Ethiopian
to off- load Harare
By Tesfu Telahoun
Zimbabwe’s once dynamic economy is capsizing under four
digit hyper inflation and is being exposed to secondary shocks as
the nation becomes more isolated from the mainstream African and
international arena.
In a move which serves to underscore the difficulties of operating
to and from Zimbabwe and to follow upon British Airways (BA), which
terminated its Harare route on Sunday October 2007, sources strongly
confirm that Ethiopian Airlines is also to pull out from Harare
as early as next week.
 MORE
Global Energy to produce 40,000 tons of bio-fuel
annually in Ethiopia
By Andualem Sisay
Global Energy Pacific, a Nevada, United States based international
company run by Israeli experts, has launched a bio-diesel factory
in southern Ethiopia on Friday, November 2, 2007.
When the company’s project that has four components begins
production, it will have the capacity of producing 250 tons of fuel
each day from caster beans and jantropha, which easily grow in the
Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ Region (SNNPR)
of Ethiopia.
MORE
Ethiopia to earn 1.4 bln USD from horticulture
annually
By Andualem Sisay
Ethiopian Flower Growers and Exporters Association (EFGEA) has
set an ambitious target to generate 1.4 bln USD annually within
five years by expanding vegetable and fruits export inaddition to
the fast growing export of flowers.
Indicating its support to the plan introduced by Tsegaye Abebe,
President of EFGEA, at the first awards ceremony for exporters organized
by the government, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said: “ We
share your target vision and will do whatever it takes to meet it.”
Dashen Bank profits 188 mln birr after tax
Visa card users in Ethiopia reach 12,000
By Andualem Sisay
Dashen Bank Sc. has announced that it has earned a net profit
of 188 mln birr (21 mln USD) in the fiscal year that ended June
2007 after payment of 71.2 mln birr of profit tax.
This was indicated on the Board of Directors’ Annual Report
presented at the 13th Ordinary Annual General Meeting of Shareholders
of the Bank, held on November 1, 2007 at Sheraton Addis.
MORE
Government to open meat industry support
institute
By Andualem Sisay
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi indicated that government is to open
an institute which will enable the country to benefit from exporting
meat using its huge livestock resource.
Speaking at the awards ceremony his government organized for exporters
on November 3, 2007, he highlighted the need to have an institute
like that of leather, in order to solve the problems that meat exporters
face and encourage others to invest in this promising sector, “which
has a bright future like flowers”.
MORE
EEPCO admits billing problem
By Muluken Yewondosen and Addis Mulugeta
EEPCO has admitted problems created on the reading of bills and
that resulted in overcharging customers, during a tele-conference
held with its customers, on November 1, 2007.
According to Ato Girma Tegegne, managing director of the corporation,
EEPCO has 1.3 million customers and covers 22 per cent of the country’s
land area. The corporation had not admitted customers’ complaints
for the last two years.
MORE
The revenue sector reengineers once again
By Addis Mulugeta
The Ministry of Revenues has revealed that it has once again reengineered
its Business Process in pursuit of discharging the responsibilities
of delivering effective and efficient services to its clientele.
The long awaited Business Process Reengineering (BPR) of the Ministry,
since October 2006, has been discussed among various stakeholders
of the revenue sector. During the forum that was held on Thursday,
November 1st 2007, at the National Lottery Hall, the abstract of
the ministry’s legal perspective reform was presented and
discussed.
MORE
Coffee’s dominance over export items
to become history
By Andualem Sisay
As a result of government’s diversification strategy of export
items, coffee, which once commanded a 60 per cent share of the total
exports of Ethiopia, has now declined to 35 per cent.
“Today as a direct result of reforms in the export sector,
we have succeeded in driving up to 65 per cent of our earnings from
products other than coffee,” said Girma Biru, Minister of
Trade and Industry on Exporters Day, celebrated on November 3, 2007.
MORE
Salini rebuilds Gibe bridge
By Muluken Yewondwossen
Salini has inaugurated a bridge it rebuilt on Gibe river, 185 km
far from Addis, at a cost of six million ETB on November 3, 2007.
The bridge was erected twenty five years ago, but stopped service
due to ageing. The bridge linking Addis Ababa to south west Ethiopia
had been broken by a truck that loaded more than the set capacity
of the bridge in May 2007.
MORE
Low quality electrical equipment causes human
and animal loss in Africa
By Andualem Sisay
As cost economics takes priority over safety, the use of low quality,
substandard and cheap electrical products are causing loss of human
and cattle life, stressed professionals engaged in the sector in
developing countries.
This is highlighted at a day-long seminar on safe electrical installation
organized by ABB on Thursday November 1, 2007 at the Ghion Hotel.
“The reason why the subject was selected as a topic for the
seminar is due to the fact that it is currently a hot subject in
most of the developing countries including Ethiopia,” according
to the presentation of the day.
MORE
Creating enabling environment for Ethiopian
civil society
By Addis Mulugeta
Policy makers, development partners, over two hundred Civil Society
Organizations (CSOs), NGOs and other stakeholders, came together
to discuss on how to create an enabling environment for civil society
in Ethiopia, at a day long conference held on Tuesday, October 30,
2007, at the Imperial Hotel.
MORE
5 % of treelings perish
By Muluken Yewondwossen
Within less than four months since the two trees for 2000 millennium
tree planting campaign, up to 15 per cent of the treelings have
perished. This was disclosed at a discussion forum held at City
Hall on October 31, 2007, on how best to care for the remaining
treelings.
Although the millennium secretariat has budgeted a million birr
for the upkeep of the trees, this sum is not considered to be adequate.
It was also indicated that the promises made by individuals at the
time of planting have not been kept and the trees are not being
cared for.
MORE
Hotline Service for victims of gender-based
violence
By Addis Mulugeta
A Hotline service for victims of gender-based violence is to be
launched as part of the US Ambassador’s Special Self-Help
Program (SSHP) and Democracy and Human Rights Fund (DHRF). The soon
commencement of the service was revealed during the Ambassador’s
pact with the Ethiopian Women Lawyers’ Association (EWLA),
one of the 13 institutions to have won the special self-help program
at the US Embassy in Ethiopia on Thursday, November 1, 2007.
Indian Imitative hopes to see energy of
new designs
By Kirubel Tadesse
Speaking at the conclusion of the fifteen day Indian Capacity
Building Initiative workshop, Dr. Neeti Sethi Bose, Project Coordinator,
said that she hopes to see a new energy and drive of design from
the fifty participants. She added, “when the workshop was
first started, most participants were asking why we dedicated such
a long time for the workshop, but you can now see them complaining
about the shortness of the time. “We are very glad that we
used our time efficiently in all three sections with three experts
from India each here for five days,” Dr. Neeti explained to
Capital.
Ethiopia in Africa Forum
By Kirubel Tadesse
Ethiopia has participated on the African Forum for the first time;
an annual event organized by the Sector Network Rural Development
(SNRD) and facilitated by Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Technische
Zusammenarbeit (GTZ). The forum held this year for the 11th time
took place in Accra, Ghana under the theme 'Drivers of Pro-poor
Growth.'
MORE
Aqua tabs water purification tablet to be
launched
By Muluken Yewondwossen
Aqua tabs, a household water purification tablet used in over twenty
countries will be launched by Etmedix General Business Plc, here
in Ethiopia.
General manager and shareholder of Etmedix plc., Ato Minase Kifle,
told Capital that the joint FAO/WHO expert committee on food additives
has approved Aqua tabs for routine use in drinking water, for the
purpose of cleaning water in the household level. He said that their
company imported human and veterinary medicines and has also started
to produce hospital furniture.
MORE
“Mandatory HIV-testing, a violation
of human rights”
By Kirubel Tadesse
World wide, more than forty million people are living with HIV/AIDS.
As HIV/AIDS continues to spread at an alarming rate throughout the
world and as we are in the age of Globalization to which the people
of the world in all corners are in mobility, travel restriction
of this kind continues to affect the lives of millions of people
living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA). This kind of travel restriction primarily
takes in the form of Mandatory HIV- testing requirement for those
who wish to enter the respective countries, declaration of one’s
status as free from HIV/AIDS and the exclusion of those found to
be positive from entering the state.
MORE
Running on Empty-a new report
By Addis Mulugeta
Save the Children -Sweden has launched a new report, running on
Empty, which quantifies how much it actually costs to feed a child
a healthy and nutritious diet in order to prevent malnutrition and
how affordable this diet is for the poorest families on Thursday,
November 2, 2007 at Alem Cinema.
MORE
|
Ethiopian
to off- load Harare
By Tesfu Telahoun
Zimbabwe’s once dynamic economy is capsizing under four
digit hyper inflation and is being exposed to secondary shocks as
the nation becomes more isolated from the mainstream African and
international arena.
In a move which serves to underscore the difficulties of operating
to and from Zimbabwe and to follow upon British Airways (BA), which
terminated its Harare route on Sunday October 2007, sources strongly
confirm that Ethiopian Airlines is also to pull out from Harare
as early as next week.
Ethiopian Airlines is the most important carrier flying into Harare
and aviation industry experts predict that EAL’s departure
will leave a deep void in the options available for flights into
and out of Zimbabwe.
Air Zimbabwe has very limited capacity and boasts only two long
haul aircraft and is not expected to noticeably contribute to filling
the huge gap left by BA and the forthcoming termination of the Addis-Harare
route by Ethiopian. To add to its woes, Air Zimbabwe is facing a
potential ban from European skies if it does not pass the International
Air Transport Association’s (IATA) Operational Safety Audit
(IOSA), administered to the airline in the third week of October.
The audit is an internationally accepted prerequisite in the assessment
of the operational management and control of an airline.
There is intense pressure on the Mugabe regime not only from the
west but also from the region’s worried governments.
The Movement for Democratic change, (MDC), a major yet now somewhat
spent opposition party, said through its shadow Transport and Communications
Secretary Seiso Moyo: “the chickens have come home to roost”
referring to the region’s policies. “If you do something
inappropriate or wicked, like what Mugabe has done in the last seven
years, the consequences come back to you eventually, you get what
you deserve”, Moyo said.
However, Zanu PF supporters maintain that the British Airways pullout
had nothing to do with the collapse of the economy but was simply
a British government plot in their efforts to unseat Robert Mugabe.
Global Energy to produce 40,000
tons of bio-fuel annually in Ethiopia
By Andualem Sisay
Global Energy Pacific, a Nevada, United States based international
company run by Israeli experts, has launched a bio-diesel factory
in southern Ethiopia on Friday, November 2, 2007.
When the company’s project that has four components begins
production, it will have the capacity of producing 250 tons of fuel
each day from caster beans and jantropha, which easily grow in the
Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ Region (SNNPR)
of Ethiopia.
“By March our project will create additional income for 10,000
families in the region without causing displacement,” says
Mr. Yanai Man, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Global Energy Pacific
Ltd and Global Energy Ethiopia.
The first component of the project, the processing factory, is implemented
on 15 hectares. Global Energy will also establish a modern farm
on 30,000 hectares of state land as its second component. The company
will also buy seeds from farmers and introduce community farming
as its third and fourth components.
Global Energy Ethiopia Ltd was registered few months ago with an
investment capital of 222 mln birr (around 23 mln USD) to be engaged
in farming and processing oil seeds and extraction of bio-diesel.
investment capital of 222 mln birr (around 23 mln USD) to be engaged
in farming and processing oil seeds and extraction of bio-diesel.
According to Mr. Yanai Man, the company is currently dealing with
the Development Bank of Ethiopia for financing its expansion project
in Ethiopia. The launching of Global Energy’s project in Ethiopia
has followed its receiving of 1.5 mln USD pursuant to up to 4 mln
USD financing from YA Global Investments.
