News Release - Wednesday 9th March 2005

Statement by HE Ambassador Fisseha Adugna

 

The fifth annual Ethiopian Cultural Evening took place in the Jubilee Room at the House of Commons on Tuesday 8th March 2005.  Below is the text of the speech made by His Excellency Ambassador Fisseha Adugna, Ethiopia’s Ambassador to the UK.

 

 

My Lords,

Distinguished Members of Parliament,

Excellencies,

Invited Guests,

My Fellow Ethiopians,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

My wife Desta and I are very pleased to welcome you to the Ethiopian Cultural Evening that we organise once a year at this prestigious venue – the House of Commons.

 

We are celebrating Ethiopian heritage here in London for the fifth time now and each year it has gotten bigger and better, bringing friends of Ethiopia and Ethiopians living in London together. It has become a popular and important event thanks to John Austin MP, who has hosted the event each year. Without John’s assistance and the dedicated service of his office staff, Angie and others, the event wouldn’t be what it is today. I express my heartfelt gratitude to John and to his staff and members of the British Ethiopia All-Party Group for their support. We also express our appreciation to the British Inter-Parliamentary Union and its Chairperson Mrs Ann Clwyd for allowing us to use this facility.

 

Because of its popularity, this event is growing rapidly. As you can see for yourself, we have a crowd beyond the limit of this facility, testing the limits of the Jubilee Room. But this should not mislead you. This is a drop in the ocean of Ethiopia’s friends in the UK. If I invited those on my mailing list alone, I should have to hold this event in Hyde Park, not here at the House of Commons. We are blessed in having so many friends in this great country, who have always stood by us in our hour of need.

 

Because of these friends, Ethio-British relations have become stronger, deeper and wider in scope. Thanks to these friends, whether they be government officials, Parliamentarians, NGO representatives, or individuals who have engaged in Ethiopia in various fields, the bilateral relations are expanding.

 

The last two years, especially, have seen noted progress in bilateral ties. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has visited the UK four times, the last time was just ten days ago. On his part, Prime Minister Tony Blair visited Ethiopia last year in October. The two Prime Ministers have met six times in the last 24 months. They met at Commission for Africa meetings and Progressive Governance Summits. They discussed bilateral relations and issues of common interest. The two Prime Ministers share the common vision of fighting poverty in Africa, and bringing durable peace and stability to our continent.

 

On the economic co-operation front, the quality and quantity of British economic assistance is exemplary and sets a good example for other donor countries. Britain also supports Ethiopia in debt cancellation and capacity-building. The DFID office in Addis Ababa is expanding and Great Britain is leading other donor countries in our crusade against poverty in Ethiopia.

 

Ethiopia, on its part, is on the move. Twenty years have elapsed since Live Aid was organised. Since then, things have changed for the better. In the last 14 years, Ethiopia has established democratic governance that has been proven to have alleviated the problems our country faces. In May 2005 we will hold the third multi-party elections, when more than twenty million Ethiopians will go to the polls to elect their representatives. The elections will be free and fair and will be witnessed by election observers from all around the world.

 

Relative peace and stability have helped us to focus our attention on economic development. Ethiopia’s economy has grown by an average of 5.6% in the last 14 years. This is not good enough to reduce poverty by half by 2015, as stipulated in the UN Millennium Development Goal.

 

Recently, the Government embarked upon Ethiopia’s Development and Poverty Reduction Programme, which has now entered its full implementation phase. After the devastating drought of 2002, crop production in 2003 increased by nearly 40%, ending a difficult year for millions of Ethiopians. By the year 2004 the economy had grown by 11.4% and crop production had increased by 24%. The production of cereals stands at 14.7 million metric tonnes, which is more than enough for our country to feed itself.

 

But, as you are aware, there are millions who continue to need relief assistance, even in this good year of 2004 to 2005. These are the poorest of the poor and their problems will be solved when we attain total food security. The Government has ambitious plans to ensure food security in less than three year’s time.

 

In order to achieve this goal, agricultural productivity is improving. Voluntary resettlement is encouraged and supported. Water utilisation, especially irrigation programmes, have been introduced. Farmers have access to better seeds, fertilisers and other agricultural packages so that they produce surpluses, all of  which are geared to the market. There have been encouraging results so far.

 

As you are all aware, our success at fighting poverty cannot be successful unless we transform our education system. The past ten years have seen a success story in this sector. 73% of all eligible Ethiopian children now attend schools in their neighbourhood. That figure was just 27% ten years ago. Ethiopia has built thousands of schools in rural areas and there are 32 teacher training facilities with an output of 20,000 teachers a year. There are 10 million elementary school students in Ethiopia now.

 

Ethiopia is made up of 550 districts, of which 470 have at least one high school. All of these high schools are connected to each other via a satellite link that ensures quality education for each student.

 

Opportunity for college education is also growing. In 1991, Ethiopia had one university with an enrolment capacity of 3,000 students. Ethiopia now has eight universities with a total enrolment of 30,000 students. An additional five universities will be available in two year’s time. There are also more than 100 private colleges and universities with a total intake of nearly 28,000 students and that number is increasing every week.

 

Our food security programme cannot be realised if you don’t teach our farmers. We plan to open 15,000 farmers’ training schools. So far 3,000 have become operational. Farmers are being trained in modern agricultural methods, geared to the market rather than just to subsistence farming. As 80% of Ethiopians are living on farms in rural areas, the demand for farmers’ training is overwhelming.

 

That is why the Government opened 25 agricultural technical and vocational training colleges that have trained agricultural extension experts for three years, who will now be stationed in rural communities throughout the entire country. These are the institutions that train the trainers and so far the first graduates, 9,400 experts, have been assigned to rural areas. The colleges are now training an additional 45,000 students who will teach farmers about modern agriculture. This will transform agricultural practice in Ethiopia.

