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Ethiopia is Progressing
I.
Economy
- For the
last five years the average economic growth has been 10%. It is double
the African average.
- Total
export has grown by 30%-40% each year for the last five years.
- Ethiopia’s
recent economic miracle is predominantly agricultural. It has benefited
the majority of the rural poor. More than 85% of the Ethiopian people
live in the rural area.
- The decline
in rural poverty over the last ten years is documented by independent
studies including by Oxford University and International Food Policy
Research Institute.
- Emergency
food aid is largely limited to the pastoral areas of south eastern and
eastern Ethiopia.
- The Ethiopian
Government has launched a five year urban development plan to address
the economic, social, infrastructural and governance problems in the
urban areas.
- The vision
of the government is to enable the country reach a middle income level
in two to three decades.
II. Public Services
a) Education
- More than 90% of school age children go to school. Before ten years
only 26% of school age children went to school.
- Ethiopia will meet the millennium development goal of universal education
in 2008, seven years ahead of the time line.
- Nearly 20% of our budget goes to education.
b) Health
- Primary
health care service has reached more than 92%.
- More
than 17,500 health extension workers are deployed all over the country
- Maternal
health service has increased from 4% to 36% in ten years time
c) Water
- Clean
water coverage has reached 47.35% by 2006. It was 34.13% in 2003. Clean
water supply will be expanded to 85% of the population in the coming
four years.
d) Electricity
- Access
to electricity is about 22%. Much of the population lives in energy
insecurity.
- The
government has launched a universal electricity access programme with
the view to enhance the access to 50% within five years.
- Due
to fast economic growth annual growth rate of electrical demand has
reached 17%.
III. Form of Government
- A Federal
system of government is constituted where nations and nationalities
administer themselves, use their language and develop their Cultures.
- If at
one point the states are not comfortable with the Ethiopian nation State,
there are provisions in the Constitution that enable them to form an
independence nation state.
- There
are 9 Federated nation states in Ethiopia.
- Every
nation and nationality is represented in the house of Federations.
- Ethiopia
has a secular form of government. Freedom of worship is protested by
the constitution.
- Historically
Ethiopia is a country where different religions peacefully co-exist.
- More
than 20% of members of Ethiopian Parliament are women (116 out of the
526 existing members).
IV. Human Rights
- There
is a widely held misperception about Ethiopia’s human rights situation
- Individual
rights, i.e. freedom of expression, freedom of conscience and association
are constitutionally respected:
o There are more than 50 private publication
o There are more than 70 registered political parties
o The government is secular
- Like
any other democracy, the government has responsibility to protect the
constitutional order. That is what it did in the aftermath of the last
election.
- The
Judiciary is independent from the executive but still under stuffer
and inexperienced,
- There
is an independent human rights commission and ombudsman established
to address human rights violations.
- There
are NGOs which work for human rights protection.
V. The 2005 Elections
- The
Carter Center describes the 2005 election as follows: “The majority
of the constituency results based on the May 15 polling and tabulation
are credible and reflect competitive conditions”.
- According
to the U.S. Department of State “these elections stand out as
a milestone in creating, more competitive multiparty political system
in one of Africa’s largest and most important countries”
- Opposition
party candidates constitute more than 1/3 of all seats in parliament,
increasing the strength of the opposition from less than 3% in the preceding
parliament.
VI.
External Relations
- Ethiopia
hosts the Headquarters of the African union and the UN Economic Commission
for Africa (ECA).
- Ethiopia
has a cordial relationship with all its neighbors (Kenya, the Sudan,
Djibouti and Somali) except with Eritrea, which is at logger heals with
all its neighbors.
- The
instability in Somali and the destabilizing role of Eritrea in the region
are the two most crucial Foreign Policy challenges to Ethiopia
- With
the invitation of the Somali Transitional Government and the endorsement
of IGAD, AU and the United Nations, Ethiopia has sent troops to Somalia.
Ethiopia will immediately withdraw from Somalia as soon as its forces
are replaced by AU peace keeping forces.
- Ethiopia
supports peace efforts in other African countries among other things
by sending peace keeping forces. In the last fifteen years, Ethiopia
has sent peace keeping forces to Rwanda, Burundi and Liberia. And now
it has pledged to send 5,000 strong peace keeping forces to Darfur.
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