Following this financing, this week on October 29, 2007, Asi Shalgi,
CEO of Global Energy Inc, said: “YA Global’s team performed
an extensive due diligence study of the KDV technology, provided
with a report endorsing the KDV technology. This
report coupled with YA Global’s investment in Global Energy
Inc of funding and intellectual prowess, certainly reinforce my
commitment to bring the Company to its fullest potential.”
Global Energy’s mission is to commercialize innovative technologies
which produce energy from waste and renewable sources, while contributing
to a vision of a cleaner environment. Global Energy intends to use
the most efficient and environmentally friendly of all currently
available alternative fuel technologies, each originally developed
and patented by acclaimed scientists.
In 5 years, Global Energy intends to develop, build and operate
20 energy processing plants, capable of producing 10,000 liters
of mineral diesel oil per hour each, all based on the environmentally
friendly KDV technology.
Global Energy intends on developing energy processing plants utilizing
a proprietary technology called KDV, developed by Alpha Kat and
its owner Dr Christian Koch. This technology can convert different
types of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) into mineral diesel oil.
The process is applicable to biomass waste and any waste containing
hydrocarbons. The KDV process can be readily applied to MSW including
plastic, rubber, paper and cardboard waste all of which can be converted
to mineral diesel.
In addition, the technology can be applied to refinery residuals
- such as Petcock, Tar and paraffin which cannot be used today and
the disposal of which harms the environment and is very expensive
to neutralize.
It also applies to used oil from engines, organic wastes, sewerage
sludge and animal manures and all types of waste Biomass, including
such items as the body plant of the corn when extracting oil from
the seeds, sunflowers and any other crop where significant amounts
of Biomass remain in the field after harvesting the food parts.
Furthermore, glycerin-bio-diesel plants produce glycerin, 30% of
which can be converted to saleable mineral diesel.
The company is negotiating with various companies in Europe to supply
them the 40,000 tons of bio-diesel it will produce annually. With
the long term objective of liberating the world from crude oil dependency,
the European Union plans all member states’ transport fuels
to use ten per cent of bio-fuels by 2020.
Contrary to the EU plan, on Friday November 2, 2007, Oxfam warned
that the plan could be disastrous for poor people.
According to Oxfam, in order to meet the substantial increase in
demand, the EU will have to import bio-fuels made from crops like
sugar cane and palm oil from developing countries.
“But the rush by big companies and governments in countries
such as Indonesia, Colombia, Brazil, Tanzania and Malaysia to win
a slice of the ‘EU bio-fuel pie’ threatens to force
poor people from their land, destroy their livelihoods, lead to
the exploitation of workers and hurt the availability and affordability
of food.”
“In the scramble to supply the EU and the rest of the world
with bio-fuels, poor people are getting trampled. The EU proposals
as they stand will exacerbate the problem. It is unacceptable that
poor people in developing countries should bear the cost of questionable
attempts to cut emissions in Europe,” said Robert Bailey of
Oxfam.
“Decisions on bio-fuels made in Europe are directly affecting
millions of people in Indonesia. In the relentless pursuit of bio-fuel
gold, big powerful palm oil companies are callously clearing communities
from land they have farmed for generations, workers and small holders
are shamefully exploited and we are losing valuable agricultural
land to grow the food we need to feed ourselves and make a living.
The proposed EU policy will only make this worse – pushing
more people into poverty and concentrating land in the hands of
a few.”
Ethiopia to earn 1.4 bln
USD from horticulture annually
By Andualem Sisay
Ethiopian Flower Growers and Exporters Association (EFGEA) has
set an ambitious target to generate 1.4 bln USD annually within
five years by expanding vegetable and fruits export inaddition to
the fast growing export of flowers.
Indicating its support to the plan introduced by Tsegaye Abebe,
President of EFGEA, at the first awards ceremony for exporters organized
by the government, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said: “ We
share your target vision and will do whatever it takes to meet it.”
According to Tsegaye, after five years the sector will be able
to hire 1.5 million employees and engages 50,000 small scale farmers
who can sell their vegetables and fruits to exporters.
Within less than four months since the two trees for 2000 millennium
tree planting campaign, up to 15 per cent of the treelings have
perished. This was disclosed at a discussion forum held at City
Hall on October 31, 2007, on how best to care for the remaining
treelings.
Although the millennium secretariat has budgeted a million birr
for the upkeep of the trees, this sum is not considered to be adequate.
It was also indicated that the promises made by individuals at the
time of planting have not been kept and the trees are not being
cared for.
Tesfaye Hailu, tree plantation expert, said “planting trees
consists of only 10 per cent of the afforestation efforts; ninety
per cent of the work is the upkeep of treelings.”
Other experts predict that the current dry season will further put
at risk the remaining treelings. It was also disclosed that some
of the parks where the trees are located are at a distance from
Addis, making the upkeeping process difficult.
The forum concluded with renewed pledges to make efforts to maintain
the trees.
In related news, the Addis Ababa Millennium Secretariat is making
plans for various facilities at the millennium park. According to
Biruk Gebremedhin, P.R Head at the secretariat, the study will be
finalized next month.
Dashen Bank profits 188
mln birr after tax Visa card users in Ethiopia reach 12,000
By Andualem Sisay
Dashen Bank Sc. has announced that it has earned a net profit
of 188 mln birr (21 mln USD) in the fiscal year that ended June
2007 after payment of 71.2 mln birr of profit tax.
This was indicated on the Board of Directors’ Annual Report
presented at the 13th Ordinary Annual General Meeting of Shareholders
of the Bank, held on November 1, 2007 at Sheraton Addis.
“Despite the various challenges in the economy and task environments,
our operational performance in the fiscal year that ended June 2007
was extraordinary,” said Teklu Haile, Chairman of the Board
of Directors of Dashen Bank Sc.
“Hence, it has kept its vow for a sustainable and consistent
growth. The fact that the bank was awarded for the fifth time as
“Best Bank of the Year-2006 for Ethiopia” by the Banker
of London, is evidence of sound management that makes our contentment
two fold,” Teklu said.
