In the decade since the collapse of the totalitarian regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam have the lives of ordinary Ethiopians improved? As the population rises, external debt spirals upwards and aid continues to decrease, can the country meet 2015 international development targets?

A report from Oxfam GB, based on interviews with Ethiopians in Addis Ababa and in three rural districts, paints a dispiriting picture of demoralised communities of unhealthy and uneducated people yet to see promised improvements in government services. It marshals evidence that only a reduction in Ethiopia’s debt burden and a massive increase in grant aid will enable Ethiopia to get on track to meet international development targets. Inability to generate tax revenue from a poverty-stricken population threatens achievement of the government’s goals to raise 55 percent of total health and 73 percent of education expenditure from domestic resources.

Whereas in 1991 20.6 percent of Ethiopia’s GNP was provided by aid flows, by 1997 this was down to 10 percent. Ethiopia now spends a mere 0.9 percent of GDP on health care but 2.3 percent on paying interest on its external debt. 48 percent of Ethiopian children under the age of five are malnourished. The average actual (as against reported) class size in early primary years is 100-120.

The case studies find no evidence that the education level or health of the next generation will be any better than now. The gender gap in education is widening. Schools lack textbooks and furniture. Curricula have little relevance to the country’s problems and provide no education on environmental and reproductive health issues. There is no national effort to improve the low rate of access to safe water. In parts of the country no children are vaccinated.

The report also notes that:

• There is little point in building yet more rural clinics until they can be provided with basic drugs.
• Misleading statistics provide a distorted picture of reality and lead to unwarranted assumptions about the availability of functioning health services.
• Teachers and health personnel are demoralised and frequently reposted.
• Ethiopians are preoccupied with obtaining food. Hunger is cited as the major reason for non-attendance and poor school performance. Informants universally demand more food-for-work programmes.
• Circumcision, genital mutilation, early marriage, repeated pregnancy and burdensome workloads threaten girls’ lives.

What can be done? The most important of the many recommendations are:

• Ethiopia’s central government and the regions must be more financially transparent and accountable to donors and communities.
• The World Bank and IMF must speed up Ethiopia’s bid to qualify for HIPC2 debt-relief.
• OECD countries must honour their pledge to spend 0.7 percent of national income on aid. Schools and clinics will not get equipment or safe water delivered unless donors do much more to support non-salary recurrent-cost budgets.
• Raising the status of women and their level of participation at all levels of planning is essential.

Source(s):
‘Access to health and education services in Ethiopia: Supply, demand and government policy’ by Fra von Massow, Oxfam Working Papers, Oxfam GB, 2001 Full document.

Funded by: Oxfam GB

id21 Research Highlight: 23 November 2001

Further Information:
Helen Bowers
Oxfam Publishing
274 Banbury Road
Oxford OX2 7DZ
UK

Tel: +44 (0)1865 311 311
Fax: +44 (0)1865 313 925
Contact the contributor: publish@oxfam.org.uk

Oxfam GB

Other related links:
'Highland Ethiopia: permanent basket-case?'

'Achieving schooling for all – lessons in education spending'

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Saving Women's Lives concentrates on Educating Girls and Women