All interested people in the Boston area are welcome to this event at Harvard University
Harvard Panel on Ethiopia
Wednesday, December 7, 2005, 6:00 PM
Askwith Lecture Hall – Harvard Graduate School of Education
Political Detentions, Elections, and “Democracy” in Ethiopia
The Ethiopian government has recently arrested twenty-four political prisoners, including two men with strong connections to Harvard. Amnesty International considers these detainees prisoners of conscience. These recent arrests followed a second round of violence related to the May 2005 elections in which more than 40 Ethiopians were killed. This panel will examine the political events that precipitated the arrests and violence and investigate the implications of these detentions on the maintenance of human rights and the rule of law in Ethiopia.
The panel will include Dr. Jacqueline Bhabha, Executive Director of the Harvard University Committee on Human Rights Studies, Dr. Damtew Teferra, Assistant Professor of Higher Education at the Lynch School of Education at Boston College and founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Higher Education in Africa, Dr. Meqdes Mesfin, a public health activist for Cambridge Health Alliance, and Yitayew Alemayehu Taye, PhD Candidate in Law, Policy and Society at Northeastern and MALD candidate at the Fletcher School. The panel will be moderated by Dr. Fernando Reimers, the Ford Foundation Professor of International Education and Director of the International Education Policy program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This event is sponsored by the Harvard Educational Review and co-sponsored by the Committee on African Studies, the University Committee on Human Rights Studies, the Harvard Scholars at Risk Committee, Amnesty International USA, and the Harvard Graduate School of Education Dean’s office.
For information, please contact Benjamin Piper ([email protected]).
Benjamin Piper, MA, EdM
Co-Chair, Harvard Educational Review
The Ethiopian Airlines (EAL) said Thursday it has provided service to more than 462,000 passengers during the first three months of the current budget year (July 8, 2005 — July 7, 2006).
EAL public relations manager Kagnew Fiseha told journalists that the number of passengers during the reported period increased by about 17 percent as compared to the number during the same period last year.
He said the street violence occurred in the country’s capital Addis Ababa early last month had the effect of decreasing the number of passengers.
He said EAL earned an over 308 million birr (35.5 million US dollars) net profit during the 2004/2005 budget year.
The annual number of passengers reached over one million due to various reform measures taken by the EAL during the past years.
He said EAL has been undertaking a modernization program enabling it to be competent in the air transport industry.
EAL has begun activities enabling to import modern Dreamliner Boeing 787 airplanes at a cost of 1.2 billion dollars.
EAL is a major international air carrier and the largest African airline. It offers convenient service from the United States, Europe and Asia.
It provides domestic and international air service between Ethiopia and other countries. EAL has a good safety record and is one of the few profitable African airlines. EAL also provides training and maintenance to more than a dozen African and middle eastern airlines.
Source: Xinhua
By Johanna Lasonen, Raija Kemppainen and Kolawole Raheem
Institute for Educational Research
University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Ethiopia is the second most populous country in Sub-Saharan Africa after Nigeria. Ethiopia is ethnically and linguistically very diverse. The transitional legislature formally recognised 64 major ethnic groups, and more than 250 distinct languages are know to be spoken in the country. The main ethnic groups are the Oromo and the Amhara. Amharic is the lingua franca and English is the second de facto language of the state. Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world.
Access to education in Ethiopia is the most limited in the region. The illiteracy rate is high, approximately 70 per cent for females and 50 per cent for males. In 1997 the Government launched the Education Sector Development Project (ESDP), whose aims include that of increasing school attendance among rural children and especially girls.
Furthermore, Ethiopia is working towards achieving the EFA (Education For All) goals as defined in the EFA Dakar Framework in 2000.
The World Declaration of Education for All in Jomtien, Thailand in 1990 pointed out that education is a fundamental right. The achievement of the EFA goals were to be evaluated through the EFA Dakar assessment. The EFA Dakar Framework focused on six educational goals: early childhood care and education; access to compulsory primary education by 2015, particularly for girls; learning needs of all young people and adults; 50% improvement in adult literacy by 20015, especially for women; elimination of gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005 and achievement of gender equality in education by 2015; and improvement of all aspects of the quality of education and achievement of learning outcomes, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills. The Government of Ethiopia has adopted the goal of ensuring universal access to and completion of basic education and reducing the adult illiteracy rate by 2015.
