Could you give to our readers a brief historical background about the establishment of UNDP in Ethiopia?
UNDP has been operating in Ethiopia for about forty nine years. We are now moving towards the 50th years anniversary of UNDP in Ethiopia. UNDP started in those days with the name of 'technical assistance fund', and later on, its name was changed to UNDP ( United Nations Development Program). History goes that far back. As you know, Ethiopia is a country with very long and rich history, and UNDP being the main funding agency of the UN system, in supporting developing countries at very early stages of development, has been working in Ethiopia for a long period of time. UNDP has grown tremendously within these years in its operations.
What is your role, as a coordinator in Ethiopia?
The question is complex. We often finance several projects. Like many UNDP representatives, I am supposed to handle my responsibilities as Coordinator, that goes beyond my UNDP responsibilities. This means that, I have to work together with many UN organizations, that are mostly specialized agencies, and see how we can achieve greater complementarity. One of the main challenges in the UN system is its big size. People remember UN by its huge system. Ensuring complementarity in one way, and bringing it together, has become a major challenge. As a coordinator, I organize the entire group of UN agencies that are working with Ethiopia. We share information, we know what each agency is doing, we meet regularly to decide on joint incentives that will be carried out together, and we respond to situations that arise in a harmonized manner. A good example is when the Ethio-Eritrean conflict broke out. We as UN operation assistants, decided to work together in responding to the emergency situation, that was in helping the people who were being displaced. Rather having one agency working their own way, different agencies are working together in UN system. My task is to prepare and coordinate. There are also two other more challenging things, that we have and are going to do. One is to harmonize our program cycles. Up to now most UN organizations have a program cycle for three years. For example, if they decide to give Ethiopia $50 million, they will design what to do, over the three years period. These cycles may be different for UNICEF, World Food Program, UNESCO, and UNDP. We are then trying to achieve harmonization of programming cycles. We can now work more closely to the government. That is not always an easy thing, but a it is commitment. The second thing that is going to be done is working together, to produce like it is called in our UN jargon 'UNDAF'(united nations development assistance framework). We are going to be embarking this year, and as a UN agency, we have to prepare UNDAF. This program has the aim of reaching the highest state of complementarity. UNDAF program is where you can see, what UN system is bringing in terms of input to this country. We try to harmonize it, so that we will not dealing in different terms. If we look into the road sector, we want to make sure that we are building the roads with materialized inputs. First of all, we have to go that way, rather than just continuing to do our own programs in our sectors of expertise. We are going to start this program very soon. The first step of our work, was to produce a common country assessment. This helped us to get the basic indicators, on how we see Ethiopia, and its major challenges in the UN development system. We have an analytical document, that was jointly produced by UN agencies. In the document, statistics are found in terms of key indicators, such as in the social, technical, public, and private sectors. A scheme will be developed in view of this assessment. Asking the question of: as a UN system what are we going to be doing? That is one of the best ways to assist Ethiopia. Therefore we meet our programs towards the priorities with common country assessment. Regarding this question I would like to say we have a very fascinating situation in Ethiopia, which you do not find in all other African countries. The UN complete team is big, and we have about 17 different UN organizations participating in the complete meeting that we have. That is the largest number you can find in Africa. Addis Ababa is like the capital of Africa in a sense. Many UN organizations have base national responsibilities towards Ethiopia, and sub-regional responsibilities. The UN system is really wide. I facilitate our working together. In a sense I am the middle man and if things go right I get credited, and if things go wrong I will get blamed. Therefore, I try to facilitate the coordination and the team work.
In which regional state do you participate more?
The UNDP program has undergone a lot of changes, and improvement. The current UNDP program is helping Ethiopia in six key sectors. These sectors roughly covers all of the regions. Priority is given to the less developed regions, that have been called the emerging regions. 80% of UNDP total resources go to the regions, and only 20% is used at the central level in terms of the work being done by different government departments. These sectors are agriculture, education, health, water, public sector management, and the Ethiopian social rehabilitation fund. These are the areas UNDP has allocated for the next few years, meaning till the year 2001.
To be more precise, which are the regions in which you have focused your activities?
