Country Ethiopia - Research Paper Example

? ETHIOPIA Ethiopia is located in East Central Africa, bordered on the West by Sudan and on the East by Somalia. Ethiopia is the land of burned face people, also referred to as land of black men. Pious and favored by the Gods are the Ethiopians. Ethiopia is the tenth largest country in the world. It covers an area of 1,104,300 square miles with a country comparison of 27 to the world (CIA). Ethiopia is also called as the “Horn of Africa” constituting the major land mass (www.unhs.org). There are over eight ethnic groups. The nomadic and semi nomadic people compose the rural lowland population. There are eighty six known indigenous languages in Ethiopia out of which 82 are spoken and 4 are extinct. The Amhara have been the dominant ethnic groups traditionally. Other ethnic groups have responded differently to different situations taking place in Ethiopia. The Standard of living refers to the well being. Well being is defined in terms of a state being healthy, happy and satisfied. It refers to the quality, degree of excellence, grade or distinguishing characteristics. In the context of Ethiopia it refers to mainly availability of resources/goals to satisfy basic needs. Standard of living has to do with having farm, land, farm implements and a house in rural settings, as well as having a job (employment) or business (income) in urban settings. Those people without these have a jeopardized standard of living The standard of living or the economy of Ethiopia started to grow by early 1970’s, and it diversified into areas such as manufacturing and services. Ethiopia is the 12th least developed country in the world (UNDP, 2007). The HDI for Ethiopia is 0.414 which ranks the country 171st out of 182 countries. The less than average score of HDI ~0.51 for Sub Saharan Africa is scored by Ethiopia. It made no improvement in its people’s standard of living as compared to earlier years. The GDP (gross development product) has made very few individuals become filthy rich while leaving million others as poorer than they had always been (UNDP HDR). The HDI looks to a broader definition beyond GDP providing a composite measure of three dimensions of human development i.e., healthy life (measure by life expectancy), being educated (measured by adult literacy and gross enrollment), and having a decent standard of living (measured by purchasing power parity, PPP income). The PPP income of Ethiopia is 58% and is on 146th number among the other countries of the world. The standard of living reflected by the GDP, HDI and PPP values places Ethiopia behind 132 countries in having a better living standard. Inequality within the countries and between the countries is identified as one of the main barriers to human development (UNDP HDR, 2005). The inequality is a major problem in Ethiopia which includes major gender inequality and income inequality issues. Although Ethiopia remains one of the most tradition bound societies in Africa, the policy instruments and legislative commitments serving women’s interests, recently introduced a vast majority of Ethiopian women, particularly in rural areas, as far from being well off, independent, and direct beneficiaries of development initiatives. Women are considered inferior to men both in family life and society at large, following traditional socio cultural installations and practices. Polygamy, female genital mutilation, and violence against women are very common in Ethiopia. Many urban and rural women believe that their husbands have a right to beat them. About 73 percent of Sub Saharan Africans live on less the US$2 per day (UNDP, 2011). The UNDP has launched a pro-poor initiative to boost job creation through pro business development that engages low income Africans e.g. customers, employees, producers or entrepreneurs. This initiative includes African countries like Ethiopia, Kenya, Angola and Malawi. 12 million people in 44% population are chronically or at least periodically poor and food insecure. A large percentage of Ethiopians are under nourished, and majority of the poor class subsisting in rural areas depend upon agriculture for livelihood. The production is extremely vulnerable; lack of rainfall with sharp increases in recent swell in prices of food and fertilizers in the world’s market has worsened the situation for poor households in Ethiopia. Poor are those who are not meeting their basic needs, unable to eat, dress and send their children to school (World Bank, 1999). Increasing population growth is causing threatening damage to the economy and standard of living of the Ethiopians. It results in food insecurity. The population is growing 3% per year and 45% of population consists of people below the ages of 18. According to the latest statistics the population of Ethiopia in thousands is 79935.8000000000 (Penn World tables, 2007). With every million or more increase in infants per year means more mouth to be fed, more children to send to school, while the system is extremely impoverished. Increase in the size of family means decrease in the size of food portions and declining nutrition. Large