The purpose of this research was to answer the following questions: 1) To what extent do Ethiopian children have access to educational and training services? 2) To what extent do women progress to primary, secondary and technical education? and 3) To what extent is the quality of education improving? These research questions were closely related to the EFA goals but expanded the scope of access and equality issues to cover secondary education and technical and vocational education. Education and training have particular significance for the reduction of poverty and for strategies of gender equity because they stress the dimensions of opportunities, skills, human resources development and empowerment. However, in Ethiopia an emphasis on developing TVET and skills was introduced only at the turn of the 21st century.
The analysis is based on secondary and primary data. The secondary data comprise documents concerning education and gender policy received from the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from Finnish implementing agencies, from the Finnish Embassy in Addis Abeba, from other donor organizations present in Ethiopia, and from Ethiopian executing agencies, policy makers and educational administrators. The primary data was collected through structured in-depth and focus-group interviews with different stakeholders in Finland and Ethiopia. The educational projects supported by the Finnish government promoted capacity building with a view to enabling Ethiopia to provide young people access to education and literacy. Finland has concentrated on the development of special education.
The study found that Ethiopia has made some progress towards the Dakar EFA goals. Access to primary education has expanded (EFA Goal 2). The primary-school enrolment tripled during the late 1990s and early 2000s. However, according to NER Ethiopia was in 2000 among the countries with the lowest enrolment rates. Nearly half of the children remain out of schools in Ethiopia. Although children are taught in Amharic, the lingua franca, in the early grades, the use of English increases in the upper grades. English is used in secondary, post-secondary, and higher education Girls’ access to primary education lags significantly behind boys’ access. The gender gap in primary-school enrolment remains at the level of about 20 per cent. Female student numbers should be drastically increased if Ethiopia is to reach the goal of all children having access to primary education by 2015 (EFA Goal 2). The same trend is observed inthe goal of gender parity and equality. Both in primary and secondary education, Ethiopia is at risk of not reaching the goal of gender parity even by 2015 (EFA Goal 5). Improving gender parity is the best predicator of achieving the EFA goals in general. Female teachers may encourage female students to stay in school through positive role models. However, the increase of female teachers has been fairly slow.
Quality of education (EFA Goal 6) can be measured by several indicators. Ethiopia has high teacher qualifications only in the first cycle of primary-level education. The studentteacher ratios are high and increasing. The shortage of teachers is likely to grow with HIV/AIDS taking its toll among teachers. There is also a shortage of teachers in rural and remote areas, and quality varies between the regions. Ethiopian schools operate with very modest facilities. Only about 60 per cent of students in Ethiopia survive to Grade 5, which makes it impossible to achieve measurable outcomes for all children in literacy, numeracyand essential life skills (EFA Goal 6).
Technical and Vocational Training is one of the main components of ESDP policy. Increasing the trained labour force relates to the development of the country as a whole. Improving coherence of the quantity and the quality of technical and vocational training is a challenge in Ethiopia. Education has neither shaped nor corresponded to labour force needs or the requirements of industry and trade. On all levels of the educational system, education and training has little relevance to practice and context and to preparation for the workforce and employability. The main problems facing the current TVET programmes are: the range of occupational areas, trades, skills and knowledge covered by available training programmes is very limited; girls and women are underrepresented in training programmes, which is also due to the fact that existing provision mainly addresses typical male skills and occupations; and training provision for operating micro and small entrepreneurs and people in employment hardly exists.
