H.E. Mr. Redwan Hussien Rameto:

I am honoured and privileged to make a presentation on the account of Irish Aid Ethiopia and thank the Chairman for the invitation. This presentation does not purport to capture all the details of invaluable contributions Irish Aid Ethiopia has been rendering in the past 25 years. For the same reason, I would like to make it clear that only the significant nature of the partnership could be underlined today.

I will begin by highlighting some facts about Ethiopia which concern the nature of the supports we seek. The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia is located in the Horn of Africa which is now known as "troubled one". With a population approaching 105 million, in Africa it is the second largest populous nation next to Nigeria. Ethiopia is a federal republic of nine regional states. A parliamentary system has been embraced for the past couple of decades and a half with a five-year first past the post periodic election. This is currently under negotiation with Ethiopian opposition political parties to try a mix of one that is first past the post and a representational system. It has a bicameral system. The lower house is called the Parliament and the upper house is the House of Federation, where each nationalities have a minimum of one seat and continues to add one for every additional million in its population. Therefore, the Ethiopian federal system is based on multicultural pluralism. Such a system empowers the community to be masters of their own destiny and also boosts this kind of development through their efforts.

Ethiopia and Ireland have enjoyed a robust relationship. It is to be recalled that both countries opened their embassies soon after the agreement on diplomatic relations - Ireland in 1994 and Ethiopia in 1995. Several exchanges of visits have been made at various levels of the leadership of both countries. The exchange of visits by leaders of the two nations is worth noting as a testimony of our cordial relationship. Ethiopia took the lead and the late Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi, visited Ireland in 2002. His Excellency Michael D. Higgins also visited Ethiopia in 2014 which further uplifted the co-operation. During this visit three pivotal agreements were signed: one on air transport co-operation, one on the avoidance of double taxation and tax evasion and one on development co-operation for the next 20 years. The current visit by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade will also enrich the robust relationship. Ethiopia has been one of the priority countries and a major recipient of Irish Aid. Ethiopia has always appreciated the nature of Irish Aid as it has not been hedged by a maze of conditionalities. Ireland has also been considered a true friend as it stood with the Ethiopian people through thick and thin. The relationship is based on mutual respect and co-operation. Thus, the nature of Irish Aid is considered a manifestation of such a cordial vibe.

To come to the specifics of the relevance of Irish Aid, it is imperative to touch on the economy of Ethiopia. The Ethiopian economy is largely agrarian. Agriculture is mostly based on small holding farming where a farmer has on average 0.5 to 1 ha. Apart from the smaller size of the land, productivity was also very much lower. Moreover, besetment of erratic weather makes crop seasons unpredictable. Therefore, to offset the subsistence produce hampered due to the meagre size of land and the freak nature of rain, recourse to water harvesting mechanism has been a matter of no choice. Such undertaking allows farmers produce two to three times a year. It appears approximately every four seasons. There is a rainy season, a season during which the rain comes and goes frequently, and there is a dry season. If we use water harvesting mechanisms, we can produce three times a year. This leads the farmer to produce a surplus which will go to the market and this will bring about betterment for the peasants of Ethiopia.

Despite the fact that it was theoretically believed and practically proved such a mechanism helps farmers to produce surplus, it is not yet widely practised by the majority. Regardless of all the coddling and prodding, it is not yet scaled up as much as the matter calls for, although encouraging trends are currently being witnessed. Hence it still requires aggressive awareness creation and capacity building from the grassroots. The need for Irish Aid comes in here, and Irish Aid is there. It is playing a pivotal role in helping farmers to bring about resilience.

Community health is a variable that can be factored in when the productivity of a community is a subject in question. It is believed that 80% of diseases have to do with personal hygiene and environmental sanitation. The Government of Ethiopia believes that the community and every household could produce its own health. It was therefore with such a profound conviction that the Government of Ethiopia came up with an all-encompassing community health extension strategy where about 40,000 front-line health extension workers are trained and helping the community by going house-to-house. This has been bringing about profound strides forward. The central plank of the strategy is prevention of diseases rather than treatment. Time is crucial and can be instrumental to production and resources which cannot be wasted for treatment in hospital are scarce. Irish Aid is also a partner in such a fundamental health sector development and this is widely appreciated.

Education is another crucial aspect of development. It is both the engine and the result of fighting poverty apart from the fact that it is a development in its own right. Just two and half decades ago access to primary education in Ethiopia was only about 20% and there were only two universities in the entire nation. The country has had formal education for only 100 years. Today, the Millennium Development Goal, MDG, in primary education in Ethiopia has been achieved in breakneck fashion. The number of universities has grown from two to 45 in just a couple of decades. In addition, about 30 million Ethiopians attend schools, which is a stupendous achievement. Alas, a lot remains to be done in secondary education, in particular, and to ensure quality in general.

Overcoming a challenge does not end there as success only poses yet another challenge. Success in creating access to education coupled with the diminished size of land engendered unemployment pressure. Therefore, recourse to off-farm job creation schemes has become vital. Irish Aid also plays a role as a partner in the above solutions that are meant to boost resilience and productivity for the population at grassroots.