 

Ethiopia’s economic development programme is dynamic and it is pro-poor. The programme was charted out with the full participation of the people, in sharp contrast to the old way of project formulation by the IMF and World Bank from Washington D.C. Our development strategy empowers people and the owners of the programme are the communities themselves. The people are solely responsible for their destiny and whatever help comes from external sources is supplementary to their own efforts.

 

Our economic strategy empowers Ethiopian women who shoulder much of the responsibility and burden of the family. Women living on farms have the right to own land for the first time in our history. Women’s economic and political rights are now enshrined in the laws of the land and their implementation is now fully underway.

 

We now have women farmers who are no more under the economic subjugation of their abusive husbands. More girls are now going to school than at any time in our history. Repressive cultural practices against girls are being dealt with, with appropriate legal measures.

 

As we celebrate March 8th, Women’s Day in Ethiopia today, we are proud of achieving gender equality by law, but we also know that practical actions need to be strengthened in order to ensure equality for all citizens in our country.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

I do not want to leave you with an over-rosy picture of Ethiopia. I have to be practical. Poverty in Ethiopia is still well entrenched. It is truly a big problem that needs a big solution. Some of my British friends ask me what is the big solution. How can they be of help to Ethiopia?

 

I tell them to help in three areas:

 

Firstly, cancellation of debt. Ethiopia can build more schools, more clinics and train more farmers if its debts are totally cancelled. Those who think they can help lobbying for Ethiopia in this field, are most welcome, and we appreciate your actions.

 

Secondly, increased development assistance. Ethiopia receives the lowest per capita development assistance, averaging at 13 dollars per person, compared to 24 dollars for the rest of sub-Saharan Africa. You can also help by lobbying governments to increase development assistance to Ethiopia.

 

Thirdly, access to markets. Ethiopia produces agricultural commodities – coffee, tea, sugar, cotton, hides and skins, oil- seeds, meat etc. We cannot be competitive on the world markets because of the trade barriers and subsidies of developed countries.

 

Trade barriers undermine competition. They suppress fairness. If rules are fair, open and free, developing countries can be competitive and they can win. Imagine if the rules for athletics were not transparent and open, there would have been no hope for Haile Gebre Selassie winning. But athletics competitions are organised on a level playing field; the rules are the same for all; the public is the judge, then we compete and win. That sort of fair-play does not exist in trade. There is subsidy for agriculture. Even cows are subsidised in Europe. Tariff restrictions are apparent. There is no hope of developing countries progressing unless substantial concessions are made by the developed world in giving access to its markets. We need non-reciprocal access to markets. That is the only remedy until we can stand on our own feet and become good competitors.

 

We ask our friends to help in these areas, in areas of their choice, their ability and perhaps their passion. Access to markets is the key to all. It is our destiny. If a friend helps to obtain a market for Ethiopian commodities in Great Britain, or if you persuade an investor to invest in Ethiopia, or if you simply tell a friend to visit Ethiopia as a tourist, you should feel that you have done a superb job for Ethiopia. I would add that, as you are probably aware, the media often portrays Ethiopia as a basket case. If you write a letter to the media, citing your own experience about tourism potential in Ethiopia, that will be a great gift to our country.

 

Ethiopia is back in business. It is now on the move. It is changing; and changing for the better. This story has to be told and re-told, I suppose.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

I was not supposed to make such a long speech, when I knew it was not the right time to do so. I wanted to be honest with you, we diplomats if we don’t make long speeches we don’t feel that we are doing our job. The good news is that I am now concluding. Allow me to say a few words about the sponsorship of today’s event.

 

I am pleased to announce that this event was totally sponsored by the generous contribution of Ethiopian businesses and individual Ethiopians living in London. Apart from programme co-ordination and making this long speech, the Embassy’s contribution, in terms of money, was practically nil.

 

On behalf of my colleagues at the Embassy, allow me to express my sincere gratitude to all who sponsored this event, the best event of all so far. I am pleased to name some of them:

 

 

We thank the following restaurants:

 

We thank the following businesses:

 

They have all done their part and I am sincerely grateful for their contribution.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Please help me in applauding, once again, these sponsors for their generosity. Please enjoy their delicious and exotic food and drink and make sure to establish contact with them in the future. You may be aware that the Ethiopian community is a tiny minority in London. But it is a flourishing community, that is trying to contribute its modest share to the great culture of this country.

 

Let me leave you with a quotation from a lengthy article in the Financial Times last week, about Ethiopian dishes, which I believe will make the process easier for you as you go about it:

 

“Ethiopian food is eaten communally, the stews spooned on to a palette of injera, a soft pancake-like bread made from a sour grain called teff. The light brown pancake is used to eat the tangy, earth-hued stews of chicken, beef, lamb, fish and vegetables. Diners tear pieces of injera from a basket of pancakes, scoop up the stews and eat in one bite”

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

In addition to the exotic Ethiopian dishes from London, we are pleased to offer you Ethiopian wine, including a traditional honey wine, called tej, arriving fresh from Ethiopia. Perhaps I should add that after a glass or two of tej you would be well advised to mind your step on your way back home…

 

Before I lay down the microphone, I would like to say a few words about our host John Austin and his staffer Angie Hill. We are very much grateful for their continued support of this event in the last four years. My wife Desta and I are pleased to present a small gift to both of them as a gesture of our appreciation. We also express our sincere gratitude to our Embassy staff, the waitresses and all who are here this evening for their hard work and dedication to serving our distinguished guests.

 

Please enjoy the evening and thank you for being with us on this memorable occasion.

 

Thank you.

 

ENDS