Ethiopia

AS ONE OF THE POOREST countries in the world, the east African nation of Ethiopia is a land with a long history of bloody coups and civil uprisings. In addition to prolonged fighting, Ethiopia suffers from frequent droughts that threaten the very survival of its population, which is the third highest in Africa. The 133,000 refugees from neighboring countries further drain [Page 324]Ethiopia's fragile resources, leading to even deeper levels of poverty. With an average annual income of approximately $100 per person, half of the population lives below the national poverty line. Over 80 percent of Ethiopians subsist on less than $2 a day, while 26.3 survive on less than $1 a day. Almost half of the country's children under 5 are malnourished. Five million people a year depend on food aid to survive. Over four million Ethiopians suffer from an acute lack of potable water, and only eight percent of the population have sustainable access to adequate sanitation. Studies reveal that despite international attention to Ethiopia's problems, little progress has been made in quality-of-life issues for several decades.

Women and children make up the majority of refugees along the Ethiopia-Somalia border, greatly taxing Ethiopia's fragile resources. Five million people per year in Ethiopia depend on food aid to survive.

Ethiopia has the highest rate of blindness in the entire world. Officials also cope with high mortality and HIV/AIDS rates and a high population growth rate that the country is unable to sustain. Both unemployment and underemployment are prevalent. The Ethiopian economy is based on subsistence agriculture, and 80 percent of the labor force are concentrated in the agricultural and animal husbandry fields. In addition to frequent droughts, Ethiopian farmers are faced with a scarcity of arable land and the aftereffects of poor farming methods and management, which have resulted in overgrazing, soil erosion, and desertification.

In 2001, Ethiopia qualified for assistance from the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) program, which may offer some relief from its foreign debts. In 2005, further debt relief was proposed by the Group of 8, which outlined plans for establishing funds to offset debt and increase social spending in 18 of the world's poorest nations.

Ethiopians have a life expectancy of 48.83 years, and the median age is 17.75 years. Approximately 43.9 percent of the population are under the age of 14, and only 2.7 percent are over the age of 65. There is a 43.3 percent likelihood that an Ethiopian will not live to see a 40th birthday, and nearly a fourth of Ethiopian children never see the age of 5.

[Page 325]With an HIV/AIDS prevalence rate of 7.3 percent, Ethiopia has reached a crisis level in this epidemic. Approximately 2.2 million people are living with HIV/ AIDS, and at least 200,000 of these are children. Some 120,000 have died from the disease and its complications. Ethiopians also face a very high risk of food- and waterborne diseases, which include bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A and E, and typhoid fever. In some areas, Ethiopians are also vulnerable to malaria and cutaneous leishmaniasis. Other common diseases include meningococcal meningitis, rabies, and schistosomiasis, a water-contact disease. Incidences of tuberculosis are also on the rise. Ethiopia has the highest rate of blindness in the world, with some 960,000 people considered legally blind, and six million others with low vision. At least 10 million Ethiopians have trachoma, a bacterial conjunctivitis that is endemic in poor rural communities but which is entirely preventable.

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