Poverty in Ethiopia

Contents

1. Introduction        3

2. Poverty in Ethiopia        4

2.1 Social indicators        4

2.2 Economic indicators        5

2.3 Political indicators        7

2.4 Physical indicators        9

3. Poverty reduction        10

3.1 Actors of Poverty Reduction        10

3.2 Measures taken by the Ethiopian Government        11

4. Development potential of Ethiopia        12

5. Conclusion        13

References        14

1. Introduction

Ethiopia is one of the oldest countries in the world facing ups and downs in its long history.  Upon today the country is shaped by ongoing conflicts and the instability of the region called “Horn of Africa”. Ethiopia is still one of the most known countries in the concern of poverty and political conflicts.

In the following paper, we will thematise the aspects of poverty in Ethiopia and the poverty policies by the Ethiopian government. Furthermore, we will take a closer look at the roots of poverty. In the end, we will give you an outlook of Ethiopia’s future prospects.

First of all, we are going to introduce a few important key figures of Ethiopia.

Ethiopia is a multi-ethnic country located at the Horn of Africa. It borders on with Sudan and Eritrea in the north and with Kenya, Sudan and Somalia in the south.

It is the 10th largest African state with a total area of 1.104.300 square kilometres, in comparison China is nine times larger. The population sums up to about 102 million with about 93 inhabitants living per square kilometres. As a multi-ethnic state, there are more than 120 ethnic groups living in Ethiopia. The largest ethnic group are the “Oromo” they make up about 34 percent of the population. Even though the “Amhara” is not the majority group it dominates the country especially in cultural and political dimensions. Ethiopia is also diverse country in religious aspects, the largest group the Ethiopian orthodox belief only represents 43,5% of the population. The vast majority of the Ethiopian inhabitants are Ethiopian Orthodox and Islamic. Until 1974 Ethiopia was a constitutional monarchy, after that a military rule took over and the monarchy was abolished. Since 1991 Ethiopia is a federal parliamentary republic.