Review of Country Poverty Eradication/ Reduction Strategies With Particular Reference to the Progress in Achievement of the MDGS

By Getachew Abebe

February 15 , 2007

Addis Ababa

1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………1

2. Objective of the Paper……………………………………………………………5

3.Methodology and Source of Data…………………………………………………5

4. The Full Set of Millennium Development Goals…………………………………6

5.Poverty Profile of Ethiopia …………………………………………………………7.

5.1 Food Needs…………………………………………………………………………7

5.2 Sufficiency of Crop Production…………………………………………………..8

5.3 Status of the Living Conditions…………………………………………….. …… 9

6. Poverty Eradication Program and Food Security Strategy Framework in Ethiopia

6.1Poverty Eradication program…………………………………………………….12

6.1.1 the Main theme of Ethiopia’s Sustainable Development & poverty Reduction Program……………………………………………………………………………. …12

6.1.2 the Main Targets……………………………………………………………. ….12

6.1.3The Conjunction of Economic Strategy and the Political Processes. ………14.

6.1.4 Key Sect oral Measures and Cross-cutting Issues………………………… 14

6.2 Overview of the Prevailing Food Security strategy …………………………….16

6.2.1 Essential Elements of the Strategy……………………………………………. 16

6.2.2 Additional entitlement /access and Targeted Programs………………………17

6.2.3 Emergency Capabilities…………………………………………………………19

6.2.4 Institutional Strengthening, Networking and Capacity Buiding………………20

6.2.5 Food Security Assistance ………………………………………………………..20

7. Assessment of and Identification of Gaps and Challenges of the Strategies and Approaches to Effectively Attain the MDGs at Global, Africa, National and Regional and local Level……………………………………………………………… 20

8. Actors Involved in Country Poverty Reduction and Food Security and their Contribution and area of intervention in terns of Finance , Technical Support ……………………………………………………………………………………………26

9. SDPRP and PASDEP and their Implication on MDGs……………………………27

9.1SDPRP ……………………………………………………………………………27

9.2 ASDEP……………………………………………………………………………28

10.The potentials and Challenges to Achieve the MDGs in Regional and Local Context…………………………………………………………………………………..30

11. Conclusions and Recommendations……………………………………………..32

Abstract

The Ethiopian economy is fundamentally based on subsistence level of agriculture which is highly dependent on the character and distribution of rainfall. In order to increase the level of agricultural activity, several policies have become operational in pursuit of transforming the rural sector to alleviate extreme poverty and be self- sufficient in food production. For this to happen, the government has started implementing the poverty reduction/ food security strategies for the past five years.

This paper has the objective of reviewing of the prevailing poverty reduction and food security strategies along with so-far achievements of the targets set under MDGs so that the challenges and prospects may be explored to a reasonable degree.

In order to improve the poverty situation of the country, the Government has been implementing pro-poor development activities taking agriculture as the focus of its development agenda. Agricultural-led Industrialization(ADLI), which is the overall development framework, forms the basis for subsequent development strategies for improving the livelihood of the majority of Ethiopians. In addition , a number of social development activities aiming at improving the health and education status of the general public have been performed

The MDGs consist of 18 indicators and 48 targets that particularly request every member country of a developing world to commit itself to improve the living standard of its people. Ethiopia as a one of the least developed countries has been exerting strenuous effort in line with achieving the targets set under MDGs. Since development is multidimensional and complex in its character, it requires the involvement of government, private sector participants, NGOS, communities and donors alike. These actors need to work closely if the targets subsumed under MDGS are to be met effectively. It is the synergy of these development actors that would help avoid extreme poverty and improve food security situation in the long run.

1.Introduction

It is obvious that for a developing country, agriculture forms the basis for every economic activity. It plays an active role in determining the economic , social and political system of a society of a developing world. In other words, it is the source of food supply for domestic consumption and for marketable items. It is also major employer for larger proportion of the population to make a living out of it. Since agriculture has significant contribution to the overall economy its share in terms of foreign exchange earnings has continued to be disproportionately higher than other sectors’ exportable items. It is also a major source of input for the for manufacturing industries particularly for food processing, textile and leather sub-sectors.

