Ethiopia Improves Poverty Level, Yet Remains Below Line

Dec 14 , 2019


About 83.5pc of the Ethiopian population was found multidimensionally poor compared to the 27.3pc level of income poverty in the country, according to the recently released 2019 Human Development Report published by the United Nations Development Programme. The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), which provides insight on the magnitude of poverty in a given country, showed that the measure of income alone does not help address the multidimensional aspects of poverty in the country. Released on December 10, 2019, at Skylight Hotel, the Report shows that Ethiopia made improvements in all ten indicators in the MPI between 2011 and 2016. The MPI includes multiple deprivations ranging across 10 indicators in health, education and standard of living measures. One of the areas identified in the report for further improvement was education, particularly secondary education enrollment, school dropouts and overall female student participation in education. Despite the marked improvements Ethiopia has made since 2000 in reducing the income poverty level by 66pc, the nation is still found below the global average as well as the average for Sub-Saharan Africa. On the same date, UNDP's Accelerator Lab, which is designed to promote different startups and innovations to address local challenges, was launched.


Radar

Coffee Exports Bring in $1.5B in Third Quarter

Ethiopia has earned 1.5 billion dollars from coffee exports over the nine months of the fiscal year. The country had set a target to earn a little over a billion dollars by exporting 201,959tns of coffee during the same period. According to Adugna Debella (PhD), director general of the Ethiopian Coffee & Tea Authority, the export strategy continues to focus on major international markets, with the top 10 destinations, including Saudi Arabia, Germany, and the United States (SU), accounting...


Radar

Central Bank Holds Fourth Exchange Auction

The National Bank of Ethiopia(NBE) sold one dollar for 131.4961 birr in its recent auction. It was reported that 26 banks participated in this auction, which took place last week on Thursday. In a statement issued by the National Bank  following the auction, it was indicated that 70 million dollars was offered for the event. Subsequently, it was reported that 96 pc of the foreign exchange needs of the participating banks were met. In the previous auction, held 15 days ago, the bank had of...


Radar

City Registers 64,075 Births in Fiscal Year

The city has exceeded its birth registration target for the first nine months of the fiscal year, registering 64,075 children—71.15pc more than the set goal of 58,342. This success, with a registration coverage rate of 109.63pc, is largely attributed to the efficiency of the one-centre birth registration service system, which has been rolled out across health centres and courts. The total number of vital events registered, including births, adoptions, marriages, divorces, and deaths, reache...