population growth results in diminished agricultural output, smaller farming plots, ceased crop rotation, deforestation, and ultimately malnutrition for each new generation per family Human capital issues include the issues of health and education. It is the poorest countries in the world with per capita income of only $110 dollars per year. Half of the GDP is accounted by Agriculture 90% of export and 80% of total employment. With reference to Ethiopia the main health problems are said to be communicable diseases caused by poor sanitation and malnutrition. Ethiopia has 1 medical doctor per 100,000 people (UNDP report). It has a low life expectancy of 45 years (AIDS action, 2005), and this shortage of trained manpower and health facilities exacerbates the problems. The health problems or diseases causing poor health encountered in Ethiopia are tuberculosis, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio and measles. HIV is prevalent; obstetric fistula affects the women and malnutrition is widespread. At present at least 5 million Ethiopians require food relief (www.unhs.org). The universal access to basic education remains an unfulfilled pledge in Ethiopia. To universalize basic primary education, the hopes and aspirations remain a great concern. In Ethiopia millions of children fail to gain access to schools as compared to the ones who do enroll but leave prematurely. Illiteracy greatly affects 60% of adult population. The Ethiopian education system is worst in quality as well as quantity. The country is facing lowest rates of enrollment in the world with 33% boys and less than 20% girls. Education is poor due to inadequate teachers, materials and school facilities (www.unhs.org) Physical infrastructure in Ethiopia is weak. It is suffering with limited distribution systems which complicate access to health services especially the rural areas. The issue may be; Government health outlets may be relatively low and widely dispersed, and wealthier urban areas may be favored by private sector sources. Ethiopians are suffering from the lack of basic needs of life such as food, healthcare and education, safe and healthy environment. Thus, the absence of a solid physical infrastructure hinders the strengthening of a community. Reproductive health is generally poor with significant regional disparities in access to services and health outcomes. There is a critical need to strengthen the health systems which require both time and instruments. Ethiopia was an under urbanized country according to the standards of Africa. A meager population lived in urban areas of the major residents. Many communities of people were primarily extensions of rural villages lacking or without urban structural criteria. Lack of agricultural self sufficiency which reinforced rural peasant life resulted in lack of urbanization. Urbanization however aced during the mid 1990’s with the average annual growth rate. The northern half of Ethiopia was especially evident with urban growth where most of the major towns are located. Ethiopia needs to practice more and more rural development planning. The ministry of agriculture and rural development plays its duties in rural development, agriculture on federal level, conservation and use of forest and wildlife resources, food security, water use, small scale irrigation monitoring events, and early warning systems affecting agricultural development. The motive is to establish and provide agriculture and rural technology training which would ultimately result in the rural development. The highlands of Ethiopia show environmental changes that trigger the practice of migration. The cause of rural-urban migration is the lack of availability of sufficiently productive land. The environmental changes put stress on rural livelihoods but these are not counted as enough driving forces for migration. The weather conditions like drought, poor rainfall, and desertification are factors that initiate migration. Every year, many people cross national and international borders in order to seek better living standards, for higher income, better access to education and improved prospects for their children. The Ethiopians migration rate to Asia is 37.5% (UNDP HD report). Ethiopia suffers from environmental problems. The sub Saharan Ethiopia is especially vulnerable to the agricultural upheaval induced by global warming. The changing climate results in scarcity or water deprivation in Ethiopia. Global environmental chain reaction is triggered by global warming. The increasing carbon dioxide due to global warming accelerates crop production which lengthens the time period between harvests. The poor farmers in Ethiopia are not able to store any excess food in such a short time span which has spiraled down over decades into lower quantities of food, and causing a magnanimous threat to the development of the country. The least monetized is the Ethiopian economy in the world, having little access to banking and financial services. Ethiopia has been going through a severe financial crisis. The country is facing both social and economic problems. However, it appears from the perspective that Ethiopia has little fear from the current global crisis and is not isolated after all; it depends heavily on external food assistance. Significant part of the country’s population cannot produce or purchase enough food to meet the minimum requirements. Hence the country relies on the outside world to finance many of its developmental programs in the form of aid or investment. The investment plans of the Ethiopian electric power corporation in this regard have indicated severe damage. Secondly, the remittance is also likely to be affected as a result of the financial crisis faced by the country. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Ethiopia has been attaining economic growth. The Ethiopian’s lifestyle has been getting better. The economic theory to provide the Ethiopians with better living standards, education and income is acing in Ethiopia. In this regard the income gained from economic growth is distributed equitably among the Ethiopians; however, the population of Ethiopia is experiencing extreme poverty, but the motive of the economic theory for developing Ethiopia and nourishing the Ethiopians, is completely controlled and well managed by the State, inducing minimal differences in wages or salaries and instituting poverty reducing public programs. Ethiopia, as a result of the economic theory of development has now showed an aced economic growth and has become the fifth growing economy in the world showing significant improvements on Global Hunger Index and solving much of the problems of Ethiopians (for example hunger, malnutrition, famines, illiteracy, and gender and income inequality. Ethiopia needs to achieve sustainable development which according to IISD is “the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs” Corruption is one of the serious afflictions confronting this country. It is worsening and the levels are higher than they were in the previous years. Ethiopia is 92 on an index of 133 countries list, scoring 2.5 on a scale of 10 (UNDP, 2007). The taxation agencies of Ethiopia are the most corrupt; however, this corruption also extends into the business world. The business environment is affected by corruption to a large extent and the respondents in Ethiopia believe that corruption affects this sphere of life as much or more than either political life or their personal and family life (UNDP, 2007). In order to control the menace of corruption, good governance is being introduced which is a key part. The UN statistics shows the crime of homicide in Africa most recent being 34% and in Ethiopia 21 % (UN, 2011). Africa is included among the ten countries with highest reported crime rates (UNCJIN, 2011). Ethiopia is a country where men, women and children are subjected to the crime of trafficking. Trafficking is a condition of forced labor and forced prostitution conditions. The rural areas are forced into domestic servitude and commercial sexual exploitation in Ethiopia. Boys in Ethiopia are subjected to forced labor in weaving, herding, agriculture and street vending. Small numbers of girls are forced into domestic servitude outside Ethiopia (Interpol, 2011). The women face severe abuses including physical and sexual assault, denial of salary, sleep deprivation, incarceration and murder, and the ones driven to extreme despair eventually commit suicide. In sex trade some women are exploited. The efforts must lie within the Ethiopian government for the elimination of trafficking as it is badly effecting the development of the country causing illiteracy, and gender inequality. Bibliography: 1. IISD, (2006), what is sustainable development? Environmental, economic and social well- being for today and tomorrow. Retrieved on 29th April 2011 from http://sdgateway.net/introsd/definitions.html 2.UNDP, (2011). Pro-poor initiative to boost job creation in Africa. Retrieved on 29th April 2011 from http://www.undp.org/ 3. UNDP (2007). Ethiopia: No Improvements in standard of Living. Retrieved on 29th April 2011 from http://www.un.org/en/development/ 4. UNDP, HDR (2005). International Cooperation at a cross roads: Aid, trade and security in an unequal world. Retrieved on 29th April 2011 from http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2005 5. World Bank (1999), “Gender and Law: Eastern Africa speaks, Africa region findings. Retrieved on 29th April 2011 from http://www.worldbank.org/ 6. CIA, (2011). The World Fact book: Ethiopia. Retrieved on 29th April 2011 from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/et.html#top 7. Penn World tables (2007). 6.3. Lookup data by country. Ethiopia: population in (thousands) [pop]. Retrieved on 29th April 2011 from http://datacentre.chass.utoronto.ca/pwt/index.html 8. Interpol (2011). Trafficking in Human beings. Retrieved on 29th April 2011 from http://www.interpol.int/ 9. UN statistics ( 2011). Ethiopia: Intentional homicide rate. Retrieved on 29th April 2011 from http://www.uncjin.org/Statistics/statistics.html 10. UN World crime Surveys (2011). World Top Ten Countries with highest crime rates. Retrieved on 29th April 2011 from http://www.uncjin.org/Statistics/WCTS/wcts.html Read More