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c economist suntribune world issues thursday may 16 2002 3 ethiopian villagers on their way to market grass on the donkey will be sold for fuel to heat homes or to thatch mud hut rooves to good transparent governance dr gnamo praised the canadian effort but said despite the fact g8 countries agreed to the plan he won ders if those nations will actually pony up the funds canada cant pay by itself we cant blame all rich countries many governments have squandered resources in ethiopia but are the other nations really ready to give more resources in funding this ini- tiative he said doug clements an agricultural economist working for cidas pro gram support unit addis ababa said canadas focus must be on the longterm continuing success of aid in ethiopia ive been in africa 31 years and there are so few success stories he said even in a good year there are half a million tons of food aid need ed four to five million people need assistance every year we are no closer to a solution now that we were 31 years ago mistakes have been made despite good intentions aid organ izations have come to ethiopia building dams or water pumps or irrigation systems using the latest technology but when they went home the villagers are left unable to under stand the mechanics of the proj ects they cant operate them on their own or repair them when they break down there have been examples of the government turning down aid mr clements said not that offi cials dont recognize the need but they cant afford to maintain equip ment after the donor walks away so people continue to suffer we have to accept when we come here were going to have only a limited effect mr clements said but even a limited effect in a country with so little is better than none at all from page 1 to be done when that didnt hap pen either i figured additional research would provide clues but there are no easy answers only glimmers of hope all of them plodding longterm and costly for the 64 million people living in the secondpoorest nation on earth where the average income is 137 us a year and 50 per cent live below a poverty line we cant begin to imag ine those glimmers of hope are all they have the alternative is death the country is desperatelypoor explains doctor abbas gnamo who specializes in modem african history at the york universitys centre for international studies famine wars coups 20 years of marxist philosophy and decades of government corruption have all contributed to ethiopias lagging evolution over the last decades he said the countrys resources have been used to combat those prob lems leaving little left for structural development and humanitarian aid ethiopia exports raw materials coffee and agricultural products like teff a wheatlike crop used to make bread called injera but it doesnt generate enough capital to buy finished goods theoretically ethiopia produces enough to feed itself but cant move it from a to b paved roads are few and there is little in the way of dependable transportation only four per cent use advanced tech nology like tractors the majority still farm with oxen and a plough made of sticks more than 85 per cent of the population is rural most of those raindependent farmers on one or twoacre plots even in a good year most produce only seven or eight months of food they have no purchasing power no surplus of anything no sustainabiuty year to year land is ravaged as des perate people exhaust their plots harvesting even the grass to thatch roofs feed livestock or use as fuel and the trees for building homes or to sell as firewood frequent drought coupled with centuries of deforestation further threatens the health of the land in many regions the soil is so eroded it can barely support the growth of trees and grass never mind crops and as the dry loose barren land falls into itself it creates miles and miles of vast gullies a truly fright ening sight some problems are a result of ethiopias natural calamities drought erosion deforestation rain is not abundant and in many regions its not enough some areas are hurt by overpopulation some areas have been inhabited for thou sands of years and the land is over- exploited eroded and barren con firms dr gnamo they tried to repopulate in the west where arable land is more abundant but people dont want to leave their land ethiopia the facts population 64 million percentage of population in rural areas 85 percentage of arable land 12 life expectancy 49 infant mortality rate 97 per 1000 younger than five 166 per 1000 average number of children per woman6 percent of children younger than five stunted due to malnutrition 515 percent of underweight children 472 percent of household within 15 minutes of a safe water supply 101 percent of households with flush toilets 03 average annual income 137 us people living with hivaids 3 million 250000 younger than five percentage of hospital beds occupied by aids patients 50 again the lack of water where its needed is ethiopias greatest chal lenge small irrigation schemes and manmade ponds designed to store water from the rainy season have meant the difference between life and death for some villages women many kilometres for water lugging 50pound plastic containers or clay pots on the backs in one village women walk four hours for water and four hours back every day their time is not spent cooking cleaning sewing or help ing harvest their time is spent sur viving canada is now taking a new interest in africa including ethiopia while we spent 30 mil lion in ethiopia last year 85 per cent of it through cidafunded projects prime minister jean chretien is the front man for g8 nations leading the newest initiative in africa dubbed the new partnership for africas development or nepad chretien has persuaded the g8 which meets in kananaskis alberta in june to put africas development at the top of the agenda he has pledged 500 million for an action plan and an increase of eight per cent a year in aid to africa but canada and the g8 are put ting some conditions on the deal including a progressranking system to focus aid investment and a com mitment on behalf of african nations unending drought deforestation and decades of farming has caused land in ethiopia to fall in on itself its barely capable of sustaining life much less agriculture