Ethiopia case study 2

what international aid exists in Ethiopia?

• Ethiopia has received aid from NGOs and international charities for over 30 years, with 5 million people receiving food aid each year.

• The ‘Goat Aid’ is a sustainable aid project run by Oxfam, which is an international charity (The Goat Aid is also a bottom-up development strategy).

what is a bottom-up development strategy in Ethiopia?

what is a top-down development strategy in Ethiopia?

The Goat Aid project, run by Oxfam and Farm Africa.

The Ashegoda Wind Farm in Tigray.

what are the advantages of The Goat Aid project?

• It provides young women in rural families with goats to breed and sell. This allows young girls/women to gain a stable source of income that enables them to afford an education and build a career, thus supporting equality promoting the Girl Effect.

  • This allows young Ethiopian girls to avoid forced marriages and unplanned pregnancies.

• Goat-owning families are also becoming healthier, which helps to combat malnourishment and reduce hunger in Ethiopia.

what are the disadvantages of The Goat Aid project?

• The focus on young girls in rural families may mean that young boys in poverty are neglected and end up feeling isolated. This means that quality of life is not improved for all people, which hinders development.

• The provision of goats for families to sell does not always guarantee business success, as families are sometimes unsuccessful with their sale of goats. This means they are unable to afford an improved standard of living, so the cost of breeding and feeding the goats ends up being wasted.

• Development in Ethiopia could be hindered if communities become too reliant on the Goat Aid.

• Diseases from goats can spread to humans, leading to poor health and poorer standards of living. This also means that money now must be spent on healthcare treatments.

what are the advantages of the The Ashegoda Wind Farm?

• It invests in wind energy for electricity generation and power transmission, which increases renewable energy production in Ethiopia. It is less harmful to the environment with no CO₂ emissions.

• The project consists of 84 hi-tech wind turbines that supply over 3 million Ethiopians with electricity, and can produce 400 million kWh of electricty each year.

• The electricity produced is helping to maintain Ethiopia’s economic growth, and will future-proof Ethiopia’s electricity supply.

what are the disadvantages of the The Ashegoda Wind Farm?

• Ethiopia is currently selling most of the electricity produced to neighbouring countries such as Djibouti and Sudan. This means that Ethiopian people are not fully benefiting from the improved electricity supply brought by the Ashegoda Wind Farm.

• Media reports in 2011 revealed that 700 farmers had lost farmland to make way for the wind turbines, and the financial compensation that they were given was too little. This loss of income causes financial insecurity for them.

• Many homes are not connected to Ethiopia’s national grid, so they do not receive this electricity.

how successful has Ethiopia been at meeting Millennium Development Goal 1 (Eradicating Extreme Poverty and Hunger) ?

• Ethiopia has had some success in eradicating poverty (MDG 1), as the proportion of the population living in poverty has dropped from 60% in 1995 to 29% in 2015.

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• In addition, the Goat Aid's provision of goats for families to breed and sell has allowed for a significant decrease in the number of malnourished people, as goat-owning families are becoming healthier. This reduces hunger and poverty.

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• However, 28% of Ethiopia’s population has food insecurity or a lack of essential nutrients, with 40% of children being malnourished.

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• Therefore, Ethiopia hasn't completely succeeded in reaching MDG 1, despite some progress being made in the direction of eradicating poverty/hunger.

• Furthermore, development in Ethiopia could be hindered if communities become too reliant on the Goat Aid.

how successful has Ethiopia been at meeting Millennium Development Goal 3 (Promoting Gender Equality and Empowering Women) ?

• Ethiopia has had some success in promoting gender equality and empowering women (MDG 3).

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• Young women in rural families in Ethiopia receive goats to breed and sell as part of the Goat Aid project, which provides them with a source of income that enables them to afford an education and build careers.

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• This supports equality and encourages the Girl Effect, and as a result, 93% of girls in Ethiopia are in primary school, compared to 43% in 2000.

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• However, there are still higher unemployment rates for women and fewer girls progress onto secondary education. In addition, women still hold traditional roles in Ethiopia, such as water carrying.

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• Therefore, even though Ethiopia has made some progress towards empowering women, they haven’t fully succeeded in meeting MDG 3.

overall, how successful has Ethiopia been at meeting the MDGs?

Although a lot of progress has been made over the years, meeting the Millennium Development Goals has not been entirely successful for Ethiopia.

The country has had mixed success in meeting MDG 1 and MDG 3.