We have some details of the areas. For instance, in the education and health programs the Tigre, the Afar, the Benshangul region, the Somalia region, and the Gambella region are the regions that are most benefiting in the program. In the health program Benshagul, Gambella, Somalia are the key beneficiaries. You can notice that emphasis is very much on the regions that tend to be lagging behind. The other program like the social rehabilitation fund, covers almost countrywide, and again emphasis is given to the regions that are laguing behind. Agriculture tend to be countrywide, again when you look at the distribution of resources, we favor the emerging regions. The coverage is indeed very wide. We have at the central level, programs run in Addis Ababa. The public sector management or the civil service training is the key area in which UNDP has been active. It is also fortunate to have some results achieved because this government has taken this seriously. Since this government came to power in 1991, UNDP went in very broad programs of helping in training. In establishing a civil service training college, which we brought people from the regions like the administrators, and civil servants to train them in the basic skills of accounting, management, computers. That civil service training college is still going on with a heavy assistance from us. We have a program to assist parliament, that is an extremely pushy program from the governors issues. This includes equipping parliaments with computerizing their procedures, assistance to training and briefing to the parliamentarians. This is to extend in helping the parliamentarians establish Internet systems in their constituencies. We are starting an Internet program and also we have a program to provide training in a number of civil services areas that include ethics. We have an advisor in the prime minister office that is doing an extremely a good job. The area of capacity building for public sector management, for governors, for training middle level managers who are working in the regions. We are active in these sectors. For instance in the parliament project we are not doing it alone. In three of the UNDP projects, we have a number of donors who are contributing funding through us to support these activities. We have a sort of committee where we meet with the speakable parliament and review the projects. These are some of the things, which at the central level seem to be burying fruit that are much needed.
On the given grants, or the allocated budget or loans for the country including Addis, and the regions, do you also access the people in your project implementation?
We also asses the capacity bearing. We provide grants, but the system that you see here I will say few things, and my colleague Christian will elaborate it more. The system that we see here is called in a short form NEX (nation Execution). It is an approach which have been developed by the UNDP in the recent years. It gives emphasis on having the government and the people execute and implement the activities in which we provide funding. The emphasis is on that rather than bringing in expertise from the UN agency or from outside as it was done before. We want them to prepare their capacity by themselves and implement the activities, but this does not totally exclude the involvement of UN agencies, and people from outside. The next approach that has been tried on a number of African country, and I would say Ethiopia's case is one of the most successful, eventhough there might be different opinions, in place where we see the NEX modality working. The first reason is that the government is very committed, secondly there is virtually no corruption or very little corruption. Ethiopia is only African country that was willing to participate in the investigation of corruption that was conducted by the World Bank. | The World bank was quite impressed by the results. When I compare what I see here in terms of corruption with other African countries, I say Ethiopia is country which is exemplary in a sense. The fact we are using the next approach is because of the decentralization policy of the government. The program do not need to be implemented by the government, 80% of the resources are being used by the regions or by the people in the regions and not by some ministry in Addis Ababa as we can see in some countries. because of the decentralization policy and empowering the regions to do their own thinking, planing, and their own executional work. This makes it easier for us the UNDP to apply the policy of NEX, having the programs executed nationally rather than the old style. We do have the usual challenges that include making sure constantly the reporting, the accountability is monitored, we continuously brief and retrain the people in the regions on the procedures of working in this NEX modality. The results have been so far encouraging.
What are the priorities of the government to involve more and more the private sector in the economy, as well as to attract foreign investors. Additionally could you mention to our readers some investments opportunities for foreign investors?