On the advancement in technology, the progress of the payment card
business is indeed encouraging. The number of Visa branded cards
issued by the Bank has exceeded 12,000.
The bank has also continued its non-stop expansion program in the
payment card service delivery outlets. Accordingly, the number of
Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) and Point of Sale (POS) terminals
has reached 10 and exceeded 250 respectively. It was also learned
that the number of ATMs will double in the current fiscal year.
Lulseged Teferi, the President of Dashen Bank, on his part indicated
that the bank’s net profit after tax increased by 41 % and
stood at Birr 188 million, an ever- high record both for the bank
and in the sector among peers.
The primary capital of the bank has also increased by 56% and stood
at Birr 484 million. The total asset of the Bank has exceeded Birr
6 billion, which is an increase of 33% over the previous year’s
position.
During his remark, the President of the bank assured to customers
and shareholders that Dashen Bank will continue operating in accordance
with the contemporary best banking practices and acting with prudence
to meeting expectation of a high standard of operations.
Government to open meat
industry support institute
By Andualem Sisay
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi indicated that government is to open
an institute which will enable the country to benefit from exporting
meat using its huge livestock resource.
Speaking at the awards ceremony his government organized for exporters
on November 3, 2007, he highlighted the need to have an institute
like that of leather, in order to solve the problems that meat exporters
face and encourage others to invest in this promising sector, “which
has a bright future like flowers”.
After a leather institute was established in Ethiopia a few years
ago, in 2006 the country for the first time was able to generate
5 mln USD by exporting finished shoes to Europe.
With the intention that seems to replicate this experience to the
meat sector, the Prime Minister calls upon Meat Exporters Association
members to closely work with the government for the growth of the
sector.
Responding to the contraband trade in live animals, which has recently
become one of the major reasons for the poor performance of legal
meat exporters and exporters engaged in other sectors as well, Meles
said: “providing farmers and pastoralists with premium prices
is the only best solution to end the illegal trade”.
Stressing on the need for the business associations to cleanse their
members from contraband, the Prime Minister said: “it is not
the farmers who are involved in contraband/illegal trade; it is
the business community, even though we can’t say most of the
business communities are involved”.
As another solution to control contraband, he also stressed the
need to quickly begin implementing the commodity exchange system
to shorten the gap between the farmers/pastoralists and exporters/consumers.
Ethiopia’s foreign currency earning from meat and livestock
grew by from 2.9 mln USD in the year 2003/4 to reach 52.2 mln USD
in the year 2006/7.
EEPCO admits billing problem
By Muluken Yewondosen and Addis Mulugeta
EEPCO has admitted problems created on the reading of bills and
that resulted in overcharging customers, during a tele-conference
held with its customers, on November 1, 2007.
According to Ato Girma Tegegne, managing director of the corporation,
EEPCO has 1.3 million customers and covers 22 per cent of the country’s
land area. The corporation had not admitted customers’ complaints
for the last two years. “Now our corporation is on the way
to solve these problems through the use of a card that would be
filled out by the person reading the metering device and to be kept
by the client and also by changing the old metering device with
the pre paid metering device”, Ato Girma told Capital. He
added that the pre paid metering device is already working in Addis
Ababa and Nazereth and promised that the old metering devices will
be changed under the corporation’s joint venture with Lswedy,
a Swedish company.
In related news, EEPCO is starting to change cable installations
in cities to be laid below ground, through funds from the World
Bank.
The revenue sector reengineers
once again
By Addis Mulugeta
The Ministry of Revenues has revealed that it has once again reengineered
its Business Process in pursuit of discharging the responsibilities
of delivering effective and efficient services to its clientele.
The long awaited Business Process Reengineering (BPR) of the Ministry,
since October 2006, has been discussed among various stakeholders
of the revenue sector. During the forum that was held on Thursday,
November 1st 2007, at the National Lottery Hall, the abstract of
the ministry’s legal perspective reform was presented and
discussed.
Nebiyou Samuel, Director of Revenue Collection, welcomed the participants
of the discussion forum by putting such remarks that the BPR constitutes
such activities as engineering new business procedures, laying out
of unitary revenue sector based on the BPR, preparing basic concepts
of the sector’s values and beliefs, and studying the basic
result-oriented remuneration packages of employees. He also made
clear that pilot testing is being made on some of the business procedures.
Whereas the preparation of abstracts of regulatory and directives
reform is almost finished, the legal perspectives are revised to
include the founding regulation of the new revenue sector, personnel
administration regulations, and tax and customs administration guidelines
as well as the directives to implement these regulations.
The State Minister of Revenue, Tezera Wodajo, opened the forum,
reminding the attendants that the ministry had been undertaking
various BPR activities at Ethiopian Customs Authority (ECuA) and
Federal Inland Revenue Authority (FIRA) including the National Lottery
Administration before calling upon all stakeholders for discussion.
He stated that the reform of the regulations and directives that
offended clients is made due to the results of the study to undertake
BPR, which necessitated the reformations. He also called upon the
taxpayers to undertake the responsibilities bestowed on them to
assist in the Poverty Reduction Program the country has, parallel
to the reform.
Thorough discussions have been made during the occasion on how to
bring about the newly planned revenue sector which is about to be
founded. The new revenue sector is assumed to combine ECuA and FIRA
to come up with a unitary revenue ministry.
Coffee’s dominance over
export items to become history
By Andualem Sisay
As a result of government’s diversification strategy of export
items, coffee, which once commanded a 60 per cent share of the total
exports of Ethiopia, has now declined to 35 per cent.
“Today as a direct result of reforms in the export sector,
we have succeeded in driving up to 65 per cent of our earnings from
products other than coffee,” said Girma Biru, Minister of
Trade and Industry on Exporters Day, celebrated on November 3, 2007.
Even though the quantity of coffee export is increasing every year,
the rapidly growing export commodities are rushing to make its leading
role history in the near future. Recent data obtained from the Ministry
of Trade and Industry show that the export earnings from coffee
reached 421mln USD last year from 165 mln USD just two years ago.
