(New Business Ethiopia – Progovernemt) — Since the year 2005 severity of poverty in Ethiopia has increased, according to a national human development report by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) launched this afternoon in the capital Addis Ababa.
“…Although the incident of poverty is declining the severity is increasing,” said Mr. Eugene Owusu, UNDP resident representative to Ethiopia, launching of the report at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa hall.
Of the total of around 90 million people of the country, some 25 million Ethiopians are still remain trapped in poverty and vulnerability because of high population growth of about 2.4%, according to the report.
Confirming increasing of severity of poverty in Ethiopia since 2005, Mekonnen Manyazewal, Commissioner at the National Planning Commission at the Ministry of FINANCE and Economic Development of Ethiopia, noted that why this happen needs further research.
Among major incidents the years 2005 marks in Ethiopian history the death of close to 200 people, arrest of tens of thousands and exile of major opposition politicians following the controversial general election of the country.
Meanwhile Mr. Mekonnen refuted some of the findings of the report such as the need to address income inequality, making the growth all inclusive and addressing regional disparity.
Defense
“Our growth has been inclusive because our strategies focus on the rural people who are engaged in substance farming – it is broad-based. There will always be issues in such reports as expected it opens door for debates and further researches,” he said.
Development can be inclusive and reduce poverty only if all people contribute to creating opportunities, share the benefits of development and participate in decision making, according to UNDP.
Poverty remains to be Ethiopia’s serious challenge, although the country’s GDP has been growing by around 10% for the past decade making it one of the top fastest growing economies in the world and the country is also one of the ten in the world with the largest gains in human development index over the last several years.
The report indicated that Human development index of some of regions of the country such as Oromia, Amhara, Somali and Afar region are below the national average of 0.461.
Mr. Mekonnen argued that the regions of the country have different starting points and that should be taken into consideration since government has no policy that deliberately aims to benefits only certain regions.
“Ethiopia is tackling some very complex development issues and there are bound to be constructive differences over how best to move forward. We produced this report as part of our contribution to that ongoing dialogue on how best to drive inclusive growth and enhance human development in the years ahead,” Mr. Owusu said.
The report entitled, ‘Accelerating inclusive growth for sustainable human Development in Ethiopia 2014′, advised the government to focus on job creation, maximize the role of private sector, to continue INVESTING on human capital – strengthening vocational and entrepreneurship skills as well as making growth inclusive while empowering women and girls.
Stating that 25 days have left for Ethiopia’s general election, Mr. Owusu also stressed for the government to make the election free, credible and democratic as development is about enlarging peoples’ choices and guaranteeing political freedom and human rights among others.
The right policy mix
Launching the report, President of Ethiopia Dr. Mulatu Teshome noted that the report’s theme is timely and initiates policy debates among all stakeholders.
“While we are happy with the progress in tackling the level and severity of poverty, we fully recognize that we still have a long road ahead of us. I am confident that the findings of the report will generate constructive policy dialogue and debate that will further strengthen our responses to enhancing inclusive growth and human development in Ethiopia,” the president said.
Invited to reflect on the report, Sara Menker, Founder and CEO of Gro Intelligence urged the government to INVEST more on what she calls, ‘software of growth’ – people, market and technology – shifting its attention from ‘the hardware growth’.
Mentioning that the service sector which currently contributes 45% to GDP of the country, she argued that most of the growth of the country came from urban service growth and not from value addition and agricultural growth on which about 80% of the population of the country relies.
Like China and India who are also known for halving huge population in the world, managed to reduce poverty in their own ways, Ethiopia should also consider to find her own ‘right policy mix and act now’, Sara noted urging the country to make and allow huge INVESTMENTS on agriculture and the industry sectors while opening doors for capital markets and private equity development.
It was 16 years ago that UNDP has published its last human development report on Ethiopia. Now it is planning to produce it every two years, according to Mr. Owusu. Globally since the idea for the need to monitor human development in a different way from measuring GDP began in 1990, some 140 countries have produced their national human development reports
go to link http://www.ayyaantuu.net/the-other-side-of-ethiopias-gdp-growth-severity-of-poverty-increases-in-ethiopia-un-report-reveals/
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