The Ethiopian economy is based on subsistence economy that put the country to be classified within the set of the least developed countries. Its overall economy is based on small-scale agriculture predominantly produced for domestic consumption by the majority of the rural society. Along with this, the cultivable land distribution is fragmented that could not make possible to transform the rural sector into vibrant and dynamic source of growth by using effectively modern agricultural machinery and improved implements so as to bring economic development within a reasonable period of time despite significant effort in the recent years.

Since Ethiopia’s agriculture is at its early stage and restricted almost to small-scale farming practices, its role in the provision of food supply has not become very successful in satisfying the nutritional needs of the larger segment of the population. In order to raise agricultural production, especially the cereal production, a number of measures have been taken so that the sector would register a far higher sustained growth rate with a view of meeting the nutritional need of society from this particular agricultural activity. To this effect, an Agricultural Development -Led Industrialization(ADLI) strategy has become operational with the objective of creating enabling conditions for securing national food self-sufficiency while the Food Security Strategy of the country centers around ensuring food security at the household level.

It is to be recalled Ethiopia’s Food Security Strategy(FSS) was issued in 1996 with a focus of Government plans to identify and assess the cause and effect of food insecurity in Ethiopia. The regional food security programs and projects were conceptualized on the basis of this strategy.

Since the issuance of updated version Food Security Strategy in 2002 , Ethiopia has been reported to have been unusually successful in food production as reported by the government. Agriculture is a departure point for initiating the rural transformation of the economy. As a logical extension , ADLI forms the basis of the FSS, as it does with the Poverty Reduction Strategy(PRS) process and is viewed as a means of poverty reduction in Ethiopia.

As Ethiopia is an agrarian society , ADLI presupposes productivity enhancement of smallholder agriculture and industrialization, based on utilization of domestic raw materials through labour-intensive technology. The strategy further gives emphasis to the development of large-scale private commercial farms that may help to expand domestic market by increasing the income of the rural society which constitutes not less than 85 percent of the total population.

Following the global community decision to eradicate poverty and hunger by the end of 2015, Ethiopia as a part of the international community, has been implementing a number of propoor development activities that helped to reduce the level of food insecurity and extreme level of poverty . As the task is tremendously big and complex, this venture is unlikely to be performed satisfactorily by a single actor i.e., the government. It is the consolidated effort of other actors like the private sector and the non-state actors including civil society organizations, that will help to meet the targets set by the international community.

High level of recognition is accorded to the non state actors which are sometimes synonymous with civil society organizations. These organizations have started functioning probably starting from1974 when the Ethiopian great famine occurred. They have been playing an active role in providing food relief and other support to people who have been suffering from hunger and famine.

It is thus useful to shed light on the possible role civil society organizations in complementing the efforts of Ethiopian government both at federal and regional levels to be self-reliant in food supply.

The donors seem to have placed acceptable confidence in civil society organization as they are alternative means of reaching the people at the grass root level which the government has not been successful in accessing the rural areas which are remote by the available means of transport.

Governments of developing world have realized that Civil Society Organizations(CSOs) are not a threat to their efforts towards development instead they have become a good partner in implementing the government development policies at all levels. They are being considered as an innovative means that are destined to promote the development need of the marginalized and the deprived section of society.

Civil Society Organizations may serve as an important bridge between the general public and government on the one hand and the between the government and the donor community on the other. Their intervention, if it is well managed, would promote understanding among all development actors to raise their role in having good governance and hence facilitating the building process of democracy that would help to have peace and political stability which in turn facilitates sustainable development.

2. Objective of the Paper

This paper is designed with a view of highlighting the achievements of MDGS in the Ethiopian context and review the Government’s Poverty Reduction and Food Security Strategies, and the challenges to meet the targets set under MDGs. Moreover, the possible roles of other development actors including Civil Society Organizations in improving the food security situation of Ethiopia would be assessed.

3.Methodology and Source of Data

The paper is fundamentally based on secondary data. Various studies pertinent to the subject have been consulted and different statistical bulletins have been extensively examined . Along with this, several related reports both have been assessed for the purpose. Moreover, discussion with relevant government institutions have been made in order to update the information in the areas of food security.