Meanwhile, during the same period, foreign currency earnings from
pulses, oil seeds and spices shot up from 70 mln USD to 267 mln
USD. In addition, earnings from the fast growing sector of floriculture
have also risen from around 3 mln USD to 64 mln USD and have also
contributed a lot to change coffee’s dominancy for decades
in the country’s export items list.
Furthermore, the foreign currency earnings from leather and leather
goods has also increased from 52 mln USD to above 89 mln USD in
the same period. The country’s income from khat, a stimulant
plant, has also increased from 58 mln USD two years ago to 93 mln
USD. Gold has also contributed for the decreasing dominancy of coffee,
by generating 97 mln USD last year from the 42 mln USD it generated
two years ago.
The number of coffee exporters in Ethiopia has reached 115 and last
year they exported some 177,000 tons.
Salini rebuilds Gibe bridge
By Muluken Yewondwossen
Salini has inaugurated a bridge it rebuilt on Gibe river, 185 km
far from Addis, at a cost of six million ETB on November 3, 2007.
The bridge was erected twenty five years ago, but stopped service
due to ageing. The bridge linking Addis Ababa to south west Ethiopia
had been broken by a truck that loaded more than the set capacity
of the bridge in May 2007.
After this the Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA) opened the former
old bridge only to small vehicles, buses and light trucks. Large
trucks were using the Nekemte road which is costly and wastes time.
“It is a supplementary work in order to open the route for
heavy trucks,” Ato Samson Wondimu, ERA public relations head,
told Capital.
Salini, an Italian construction company is building EEPCO’s
third phase hydro electric power program project around Gilgel Gibe
which is near the bridge. The bridge has high value for this company’s
project to transport its building materials and to minimize costs
in fuel.
According to Samson, the authority is building a new bridge for
28 million ETB and it will be completed in one year’s time.
South west Ethiopia is one of the leading coffee producing regions
in Ethiopia.
Low quality electrical
equipment causes human and animal loss in Africa
By Andualem Sisay
As cost economics takes priority over safety, the use of low quality,
substandard and cheap electrical products are causing loss of human
and cattle life, stressed professionals engaged in the sector in
developing countries.
This is highlighted at a day-long seminar on safe electrical installation
organized by ABB on Thursday November 1, 2007 at the Ghion Hotel.
“The reason why the subject was selected as a topic for the
seminar is due to the fact that it is currently a hot subject in
most of the developing countries including Ethiopia,” according
to the presentation of the day.
Despite the fact that electricity is one of the safest energies
available; it can be very dangerous as well unless genuine and reliable
protective devices are properly installed to protect wiring, equipment
and the user from hazard, they stressed.
The participants have also emphasized that the topic is a timely
issue for Ethiopia as the Government of Ethiopia has already embarked
on the Universal Electricity Access Program (UEAP) in order to broaden
the national electrification coverage and increasing access to electricity
from 15% to 50% within 5 years.
In addition, they also indicated that a number of manufacturers
with reputable experience in the design and research of electrical
installation device and components provide a wide range of products
which fulfill the requirements of high reliability due to safe design,
responsible production and stringent quality control.
However, it is important to realize the fact that the best equipment
can not be used safely unless the installation work is carried out
correctly. Therefore, the design of the equipment should allow simple
installation and subsequent use.
Since the introduction of electricity at the end of the 19th century,
standards and regulations have been introduced by international
and national bodies to serve as recommendations and mandatory guidelines.
However, in practice, the correct selection of the protective devises
to be installed, and the reliable operation of these services at
the required moment, is even more important.
The seminar is organized by expatriate professionals who came from
ABB Manufacturing units in Italy, Egypt, South Africa and Kenya
as well as engineers from Electrical Engineering Systems PLC, Authorized
Representative of ABB in Ethiopia.
The objective of the seminar is to upgrade the awareness of concerned
professionals and relevant public and private institutions and stakeholders
on the subject of safe electrical installation and promote electrical
safety by teaching how to select appropriate Low Voltage electrical
products for residential and industrial buildings.
The seminar was attended by an audience of 87 participants from
various government and private firms including consultants, contractors,
individual professionals & business men, utilities, industries,
electrical wholesalers, electrical workshops and equipment manufacturers
as well as invited guests from the Ethiopian Customs Authority,
Addis Ababa Municipality and Addis Ababa Fire Brigade, among others.
Creating enabling environment
for Ethiopian civil society
By Addis Mulugeta
Policy makers, development partners, over two hundred Civil Society
Organizations (CSOs), NGOs and other stakeholders, came together
to discuss on how to create an enabling environment for civil society
in Ethiopia, at a day long conference held on Tuesday, October 30,
2007, at the Imperial Hotel.
The conference jointly organized by the Forum for Social Studies
(FSS), the Union of Ethiopian Civil Society Associations (UECSA)
and the Organization for Social Justice in Ethiopia (OSJE), aimed
at examining the prevailing legal and policy environment of civil
society organizations, their institutional situation and engagement.
The conference identified some of the major challenges facing civil
society organizations and recommended measures to be taken by policy
makers, the CSOs and development partners. Studies concerning civil
society institutional dynamics in the case of Ethiopia and other
selected African countries were presented.
According to Prof. Bahru Zewde, FSS Executive Director, the conference
had its origins in a project founded by the European Commission
under its European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR)
Program. Prof. Bahru explained the significance of the conference
and said, “First and foremost it was an occasion for self-
awareness and self- definition. It was a forum which aimed to grasp
Ethiopian Civil Society as fully as possible. It is also an opportunity
for self-evaluation, for an honest assessment of our achievements
and shortcomings; it is an occasion to evaluate the state of Civil
Society in Ethiopia within the general African context”.
The forum’s importance as a platform to examine the legal
and political environment in which the Civil Society is operating
in Ethiopia was also mentioned by the Professor. In addition to
this, the conference helped to discuss the issue of a code of conduct
for Civil Society in Ethiopia. The eventual adoption of a code of
conduct that was signed in 1999 by the CSO community which would
constitute an important step forward for Ethiopian civil society
was also examined.
