A Remarkable Achievements and Strong Leadership Is Leading the African Nation to the Beacon of the Continent
Ethiopia, under the leadership of reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has been truly witnessing unprecedented transformation almost across all sectors during a span of six years. The Prime Minister who has been considered as a courageous reformer, since coming to power in April 2018, Ethiopia has embarked on comprehensive and ambitious transformative projects. Exclusively, the reform projects aimed at accelerating Africa's ancient nation transformation journey in various sectors by addressing long-standing setbacks.
Evidently, the ongoing Ethiopian reforms have generated great excitement with bold and symbolic measures not only at home but also in the African continent in general.
Particularly, the transformation efforts by the reformist government of Prime Minister Abiy, are being carefully implemented in a way to ensuring sustainable peace, food security and sovereignty as well as robust manufacturing expansion. From the outset, the success stories that have been recorded in major sectors have already proven Ethiopia is on the right track to achieve economic growth through the expansion of the manufacturing sector.
As a whole, Ethiopia is not only focused on realizing peace and development within its borders. It is a country also actively advocating for regional integration, peace, and collective development throughout the African continent notably across its neighbors. All of its strategies are in harmony with the continental development goals outlined in Agenda 2063, which serves as Africa's comprehensive framework for transforming the continent into a future global powerhouse. This agenda is a tangible expression of the pan-African commitment to unity, self-determination, freedom, progress, and collective prosperity, as advocated by the principles of Pan-Africanism.
Adopting Homegrown Solutions
Emanating from Prime Minister Abiy's grand philosophy of Medemer and his administration's economic reform to see a prosperous Ethiopia, the Home-Grown Economic Reform Program which was launched in 2019 is now under implementation. This extensive reform initiative addresses various aspects, from macroeconomic stability to sectoral advancement, serving as the foundation for Ethiopia's economic recovery and laying the groundwork for sustainable growth in all sectors including agriculture, mining, tourism and manufacturing.
As part of this initiative, the government has also commenced the full implementation of macroeconomic reform policies in recent months. These reform strategies aim to tackle a variety of challenges, including foreign exchange imbalances, strengthening the financial sector, controlling inflation, enhancing tax revenue collection, and improving the overall business environment. By addressing structural obstacles and enhancing economic resilience, the reform seeks to sustain strong growth and ensure that the benefits of development are widely shared. Its ultimate goal is to elevate Ethiopia as a symbol of prosperity in Africa, guiding the continent towards achieving its vision of becoming a future global powerhouse in alignment with Agenda 2063.
Despite numerous challenges, these multifaceted national reform measures have been bearing fruits as they are designed and implemented through homegrown strategies that align with the country's specific circumstances and Agenda 2063 of the African Union.
The successes so far registered in development areas, such as agricultural transformation, the green legacy initiative, regional peace and integration, and import substitution are attracting global attention, particularly from African countries, the continental organization, and other international bodies like the United Nations. Ethiopia's dedication meant not only aspires transformation for itself but the continent at large and east Africa in particular.
A chapter of History Has Been Closed
Agriculture has consistently been recognized as the cornerstone of the Ethiopian economy for approximately five decades and likely longer. This is evident as the sector contributes the lion share of national GDP and export trade. Ethiopia also possesses vast potential with millions of hectares of arable land. Yet only insignificant amount of hectares have been cultivated.
The government currently prioritizes the agriculture sector due to its significant role in the nation's overall development. Efforts have been directed towards improving productivity through a wide-ranging modern approach and strategies. One notable initiative introduced by Prime Minister Abiy in recent years is cluster farming, which has been actively promoted for the past five years. This agricultural development model enhances productivity by involving a large number of farmers in the agricultural value chain. In this regard, the government has chosen wheat as a strategic commodity for food security, import substitution that transits to export, and job creation along the value chain.
Ethiopia is a country extensively suitable for wheat production. Yet, since recently, it used to import 17 million quintals annually with a huge amount of foreign currency expense. This initiative, spearheaded by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, has brought a dramatic transformation. By employing a homegrown innovative, the country has now been able introduced a work culture all-round the year farming mechanisms using irrigation and the regular farming seasons. Accordingly, the productivity of this important crop has been steadily increasing over the past five years. This current fiscal year alone the nation expects to harvest at least 300 million quintals, equivalent to 30 thousand tons of wheat by cultivating over 8.2 million hectares of land.
