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ERITREA
>> AFR Regional Overview >> Eritrea Overview
Development Challenge Summary Tables
Program Summary
Previous Years' Activities
2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 199747
Introduction
With Eritrea now at peace rather than war after signing a peace agreement with Ethiopia in December 2000, it can turn its considerable energies to economic stabilization and development and return to its role as an emerging nascent democracy. Eritrea's commitment to self-reliance and African-led development continues to represent an appropriate model on which to build a sustainable, participatory and open market-based economy.
The struggle for independence ended in 1991 after thirty years, and Eritrea became Africa's newest country in 1993. Eritrea's economy grew an average of six percent per year from 1994 to 1997, with little or no inflation. While conflict during the 1998 - 2000 period has seriously eroded Eritrea's economic progress, the peace agreement opens the way for a resumption of growth and development.
In May - June 2000, the conflict with Ethiopia entered its third, final and most destructive phase. More than one million Eritreans, approximately one-third of the country's total population, were displaced from their homes. Destruction of social and economic resources was extensive. Eritrea's most fertile agricultural regions became battlegrounds and suffered severe devastation. Much of Eritrea also faced a third year of drought, further disrupting agricultural production. While the war has ended, the effects of the conflict will be felt in Eritrea's most important agricultural areas for years to come, particularly where land mines need to be cleared before farmers can return to their homes and resume cultivation.
In FY 2000, in response to people displaced by conflict and drought, the United States Government through USAID's Office of Food for Peace and the U.S. Department of Agriculture provided 113,000 metric tons (MT) of food, primarily wheat and blended food, worth $36.1 million. USAID's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance provided $5.9 million in shelter, household items, supplemental feeding, mobile health services and airlifts of relief items. As a result, the situation in the camps for displaced people remained reasonably stable. Approximately 75% of the displaced urban population was able to return home within six months of the conflict's end.
Eritrea is now moving rapidly to channel its energies to development following the peace agreement. Parliamentary elections are scheduled for late 2001. The Government of the State of Eritrea (GSE), with the World Bank and bilateral donors, has formulated economic recovery, demobilization and reintegration, and infectious disease control programs to stimulate the country's economic and social recovery. There is a renewed emphasis on donor coordination.
USAID is re-energizing its development program after three years of slower than planned performance. Its strategic objectives support USAID's new priority areas of Economic Growth, Global Health, and Development Relief and Conflict Prevention. In concert with its development efforts, USAID continues to address Eritrea's priority humanitarian concerns and short-term rehabilitation needs. With the government and donors, USAID is exploring ways to meet the enormous needs of demobilizing 200,000 soldiers and reintegrating them quickly and effectively into the society and economy.
The Development Challenge
At independence, Eritrea's health situation was characterized by high infant and maternal mortality rates, malnutrition and infectious diseases. Careful planning by the Ministry of Health (MOH) has created a network of basic health facilities that are clean, well organized, and stocked with essential pharmaceuticals. With this infrastructure in place, the capacity of health workers is now being upgraded, and management systems are being improved to ensure delivery of primary health care services that are effective and sustainable.
The high priority assigned to enterprise development by the GSE is based on the need for an explicit program to minimize tensions among the various elements of the new civil society by providing opportunities for economic development, particularly increased income, to all Eritreans. With the return of peace and stability, Eritrea can renew its efforts to build a sustainable basis for growth, income generation and employment based on a private-sector led economy.
Prior to independence, Eritrea had been governed by authoritarian regimes, providing the new leadership with scant experience in the administration of a democratic system of government. As a result, the GSE is moving cautiously in an effort to ensure that no one group or geographic region receives more or less support than another and to allow the country to develop a sense of national unity.
Other Donors
Currently, the major donor in Eritrea is the World Bank. Its program of planned annual commitments amounts to approximately $70 - 80 million per year. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) also manage sizeable assistance portfolios in Eritrea. Italy, the European Union, Denmark, Norway, Germany and the United States are the major bilateral donors. The United States provides about 15% of the total bilateral donor assistance, ranks as the second bilateral donor behind Italy, and ranks fourth overall after the World Bank, the European Union and Italy.
FY 2002 Program
USAID's program concentrates on primary health care, rural enterprise and human resource development in response to Eritrea's development priorities. In FY 2000, USAID managed an emergency humanitarian program, continued its development program, and developed and implemented innovative and flexible mechanisms to ensure that any potential gaps between emergency relief and longer-term development efforts were effectively covered. In light of demobilization and recovery, USAID may need to continue balancing relief and development efforts into FY 2002.
USAID focuses on increasing the use of sustainable, integrated primary health care services, principally child survival and disease interventions such as safer deliveries, improved immunizations, and management of childhood illnesses. Continued progress in 2002 will include improvements in the quality of care as well as prevention of malaria and HIV/AIDS. The GSE is particularly concerned to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, especially as demobilizing soldiers who may have been exposed to the disease return to their communities. USAID supports this GSE priority, particularly the need to inform Eritreans of the risks of HIV and means of preventing its transmission.
USAID's focus on the growth of rural enterprises is aimed at developing agricultural businesses, with an emphasis on producing high-value exports. Activities are directed at providing loans that can increase employment and rural wages. Special attention will be given to the provision of loans to demobilizing soldiers. In FY 2002, USAID will consider the reintroduction of rural road rehabilitation, based on studies to be undertaken in 2001.
Since the GSE is approaching democracy cautiously, USAID's human capacity-building programs work to ensure that Eritreans have access to information (e.g., via Internet) and education (e.g., U.S.-based university training and linkages between the University of Asmara and a number of U.S. universities). USAID will increasingly focus its human capacity-building efforts on the gender disparity in education and the need to draw more Eritrean women into training and decision-making opportunities. New opportunities offered by Internet technologies will be initiated to spur both the economy and human capacity development.
Through 2002, USAID will also work with the GSE to assess the most effective and appropriate means of assisting demobilized soldiers and internally displaced persons as they return to their homes and work, and to address priorities in economic recovery. In addition, USAID (USAID/Eritrea and USAID/Ethiopia) in collaboration with the United States Department of State will finance projects to foster trade and renewed communication between Eritreans and Ethiopians living along the border, the people most directly affected by the conflict. Renewal of economic activity across the border area will be a first step in normalization of relations between the people of Eritrea and Ethiopia.
Activity Data Sheets
- 661-001, Increased Use of Primary Health Care Services by Eritreans
- 661-002, Increased Income of Enterprises, Primarily Rural, with Emphasis on Exports
- 661-003, Increased Capacity for Accountable Governance at Local and National Levels
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Last Updated on: May 29, 2002 |
