EU and Ethiopia Cooperation history
EU and Ethiopia Cooperation history
The European Union-Ethiopia development partnership formally started when Ethiopia signed the Lomé Convention in 1975. The EU opened its Delegation in Ethiopia in 1975 and has taken the lead in supporting Ethiopia's economic development both financially and technically. The European Union’s mission in Ethiopia is to eradicate poverty through sustainable development, democracy, peace and security. Since the cooperation started, the EU has allocated a total of 2.7 billion Euros for Ethiopia, excluding emergency aid.
The European Union provides funding to support Ethiopia through the European Development Funds (EDF). The latest allocation (10th EDF) of these funds provides some 644 million Euros for the country in areas such as transport, rural development, trade, gender, and environmental conservation.
The European Development Funds have been supplemented by support from European Commission budget lines. The most significant of these has been the food aid and food security budget line and in lines of credit from the European Investment Bank (EIB).
The latter provides loans to the private sector directly for commercially viable projects. Such loans to Ethiopia supported projects in the fields of telecommunications, aviation and energy. In addition, a global loan was provided to the Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE) for onward lending to small and medium sized enterprises.
EU - Ethiopia development cooperation has focused mainly on vital sectors such as agriculture, food security, infrastructure, health and education, making Ethiopia one of the major beneficiaries of the EU's development assistance.
The European Union is one of Ethiopia's major development partners in social, economic and trade sector. In Macro-Economic sector Protection of Basic Services (PBS) programme; Public Sector Capacity Building Programme (PSCAP); Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) mission; Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) Pool Fund and Export Stabilisation Fund (STABEX) are the main areas of support.
Education Sector Development Programme (ESDP); Polio Eradication Programme; Mine Action and Social Rehabilitation Programme; NGO Projects on Education, Health, Gender and Children’s Rights are the main areas of support in the social sector.
The European Union is one of Ethiopia's major trading partners both interns of export and import. Trade Capacity Building (TCB) Programme; Micro- and Small Enterprise Development Programme (MSEDP); Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) Impact Assessment Studies; World Trade Organization (WTO) Impact Assessment Project and NGO Projects on Micro-Financing are major areas of partnership in Private Sector Development and Trade sector.
The European Commission has since the early days of its cooperation with Ethiopia provided substantial support for the infrastructure sector through project based modalities and in 2006 decided to move towards supporting the sector through the provision of sector budget support.
The European Commission's support to the road sector development programmes has strong synergies with other sectors in which the European Commission provides support: rural development and food security supported by the development of rural roads or private sector development by supporting capacity building of the domestic construction industry.
Good Governance, Democracy and Human Rights, Empowerment of Civil Society, and Cooperation with Non State Actors are key priorities for the European Union. The activities include Dialogue and Policy development, as well as Programmes and Projects, which are implemented with partner organizations throughout the country and contribute to the sustainable development process in Ethiopia.
The European Union has been financing a vast array of food aid, emergency, relief and rehabilitation operations, and long-term food security and rural development programs in Ethiopia. The European Union food security strategy for Ethiopia has two main objectives. The first one is meeting emergency needs with emphasis on improving preparedness and planning capacity of the Government. The second one is supporting long-term development through the provision of supplementary income to targeted food insecure populations while building productive community assets.
The European Commission's humanitarian aid arm, ECHO has a country field office in Addis Ababa. The Commission's relief experts closely follow developments in the humanitarian situation and play an active role in the local coordination of relief efforts. They also monitor the use of the Commission's relief funds.
The EU-Ethiopia partnership is a rising success and becoming more strategic and well organized. As Ethiopia’s long-standing partner in development, the European Commission reaffirms its continued support to the country's development strategies.