4. The Full Set of Millennium Development Goals

Table 4.1 Ethiopia’s Millennium Development Goals

Goal 1:Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger	2015 target =halve 1990povert and malnutrition rates
Population below 1$ a day Poverty gap at $1 a day (%) Percentage share of income or consumption held by poorest 20% Prevalence of child malnutrition (% of children under 5 Population below minimum level of dietary energy consumption(%)
Goal 2:Achieve universal primary education	2015 target = net enrollment to 100
Net primary enrollment ratio(% of relevant age group) Percentage of cohort reaching grade 5(%) Youth literacy rate(% ages 15-24)
Goal 3:Promote gender equality and empower women	2015 target=education ratio 100
Ratio of girls to boys in primary and secondary education (%) Ratio of young literate females to males (%ages 15-24) Share of women employed in the nonagricultural sector(%) Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament(%) Ra
Goal 4:Reduce child mortality
Under 5 mortality rate(per 1000) Infant mortality rate( per 10000 live births) Immunization measles(% of children under 12 months)
Goal 5: Improve maternal health	2015 target =reduce 1990 maternal mortality by three fourths
Maternal Mortality ratio(modeled estimate per 100,000 live births Births attended by skilled health staff(% of total)
Goal 6:Combat HIV?AIDS malaria and other diseases	2015 target= halt, and begin to reverse, AIDS etc.
Prevalence of HIV female (% ages 15-24) Contraceptive prevalence(% of women ages 15-49) Number of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS Incidence of tuberculosis (per100,000 people) Tuberculosis cases detected under DOTS(%)
Goal 7: Ensure Environmental sustainability	2015 target=various
Forest area (% of total land area) Nationally protected areas(% of total land area) GDP per unit of energy use(PP $ per kg oil equivalent CO2 emmissions(metric tons per capita) Access to improve water source(% population) Access to improved sanitation(% of population) Access to secure tenure(% population)
Goal 8 : Develop a global partnership for development	2015 target=various
Youth unemployment rate (% of total labour force ages 15-24) Fixed line and mobile telephones(per 1,000 people) Personal computers(per 1000 people)

Source:World Development Indicators database , April 2004

5.Poverty Profile of Ethiopia

The situation of food supply may be taken as an important factor in the Ethiopian economy. According to the Welfare Monitoring Survey of 2004 , food shortage is defined as the situation where households are unable to feed themselves during any month of the year. The survey demonstrated that the food shortage is a serious problem that affect the majority of the households surveyed. Worse still , since the majority of the total population is in the rural areas, it is this segment of society that is essentially suffering from food shortages , implying significant proportion of the Ethiopians in the rural sector are vulnerable to hunger.

5.1 Food Needs

As the table below indicates 31 percent of the households in the country reported the difficulty of meeting the demand for food in the last 12 months prior to he survey.

Table 5.1 Distribution of Households by Number of Months with Shortage and Place of Residence

	Country	Rural	Urban
No of months household suffered Food Shortage	%	%	%
Up to 1 month	8.6	8.2	12.7
2-3 months	43.7	14	39.7
4-6 months	32.8	33.5	23.8
7-9 months	5.6	5.8	3.9
10-12 months	5.5	5.3	9.1
Total Household suffered food shortage	31.1	34.2	14.8

Source :Welfare Monitoring Survey 2004

As Table 5.1 further proves there is clear difference in food shortage situation in urban and rural households. To see the breakdown of the food shortage, 34.2 % of the rural households have suffered from food shortage in the past 12 months , while only14.18 percent of the urban households faced have the same of difficulty in the mentioned period of time.

Concerning the regional distribution of the situation of food shortage the highest proportion of the household surveyed who suffered from food shortage were in Oromia followed by Tigray(31.9%) and Amhara(30.5%),Afar(29.0%),Somali(28.8%), SNNP(26.9%) and Benishangul-Gumuz (22.8%) regions had food shortage at least for a month during the last 12 months prior to the survey.