REPUBLIC OF ETHIOPIA

H.E. MR. GIRMA BIRRU

MINISTER OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND CO

OPERATION OF THE

FEDERAL DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF ETHIOPIA

AND HEAD OF THE ETHIOPIAN DELEGATION

AT THE TWENTY-FOURTH SPECIAL SESSION

OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY

"WORLD SUMMIT FOR SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND BEYOND:

ACHIEVING SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT FOR ALL IN A GLOBALISING WORLD"

GENEVA, 26 - 30 JUNE 2000

Please permit me at the outset to express the appreciation of my delegation to you for the excellent manner in which you have conducted the work of this Special Session of the UN-General Assembly on World Social Summit and beyond to which we attach paramount importance.

We are confident that the Session would come up with concrete and comprehensive action and initiatives to fully implement the commitments of the Copenhagen World Social Summit. We believe that our collective commitment and shared responsibility could serve as our anchor for present and future international economic cooperations and we place a particular premium on it as we confront the challenges of poverty, unemployment and social exclusion. We are convinced that the agenda for social development provides a useful framework to undertake in an integrated fashion international policies, programmes and plans of actions on social development which have so far been adopted at different fora by the international community.

External debt continues to be a serious obstacle to social development. In the case of Africa the stock of external debt and its servicing has continued to drain our major foreign exchange earnings while eroding Africa's credit worthiness. In the light of already grim resource flows, caused by declines in official development * assistance (ODA), the crippling burden of international debt has seriously hampered social development prospects for most of our countries. The situation of the least developed countries is more precarious.

It is obvious therefore, that unless there is a swift and substantial effort to relieve the debt burden, we can never invest adequately to enhance our capacity for social development and our competitiveness in a liberalising international trade. For social development efforts to bear fruit and economic reforms to succeed in our countries, all creditors nations and multilateral financial institutions should adopt concrete measures including debt cancellation by going beyond debt rescheduling and HIPCs initiative.

It is the conviction of my delegation that each of our countries including those in Africa must take charge of their own comprehensive social development. The call on the international community to do the maximum possible for Africa in the economic area is an appeal to help remove the obstacles hindering the social development of the continent so that Africa can progress through the efforts of its own people. The continued socio-economic decline in the least developed countries generally has been a source of grave concern. This is evidenced by the alarming increase in the number of people living in absolute poverty and economic decline or stagnation. This dismal deteriorating situation is compounded further by lack of resource flows, dwindling of direct foreign investment, reduction in export earnings, excruciating debt crisis, rising unemployment especially among the youth and environmental degradation.

The persistence of these problems could easily undermine the stability of the world economy and pose serious threats to international peace and security. Immeasurable work has been done to redress the economic stronghold in which most of our countries find themselves. A lot more, however, needs to be done by the developed countries and the international financial institutions to extricate many of the world's poor countries from being completely submerged by the heavy burdens imposed by the present unfavourable international economic system. More specifically, new additional resources, at both multilateral and bilateral levels, need to be provided by our development partners if any improvement in the lives of the teeming millions in the developing countries is to be assured.

While referring to the social development crisis in developing countries, particularly in Africa, I cannot but make some brief remarks about the situation in my own country.

Human and social conditions in Ethiopia prior to the social summit were typically characterized by marked deterioration in the living conditions of the people. The confluence of factors such as bad governance and ill-designed economic and social policies of the then government, protracted civil war that lasted for nearly 30 years and drought were the causes that led to this unacceptably low levels of human and social development. Major segment of the population has been deprived of the bare minimum necessities of life. In the past, the social sector has been neglected and perceived as a secondary, parasitic and dependent on other sectors rather than being the source of productivity and strategic input to the economic sector. Consequently, the sector has not been the beneficiary of a fair share of the budget allocation and institutional innovation.

Stabilizing and reviving the economy and improving the living conditions of the people were, therefore, the priority objectives of my Government. Poverty reduction has consequently been the utmost pre-occupation of the government even long before the Copenhagen Summit for Social Development. The Economic Policy of Ethiopia adopted in 1991 unambiguously reflects that the overriding priority is poverty reduction while promoting social justice and equity.

In terms of creating an enabling environment to implement the agreed commitments, the government has put in place relevant development policies and strategies. Based on the macro frameworks, sectoral policies and strategies were designed and implementation started in priority sectors. Policies in the areas of population, health, education, women, employment and HIV/AIDS have been formulated and

adopted. The constitution embodying the core values and beliefs of Ethiopians has been adopted and the first and second multiparty elections were held in 1995 and 2000 respectively. Several initiatives aimed at fostering rule of law, transparency, participation and accountability are undertaken. The civil service reform programme, the public sector management reform measures including the downsizing of the bureaucracy, the devolution of authority through the regionalisation initiative, the creation of a market oriented economic policy and investor friendly climate through the issuance of liberal investment code, the recognition of the vast potential of the private sector and role of civil society and NGOs, are all, among the important initiatives undertaken.

Our efforts have produced tangible results although much remains to be done. The delivery and coverage of social services in health and education have shown remarkable improvement and expansion. The health service coverage has increased by about 10 percent while the enrollment ratio has increased in primary and secondary education by 20% and 3% respectively. The participation rate of girls has also increased at all levels of schooling. The share of social services has increased from about 25 to 28 % in recurrent and from about 20 % to 23 % in capital expenditures between 1995 and 1998. The real percapita expenditure on social services as a whole has increased over the past seven years. More importantly, our defense expenditure has been dramatically reduced from an average of 65 per cent of the total government expenditure in the 1980s to less than 5 per cent in 1997 - shortly before the Eritrean war of aggression.

As much as vast opportunities exist for development, Ethiopia is confronted with enormous challenges as well. Some 45.5 percent of its 60 million people still live in absolute poverty. The recurrence of drought has become a norm rather than a risk and currently up to 10 million people are threatened by famine. Environmental degradation accompanied with population pressure has weakened the resource base upon which sustainable development depends. There is the need to rehabilitate hundreds of thousands of displaced people due to Eritrea's war of aggression. The unsustainably high level of external debt is also a crushing burden to an economy like Ethiopia and high debt servicing requirements prevent us from making adequate investment in education and health care, and from responding effectively to emergencies. The continued decline in Official Development Assistance, continued dependence on single commodity for export earnings, absence of meaningful market access to the main export items of the country are factors undermining the overall development prospects of the country.

In conclusion, Mr. President, while looking forward to the full implementation of the Copenhagen Declaration and Plan of Action, we remain committed to continue our endeavors in all fronts to fulfil the aspirations of our people for their social well being, prosperity and security.

Thank you.