Ethiopia

Electricity infrastructure is one of the most important development challenges in Africa. While more resources are clearly needed to invest in new capacities, it is... Show More + also important to promote energy efficiency and manage the increasing demand for power. This paper evaluates one of the recent energy-efficiency programs in Ethiopia, which distributed 350,000 compact fluorescent lamp bulbs free of charge. The impact related to this first phase is estimated at about 45 to 50 kilowatt hours per customer per month, or about 13.3 megawatts of energy savings in total. The overall impact of the compact fluorescent lamp bulb programs, thanks to which more than 5 million bulbs were distributed, could be significantly larger. The paper also finds that the majority of the program beneficiaries were low-volume customers -- mostly from among the poor -- although the program was not targeted. In addition, the analysis determines the distributional effect of the program: the energy savings relative to the underlying energy consumption were larger for the poor. The evidence also supports a rebound effect. About 20 percent of the initial energy savings disappeared within 18 months of the program's completion. Show Less -

Ethiopia has made substantial progress in improving health outcomes during the last decade and is on track to achieve some of the health Millennium Development Goals.... Show More + Innovative strategies to improve household behaviors and coverage of basic health care services contributed to Ethiopia's achievements, and the Health Extension Program (HEP) remains the core of such innovations and provides a model for countries struggling to improve health outcomes in a resource-constrained setting. The program rests on an accelerated expansion of basic health infrastructure and local human resources with required skills to scale-up delivery of high-impact interventions focusing on improving the supply of and enhancing demand for a well-defined package of essential promotive, preventive, and curative health services. The objectives of the case study are to provide a detailed description of (a) the context for the introduction of the program; (b) the scope of the service package delivered under the program; and (c) the institutional arrangements and the links with the rest of the health system. The case study also summarizes and discusses the evidence of the program's achievements and the challenges to achieving universal primary health care coverage. The study also discusses the importance of political will and commitment in introducing such large-scale innovations in improving service delivery and mobilizing the community in a resource-constrained setting. Show Less -

Chinese Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Africa is on the rise and Ethiopia is at the forefront of this trend. On request of the Government, the World Bank surveyed... Show More + 69 Chinese enterprises doing business in Ethiopia with a 95-question survey in May/June 2012. The survey covered various aspects of the foreign direct investment climate in Ethiopia, including infrastructure, sales and supplies, land, crime, competition, finance, human resources, and questions about general opportunities and constraints for doing business in Ethiopia. This report summarizes the results of survey and provides policy suggestions in light of the analysis; the report also provides some broader background of the expected benefits of FDI into Ethiopia as well as current policies and approaches to promote incoming investment. Addressing identified obstacles could help Ethiopia to take better advantage of foreign investors in order to accelerate the shift from a predominantly low-productivity agriculture-based economy towards a higher-productivity manufacturing and export-based economy. Experiences in successful countries around the world, and especially East Asia show that foreign investment is instrumental to facilitate such a structural transformation and to maintain sustained and broad-based economic development. This study recommends five main areas for policy adjustments to facilitate foreign investors coming into Ethiopia: adjust customs clearance procedures and trade regulations; facilitate currency convertibility and increase transparency of the exchange rate policy; improve tax administration consistency and efficacy; execute impartial labor regulation; and increase the supply and quality of skilled workers. Show Less -

This study analyzes strategic intervention options that can inform the implementation process of Ethiopia’s national tourism development policy in an effort to make... Show More + the sector globally competitive. It also outlines the analytical foundations for technical assistance that will be provided to Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MoCT) by the World Bank-funded Ethiopian Sustainable Tourism Development Program (ESTDP). This study uses the world economic forum tourism and travel competitiveness index and International Finance Corporation (IFC) Doing Business report to benchmark Ethiopia’s tourism competitiveness with respect to that of countries such Tanzania, Kenya, Egypt, and South Africa. It also draws lessons from and measures the tourism sector against other successful national economic sectors, such as floriculture. The focus of this study is on competitiveness at the value chain and destination levels. It identifies constraints affecting competitiveness and proposes strategic interventions that can help to address these challenges by taking advantage of existing opportunities. This study is mainly prepared for Ethiopia’s tourism policymakers, particularly in MoCT. Secondary audiences include tourism-related ministries and public institutions, such as the Ministry of Trade and Investment, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, among others. Tourism sector stakeholders, in particular the private sector, as well as training institutions and donors are also targeted as readers. Having the national tourism policy as its main reference, this study focuses on short-term strategic interventions that can help to improve tourism competitiveness under the major pillars outlined in the policy. It also emphasizes growth and employment generation in line with current national targets and priorities as described in the Government of Ethiopia’s national growth and transformation plan 2010-11 and 2014-15. Show Less -

