UNSIA Newsletter Issue 1, December 1997
CG Meeting Advances the SIA Framework in Ethiopia
The Consultative Group (CG) meeting for Ethiopia was held in Addis Ababa 10-12 December 1996 at the UN Conference Centre.
Among those at the well-attended meeting were H.E. Ato Meles Zenawi, the Ethiopian Prime Minister, several members of his cabinet, fifteen bilateral partners, and twelve multilateral partners. The meeting reviewed Ethiopia’s progress in implementing economic and structural reforms and in formulating new initiatives to accelerate economic growth and reducing poverty.
During the meeting, delegates also reviewed Ethiopia’s progress in the identification and implementation of sector-wide programmes in education food, security, health—the three priority areas of the Special Initiative on Africa. Delegates lauded Ethiopia on its performance and pledged more than was originally requested by the country for implementation of its medium-term reform program-me.
"At this CG, the Special Initiative provided a framework for the government and for donors to focus on how to improve the capacity of the government, how to harmonize policies and programmes, lower transaction costs, and increase disbursement rates. This consultative process resulted in very concrete efforts to build capacity," explained Trevor Gordon-Somers, of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa. The group endorsed and adopted the SIP approach in education and health sectors.
Ethiopian officials reported a strong commitment from within the sector ministries that ensured inter-ministry coordination for SIPs and UNSIA. The country met the parametres for operationalization of UNSIA through SIPs and is also including sector investment programmes in its development strategy for roads, energy, and water.
Calisto Madavo, World-Bank Vice-President for Africa Region and member of the Steering Committee for the Special Initiative, noted that donor confidence in Ethiopia was strong and the turnaround in economic policies reflected the government’s high degree of ownership and pragmatism for its reform programmes and for its macro-economic performance.
Ethiopia’s propitious climate for development and impressive transposition in developing sound economic policies and performance, and sector strategies provided the necessary components for achieving sustained rapid growth and poverty reduction. Follow-up meetings took place in early 1997 to facilitate information exchange, pledging, and translating the pledges into specific projects.