Ethiopia ranks 173rd out of 186 countries in the latest UNDP Human Development Report

(UNDP Human Development Reports) — Over the 15 years since the country’s last National Human Development Report (NHDR) was published Ethiopia has undergone significant economic and social changes and has recorded some of the highest growth rates in the world-over 10 per cent in some years. However, Ethiopia’s Human Development Index (HDI) and its relative ranking have not moved appreciably during the past decade. Even though Ethiopia is one of the 10 countries globally that has attained the largest absolute gains in its HDI over the last several years, it still ranks 173rd out of 186 countries in the latest UNDP Human Development Report.

It is this development challenge that underlines the fact that the preparation of the NHDR is so opportune now and why the focus of the report on “inclusive growth for sustainable human development” is so apposite. In 1998, when the last NHDR was written, the development challenges facing the country were considerably different, even if poverty was then and still is the most challenging development issue facing Ethiopia. At that time, the threat of severe drought and famine still pressed upon the national psyche, as did the multiple challenges of overcoming decades of war, civil strife and socio-economic disruption.
To address these development challenges, since 1998 the Government has introduced a completely new development framework that ushered in fundamental changes in policies, as well as in the institutional and administrative structures of governance. In this context, the Government prepared a number of strategic policy documents and national plans that sought to articulate the national policies and priorities that would put Ethiopia on a solid human development trajectory, with the overall objective of charting a path towards fulfilling Ethiopia’s stated national vision:
. . . to become a country where democratic rule, good-governance and social justice reign, upon the involvement and free will of its peoples, and once extricating itself from poverty to reach the level of a middle-income economy as of … [2025].

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