Now, a notable historical milestone has been reached. The country, once relied on the importation of 17 million quintals of wheat annually, has stopped the import of wheat and begun exporting. This is a great inspiration not only for Ethiopia but the rest of Africa whose large segment of population is suffering from food insecurity.
Ethiopia is also engaged in increasing the productivity of its strategic rice crop building up on a success story in wheat self-sufficiency. Ethiopia's ambitious National Rice Development Strategy, launched four years ago, has identified 30 million hectares of land suitable for rice cultivation across the nation. This initiative is part of a broader vision to revolutionize the country's agricultural sector and boost food security. The nation is working to position Ethiopia as Africa's leading rice producer within the next two years.
'Bounty of the Basket' is the other impressive agricultural development initiative being implemented under the leadership of Prime Minister Abiy with the objective of attaining food self-sufficiency and to thrust from dependency. This initiative focuses on strengthening productivity in dairy, poultry, egg, honey, fish and meat production so as to ensure nutritional opulence at the family and national levels. The initiative has brought remarkable results over the past two years in the productivity of the aforementioned food items.
The Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), QU Dongyu commends this achievement. The accomplishments achieved by the Ethiopian government under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's leadership in transforming the agricultural sector to attain food self-sufficiency have served as a significant source of inspiration for the African continent, emphasized FAO Director-General.
Dongyu made this remark during the award ceremony of FAO Agricola Medal for Prime Minister Abiy, in recognition of his efforts to develop innovative solutions for achieving wheat self-sufficiency amid rapidly evolving and challenging conditions.
"I am so pleased to welcome you to this historical ceremony, not only for Ethiopia, not only for Africa but for the world, as it is a matter of global agenda," Dongyu said.
As a leading country in Africa, Ethiopia has been sharing its experiences to African countries. Several visits have already been conducted by African officials and experts to Ethiopia with the objective of knowledge sharing in this area.
Green Legacy : - A Sustenance Belt of Africa
Ethiopia is one of the leading countries in Africa in its ambitious plan designed to mitigate the impacts of climate change, expand forestation and ensure food security through its Green Legacy Initiative. The initiative launched in 2019 by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed carries out a national massive tree planting campaign which offers numerous benefits at both the international and national levels.
Over that past six years 40 billion seedlings have been planted across Ethiopia with the active participation of all segments of citizens. The initiative aims to plant 50 billion seedlings including edible plants by the year 2026. Ethiopia's green legacy initiative follows indigenous innovations as it involves not only forest trees but also edible plants by engaging millions of citizens. The initiative has already bearing fruits as Ethiopia's forest cover report had increased to 23.6 percent by 2023 from 17.2 percent in 2019.
The government of Ethiopia is also expanding the activities of the initiative in countries across the Horn of Africa as this part of the continent is mostly affected by the impacts of climate change. Ethiopia has been providing the necessary supports and seedlings to these countries so as to bring transformation in the entire region.
This approach and the government's genuine intention to further expand the initiative across the horn of Africa have also been attracting the attention of the global community. The country is also promoting the expansion of this initiative not only in Africa but also in the entire world as the impact of climate change is one of key global challenges and is instrumental to achieving the various development targets, including the SDG, Agenda 2063, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the NY Declaration on Forests, and other multilateral environmental agreements.
African Union (AU) Commissioner Musa Faki Mahamat once commented that Ethiopia is making significant strides in the realm of green development. He emphasized that initiatives such as the Ethiopian Green Legacy Initiative are essential for addressing the challenges faced by the African continent, particularly as it grapples with recurring droughts attributed to climate change. He urged other African nations, especially those in the Horn of Africa, to emulate Ethiopia's efforts in mitigating the impacts of climate change.
The AU is collaborating to implement the Great Green Wall Initiative alongside the Green Legacy Initiative, which has shown remarkable success in combating desertification within Ethiopia. The Great Green Wall is a continent-wide, African-led initiative aimed at restoring degraded lands while generating employment and opportunities across Africa. Leaders from various countries and international organizations have commended this initiative, highlighting its ambitious nature and its holistic strategy for both planting and sustaining trees.
Regional Integration
In today's highly globalized world, it is exceedingly challenging for the initiatives of a single nation to achieve success in overcoming the vast challenges. Ethiopia has formulated a robust foreign policy with the central objective ensuring the national interest of the country, sovereignty, geographical, historical and economic benefits. The policy also prioritizes Ethiopia's relations with neighboring countries in view of strengthening regional integration, shared development and pursuing strong solidarity for the benefits of respective countries in the global venues.
