The percentage of the population living on less than 1,075 birr (79 U.S. cents) a day fell to about 32.7 percent in 2008/09 from 48 percent in 1990 after economic growth averaged 8 percent over the past decade, said the report, e-mailed to Bloomberg News by a government official who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to release the document. The report is written in cooperation with the government.
The government has “made an enormous progress in the provision of social services such as education, health, and infrastructure by spending a large share of its budget in the pro-poor sector,” the report said. “This could be taken as the best practice from which others may learn.”
Poverty reduction is central to policy in a country where half of children are “chronically malnourished,” 47 percent are stunted and 38 percent underweight, the UN said. Still, economic growth remains vulnerable to poor weather and external financing because of the poor domestic savings rate, according to the report.
“The sustainability of this growth trajectory leaves much to be desired,” the UN said.
Rising inequality in urban areas and the poor quality of education in many schools represents a threat to the millennium goals, according to the report.
Ethiopia is also on target to achieve its goal of universal primary school education by 2015, while it is less likely to meet the targets on child mortality and environmental sustainability. The East African country is unlikely to achieve goals related to gender equality and maternal health, the UN said.
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To contact the reporter on this story: William Davison in Addis Ababa via Johannesburg at [email protected]
