DEVELOPMENT: Signs of Hope for Ethiopia's Children

JOHANNESBURG, Oct 13 (IPS) - Amid the hardship facing Ethiopia's children, there are signs that conditions may be improving and that children's lives are changing for the better.

According to results released this week by an international research project 'Young Lives', which examines key indicators of childhood poverty, Ethiopia has seen improvements over the past six years in the areas of nutrition, school enrolment and the incidence of child labour.

Young Lives investigates the changing nature of childhood poverty by following a group of 12,000 children in four countries - Ethiopia, Peru, India and Vietnam - over a period of 15 years. When this is matched with information gathered about their parents, it reveals how poverty is transferred between generations, how families on the margins move in and out of poverty, and the policies that can make a real difference to their lives.

Young Lives is a partnership of research institutions and government organisations in the four study countries, and is co-ordinated by Oxford University. It is funded by the UK government Department for International Development.

The latest findings indicate that Ethiopia's recent economic growth and improved access to basic services have been broadly inclusive. They reveal that children's wellbeing - in all dimensions - is determined by their socioeconomic status and parents' backgrounds.

The latest figures, which are compared to figures collected in the first round of data collection in 2002, show that nutrition remains a challenge, with high levels of under-nutrition across the country. There are two age groups in the study and the results show 31 percent of the younger group, who are now six years old, are stunted in growth.

Yet both stunting and underweight had declined for the six-year-old group, with the proportion of underweight children dropping from 33 percent to 24 percent, compared to when they were measured four years earlier.

"This is an impressive change in a short period and can be attributed to improvements in household wealth and increased access to services and sanitation," says lead researcher Tassew Woldehanna, who is based at the University of Addis Ababa's department of economics.

A cautionary note on these results however, is that indicators of poor nutrition were high in the first round of data collection due to drought in many areas, and that the second round of data was collected during a time of good harvest in 2007.

School enrolment for the older group (now 12 years old) has increased dramatically from 66 percent to more than 94 percent. The change is most marked in families where parents have a lower level of education. However, the quality of this schooling needs to be addressed - 40 percent of this 12-year-old group could not read a whole sentence.

The study analysed years of schooling completed, as opposed to initial enrolment, and found that children who receive some help with their studies at home, or whose mothers were better educated tend to have completed a higher grade.

Almost half of all children between the ages of five to 15 were involved in some kind of economic activity in 2001, but for the purposes of research, the study compared only children's involvement in paid work. This, it found, had decreased from 9 percent to 5 percent.

From the findings, it is clear that there are differences in children's life chances depending on the gender of the child, household wealth, parental education, region, urban-rural location, ethnic group, and religion.

"It is clear now that the poorest of the poor are being left behind, underlining real problems of inequality," says Woldehanna.

While the asset index shows improvements across almost all areas, the northern region of Tigray, which is largely rural, and dominated by an ethnic minority, did not show any significant change. Rural areas in general lagged behind their urban counterparts.

Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world and ranks among the lowest for most human development indicators. The economy has experienced a trend of sustained economic growth in recent years, but it is still largely dominated by agriculture which is sensitive to rainfall.

Millions of people are dependent on food aid each year.

The next round of the survey, which will take place late next year, will reveal the long-term effects of recent events. The failure of the 'belg' rains early this year, which has devastated certain regions, and the recent surge in global food prices will have their effect on the long term development of children, in terms of both growth and education.

"Relatively high growth in the period up to 2006 and improved service may have contributed to more inclusion, but this progress may be fragile if economic conditions change, even temporarily, such as the recent context of high inflation," says Woldehanna. "Vigilance and action is required to translate these improvements, observed both in Young Lives and in national data, into persistent progress in the form of better living conditions."

(IPS/AF/EA/HD/DV/HE/LB/AB/MD/HU/CG/RR/KS/TG/08) (END/2008)

Send your comments to the editor