Prof. Bahru also expressed his hope that government authorities
would view the recommendations forwarded at the conference with
the seriousness and understanding they deserve.
Director of FDRE Human Rights Commission, Ato Getahun Kassa, presented
a statement during the occasion on the role of civil society in
promoting Human Rights. He put in his paper that the role of civil
society in promoting human rights is not an exclusive jurisdiction
for a particular organization/institution. It rather is a subject
where all actors and duty-bearers have their stake. At present,
the role of the civil society organizations in the promotion and
protection of human rights is growing in the international domain
as well as in Ethiopia. Ato Getahun also said that the areas for
collaboration between the Commission and the civil society organizations
working on human rights would only require treating each other as
equal partners and with due respect to the institutional autonomy
of each side. CSOs were requested to collaborate in the efforts
to incorporate human rights in the school curricula at all level,
in the human rights awareness creation endeavors aiming at creating
human-rights-aware society, disseminate and translate human rights
materials and treaties in every vernacular, advocate for the protection
of rights of disadvantaged segments of the society, share expertise
and experience, and to harmonize efforts in human rights promotion
activities.
5 % of treelings perish
By Muluken Yewondwossen
Within less than four months since the two trees for 2000 millennium
tree planting campaign, up to 15 per cent of the treelings have
perished. This was disclosed at a discussion forum held at City
Hall on October 31, 2007, on how best to care for the remaining
treelings.
Although the millennium secretariat has budgeted a million birr
for the upkeep of the trees, this sum is not considered to be adequate.
It was also indicated that the promises made by individuals at the
time of planting have not been kept and the trees are not being
cared for.
Tesfaye Hailu, tree plantation expert, said “planting trees
consists of only 10 per cent of the afforestation efforts; ninety
per cent of the work is the upkeep of treelings.”
Other experts predict that the current dry season will further put
at risk the remaining treelings. It was also disclosed that some
of the parks where the trees are located are at a distance from
Addis, making the upkeeping process difficult.
The forum concluded with renewed pledges to make efforts to maintain
the trees.
In related news, the Addis Ababa Millennium Secretariat is making
plans for various facilities at the millennium park. According to
Biruk Gebremedhin, P.R Head at the secretariat, the study will be
finalized next month.
Hotline Service for victims
of gender-based violence
By Addis Mulugeta
A Hotline service for victims of gender-based violence is to be
launched as part of the US Ambassador’s Special Self-Help
Program (SSHP) and Democracy and Human Rights Fund (DHRF). The soon
commencement of the service was revealed during the Ambassador’s
pact with the Ethiopian Women Lawyers’ Association (EWLA),
one of the 13 institutions to have won the special self-help program
at the US Embassy in Ethiopia on Thursday, November 1, 2007.
W/ro Mahder Paulos, Executive Director of EWLA said during the occasion
that her association is composed of lawyers that promote the economic,
political, social, and legal rights of women and to that end, assist
them to secure full protection of their rights under the constitution
of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and other human rights
conventions. W/ro Mahder explained that EWLA will provide the Hotline
service not only at its head office in Addis Ababa but also in all
the 10 sub-cities in partnership with women’s affairs desk.
She said that there were still a number of women that were not able
to benefit from their services due to such different reasons as
lack of information, inability to cover transportation costs and
other related travel problems, as well as fear of coming face to
face and sharing their problems with strangers. She applauded the
beginning of the Hotline Service project to change predicaments
faced by numerous women by letting them get the service without
having to travel to their offices and face strangers.
She described that the service is efficient compared to the number
of beneficiaries who need the service. She also said that among
the beneficiaries of legal aid are women and children who need basic
information on their legal rights and/or legal procedures. The Director
further indicated that making basic information available through
the hotline service is important as counselors could better manage
their time in providing counseling and representation for beneficiaries
who need more than basic information.
According to the director, to make the project fully implemented,
EWLA would engage both full-time and part-time hotline counselors,
develop a database of all incoming calls, a reference for frequently
asked questions, counseling training manual and provide the training
to all counselors, peer support groups for the counselors to minimize
burn-out and a strategy to use volunteers to ensure sustainability
but also minimize the financial implication of running a hotline,
a referral service for callers, and a reporting mechanism for gender-based-
violence etc.
The hotline service project would primarily focus on actual and
potential victims of gender-based-violence or their families in
Addis Ababa as a pilot. Once the hotline service is established
and fully operational in Addis Ababa, EWLA would make the service
accessible in other regions of the country. In addition to that
the hotline service center will keep a rigorous record of call received
and the way the cases were handled. This could be compared and analyzed
with police records and of other service providers.
Indian Imitative hopes to
see energy of new designs
By Kirubel Tadesse
Speaking at the conclusion of the fifteen day Indian Capacity
Building Initiative workshop, Dr. Neeti Sethi Bose, Project Coordinator,
said that she hopes to see a new energy and drive of design from
the fifty participants. She added, “when the workshop was
first started, most participants were asking why we dedicated such
a long time for the workshop, but you can now see them complaining
about the shortness of the time. “We are very glad that we
used our time efficiently in all three sections with three experts
from India each here for five days,” Dr. Neeti explained to
Capital.
On the final day of the workshop, participants visited some shops
including cultural gift shops at Friendship City Center. On the
visit, Lemlem Admasu told capital that she got many ideas of improving
her tailoring service. She commented, “It was a great opportunity
that we got this training, what we now wish to have is an opportunity
like market places to show what we have learned and this training
should be accompanied by such measures.” Another participant,
Meseret Teffera said, “I am a private designer with out a
shop and a market place and what I used to do is take orders and
deliver them. Before this training I was not aware of the different
techniques to use colors and shapes. Now these techniques will help
improve my designs to a great extent.” She added that the
only shortcoming she saw was the brief period of time. Meseret said,
“The teachers had a lot to say, they were struggling to compress
an extensive education in small sessions, but the training was very
valuable experience for me.”
