LocationsRemarks:
Launch of the National Human Development Report 2018: Industrialization with a Human Face
Mr. Aeneas Chuma, UN Resident Coordinator & UN Humanitarian Coordinator
Her Excellency, Sahle-Work Zewde, President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
Her Excellency, Dr. Fitsum Assefa, Commissioner, Planning and Development Commission
Senior Government Officials
Development Partners
Members of the civil society and the media fraternity
Colleagues from the UN System
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is an honor to welcome you all and acknowledge happily that we are joined by the first female president of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, H.E Sahle-Work Zewde, for the launch of the 2018 Ethiopia Human Development Report under the theme “Industrialization with a Human Face”.
This is the second report on national Human development that UNDP has produced for Ethiopia in the last 4 years. The launch of this report marks an important milestone in our collective objective of raising public awareness on key development issues and trigger action on critical human development concerns.
It is important to note that since the inception of Global and National Human Development Reports in 1992, over 550 reports and a great number of disaggregated and supplementary human development indices have been produced- reflecting on global context and national realities. If you look at the global Human Development Reports over the years, Ethiopia has sustained strong progress in the last 15 years.
The national human development reports play a critical role in advancing thought leadership on people-centered development and influencing policy choices and options on potential drivers of human transformation and sustainable development.
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
This report has been produced in close consultation with Planning and Development Commission and involved a series of consultative meetings and roundtables with key stakeholders including the private sector, civil society organizations, development partners and academicians, to mention just but a few.
The quality and credibility of this report is hinged on the fact that the process of its production has been country-driven and utilizes local data generated from the official sources and benefits from the contribution of an array of national actors.
The report offers sound and realistic analysis as well as provides key messages for policy makers and we therefore encourage our diverse audience of policy makers, researchers, civil society organizations, business community, academia and the public at large to read the report and engage in an open dialogue.
Excellencies
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is imperative that we continuously examine development outcomes from the prism of human lenses. The 2018 National Human development report deliberately chose the theme of industrialization in line with the country’s ambition of becoming a major hub of light manufacturing industry in the continent. This objective is central to Ethiopia’s ambition of becoming a lower middle-income and carbon neutral country by 2025 and fundamentally, a drive for promoting sustainable human development.
Excellencies
Ladies and gentlemen,
Allow me to highlight three important key messages that are coming from the report.
First is the argument that the benefits and costs of the industrialization process in Ethiopia must be managed for inclusive growth and keep human development as the primer goal.
Second is the argument that women’s participation and leadership is a critical outcome of the industrialization process and we need to invest in the removal to barriers to gender equality and women’s empowerment.
Third we need to leverage innovation in industrial parks and harness new approaches such as establishing innovation labs to re-design public service delivery, drawing on data revolution to implement and monitor both the national and international development commitments.
In conclusion, I hope and trust that this report will stimulate policy debates and contribute to a meaningful discourse on how the acceleration of the industrialization as a pathway to economic structural transformation will result into positive human development outcomes.
In the coming months, we look forward to organise dedicated seminars on the report in different Universities in order to build policy advocacy and awareness on the nexus of industrialization and human development and look forward to your participation.
AMESEGENALHU!
