Addis Ababa — : National Bank Governor Mamo Mihretu said that "our goal is not only to stabilize the economy, but also foster more development through better recovery and reconstruction efforts."
Ethiopia's Recovery and Reconstruction Conference discussed yesterday the recently completed Damage and Needs Assessment (DaNA) Report and Recovery Plan for Ethiopia.
Speaking on the occasion, the governor said the conflict in the country has had significant impact not only on infrastructures and lives but also on monetary development and economic reform efforts.
The conflict has had a considerable impact on Ethiopia's economy trajectory, causing a considerable economic cost for the country, worsening both livelihoods and the well-being of the population.
Mamo stressed that the work of reconstruction, rehabilitation and recovery requires spending more.
"For us, it is so important to stabilize the economy. I think, if the economy stabilizes, that will be truly a foundation for long-term growth in Ethiopia. That will be truly a foundation for prosperity in this country. Stability is an important goal. But, on the other hand, there is immediate humanitarian, recovery and reconstruction of damaged infrastructures needed," the governor noted.
He further said that the "goal is, on one hand, to stabilize the economy but also to foster more development through better recovery and reconstruction effort."
For Mamo, thinking about these two policy priorities which seemingly require opposing macro-economic response, creating some sort of policy space is needed.
"We need to create some sort of policy space. This policy space should address both stability objective and recovery and reconstruction objective."
According to him, the better way of creating policy space is one by better mobilizing international support, by encouraging the private sector to participate in the recovery, and reconstruction effort.
"If you can achieve that, then on one hand you will be able to stabilize the economy but on the other hand will also do a better job and progressive job at recovery and reconstruction."
Noting that the National Bank of Ethiopia has a core mandate of stability, Mamo stated that "we have a very clear idea what our mandate and objective is. Our focus is on price stability, financial stability, and external stability."
Those three issues: price, financial, and external stability are important objectives of the national bank. And "if you are successful in this, you will lay a strong foundation for growth, recovery and reconstruction effort in this country," the governor underscored.
World Bank Senior Economist for Ethiopia, Vinayak Nagaraj said that "when we look at the challenges of rebuilding, and reconstructing not just from a conflict perspective, we are looking at doing it at the same time as dealing with a bold, ambitious reform agenda that was started two years ago. That has an aspiration to actually change the way in which the economic model of the country works."
From some of the experiences of the models like Vietnam or Korea, or Japan, many post- conflict success stories that merged reform and ambitious and broader reform agenda alongside a process of rebuilding and restoring not just the assets, but also the social contract of the country.
Moreover, peace is a precondition for economic recovery, but economic recovery needs peace to actually do its job and so it's both the precondition and the outcome, the senior economist elaborated.
The objective of economic recovery is the jobs, the opportunities, the incomes that are going to keep people peaceful.But at the same time you need the peace to be sustained. And how do you balance that challenge? Many countries have failed to do that well, he indicated.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
"Ethiopia still has its own history, to look at examples where this peace dividend can actually bring benefits that keep you outside that fragility. If anything Ethiopia has every opportunity to rebuild better and more quickly from those lessons," Nagaraj explained.
The Damage and Needs Assessment (DaNA) Report and Recovery Plan for Ethiopia discussed quantifies the conflict's direct damages to physical assets and economic losses on livelihoods, infrastructure and productive sectors as well as the macroeconomic and poverty impacts.
The report also identifies the total recovery needs, estimated at 20 billion USD over 5 years.
Ethiopia's Resilient Recovery and Reconstruction Framework (2023-2028) is the overarching framework for use by the government and partners to plan, coordinate, finance, and manage the recovery through efficient, timely, and well-coordinated efforts with the involvement of all stakeholders and support from the international community.