Geet Priya Misra is an expert who conducted the last five days of
the workshop and comes from the Pearl Academy of Fashion, India.
She started her career in Singapore and spent the last eighteen
years in the field. She explained to capital that Ethiopia has a
big potential which can create jobs for many thousands if Ethiopians
start buying traditional clothes.
Geet Priya said, “Ethiopia like us or other countries shouldn’t
start from scratch. It can learn from designs and techniques of
others like us to take the traditional clothes and design to a level
that attracts nationals to satisfy and capture their need. “She
further explained that she was impressed with the openness and commitment
of the participants of the workshop.
Dr. Neeti told Capital that four of the participants selected based
on assessments from ten products they will submit will get a chance
to go on a study tour to India. She further explained that if sponsors
support the program more participants can go on the study tour which
she said will help their career greatly.
Ethiopia in Africa Forum
By Kirubel Tadesse
Ethiopia has participated on the African Forum for the first time;
an annual event organized by the Sector Network Rural Development
(SNRD) and facilitated by Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Technische
Zusammenarbeit (GTZ). The forum held this year for the 11th time
took place in Accra, Ghana under the theme 'Drivers of Pro-poor
Growth.'
Daniela Spies, GTZ Public Relations officer, explained that the
Forum attracted practitioners from eighteen African countries who
conferred about the roles of different actors such as the private
sector, central and local governments, donors, non-governmental
and civil society organizations and academia in promoting pro-poor
growth. Daniela Spies added that the Ethiopian team comprised of
representatives of federal, regional, and woreda level government
structures, the private sector and civil society, and was selected
to organize the next Africa Forum on pro-poor issues which will
be held in about one year.
"Attending the forum with different stakeholders in rural development
helped to develop a shared vision and responsibility for pro-poor
growth in Ethiopia", says Andrea Bahm, GTZ Director of the
Ethio-German program for Sustainable Utilisation of Natural Resources
for Improved Food Security.
Amare Worku, Head of Forests, Land use and Soils Development and
Conservation Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development, stated that poverty and food insecurity can only be
tackled by ensuring rapid economic growth that also has relevance
to the vast majority of the poor rural areas. "All partners
together have to make sure that the poor are benefiting from economic
and agriculture growth", Amare added.
Tsegaye Abebe, Board Chairman of Ethiopian Horticulture Producers-Exporters
Association on his part said that the Accra African Forum was an
excellent opportunity to learn from experiences of other countries
about the private sector's role in the development of the country.
GTZ explained that in order to strengthen their cooperation and
to more effectively coordinate their work, Forum participants from
Ethiopia will continue to work as a Country Team. It added, "The
participants of the Africa Forum want to keep up the spirit of cooperation
and spread it in their field of work. As a follow up to the Forum
deliberations, the Country Team will organize a workshop with all
partners of rural development in Ethiopia to discuss on drivers
of pro-poor growth in the country and to devise jointly, action
areas by the different actors in the pursuit of fostering pro-poor
growth."
Aqua tabs water purification
tablet to be launched
By Muluken Yewondwossen
Aqua tabs, a household water purification tablet used in over twenty
countries will be launched by Etmedix General Business Plc, here
in Ethiopia.
General manager and shareholder of Etmedix plc., Ato Minase Kifle,
told Capital that the joint FAO/WHO expert committee on food additives
has approved Aqua tabs for routine use in drinking water, for the
purpose of cleaning water in the household level. He said that their
company imported human and veterinary medicines and has also started
to produce hospital furniture.
A WHO report indicated that 48 per cent of Ethiopia’s population
is still without access to safe and adequate domestic water supply
and is forced to meet drinking water needs from unprotected contaminated
water sources even if the people who have water access do not drink
100 per cent clean water.
Aqua tabs is already being distributed in Tanzania, Sudan, Uganda
and Kenya. “The price is inexpensive as a single tablet treats
twenty liters for just 25-30 cents. We are now working on an Amharic
guide line on the treatment process”, Ato Minase told Capital.
“Medentech Ltd, the company that produces Aquatab, was established
in 1984 in Ireland and specializes in the development and manufacture
of effervescent tablets and granules for use in human and animal
healthcare and to be distributed by agents all over the world. We
are entering east Africa and we are also going to launch in West
Africa. Ethiopia is seriously affected by waterborne diseases so
that’s why we want to make this tablet available here,”
concluded Kevin Ocallaghan, Medentech’s marketing manager.
Aqua tabs is not the only water purification tablet in Ethiopia
as the USAID and PSI Ethiopia financed locally produced “Wuha
Agar” has been around since December 2004. After about a year,
another brand of “Wuha Agar” called “Wuha Agar
Telele” was launched.
“Mandatory HIV-testing,
a violation
of human rights”
By Kirubel Tadesse
World wide, more than forty million people are living with HIV/AIDS.
As HIV/AIDS continues to spread at an alarming rate throughout the
world and as we are in the age of Globalization to which the people
of the world in all corners are in mobility, travel restriction
of this kind continues to affect the lives of millions of people
living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA). This kind of travel restriction primarily
takes in the form of Mandatory HIV- testing requirement for those
who wish to enter the respective countries, declaration of one’s
status as free from HIV/AIDS and the exclusion of those found to
be positive from entering the state.
Even if the World Heath Organization and other concerned United
Nations specialized agencies called upon all states to circumvent
entry restrictions to PLHA, recent surveys show that more than twenty-four
do frequently restrict people living with HIV. However, countries
like Denmark, France, Japan, Italy, Luxemburg, and the Netherlands
impose no HIV-related restriction on the grounds of public health
or economic cost justification.