Although Ethiopia is indicating progress towards the educational goals as defined by EFA and the ESDP, it is at a risk of not achieving the goals of primary access, gender equality, and educational quality within the desired timetable. Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world, needing continuous support from foreign governments and NGOs in education for sustainable development. The focus should be on the removal of obstacles to educational access and on the promotion of the education of girls, teachertraining at all levels of education, and technical and vocational training. The relevance of technical and vocational education and training is a question critical to economic growth at the national level and to people’s well-being… continue reading >>>
Six members of the Addis Ababa City Council have been arrested yesterday and released at night after being forced to sign a paper that says they are not going to operate under CUD from now on. A
to Misrak Adugna, Ato Adane Kidane, Ato Girma Oda, Ato Wondweson Teshome, Ato Fetene Teshome and Ato Qale’ab Worede were holding a meeting inside CUD office before they were surrounded and taken away by the Federal Police.
The following is a media advisory regarding a Washington, DC, event for World AIDS Day featuring teens from Ethiopia who have been affected by
HIV/AIDS and who have catalogued their experience in photographs.
Ms. Universe Natalie Glebova also will inaugurate the 2006 International AIDS Candlelight Memorial Campaign.
Speaking at the event will be Ahmed Mohammed, HIV/AIDS Program Specialist, who advises and provides technical expertise to Save the Children’s global
HIV/AIDS programs and has led on-the-ground efforts in Ethiopia and Mozambique. Mr. Mohammed speaks Amharic, English and Oromoo.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at 202-294-9700.
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MEDIA ADVISORY
Ethiopian Teens Capture “Reflections of Hope” in Photo Exhibit for World AIDS Day, Ms. Universe and Sen. Richard Lugar to speak
WHAT: In recognition of World AIDS Day and the nearly 15 million children who have lost a parent to AIDS worldwide, Save the Children, the Global Health Council, and the ONE Campaign will host a photo exhibit by Ethiopian teens affected by HIV/AIDS, and will unveil the Global Health Council’s 2006
International AIDS Candlelight Memorial Campaign. The 14 youth selected for the photo project – some of them orphans – participate in Save the Children
programs to help educate their peers about HIV prevention, and to provide care and support to those sick from the disease.
Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) will be honored for his leadership in the recent passage of the “Assistance for Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Developing Countries Act.” This Act addresses the needs of children orphaned and affected by HIV/AIDS by providing resources for education, food
and nutrition, health care, life-saving medicines and support to help them cope with the grief and trauma of losing a parent to AIDS.
WHO: Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), honoree
Natalie Glebova, Miss Universe 2005, will unveil the 2006 International AIDS Candlelight Memorial Campaign
WHEN: 5-7 pm, Thursday, December 1, 2005
WHERE: Room HC-5, The United States Capitol, Washington, DC
PARTNERS: Americans for Informed Democracy, Better World Campaign, Citizens for Global Solutions, Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, Feed the
Children, Food for the Hungry, Global Action for Children, Global AIDS Alliance, Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights, International
Medical Corps, Mercy Corps, United Methodist General Board of Church and Society, United Nation s Association – USA, US Fund for UNICEF, World Hope
International and World Vision.
# # #
Save the Children (www.savethechildren.org) is the leading independent organization creating lasting change for children in need in the United
States and around the world. Save the Children USA is a member of the International Save the Children Alliance, a global network of 27 independent
Save the Children organizations working to ensure the well-being and protection of children in more than 110 countries.
The Global Health Council (www.globalhealth.org) is the world’s largest membership alliance dedicated to saving lives by improving health throughout
the world. The Council serves and represents thousands of public health professionals from over 100 countries on six continents. Global Health
Council members include nongovernmental organizations, policymakers, advocates, academic institutions, concerned citizens, corporations,
foundation, government and multilateral agencies, and public health professionals.
ONE: The Campaign to Make Poverty History (www.one.org) is a new effort by Americans to rally Americans, ONE by ONE, to fight the emergency of global AIDS and extreme poverty. ONE is a coalition of over 1.5 million Americans, founded by 11 of the nation’s leading relief and advocacy organizations,
including Bread for the World, CARE, DATA, International Medical Corps, International Rescue Committee, Mercy Corps, Oxfam America, Plan USA, Save
the Children, World Concern, and World Vision.
Contacts: Eileen Burke, Save the Children, 203-221-4233, [email protected]
Rachel Wilson, Global Health Council, 202-833-5900, ext. 3210, [email protected]
Meighan Stone, ONE Campaign, 202-464-1345, [email protected]
