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Human Development situation in Ethiopia /Gemechu Tussa/
Ethiopia has achieved various gains in the past fifteen years. According to reports from the government and other international organizations the tangible changes Ethiopia has been achieved includes in the social, economical and political arenas.
One typical issue is the country’s Human Development. The United Nation Development program has launched the 2016 Human Development report on April 4, 2017 with the theme of Human Development for everyone, which reaffirms the validity of the concept of human development and imperative choice and freedoms. The report shows the impressive progress in human development over the last years.
It confirmed that people have now began to live longer, more children are at school and access to basic social services have improved. There has been a significant improvement in the living standard of the people.
Ethiopia has been made a significant gain in human development, with the human development value increasing by 58.3 percent from 2000 to 2015. The country has achieved a broad based and strong economic growth and commendable social development.
The 10.6 percent average economic growth witnessed for the past 13 years and the increase in the national income to 747 billion Birr in 2016 from the 247 billion Birr in 2005 as major improvements. It is also know that the rise of per capita income to 794 USD and the decline of poverty to 23.4 per cent in 2015 from 38.7 per cent in 2005 could be good indications of the betterment of the livelihoods in the country.
The report also found that there is a significant improves in women participation in the parliament with 37.5 percent seats, which is one of the achievements leading to the improvement of human development in the country.
The achievement didn’t come out of the blue moon. Rather the government with the collaboration of the people made a number of activities to improve human development in Ethiopia.
In fact, some may agree with the rank given to the country. However, everything cannot be attained at once. The improvements made so far will lead to better ranks in the coming years if the government will continue to work hard to ensuring sustainable and inclusive growth as well as human and capital development.
It is vivid that Ethiopia is encouraged by the continuous progress in human development indices every year considering that the country started from very low. The tremendous social and economic gains Ethiopia achieved in its first Growth and Transformation Plan, which demonstrated the country’s viability forward, has also an input to the next success. The contribution of the people and government of Ethiopia and development partners was so commendable.
Considering all the experiences gained in the first Growth and Transformation Plan, the Ethiopian Government has exercised one and half year implementing the country’s second Growth and Transformation Plan, which is believed to further progress the human development. This plan is also allied with three key pillars in the Sustainable Development Goals that seek to foster economic development, social and environmental protection advancement goals.
The second Growth and Transformation Plan would harness partnerships taking into account that Ethiopia’s development is a responsibility of multiple stakeholders. Economic analysts emphasized that the main shift between the first GTP and the second GTP is the fact that the former focused on agriculture while the latter gave greater emphasis to industrial growth, particularly the manufacturing sector.
The reports vividly indicated that in the 2010/11 and 2013/14 GTP period, real Gross Domestic Product growth rates for three key sectors namely, agriculture, industry and services accounted for 6.6, 20.0 and 10.7 per cents respectively. The efforts in agricultural transformation enabled farmers to shift to high yield crops through irrigation development, water harvesting and river diversion while in industry small and micro enterprises were created.
The government has also identified some gaps to be addressed in the second GTP period such as greater inclusive development to provide more opportunities for women and youth and low land areas, ensuring delivery of quality basic service and sustainable growth that takes into account unforeseen external shocks such as the global economic, environment and climate change effects.
The country aspires to become a leader in light manufacturing such textile, apparel, leather and agro processing, which are key areas where Ethiopia wants to secure more support. The country has aggressive working in expanding industrial parks, which will help attract more foreign direct investment.
Ethiopia targets to increase its export revenue to 12 billion USD during this Growth and Transformation period in order to maximize what it has secured in the first GTP period accounts to 3 billion USD.
Besides, the government targets to boost export revenue by 29 percent in each year of the coming Growth and Transformation Plan. It also stipulates in the 2019/20 fiscal year, the country will generate USD 16 billion in export revenue, while the manufacturing sector will account for 25 percent of total exports.
The Government of Ethiopia has also planned to reduce shares of the agricultural sector in the Gross Domestic Product to 36 per cent from its current level of 40 per cent, in favor of industry and services sectors in its second national plan.
Gross Inland Revenue is expected to account for 18.8 percent of the GDP. The share of domestic savings, which currently stands at over 22 percent of the GDP, will also grow to 29.6 percent. Investment will represent 41.3 percent of the GDP in the coming GTP. Meanwhile, the industrial sector is expected to grow by over 18 percent in the next five years.
The manufacturing sector will play a significant role to attain increased exports. Besides, air transportation and tourism will contribute considerably to fetch hard currency. The manufacturing sector will also focus on light industries, while the government has planned to give special attention to heavy industries.
Export trade, including tourism and air transport are planned to represent 25 percent of the GDP by mid 2020 in a view to maintain the agricultural sector as the major contributor to GDP in the coming years.
The past two decades witnessed that Ethiopia has been transforming its economy. The pragmatic move and grave political and economic achievement is so incredible for many economic and political analysts. The Human Development scheme has also progressing from time to time.
The report indicated that the 2016 Human Development report in Ethiopia indicated better situation than 2015 Human Development report. This has direct link with the development of the country’s economy. That is why the United Nations country Representative praised Ethiopia for its fast growing and improving its social, political and economic situations.
