Why Ethiopia fails to meet millennium development goals (MDGs)

By Binyam Shimelis; February 1, 2013

‘‘The current ruling party, from minority population of Ethiopia, has been in power for the last two decades. Many Ethiopian believe that there is no free and fair election which is one of the ingredients of sustainable development. The majority of people are marginalized from the political system and there is no fair play ground for all citizens. Highly educated and competent Ethiopians are living in exile as a political asylum. Due to the current political philosophy of developmental state, democratic system building as a means of achieving sustainable development is neglected by the government.

According Dr Birara, an Ethiopian economist who worked at World Bank for more than 30 years, in his new book entitled, Endemic Poverty That Globalization Can’t Tackle But Ethiopians Can, stated that “legalization and institutionalization of an ethnic-state, ethnic-politics and ethnic-federalism tearing the Ethiopian society apart and destroying a sense of ownership’’. He also said that the political system was “designed to serve the ethnically-based ruling class and leftist single party is unlikely to care for the poor”. Thus, in order to achieve sustainable development including meeting the MDG targets in Ethiopia there has to be equal participation and inclusive political system.’’

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