Key facts: Ethiopia

Last updated: May 2008

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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.

Governance

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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Health

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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HIV/AIDS

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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Education

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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Hunger and humanitarian aid

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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Water, sanitation and infrastructure

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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Rural access and mobility

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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Progress towards Millennium Development Goals

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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