Ethiopia Analysis ECON 1101 702 SP 2014 Introduction Ethiopia traditionally known as Abyssinia however officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia is a landlocked Sub Saharan country located in the eastern portion of the continent in the Horn of Africa Ethiopia s neighboring countries include Eritrea to the north Djibouti and Somalia to the east Sudan and South Sudan to the west and Kenya to the south Ethiopia covers approximately 1 126 829 km2 of land equivalent to the size of Texas and is the second most populous nation in Africa with over 82 million inhabitants The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Until the split of Sudan Ethiopia was the second largest country in Africa and remains the most populous landlocked nation in the world Being landlocked Ethiopia largely relies on the Port of Djibouti which is strategically located on the busy shipping route between the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean This port is essential to Ethiopia as hostilities with the country of Eritrea caused Ethiopia to lose its access to the Eritrean Port of Assab Djibouti became the only significant port for landlocked Ethiopia handling all of the country s imports and exports Edge 1 The Ethiopian dynasty traces its roots to the 2nd century BC Along with Rome China and Persia many considered the Ethiopian Aksum Empire as one of the four greatest world powers of the 3rd century Ethiopia is also one of the oldest sites of human existence known to scientists today having yielded some of humanity s oldest traces Some scientists argue that Ethiopia may be the region from which Homo sapiens first set out for the Middle East and beyond After a brief period of Italian occupation Ethiopia became a charter member of the United Nations When other African nations received their independence following World War II many of them adopted the colors of Ethiopia s flag Ethiopia s capital city Addis Ababa became the location of several international organizations focused on Africa The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Population The US Census Bureau in June 2013 estimated Ethiopia s population to be 93 877 025 a figure that makes the country the second most populous in Africa after Nigeria World Bank Index Mundi Ethiopia s population has been on a steady increase as well as the labor force which rose steadily from 33 8 million in 2004 to 43 9 million in 2012 Index Mundi 2013 Despite the apparent labor force growth Ethiopia is widely regarded a poor country with an approximate 38 7 of the citizens living below the poverty line a low life expectancy of 54 years and a dependent population of 85 the total 79 youth dependency and 6 elderly dependency Index Mundi Political and Historic History By the time the outbreak of World War I occurred in 1914 Italy had annexed Eritrea Somalia Libya and the Dodecanese Islands Italy was defeated in its first attempt to conquer Ethiopia in the First Italo Ethiopian War The First Italo Ethiopian War was fought between Italy and Ethiopia from 1895 to 1896 Ethiopia supported primarily by Russia and France both providing weapons military officers and medical supplies assisted Ethiopian forces during the war However Italy did succeed in occupying the country in the Second Italo Ethiopian War of 1935 1936 Patman 2009 With the exception of the Italian invasions during 1936 to 1941 Ethiopia has never been colonized Nations Online Emperor Haile Selassie dominated the country s politics from 1930 to 1974 when he was overthrown by military junta Mengistu Hailemariam Nations Online Hailemariam s socialist stand did not go down well with the anti socialist organizations which organized large scale uprisings and coup d tat attempts against the administration Drought and refugee crises rocked the country and Hailemariam administration was finally overthrown by the Ethiopian People s revolutionary Democratic Front EPRDF and anti socialism rebel forces in 1991 Nations Online Meles Zenawi took over as ruler gaining the title prime minister after the adoption of the country s new constitution in 1994 a position he held until his death in 2012 World Bank The new constitution effectively brought to an end Ethiopia s thirty year old struggle with Eritrea and instigated the nation s first multiparty elections in 1995 Following Zenawi s death Hailemariam Dessalegn took over as prime minister in a historically peaceful power transition World Bank Democracy Prime Minister Dessalegn and his predecessor Zenawi both belong to the EPRDF which has been leading an ambitious reform effort to initiate a transition to a more democratic system of governance and decentralize authority World Bank The party s efforts have seen powers devolved from the central government to regions district authorities and village authorities World Bank Leaders are elected through a two phase democratic voting process involving parliamentary and national elections World Bank Economic System Ethiopia s economy displays characteristics of both communism and socialism This is quite reasonable given Prime Minister Zenawi s communist stand There is a significant degree of government intervention in the economy with efforts aimed at rationalizing the same currently ongoing MSU The recent past has seen the Ethiopian government offload a number of state owned corporations to the private sector and take control of others such as the crucial sugar corporations which are considered key to the implementation of the Growth and Transformation Plan 2010 2011 through 2014 2015 MSU 2 Family Income Distribution The extent to which a country s income distribution deviates from the ideal is measured by the Gini coefficient where 0 represents perfect equality and 100 perfect inequalities World Bank In calculating the Gini index a country s cumulative family income is plotted against the number of families arranged in an ascending order to give rise to the Lorenz curve Index Mundi The ratio of the area between the Lorenz curve and the 45 degree line representing ideality to that of the triangle below the 45 degree line is in basic terms the Gini Index Index Mundi Ethiopia s Gini Index was measured at 33 6 in 2011 down from 40 in 1995 a figure making the country equal in terms of family income distribution in the East African region World Bank Economic Size With 410 as its per capita income which is essentially lower than the regional average Ethiopia could be regarded as one of the poorest nations not necessarily in the region
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