Introduction
The
purpose of this writing is twofold. First, it is educational and
informational on current realities in Ethiopia, and secondly
it is to put the record straight and unveil the manifest assertion by Mr.
Shewakena and his likes in an article addressed to Minister Sufian Ahmed
on budget distribution in Ethiopia. Minister Sufian has
competently responded to earlier allegations of discriminatory
distribution of government budgets and international aid. While it is
widely acknowledged that Ethiopia faces serious problems
and challenges of development and democracy, there is also a wide
consensus that the peace and security achieved in the past decade and the
capacity building development programmes underway are state-of-the-art
measures acknowledged by world-class pundits in the business. Nonetheless,
as the purpose of Mr. Shewakena’s submission is less sincere than what it
looks like at face value, what it deserves is a good analysis of his
assertions and corresponding reply to his iconoclastic submission.
On resource allocation and
management:
1.
Ethiopia has registered growth of over 11% in 2005 in spite of
the economic governance system inherited from decades of suppression by
the fuedo-military complex. True government officials do not deny that the
nation still faces a lot of policy and strategic challenges that they must
address. Nonetheless, our historical vulnerabilities stem from decades of
decadent economic policies of the
| feudal regimes and the
Dergue holocaust that continue to haunt the country today (poverty,
social exclusion, the Wollo famine of 1970s that finally lay bare
the inhumane nature of the feudal order was a cumulative impact of
decades of feudal policies that made the Ethiopian people vulnerable
to the whims of nature and still lingers to date in a more abrasive
rendering…). Ironically many in the minority
Diaspora
|
ETHIOPIA THEN AND NOW
|
1990
|
2004
|
Gross Domestic Product growth
|
-2.5%
|
11.6%
|
Agricultural growth
|
-2%
|
18.9%
|
Industrial growth
|
1.3%
|
6.9%
|
Distribution service
|
1%
|
7.6%
|
Inflation
|
25%
|
9.6%
|
Percentage of women in total labor force activity
|
12%
|
35.4%
|
Functional adult Literacy rate
|
11%
|
41.5%
|
Combined Gross school enrollment ratio (%)
|
9%
|
34%
|
Girls/boys ratio
|
12.5%
|
43.98%
|
Population with access to drugs
|
5.5%
|
50.8%
|
Population with access to improved sanitation
|
3%
|
12%
| |
nostalgically remember these eras as the ‘good’
times; while in diametrically opposed action they have been the harbingers
of the vulnerabilities that
Ethiopia is trying to mend over
the past decade.
ETHIOPIA THEN AND NOW
|
1990
|
2004
|
Gross Domestic Product growth
|
-2.5%
|
11.6%
|
Agricultural growth
|
-2%
|
18.9%
|
Industrial growth
|
1.3%
|
6.9%
|
Distribution service
|
1%
|
7.6%
|
Inflation
|
25%
|
9.6%
|
Percentage of women in total labor force activity
|
12%
|
35.4%
|
Functional adult Literacy rate
|
11%
|
41.5%
|
Combined Gross school enrollment ratio (%)
|
9%
|
34%
|
Girls/boys ratio
|
12.5%
|
43.98%
|
Population with access to drugs
|
5.5%
|
50.8%
|
Population with access to improved sanitation
|
3%
|
12%
|
2.
On a positive note, the new
economic policy of 1991, coming on the hills of the commandist economy,
gave a strong accent to the private sector limiting the role of the state;
redefining responsibilities for economic and social development among the
private and the public sectors. A market economy established by the new
economic policy is indeed a significant departure from centrally planned
paradigm.
Ethiopia has now developed
comprehensive plans that can
provide the basis for an in depth re-evaluation of its core mission.
3.
The state has also
established capacity for policy and strategic harmonization and sound
knowledge management towards the establishment of sound institutional
capacity in government for real-time strategy development, sensitivity
analysis (to project the likely effect of particular measures), policy
coordination, and attention to the details of implementation. In this
connection, the national capacity building initiative has made substantive
progress on information systems on micro-economic behaviour, including
market networks, and the specific requirements of technology transfer and
adaptation that are all preconditions for sound policy and strategy
analysis, formulation and management. Planning and policy-making are
characterised by on-going dialogue between government and different groups
of economic actors. Privatizing and commercializing activities are in full
swing to more efficiently provide a competitive, multi-channel environment
and enhance the private sector.
4.
Mr. Shewakena mistakenly asserts that resources are squandered by the
ruling party, that the government disproportionately allocates the highest
resources to Tigray and claims that even the people of Tigray do not
benefit from this because “the ruling party is stocking it up in its
kitchens”. This is an allegation that cannot be substantiated in any way
as our least worries are not corruption at the political level. You, Mr.
Shewakena, must understand this very well unless you raise it for the sake
of substantiating a pointless argument. Mr. Shewakena also asserts that
resources allocated to Tigray are the highest. Here again you are
mistaken. For one,
Ethiopia’s main income
trajectories of revenues are public companies, government employees,
international and local trade and aid. Much of this is generated at the
national level. Secondly, the formulae used for resource allocation is
fairly and clearly established on grounds of districts that have been
vulnerable to poverty, underdevelopment, war, droughts and epidemics.
Implementation capacity is also an important measure as many of our
regions forgotten by the feudo-military order are under capacitated to
implement programmes and hence the focus on capacity building. The chart
below shows budget distribution from 2000-2005, directly illustrating that
Mr. Shewakena’s source, Valfort’s paper, is flawed. In fact the winners
are the regions (Benishangul Gumuz, Afar, Gambella etc. and not Tigray!)
hitherto denied of their Ethiopianness by the very groups that the
minority vocal Diaspora represent.
|
Region
|
Domestic
|
External
Loan
|
External
Aid
|
Total
(000)
|
Population
(000)
|
Per
capita distribution
|
Rank
|
|
Addis
Abeba
|
|
118223
|
629037
|
747260
|
2973
|
251.34
|
11
|
|
Afar
Region
|
1159560
|
91157
|
90828
|
1341545
|
1389
|
965.83
|
5
|
|
Amhara
Region
|
5542300
|
427341
|
776574
|
6904217
|
19120
|
361.09
|
9
|
|
Benshangul
Gumuz
|
858110
|
76466
|
75693
|
1010269
|
625
|
1616.43
|
3
|
|
Dire
Dawa
|
451170
|
28834
|
26319
|
506323
|
398
|
1272.17
|
4
|
|
Gambella
Region
|
647270
|
50080
|
38746
|
736096
|
247
|
|