Mandatory testing is a process where testing is either a necessarily
prerequisite for a person to obtain a specified status, benefit,
service or access to a given situation, or is a necessary consequence
of being avoided with one or more of these in which the element
of choice rests with person considering the “service”,
“benefit”, or specified status”., explains Jimma
University Law graduate Dereje Shimeles. Starting from his senior
essay for his first degree, he has conducted a rigorous research
on HIV/AIDS - Related Travel Restriction in the Context of International
Human Rights Laws. Dereje, Junior Law Researcher at the Tulane University
Technical Assistance Programme - Ethiopia, explains that International
Human Rights laws proscribe states from discriminating against a
person in the enjoyment and exercise of his/her rights and freedoms
on the basis or race, colors, sex, language, religion, political
or other opinion, national, or social origin, property, birth or
other status.
Dereje Shimeles further explains on his paper that the UN Commission
on Human Rights has confirmed that the phrase “Other status”
within the non-discrimination clauses of international human rights
should include health status, including HIV/AIDS. He shows that
the restrictions imposed on the international movement of PLHA is
based solely on their health status: being HIV- positive, which
is a violation of states’ obligation under international human
rights law not to discriminate persons based on their HIV status.
“The public health rationale has been frequently cited as
a ‘legitimate’ ground for limiting the enjoyment of
certain human rights by PLHA”, explains Dereje.” In
spite of the fact that public health has been used as a ‘scapegoat’,
it is in fact a blind justification that doesn’t tolerate
the consideration of various other factors.”
“As HIV/AIDS spread globally, many states adopted exclusionary
policies that, according to experts violated the provisions of health
regulations and points out that the most pressing reason why HIV/AIDS
is not a threat to public health is that, it is not a disease which
can be transmitted by casual contact. “Like Tuberculosis and
SARS, which are transmitted by the simple presence of an infected
individual, HIV transmits through some identified modes, which is
a result of the joint behavior of the person from whom the virus
is transmitted and the person to whom the virus is transmitted”,
explains Dereje.
In addition to the public health justification, the other rationale
set forth by states for immigration ban of HIV- positive travelers
is the economic consideration that intending immigrants will potentially
be burdens to the government sponsored health and other social services.
But Dereje explains that even if states have no international obligation
to give entry to their country to those who are not nationals and
in particular for those aliens living with HIV/AIDS, which claims
potentially high modification cost, it is not sound to select out
only PLHA for this measure and to consider them as ones only seeking
assistance. He adds, “states often ignore that PLHA can contribute
their part to the national economy of a country and the fact that
same immigrants may be financially self-sponsored.” Stressing
the contributions of PLHA to an economy, Dereje states that Anti-retroviral
therapies can suppress the virus even below levels of detection,
enabling a healthy, prolonged and productive life. WHO has stated
that when a state considers excluding a person on “excessive
demand” grounds, it should do so only if the cost of the financial
support exceeds the benefits that are expected from the traveler,
which according to Dereje’s research is not the case of PLHA.
Dereje Shimeles explained to Capital that the restriction of the
immigration ban of HIV-positive entrants are not justified and because
mandatory HIV- testing and the attendant exclusion of those found
to be positive has neither public health nor economic cost grounds,
it is a clear discriminatory act and a violation of human rights.
Dereje recommends that states party to international organizations,
in particular to the UN, should realize that they have a moral obligation
to adhere to the HIV/AIDS related recommendations, resolutions,
guidelines and declarations made by the same organ. He added that
if states live up to these, there could be no policy or practical
discrimination and stigmatization of PLHA, in particular with regard
to mandatory HIV testing and exclusion of PLHA from international
travel.
Running on Empty-a new report
By Addis Mulugeta
Save the Children -Sweden has launched a new report, running on
Empty, which quantifies how much it actually costs to feed a child
a healthy and nutritious diet in order to prevent malnutrition and
how affordable this diet is for the poorest families on Thursday,
November 2, 2007 at Alem Cinema.
The report was presented in the form of film and research presentation.
Its main aim is to tackle chronic child malnutrition and to meet
the first millennium development goals by providing the poorest
of households with regular cash benefits. Mr. Ken Caldwell, Save
the Children UK Director of international operations, welcomed the
audience by illustrating the key points of the film. Mr. Ken put
down that the highlight of the film indicated the story of two young
families in Ethiopia and Wales, in the United Kingdom. Cash transfers
were critically important to the survival of both families. And
with out them, both families were unlikely to be able to afford
the most basic needs, he said.
The Director pointed out that cash payments had proven to be one
of the most effective ways to tackle vulnerability and hardship.
He applauded that cash can directly affect a child’s nutritional
status. Save the Children knew that one of the best ways to tackle
child hunger and make progress towards eradicating poverty is to
put money directly into the hands of poor families. According to
Mr. Ken, studies indicated that 70 per cent of cash that was transferred
to a household was usually on more food and crucially, better variety
of food to help them get more vitamins and minerals. Mr. Ken continued
to describe that discussing cash transfers always raises questions
about how much and how often transfers should be, etc. He added
that now, to help donors and government think through the problem
of the size of transfers, new research by Save the Children UK identified
how much money poor households in parts of Amhara need to be able
to spend on food in order to be able to afford a nutritious diet
for the whole family. This new research revealed that in order to
feed their family a healthy diet, Ethiopia’s poorest people
are facing food costs that are 20 per cent higher than their total
annual income, he added.
This research indicated that even if a poor family spent all of
their income on food, it would not be enough to guarantee their
children were free from malnutrition, stated David Throp, Save the
Children’s country director. Mr.Throp applauded that one of
the most effective ways that people can tackle malnutrition is to
provide regular cash benefits, like social security or child benefits,
to the poorest families. He pointed out that the level of malnutrition
in Ethiopia remains alarming and between one-third and two-thirds
of Ethiopian children under-5 suffer from stunting. The highest
incidence of chronic malnutrition is in the Amhara region in the
north, he said. Between 8-16 per cent of all under-5 children suffer
from wasting, and the highest incidences of acute malnutrition are
in Afar and Somali regions Mr. Throp said. He also added that over
half a million children under the age of 5 die every year in Ethiopia.
According to Mr. Ken Caldwell, the film was produced in conjunction
with ETV and is intended for broadcast on BBC World next year.
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