Investing on the posterity is putting asset to improve the livelihood of society. As children and women are the core assets to any society the more we invest on them the more we could improve the lives of the society. Cognizant of this fact, the government of Ethiopia has been working with development partners to improve the wellbeing of the communities in the hinterlands and the central part of Ethiopia.
As to Ministry of Finance and UNICEF’s 2019 Situation Analysis report on children and women indicates, Ethiopia, in the last five years, has shown marked improvements in the wellbeing of children and women mainly in the education, health, child protection and nutrition streams among others.
Speaking at the launch of the Situation Analysis, State Minister of Finance Admasu Nebebe said that even if a lot remains to be done, Ethiopia has demonstrated remarkable progress over the last decades with the support of all development partners.
According to him, Ethiopia has done remarkable progresses to achieving almost all of its Millennium Development Goals by 2030. The country’s Growth and Transformation Plan -II is an overreaching roadmap for country’s development and ten of its national development priorities were devised in a manner aligned with the 17 SDGs.
With aspiration to become a low-middle income country by 2025 the national landscape is replete with pro-poor policies, strategies, plans and programs that can benefit women, children, and teens, and there have been improvements in some SDG indicators. These all efforts could improve the low human development performance in the coming few years to come, he opined.
The government has been allocating resources over two third of annual budget towards human development to support the endeavors. The investments in social and economic sectors are also geared towards the human development focus.
Nation is striving to achieve SDGs working with development partners. The country will keep on working to address the gaps, he added.
UNICEF Representative to Ethiopia Adele Khodr for her part said that the findings of the Analysis show that when governments invest in children, the wellbeing of children improves and they will have better opportunities to fulfill their full potential.
However, there is still more work to be done to end newborn deaths, improve immunization coverage, reduce chronic malnutrition coverage, enroll every child in school, expand access to safe water and sanitation, reduce child poverty, she said referring the findings of the Analysis. If Ethiopia aspires to ensure SDGS and national programs thereby become the middle income nation, it should heighten efforts, she remarked.
The Ethiopian Herald October 23, 2019
BY MENGISTEAB TESHOME
