DFID: Working to reduce poverty in Ethiopia

DFID’s programme in Ethiopia is designed to help the Government to implement its own poverty reduction strategy, known as the PASDEP (Plan for Accelerated and Sustainable Development to End Poverty). We plan to increase our aid significantly, from £60m in 2004/5 to £130m in 2007/8.
In the past 5 years, Ethiopia has received £4 billion in aid of which DFID has provided £174.6m. Until March 2005, DFID provided poverty reduction budget support to Ethiopia, which is the provision of funds directly into a partner government’s own financial system to support their own poverty reduction programmes. Between 2002/03 and 2004/05 we provided £60m in this way, which helped the Government of Ethiopia to achieve the positive progress highlighted above. After the post-election violence we stopped budget support and now provide aid through the Protection of Basic Services grant.

Making aid effective

The Protection of Basic Services grant

We want to ensure that poor people in Ethiopia do not suffer as a result of our decision to stop providing budget support, and so along with the World Bank, we developed a new mechanism called the Protection of Basic Services grant (PBS). This new grant will help ensure that the Government continues to provide basic services such as education, health, water and sanitation, but will also require strict reporting on how funds are spent. Ireland, Netherlands, Canada, Sweden, the EC and the African Development Bank are considering contributing. DFID plans to give a total of £94 million through the PBS grant over the period up to June 2007.

Governance

Poor governance is a cause of poverty. People suffer when governments don’t allow participation in political life, provide access to justice, deliver adequate public services or control corruption. DFID is working to develop a more capable state in Ethiopia, for example, by contributing £23 million to a major project designed to build capacity of the public service and improve its management of resources. We are helping to strengthen institutions such as the judiciary, the Human Rights Commission and the regional and federal parliament so that citizens can hold public institutions to account. We are also giving support to citizens to help them voice their demands so that the Government responds to their needs and rights.

Health and HIV/AIDS

Core support for the health sector will come from the PBS grant – for example, funding the salaries of over 16,000 doctors and nurses. In addition, DFID will contribute £15 million to help the Ministry of Health procure and distribute 6.5m insecticide treated bednets, 2m doses of malaria treatment, and contraceptives for 3m women. Ethiopia receives a large amount of money for health and HIV/AIDS from global funds, consequently DFID focuses on strengthening the systems which deliver the services paid for by global funds or through the PBS grant.

Education

DFID’s core support for the education sector will also be provided through the PBS grant –this should help to get an extra 3.7 million children into primary school over the next two years. In addition, DFID works closely with the education sector on policy issues and also funds some projects, jointly with other donors, which focus on the quality of education, such as teacher training.

Hunger and Humanitarian

Between 2004 and 2007 DFID is contributing £70 million to the Productive Safety Net Programme which ensures that some 8 million of the poorest families in Ethiopia get enough food and maintain a basic standard of living through the year, even during times of harvest failure. In both 2005 and 2006, DFID gave £1 million to the International Committee for the Red Cross emergency appeal.

Water and Infrastructure

In line with DFID’s corporate priority to double spending on water and sanitation, DFID Ethiopia is currently preparing a five year investment programme for up to £100 million. DFID is also providing policy advice to the Ministry of Water Resources through an evidence based research programme and secondment of a policy adviser. In the transport sector, DFID is providing institutional support for road maintenance and around £1 million per year for the pilot phase of the Ethiopia Rural Travel and Transport Programme.

DFID: Making progress against the Millennium Development Goals...

Poverty indicators in Ethiopia are improving, although not fast enough to ensure that any will hit the Millennium Development Goal targets by 2015. Some improvements are:

• primary school enrolment rose from 37.4% in 1996 to 74.2% in 2004
• increase in the ratio of girls to boys enrolled in primary school from 75 girls per 100 boys enrolled in primary school in 1996 to 95 girls per 100 boys in 2004.
• decline in under five mortality rate from 95 deaths per 1000 live births in 1996 to 77 per 1000 in 2004
• decline in the incidence of new HIV infections in urban areas, from 2.5 new cases of infection per 100 adults in 1990-92 to below 2 since 1995
• births attended by skilled health professionals increased from 3.5% in 1998 to 9.5% in 2003
• increase in the proportion of the population with access to safe drinking water from 19% in 1996 compared with 36% in 2004.