I think the situation of Ethiopia is one of those countries with emerging opportunities. Many people agree in that with the climate, the environment which has been developed, where you have serious efforts at democratialization, the government is set up perfectly, with the decentralization that encourage people to participate. The climate for the private sector is good, and since the government came to power it has been showing more and more prompt actions to encourage the private sector to come in. I see from what we do in the UNDP, a lot of opportunities particularly in the areas which will include agriculture, agricultural led industries of various kinds. I must say that there are a lot of work to be done because the systems are slow in some cases, but there are a lot of work that have been done. For instance, if you move out of Addis Ababa there is room for the regions to develop their own land tenures policy that is one of the provisions that came with the policy of decentralization. It is not dictated at the central level, but you do have at the regions that you can virtually negotiate and deal with. In terms of industrialization that comes from agriculturally based system. The population alone constitutes the major market as we have a population close to 60 million. There are rural areas with medium sized businesses, they keep flourishing and the opportunity is limitless. There are a lot of towns where things are getting started, where the demand of the population is growing. In the service sector, again we have a growing population where the demand is growing, people are getting more and more assurance to settle in life, living on their own and the service sector is beginning to flourish. The bigger areas for investment, we have here in Ethiopia in terms of river basis and things dealing with power, I had a discussion with the minister of mines at some point and he was how much there is that can be developed in the area of mining. In terms of mining, energy, and Gas to service the needs of the rapidly growing population, there are tremendous opportunities. There are also soft buy sophisticated areas, of currency, trade, and the whole financial market area. If we count countries in Africa we can start with Nigeria, South Africa in terms of potential, we count Ethiopia in terms of stability, and regarding its population you can see a certain very strong ethics in terms of being consistent in the administration. If the financial market has to develop and stay on their own in Africa you have to consider places like Ethiopia. I see more of opportunities. It is an area where people have been left, but in the area of financial market as well as the hopes in Africa, you can get a movie. There are a lot in there for people who want to come in. In the area of environment the new generation of business is to develop and at the same time to preserve the environment, but we have to give attention for things that have to do with recycling programs, the natural forest. The environment conservation in many kinds of industries can be provided to this country which is so variant in its landskape.
As a more personal issue, could you give to our readers a brief background of your own professional experience?
I am from Cameroon, and my colleague whom you will meat in a short period of time is deputy resident representative Christian Diamble has been before me and I took over from another colleague who had been here for some time. I have been working in the UNDP for about 23 years, working in different countries like in Zambia, Niger, Equatorial Guinea, in Geneva, and New York. I came recently from the headquarters of New York. I worked in my own country in the ministry of economic planning before joining the UNDP, I have worked with NGO's. My training is in development economics with recently developed interests and emphasis in issues related in environment, I worked in this area for quite a long time while I was in New York. I speak English, French, and I am learning Amharic.
As a final issue, what will be your final message to our readers?
I really appreciate what Forbes is doing, because it provides opportunities to bring to the international public the opportunities we were talking about. I have discovered that Ethiopia is one of the countries that represents the emerging hopes for Africa. There is a lot of promises, as well as current demonstration of commitment to development, and living ahead in happiness, that is a good example for many African countries. the second thing that comes to mind is Ethiopia is one of the countries that have chosen the self directed mode of development. We basically means that the country has developed a seriousness in designing the policies that are required to move ahead, giving full ownership. We as UNDP are quite impressed that the government has its own determination, the approach they apply with all of us including the World Bank and the IMF is the same. They do not accept proposals and apply them half way. Instead they internalize them and inject their own views. This is a self direction with a commitment what many developing countries lack. External assistance on its own with the will of the determination of the government and the people can only be useful. The third one is that there are tremendous opportunities for the international private sector to be involved in this country. The relationship that any country has with the international community depends a lot on the number of keys. The international community which is giving assistance in development of corporation is one part, the part which is coming in in terms of the private sector is another part, and then you have those give support to tourism in its major aspect. The first part in terms of intentional development assistance is in there. The international organizations found in Africa world are present here, the UN organization is present as well as the World bank in its full force. We have Ethiopia as the number one customer with the most performance in Africa, and in turn world wide. This is enough for the country. What we need is now the second component or the international business community in terms of people and resources. We have tremendous opportunities, and the government is interested with very sound policies. Tourism in this country is relatively low, compared with what we find in many other countries. the combination is in there but compared to Kenya which is making about $500 million from tourism. The other significant thing is that Ethiopia will be the capital for Africa for a long time. People have access in all Africa, and can negotiate business opportunities. In a sense it is a one stop shot for people who want to visit and know Africa. Ethiopia is among the countries of new generation because corruption is not in there. The international community has to give assistance to Ethiopia to move out of poverty, through the combination of public and private sectors. For UNDP in human development index (HDI), we prepare global reports, and Ethiopian has the rank of 69 out of 73, that is because of the poverty of the population. However, this can change in the combination of efforts. It is now in a good path after passing through different regimes, we have duty and responsibility to help them as they are willing to help themselves. |
UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME