Ethiopia Case

Ethiopia

Monica Jones

Sociology 300

July 25th, 2014

Many countries around the world are a state of extreme poverty and rely on other countries and institutions for foreign aid. Ethiopia is a country that’s located in the horn of African and is considered to be one of the poorest countries in this continent. Ethiopia is highly recognized for being very dependent on foreign aid and receives the largest amount of foreign aid in Africa. Without the help of food aid millions of people in Ethiopia would go hungry. Since the year 2008, the United States has provided Ethiopia with an average of eight million dollars in aid yearly. In 2011 alone the US provided Ethiopia with $800 million in aid. Foreign aid can be delivered in many ways including monetary form, food assistance, health care, military assistance and educational resources. The United States has been a significant contributor, providing many different types of aid to Ethiopia over the last couple centuries.

It’s difficult enough to bring a country out of poverty, however it is even more difficult when they experience war. Ethiopia was involved in a war with Eritrea from 1998 – 2000 which ended in a policy called “no war, no peace," which is an endless war. During the time of war Ethiopia lost hundreds of thousands of citizens, miss investment opportunities, and lost foreign aid. However, the Ethiopian government was able to maintain a strong relationship with some foreign countries and were still able to stimulate enough of a substantial flow of international aid through this time of war.

Although war can play a large part in the need for foreign aid, some issues can result as a lack of proper natural resources and education. Environmental issues, such as poor soil, can make growing crops almost impossible. Ethiopia is well known for having a poor environment and severe droughts which make it difficult to produce food, which is one of the biggest contributing factors that makes Ethiopia so poor. Another factor is the lack of educational resources that are available. Providing education about health, including reproduction and HIV could help save many live. Aid that educates women about reproduction could reduce the amount of women who die giving birth or the amount of infants who die shortly after birth. Education about HIV has allowed the government to provide free HIV/AIDs care. Education can be a very powerful form of aid and help save many lives.

In a perfect world we like to think that we can look to our leaders, such as government representatives and presidents, to make decisions that are in the best interest for a country and the citizens within it. The government of Ethiopia has made some decisions that lean towards the good of the country and others that seem to do more harm. One tactic that the Ethiopian government has use foreign aid to create a villagization program designed to help relocate the people to new villages and use the now vacant land to use for commercial agricultural growth. The downfall is that these villages lack the necessary survival needs such as water and food. The Ethiopian government states that the move was voluntary, whereas the villagers state otherwise and that they were forced to move. In this situation, the government is using aid to move people to worsening conditions.