Ethiopian Background Update

It’s occurred to me that since my decision to focus on Ethiopia I haven’t really given much general information about the country. However, I think it will be really useful for putting the challenges and possible solutions that I’ll be discussing into context. So here’s a quick background update on Ethiopia: 

Despite being influenced by processes in the Indian Ocean, Ethiopia is a landlocked nation (see Figure 1). It has the second largest population of any African country, behind Nigeria, yet it is also one of the most poverty stricken with a per capita income of just $660. Agriculture makes up almost 50% of the country’s GDP, most of which centres on small-scale rain-fed crops and livestock rearing, and is growing at 5% per year. Economic growth averaging 10.5% per year from 2005/6 to 2015/16 has, however, reduced extreme poverty levels from 55.3% in 2000, to 33.5% in 2011. Alongside this, in the last 20 years Ethiopia has seen a marked improvement in a number of human development indicators. Child mortality, for example, has been halved, access to clean water has increased more than two fold, primary school attendance has risen four fold and life expectancy has risen to just over 65. 

Additionally, Ethiopia has established the most extensive social safety net programme in Africa and has ambition to transition to a lower-middle-income nation by 2025. There has been increasing public spending over the last decade and remarkable advances have been made in health sectors and general service provision, with 42% of the urban population reaping the benefits. There is still, however, a long way to go and, largely as a result of the country’s very low starting position, Ethiopia still needs substantial investment and improved policies in order to achieve their development ambitions.  Furthermore, whilst great progress has been made, it is important to remember that a 33.5% extreme poverty level is still substantial and, when put in the context of Ethiopia's population growth rate of 3.2%, means the actual number of Ethiopians living in extreme poverty has grown. Despite Ethiopia’s impressive social safety net programme, there remains serious concerns over its food security and, as I’ll be discussing in future posts, improvements could be made to water management for agricultural production. As I mentioned in my last post, next week I’ll be having a look at the effects on food availability of natural and anthropogenic fluctuations in rainfall. 


Figure 1: Political Map of Ethiopia

Comments

  1. Anparasan Sivakumaran5 January 2018 at 15:39

    Hi Henry,

    I think it's a wise choice to focus on a country within Africa and really going into depth, instead of trying to focus on all or most of the countries briefly. I was just wondering, in your opinion, are there any other African countries which have similar characteristics to Ethiopia. I am asking this question to see whether any policy recommendations you make can be transferred elsewhere. Or would you say that every country is truly unique and there is no one size fits all policy?

    Best wishes,
    Anparasan

    ReplyDelete
  2. H10 January 2018 at 04:01

    Hi Anparasan, thanks for reading and the feedback.

    I do think that there are similarities across certain countries in Africa, particularly in terms of the socioeconomic capacity of implementing development strategies. However I would be cautious about offering general statements, assumptions or policy recommendations without looking in depth at each individual country, as ultimately, each country may be highly varied whether this be in terms of precipitation or groundwater availability.

    This is not to say policies offered for one place cannot be looked at, used or adapted for a different country, but I would be hesitant in using a policy without first looking in detail at each individual country.

    Thanks,

    Henry

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ethiopian Precipitation Cycles

Image
Sorry readers! It’s been a while since my last post, but whilst I’ve been away I have been taking a look at the extraordinary situation of Ethiopia, on the east coast of Africa (see Figure 1). The pressures facing Ethiopia’s agricultural production are extreme and highlight well the precarious relationship between food and water across much of Africa. I will therefore be   focusing on Ethiopia throughout my blog. This week I will discuss some of the cyclical water-related issues facing Ethiopian agriculture before highlighting long-term and anthropogenic problems posing a threat to Ethiopia’s food security in my next post. Future posts will then explore the potentially devastating impact of these cycles and changes on food availability, before taking a look at some of the solutions that have and could be employed to combat Ethiopia’s chronic food insecurity.    Figure 1: Location of Ethiopia                                          Across Africa, the relationship b
Read more

Can Egypt Show The Way?

Image
Last week I hope I illustrated how Ethiopia does have plentiful surface water resources, at least for part of the year, despite what I may have been pointing to in previous posts. However, this raises the question as to why, with plentiful fertile soils and bountiful rainfall, Ethiopia so often treads the line between food insecurity and famine. There are of course complications that prevent agricultural production, such as extreme topography. Yet with over 124 billion cubic metres (BCM) of river water and around  4 million hectares of potentially irrigable land (depending on the information source), it is perhaps surprising that even during years with good rains Ethiopia cannot produce enough food for its growing population. Through a comparison with Egypt, a nation which, despite having three times less arable land than Ethiopia , achieves near-continuos food security , some of the possible solutions to Ethiopia’s water and food problems become apparent.   Egypt rec
Read more

Anthropogenic Food Insecurity in Ethiopia

Image
Last week , I highlighted the role that global natural phenomena play in influencing Ethiopia’s rainfall patterns. However, there are other factors putting pressure on Ethiopia’s food supply and whilst not all directly water based, it is important to have a complete understanding of the challenges facing Ethiopia’s food and water relationship. This week I’ll be looking at the impact of general warming, the long-term decline in precipitation experienced in parts of Ethiopia and the significance of the nation’s rapidly growing population.   Ethiopia, as with the rest of the globe, is experiencing anthropogenic warming and an average one-degree temperature rise is expected in the imminent future (see Figure 1 ). It is likely that this rise will result in the intensification of the natural cycles that I discussed last week, with rainfall events becoming more extreme, but less frequent, with a 40% increase in the frequency of droughts . This will exacerbate both periods of drought an
Read more