Executive Directors approved the Third Phase of the Promoting Basic Services (PBS) Project in the amount of US$600 million on the payment terms and conditions set out... Show More + in the President's Memorandum. Directors noted the successes of the earlier phases of the PBS program in providing resources for local recurrent expenditures for basic services and promoting local transparency and social accountability. Directors urged further consideration to ensure that the Bank is contributing to socially and environmentally sustainable development; and to ensure the application of a socially and environmentally sustainable development framework during implementation and hence strengthened monitoring and reporting. Directors noted that a complaint has been received by the Inspection Panel. Directors underscored the importance of working with development partners on addressing fiduciary and safeguard risks and urged continued strengthening of financial, procurement, safeguards and monitoring and evaluation capacity as well as grievance mechanisms. Directors welcomed the innovation in the program to support results-based approaches in Ethiopia and the important development results that this project aims to achieve. Show Less -

The last Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA), prepared in August 2011, concluded that Ethiopia was at a low risk of external debt distress.1 Ethiopia reached the completion... Show More + point under the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative in 2004 and benefited from debt relief under the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) in 2006. Ethiopia remains at low risk of external debt distress in 2012. The current DSA assumes lower concessional loan disbursements, particularly from International Development Association (IDA), and higher non concessional external loan disbursements between 2013/14 and 2019/20. Some of the large public investment projects by state-owned enterprises could pose risks to Ethiopia's debt risk rating and overall public debt sustainability. Show Less -

This paper uses Ethiopian data to explore credit rationing in semi-formal credit markets and its effects on farmers' resource allocation and crop productivity. Credit... Show More + rationing -- both voluntarily and involuntarily -- is found to be widespread in the sampled rural villages, largely because of risk-related factors. Political and social networks emerge as key determinants of access to credit among smallholder, peasant farmers. Significant regional variation emerges as well. In high-potential, surplus producing areas where credit is largely used for agricultural production, eliminating credit constraints is estimated to increase productivity by roughly 11 percentage points. By contrast, in low-productivity, drought prone areas where loans were rarely used to acquire inputs for crop production, the authors find no relationship between credit rationing and agricultural productivity. To be effective, efforts to improve agricultural productivity not only need to increase credit supply, but also explore the reasons for credit rationing and the availability of productive opportunities. Show Less -

In 2001 Ethiopia adopted a national water strategy aimed at providing safe and sufficient water supply and adequate sanitation services to the population. The government... Show More + requested Public Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF) support in early 2002 to prepare a report on the Water Resources Development Fund (WRDF). The PPIAF report analyzed the lessons of international experience with water sector financing, and in particular with dedicated funding mechanisms, in order to operationalize the WRDF and assist with the preparation of a project appraisal, procurement, financial management, and financing strategy for the Fund. The report also provided recommendations on access rules and institutional options for the WRDF in order to provide a comprehensive and logical framework for the design of the WRDF. In late 2002 PPIAF provided additional funding to the solid waste management (SWM) sector PPIAF support helped turn the WRDF from a proclamation to an operationalized fund. PPIAF funded a training course on cost recovery options in the SWM sector, four consultation workshops, and two study tours to South Africa and Egypt to learn from African experiences of private sector participation (PSP) in the sector. Show Less -

Doing Business sheds light on how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium-size business when complying with relevant regulations.... Show More + It measures and tracks changes in regulations affecting 10 areas in the life cycle of a business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. In a series of annual reports Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 183 economies, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, over time. This economy profile presents the Doing Business indicators for Ethiopia. To allow useful comparison, it also provides data for other selected economies (comparator economies) for each indicator. The data in this report are current as of June 1, 2011 (except for the paying taxes indicators, which cover the period January- December 2010). The data not only highlight the extent of obstacles to doing business; they also help identify the source of those obstacles, supporting policy makers in designing regulatory reform. Show Less -

Understanding the links between gender inequality, poverty and environmental degradation, and taking responsive actions, can accelerate positive dynamics and promote... Show More + sustainable development outcomes. Acknowledging the ways in which nature-society relations are gendered opens space for new approaches to poverty reduction, environmental conservation, and gender-equitable participation and benefits in sustainable development programs. The analytical framework for this study draws on the World Bank's three pillars of sustainable development: social inclusion, economic growth and environmental sustainability; and from political ecology literature, which highlights how decision-making processes, power relationships, and social conditions influence environmental policies and development outcomes. The following four propositions derived from political ecology literature guide the analysis: i) socioeconomic marginalization and natural resource degradation are mutually reinforcing processes; ii) protected area conservation and external control of natural resources can disrupt household and community production and social organization; iii) competing environmental interests shape environmental change; and iv) collective action and resilience can help mitigate negative impacts. Show Less -