United Nations country team and other development partners were involved.

Both the PASDEP (Plan for Accelerated and Sustained Development to End Poverty) for the years 2005 to 2010 and its successor, the GTP (Growth and Transformation Plan) for 2010-2015, were national strategy papers based on the Millennium Development Goals. They listed the government’s medium-term goals for achieving the MDGs.

The MDG report for Ethiopia, published in 2014, shows the achievements: Six of the eight Millennium Development Goals were achieved. Significant progress has also been made with the two goals that have not yet been achieved, MDG 3 (gender equality and women’s empowerment) and MDG 5 (reducing maternal mortality).

Despite all the progress, the Ethiopian government continues to face major challenges: macroeconomic challenges such as high inflation and negative trade balances are hampering development efforts.

According to cheeroutdoor, Ethiopia is a country located in Eastern Africa. The Ethiopian government is meeting these and other challenges with the GTP II adopted in 2015, which also integrated the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) that the United Nations had proclaimed as the successor to the Millennium Development Goals. Ethiopia is a member of the National Voluntary Reviews 2017 as part of the High-Level Political Forum for Sustainable Development, which documents and accompanies efforts to achieve the SDGs by 2030 worldwide.

Domestic development efforts

The government’s development approach is based on the Agricultural Development Led Industrialization strategy. It tries to fight poverty primarily by increasing the incomes of the rural population. This broad-based and labor-intensive approach is intended to lay the foundations for the creation or strengthening of Ethiopian industry. In this context, economic development has become particularly important in recent years.

Concrete measures include the commercialization of smallholder agriculture through product diversification and the promotion of export-oriented cultivation and investments in the agricultural sector. Furthermore, three agro-ecological zones were defined in which the development efforts are now taking place on a smaller scale and oriented towards the respective climatic and geographical conditions. The personnel and structural conditions on site should also be better taken into account and the efficiency of the local administration strengthened.

While the government describes its plans as very ambitious, many critics are of the opinion that they are overambitious and hardly achievable.

Tea plantation in the south of the country

Bi- and multinational development cooperation

Ethiopia receives very large amounts of support from bilateral and multilateral donors. The following organizations are among the major actors in development cooperation:

European Commission
World bank
United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
British Department for International Development (DFID)
Austrian Development Agency
US Agency for International Development (USAID)
African Development Bank
World Food Program (WFP)
United Nations (MPTF)

German development cooperation

Ethiopia is a partner country for German development cooperation. In 2017 and 2018, Ethiopia received pledges of 374.1 million euros from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. The BMZ’s commitment focuses on three areas:

Economic development and vocational training
Protection and sustainable use of natural resources, biodiversity
Food security, agriculture

In November 2019, the Federal Republic of Germany agreed a reform partnership with Ethiopia. As a contribution to the G20 ” Compact with Africa ” initiative, it is intended to increase private investment, create jobs and support reform processes that have already started.

The Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) works as an implementation organization for government development cooperation in these areas. GIZ is active in Ethiopia with one of the world’s largest country teams. As part of the Civil Peace Service (CPS), she is committed to dialogue and non-violent conflict management. Another state actor is KfW.

In addition, many German non-governmental organizations are active in Ethiopia, such as Welthungerhilfe and Diakonie-Katastrophenhilfe. The Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) is also represented with an office in Addis Ababa. The Goethe-Institut is very active in cultural and language work. The Center for International Migration and Development (CIM) places integrated experts in Ethiopia who work in development policy areas.