Ethiopia ‘on track’ to meet the MDGs

Addis Ababa, June 11 (WIC) – Ethiopia is currently on the right track to meet the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), United Nations Resident Coordinator in Ethiopia said.

In an exclusive interview with WIC, Eugene Owusu said current evidences suggest that the country is on the right track to meet the MDGs with reservation to three of the goals.

The Ethiopian government is earning praise towards achieving the MDGs, particularly in the overall decline in poverty, positive gains in education, health and reducing the prevalence of HIV and AIDS. Environmental sustainability, gender equality and women’s empowerment, and maternal health are the areas where the country is urged to do more to meet the MDGs.

“Even for the three goals which Ethiopia is presently slightly off-track, the evidence is that with continuous investment in these three areas, I am very optimist that come 2015 Ethiopia will be able to achieve all the eight goals,” Eugene Owusu, who is also UNDP Resident Representative and UN Humanitarian Coordinator to Ethiopia,  told WIC.

A year ago the UN system in Ethiopia finalized what it called a business plan to support the country’s development. Dubbed the UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF 2012 - 2015), the plan of action allots a total investment of 1.9 billion dollars.

“The figure truly reflects a historic investment by the UN in this country,” Eugene said. “But the important thing is our full alignment of our entire business strategy to the priorities articulated in the Growth and Transformation Plan [GTP].”

Eugene said the UNDAF was done in a consultative manner that included federal and regional governments as well as private sector and civil societies. Out of the eight pillars of the GTP, the UN’s program for the next four years actually supports seven of them, he said.

The UN Country Team (UNCT) in Ethiopia, the largest in Africa, is a major development partner of the government with a combined annual budget of one billion dollars. Comprising of 25 UN agencies and 2,000 staff, the UN lends support to the Growth and Transformation Plan of the country.