Addis Ababa — The World Bank on Tuesday launched a new Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) for Ethiopia which covers the period July 2008 - June 2011 and aims to help the country sustain its strong performance in economic growth and basic service delivery in recent years.
The Bank's strategy will help address challenges of the country by supporting the implementation of key elements of the Governments' Plan for Accelerated and Sustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP), the bank group said in a statement.
Accordingly, the Bank's support, both financial and analytical, is focused around four main pillars; Fostering economic growth, Improved quality of and access to basic services, Reducing Vulnerability and Fostering Improved Governance.
Ethiopia's achievements on growth and basic service delivery are remarkable, said Ken Ohashi, World Bank Country Director for Ethiopia.
"At the same time, sustaining this good performance will require addressing several looming challenges. The Bank will provide its full support to Ethiopia in this regard." The Bank's program for Fiscal Year 2008 is based on an initial International Development Association (IDA) allocation of about $635 million at current exchange rates. The size of the lending program for the rest of the CAS period will depend on IDA's 15th replenishment, which envisages significant funding increases for IDA borrowers. The annual allocation of IDA resources, however, will reflect a country's policy and institutional performance relative to other countries, portfolio quality, per capita income levels, and population.
Ethiopia has entered the early stages of a 'dual take-off' in the provision of basic services and in economic growth. Over the past decade, its efforts to improve basic services have shown impressive results.
According to the bank, Primary school enrollments have tripled, child mortality has almost been cut in half, and the number of people with access to clean water has more than doubled. Over the last four years, GDP growth has averaged over 11 percent per year. The percentage of Ethiopians living in poverty, which stood at 46 percent in 1996 and 44 percent in 2001, fell to 39 percent in 2006.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, is expanding its reengagement in Ethiopia to support the development of the private sector. IFC has recently approved an investment in the cement industry, which is the Corporation's first investment project in Ethiopia in over 18 years.
Extensive consultations were carried out in the formulation of the strategy in order to obtain a wide range of perspectives from diverse stakeholders on the priorities, challenges and options for the Bank's activities and role in the country. Stakeholder groups from the government, the private sector, civil society organizations, academia, opposition members of parliament, community groups, and other donors took part in the consultations.
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'Dual Take Off' of Ethiopia, both on the 'basic' front( reduction of malnoutrition, child mortality, clean water availabilty and malaria reduction) and economic progress, from an objective institution is one of the most under reported story to date. As a founding member of the World Bank and the rest of the International Institutions, Ethiopia deserves all the help it can garner. If there is any merit to the assesment of the World Bank, Prime Minister Zenawi and his admistration have to be applauded.
It will be a calamity to change the man at the helm, given his performance. 2010 is just around the corner, and there is no way the current Leader should leave his position for greener and quieter pasture. I beg Mr Zenawi, who is at his prime, to stay the course and not leave the Nation to inner squabbling and power fight, whether within his inner circle or out. I have to be honest and state tht the current status quo needs some ameloration. Ethiopia isn't the bacon of human rights. However, I consider the most important right of a peson to be that of having a brite economic future and not the right to assmeble, protest, or express himself. The very fact that an impoverished down trodden individual has such rights at the bottom of his prerequisite where as his right to basic aliments and heathcare a matter of life and death makes them absoloute But for the most part, the fundamental issue facing Ethiopia is that of economic progress and self sufficiency in food production. Comapre to this, all the rest, including ' so called democratic rights' are secondary. In a Country, where the absouloute majority lives below the poverty line, what is needed is rapid economic progress. So long as the Ethiopian govt is ' delivering' in that front, the rest is cosmetic. Good Job PM Zenawi! Long live your astute leadership. We cannt afford to change horse midway through the race. 10 more years and then, Mr Zenawi, you can retire in the UN or pursue research and teaching at Harvard or Oxford. For now, stay the course of improving the life of the down trodden Ethiopian. It is a ' Historic Call'! Will The Premier do the right thing?
For over 300 years, South Africans have been subjugated and tortured by White (European) apartheid. We Ethiopians especially the Oromo people are being tortured by black (African) apartheid. You may be surprised to know when Meles Zenawi and his Tigray minority ethnic mafia controlled "political party", massacring & oppressing the majority, if not exaggerated the third largest Ethiopian ethnic group in Africa. But as allay to USA, Meles Zenawi's dictatorship may be ignored by the so-called "freedom-loving" Western allies. Even when the United States became involved in the conflict in neighboring Somalia, it chose Ethiopia as its regional partner, providing support for former guerrilla leader Meles Zenawi. The U.S. has even given its approval to North Koreas Kim Jong-il to sell weapons to Meles Zenawi. A former medical student, Meles Zenawi began his political career by joining a Stalinist guerilla group in 1974. Twenty-one years later he gained power after overthrowing Ethiopias much-reviled dictator, Mengistu Haile Mariam. In order to satisfy Western demands for a multi-party democracy, Meles created puppet parties for each of the nations major ethnic groups, while the real parties boycotted his elections. In 1998, he subjected his people to an unnecessary border war with Eritrea that caused thousands of deaths. He agreed to international arbitration to settle the border, but when the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission ruled against him, Meles refused to abide by the decision and kept for Ethiopia land that belonged to Eritrea. Meles Zenawi's ethnic Tigray mafia dictatorship in Ethiopia as abhorrent as it is, it remains to be seen if it can stand the test of time & the Ethiopian people's volcano, cooking under his ethnic dictatorship.