Hence, Abiy's leadership is setting the stage for economic success across the region by improving trade and infrastructure. Ethiopia's well-being is intricately linked to the peace and progress of those around it. The expanding economic power of Ethiopia has the potential to uplift its neighbors.
Ethiopia actively promotes regional integration within the Horn of Africa, firmly believing that collaboration can effectively tackle common challenges and create economic opportunities. The country understands its position in the Horn of Africa. It is a populous country in the sub-region. It has territorial sizes, but besides that, Ethiopia has societal integration across the region. Therefore, Ethiopia's vision for development aligns with its goal of transforming the broader Horn of Africa. The country prioritizes prosperity, stability, and regional integration, ensuring that any advancement made within Ethiopia will positively influence its neighboring nations.
And, Ethiopia's inspiration and development goes in line with transforming the Horn of Africa region and the whole continent at large. Ethiopia's priority here is prosperity, stability and regional integration. So any development that comes on the Ethiopian side definitely will have a direct impact on the neighboring countries as well as Ethiopia's potential is very huge. Ethiopia has been working closely with the neighboring countries.
Ethiopia maintains a robust connection with its strategic partner Djibouti through various means, including road, rail, and water infrastructure. Additionally, it has established strong ties and integration with Kenya, particularly highlighted by the significance of the Lamu corridor. The nation has been actively developing its infrastructure and is engaged in electricity exports to Djibouti, Kenya, and Sudan, which is of considerable importance. Furthermore, Ethiopia is striving to broaden its initiatives to include the export of clean water. This collaborative effort has already commenced with Djibouti and is expected to extend throughout the region. The government has made numerous commitments to collaborate with various stakeholders to achieve its vision of regional integration. As previously noted, the expansion of the Green Legacy Initiative is also integral to Ethiopia's aspirations for regional integration.
Ethiopia- Advocate of Pan African Defense
Ethiopia has been one of the top troop contributing countries to the United Nations (UN) and AU peacekeeping mission. Particularly, the country has been a front runner in maintaining African peace and security. This is the history and legacy of the country since the struggle for independence across Africa. The country has been consistently engaging in defending the interests of Africa in multilateral venues too. Ethiopia has been devoted to promoting regional peace and committed to ensure the stability of Africa. The various peacekeeping missions that Ethiopia has successfully achieved enable it to receive international recognition and the most preferred country for peacekeeping missions across the globe.
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Ethiopia under the leadership of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has also intensified this long standing approach of the country to continental peace. The country has now been advocating for a strong Pan African defense to help the continent secure a unified force capable of safeguarding its own peace and stability which is the backbone of economic transformation.
The Pan African defense force is instrumental in realizing the vision set by African forefathers several decades ago for an independent and coherent defense force capable of countering security threats in all aspects. Continuing to rely on foreign powers to address the challenges that Africa is facing and look for solutions from outside has not been fruitful instead it is exacerbating the problems in the continent. Many have been witnessing the fact that looking for a homegrown solution to African problems is a must.
High ranking military officials, who attended the First African Defense Ministers Conference in Addis Ababa last month hailed Ethiopia for its commitment to support Africa, tackle its challenges by fostering peace and stability of the continent. They were deeply astonished by Ethiopia's open-door policy during this event, which facilitated the exchange of experiences in technology and defense capabilities during their stay in Addis Ababa. The military officials delighted by Ethiopia's initiatives to protecting the continent's sovereignty and fostering peace and stability.
Ethiopia is demonstrating its readiness to become self-sufficient not only in economic terms, but also military advising African nations to end their dependence on imported military equipment by building their own continental capacity. It invites its African countries to share knowledge and experiences by opening the doors of its military industries stressing the need to have regional cooperation in military technology research and development.
The foundation of this kind of indigenous development approach is the result of bold decisions made by the leadership of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. The approach has demonstrated the potential of the country to bring concrete changes through extensive efforts by trying to utilize all existing opportunities and overcoming the multiple predicaments. This is the secret of Ethiopia's success that has been inspiring countries in the continent in various fields including economic development.
Ethiopia is committed to maintaining its position as a frontrunner in Africa's comprehensive transformation. The nation is undergoing its development initiatives with a vision that encompasses not only its own progress but also the well-being of its neighbors and the entire continent. The success Ethiopia has achieved is serving as a beacon of inspiration for other African nations. Its role in ensuring peace and security as well as economic integration in the region is paramount; without Ethiopia's active participation, efforts toward stability, sustainable development would be futile.