Ireland is known for its success in education and its ongoing endeavour to support Ethiopian universities is worth mentioning. Such support could be more fruitful if Irish universities were encouraged to twin with their Ethiopian counterparts with the aim of building institutional capacity and taking a university in its entirety. There are signs of such initiatives by individual universities, a situation which must be encouraged.

Poverty alleviation will not materialise without improving the productivity of a small sized country, improving the health of the population, ensuring access to education and without heavy investment in infrastructure. These are deemed pro-poor sectors to which the bulk of the budget in Ethiopia goes. Irish Aid, as mentioned earlier, plays its fair share in improving agricultural productivity and building resilience. The people of Ireland have also extended their right hand to alleviate the plight of the millions of Ethiopians who struggle to extricate themselves out of the rut at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder. I also wish to mention the safety net programme and relief aid.

Ethiopia has made significant strides and has become one of the fastest growing economies in the world. It has enjoyed growth of between 8% and 10% for the past 15 years. It is one of the best performers in human development even though it began from a very low base. Half of the population used to live below the poverty line. In 1996, it was 46% but over 20 years that percentage has been reduced to 23%. Irish Aid has played its fair share in that achievement.

Ethiopia's current performance of rapid economic growth is aimed to continue under a climate resilient green economy. Massive re-afforestation and community-based nationwide water catchment treatment is aggressively taking place in all regions. Also, the supply of energy efficient technologies to avoid using more firewood is under implementation. The generation of energy from renewable sources like hydro power, thermal energy and wind energy has become the focus of the government, which has heavily invested in same. I wish to note that Irish Aid has given to energy efficient technology for households

Ethiopia has about 800,000 refugees from south Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea. Ethiopia also plays a pivotal role in peacekeeping in the Horn of Africa and Africa at large. I wish to mention the support that Irish Aid provides to refugees and call for it to be broadened. To cut a long story short, it would not be an overstatement to attest that Irish Aid's support is in line with Ethiopia's priority. Irish Aid's successive country strategic plans address and buttress the Ethiopian national successive five-year plans to reduce poverty, alleviate poverty and growth and transformation plans I and II. For the aforementioned reasons Irish Aid contributes positively to the nation's endeavours to bring about a better life for the many poor.

Ethiopia has made commendable strides in the past two decades. Rapid social and economic growth has been registered. Nevertheless, the country is not yet out of the woods given the level of poverty and the dire need to ensure the structured transformation of the economy. Thus, Irish Aid has still a bigger role to play. A continuous support for farmers with smallholdings to boost their productivity remains crucial in this regard.

The support that has begun in potato production in the southern region has proven successful and needs to be broadened. Ireland can also extend its support to help Ethiopia make the best use of its huge but hitherto unproductive livestock. As much as 70% of the Ethiopian population is under the age of 30. Rapid educational access has been a significant success; it is an aspect of human development and poses increasing pressure. Both skilled and semi-skilled labourers need jobs. To rub salt into the wound, land in the central, northern and parts of southern Ethiopia have become too small to be further divided among new generations of family members thus creating a mounting and urgent pressure. Off-farm job creation has become non-elective. It would be much appreciated if Irish Aid could widen its support in this regard.

Universities in Ethiopia could serve as incubation centres for innovative job creation and make use of the growing access to tertiary education. The University College Dublin has began an impressive initiative with Wolaita Sodo University of Ethiopia, which has received EU funding under the Building Resilience Through Education, BRTE, Horizon 2020. Such partnership needs to be nurtured and scaled up.

Ethiopia has become one of the growing destinations for foreign direct investment. Private sector investment both in manufacturing and agriculture is growing but has not reached its full potential. The missing link is small and medium-sized enterprises that could have broadened the industrial base of the domestic private sector. Therefore, Irish Aid could encourage the Irish private sector to venture into investment and avail of the myriad of joint venture possibilities. Ethiopia has massively invested in special investment zones whereby an investor can rent a shed and start manufacturing without the need to tie up its start-up capital.

In addition to enhancing aid in the ongoing sectors, job creation through private sector engagement would have manyfold advantages. Therefore, the initiative operating in Ireland to enhance trade and investment partnerships with Africa needs to be accentuated. In addition to the Africa-Ireland business forum, it would be more practical if a tailored one could be considered bilaterally. It would mean that business communities in both countries would have opportunities to make acquaintances and form partnerships. The commencement of the frequent Ethiopian Airlines passenger and cargo flight could be considered a colossal augmentation for the venture. It is worth mentioning, in conjunction with such a case, the need for rapid inward and outward travelling by the private sector. The time it takes to secure a visa to come to Ireland for our business community is too long. It would further beef up co-operation if consideration was given to ways to expedite the process.

Finally, I reiterate our appreciation for what Irish Aid and the people of Ireland have done to help Ethiopia. Ethiopia now has the opportunity to conduct business and investment which benefits itself and others. I believe that continuing assistance and the broadening of opportunities is the way forward.