Welcome to the United Nations
Key messages
Ethiopia’s development aspiration is aligned with the fundamental principles of sustainable development. Ethiopia’s current development agenda is rooted in the country’s vision of making Ethiopia an “ African Beacon of Prosperity”. The Vision is realized through the implementation of the Ten-year Development Plan (TYDP, 2021-2030).
Ethiopia integrates Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into the TYDP during the preparation of the plan in a multisectoral and multi-stakeholder consultation processes. The previous Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP-II) was also aligned with SDGs with overall alignment score of 78.4 percent. SDGs have been integrated into the budget system by allocating the lion’s share of the budget to pro-poor sectors and a dedicated budget to SDGs.
Ethiopia’s VNR 2022 report focuses on reviewing the progress in the implementation of the 17 Goals. The preparation of the VNR 2022 report benefited from broad-based stakeholder consultations.
Status of the SDGs Progress
Unlike the 2017 VNR report, the 2022 VNR report assesses the progress along with five pillars (5Ps): People (1,2,3,4 and 5), Prosperity (7,8,9,10 and 11), Planet (6,12,13,14 and 15), Peace (16), and Partnerships (17).
People:
Ethiopia has achieved significant strides in reducing poverty and hunger, and improving health, education and gender outcomes. Poverty declined from 23.5 percent in 2015/16 to 19 percent in 2019/20. Ethiopia has also made progress in increasing enrolment rates, reducing stunting and wasting, and improving both maternal and child health. The government allocated on average 61 percent of budget to pro-poor sectors in 2015/16-2020/21. Implementation of synergistic social protection programmes helps protect the most vulnerable groups of the population to ensure that no one and no place are left behind. But both domestic and global shocks have adversely impacted the progress of this pillar.
Prosperity:
Ethiopia has made substantive progress in achieving economic growth and improving key infrastructures. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita expanded by 6.03 percent per year between 2015/16 and 2020/21. Access to infrastructure improved with increased access to electricity and reduced share of rural population located within 5km of an all-weather road. Fully electrified by renewable energy sources, the Addis Ababa light railway and the Ethio-Djibouti railway facilitate bulk transport and reduce carbon emissions and pollution. However, the COVID-19 pandemic, internal conflict and drought have taken a heavy economic toll by lowering the expected dividend from the country’s comprehensive reform.
Planet:
Addressing climate change and other environmental issues has featured prominently in the highest leadership level around the Green Legacy Initiative (GLI) aimed forest-landscape transformations and better livelihoods. Around 18 billion seedlings planted since 2019. Ethiopia has shown improvements in providing drinking water services, with access to clean drinking water reached 58.5 percent in 2020/21. Forest coverage has increased to 19.5 percent due to massive mobilization of citizens in natural resources conservation.
Peace:
While recurring internal conflicts caused casualties and damaged economic and social infrastructures, Ethiopia has made efforts to ensure peace and accountability through establishing democratic institutions and legal reforms. The government has established an independent National Dialogue Commission to facilitate an inclusive dialogue and reconciliation process that would build consensus and lay a firm foundation for nation building.
Partnerships:
The country benefited from increased Official Development Assistance, Foreign Direct Investment and remittance inflows. Ethiopia has undertaken far-reaching reforms, including establishment of the Ethiopian Diaspora Agency and Trust Fund to coordinate and mobilize the global diaspora community in the national development activities. However, the global environment has become unfavorable and hostile for effective cooperation which could deter the implementation of SDGs, some of which are national responses to global challenges. Ethiopia stands ready to cooperate with other countries to strengthen means of implementation going forward.
Good practices :
Green Legacy Initiative (GLI) aims to combat land degradation, deforestation and climate change, promote eco-tourism and ensure food security through local inputs and mass mobilization in urban and rural areas.
Synergistic social protection programmes such as the productive safety net programme which combines social protection with broader development and livelihood through protection, prevention, and promotion of the vulnerable groups.
Challenges:
· Inadequate finance and weak institutional capacity for policy delivery; and
· Unfavorable and hostile global environment for SDGs implementation.
Areas of Required Support:
· Financial support to implement SDGs; and
· Capacity building in integrated planning, implementation, statistical system and reporting.
