US $55 million ADB credit for poverty reduction

Ethiopia has secured US $55 million from the African Development Bank (ADB) to help in the fight against rural poverty. The ADB said in a statement last weekend that the funds, comprising a $30 million loan and a $25 million grant, would boost small-scale irrigation, rainwater harvesting and environmental conservation. Rainwater harvesting is one of the central planks of the Ethiopian government’s attempts to reverse dependency on rain-fed agriculture. It aims to build more than 1,000 wells country-wide to tap rainfall and run-off from hillsides for use by farmers during dry months. The government stressed in its recently released strategy for ending food dependency that "utilisation of water resources is ill-developed". "Without water, agriculture is unthinkable," the government stated in its food coalition blueprint, which aims to slash dependency on food aid within five years. "Irrigation and water diversion schemes are less practised, hence food production has been seriously affected," the blueprint added. Ethiopia has one of the largest and most impoverished rural populations in Africa. Some 85 percent of its population of 70.7 million eke out a hand-to-mouth existence in the countryside. The ADB's move comes as more than 13 million people face starvation in Ethiopia, while some 70 percent of neighbouring Eritrea's 3.4 million population have also been hit by drought. "The project's objective is the improvement in rural livelihoods and food security among the drought-prone and vulnerable food-insecure population," the ADB statement said. The small-scale irrigation project would directly benefit 28,300 households, the ADB said. Rainwater harvesting would involve more than 1,000 potable water points, benefiting more than 23,600 households and livestock, it added. The ADB began supporting Ethiopia in 1975 and has so far committed some $1.7 billion for 75 major projects.