With 39 percent of its 85-million-strong population living below the poverty line, Ethiopia is one of the world’s poorest countries. In the UN Development Program’s 2011 human development index, Ethiopia ranked 174 out of 187 countries.
Yet while Ethiopia continues to face serious development challenges, the East African country is increasingly garnering international recognition for its significant socio-economic progress over the last decade. During this period, state-led investments across the Ethiopian economy, including in social sectors, have not only propelled the country’s GDP growth rate to among the highest in Africa but also reduced poverty by one third. On track to achieve all eight Millennium Development Goals, Ethiopia has been called an MDG “success story” by the London-based Overseas Development Institute.
In its 2011-15 country development cooperation strategy for Ethiopia, the U.S. Agency for International Development reaffirms Washington’s development partnership with Addis Ababa. In keeping with the Government of Ethiopia’s 2010-15 Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP), through 2015, USAID aims to support robust investment across multiple sectors. Most notably, Ethiopia is a focus country for each of the Obama administration’s signature global development initiatives: Feed the Future, the Global Health Initiative and the Global Climate Change Initiative. According to USAID, its mission in Ethiopia is one of the agency’s largest and most complex in Africa.