During the World Bank-IMF Annual Meetings, Finance Minister, Ahmed Shide, joined by Dr Sileshi Bekele, Ambassador of Ethiopia to the USA, met with the WB Vice President for Eastern and Southern Africa, Mrs. Victoria Kwakwa and the WB Country Director for Ethiopia, Mr. Ousmane Dione.
The meeting focused on the country program as well as the government’s priorities and the Bank’s support sought to address current development challenges, according to the press statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia. “The Minister thanked the World Bank for its commitment and support to respond to the multiple challenges and compounding shocks that Ethiopia faced over the last few years.”
It is stated that the Minister also highlighted the country’s development priorities, such as tackling the urgent economic challenges and ensuring macro-fiscal stability to address the tremendous economic hardships that Ethiopians are facing, in particular the poor.
He also stressed the need to unlock the full potential of the productive sectors with highest prospective to support inclusive job creation and sustained growth, supporting social cohesion and resilience, including conflict recovery and reconstruction.
Tackling disaster and climate risks, equitable distribution of resources, inclusive and participatory approaches, as well as addressing drivers of fragility such as poverty, food insecurity, climate disasters are also focus areas that requires a coordinated measure.
Strengthening human capital, focusing on access to, and quality education, improvements in health, and delivery of other basic services also have paramount importance.
The Minister further underscored the importance of balancing the immediate-term emergency assistance with the longer-term development interventions.
He stated that, while humanitarian assistance is undoubtedly needed to address the short-term needs of saving lives, broader and longer-term development assistance is critical in tackling the root causes of the challenges our country faces while ensuring to sustain the hard-earned development gains of recent years, according to the statement.
The Vice President “commended Ethiopia’s resilience in dealing with the multiple shocks, while noting the persistent challenges facing the country and the need for bold economic reforms and actions to manage the fiscal risks, foster private sector led development by creating the enabling business environment, and implementing actions to address fragility risks for resilient and sustainable development.”
The statement also noted that the Vice President reassured the Bank’s commitment to use all financing instruments and analytical services to help Ethiopia implement the new phase of transformative reforms as well as support its long-term development needs to mitigate the reversal of achievements on income growth and poverty reduction of the last decades.