The specific information that seemed particularly relevant to my current professional development is that of how education is affected for children.  It would be unrealistic though, to look at this aspect without looking at the other underlying aspects that affect quality education for children.  It would be almost impossible and very difficult to focus on this without addressing issues that affect children’s lives in this area. For this reason, I took interest in the aspect of multidimensional poverty.  Multidimensional poverty encompasses the various deprivations experienced by poor people in their daily lives – such as poor health, lack of education, inadequate living standards, disempowerment, poor quality of work, the threat of violence, and living in areas that are environmentally hazardous, among others (0PHI, n.d).

Nearly all children under 18, in Ethiopia, are deprived of adequate housing and sanitation, and almost a half are deprived of adequate nutrition and safe drinking water. More than half of children aged 5-14 years – 57 per cent – are deprived in the education dimension, driven mainly by no school attendance or delayed school attendance relative to age (UNICEF, 2019). Multidimensional poverty and deprivation for children very high: 90% of children (43 million) are deprived at least in 2 to 5 of the dimensions.  65% of girls and women (15-49) have undergone FGM/C (47.1% in age 15-19).  Progress on malnutrition between 2000 to 2016 but still greater among children in rural areas (40 percent) than in urban areas (25 percent); Equity: the absolute number of poor has not changed between 2005 and 2013 (25 million people); 3 million children are out of school (mainly from pastoralist and semi pastoralist communities); Only 3% of children under 5 have their births registered;

It is important to note though, that Ethiopia, amid this, has been experiencing a growth. According to UNICEF, 2019, Ethiopia has experienced one of the highest rates of economic growth in the world during the last decade, averaging more than 10 per cent per year between 2008 and 2015 (World Bank, 2018).1 The growth has translated to some extent in improvements in social welfare in the country. The national poverty decreased from 38.9 per cent in 2003 to 23.5 per cent in 2015 (NPC, 2017)2 and there have also been significant improvements in coverage of basic healthcare and education services. The under-5 mortality decreased from 110 to 68 deaths per 1,110 births between 2005 and 2016;3 the stunting rate of children under 5 decreased from 50.4 per cent in 2005 to 38.4 per cent in 2016.

When I first looked at the numbers for multidimensional poverty in Ethiopia, it looked terrible but looking at the numbers for the growth that occurred gave me a little more information and a sense of progress no matter how minuscule it seemed.    

The information and statistics that I obtain from the UNICEF website helps to give me specifics on what the progress is and what the aspects are that need to be addressed and further investigated.  It helps to know what the nature of the issues are that are experienced by the specific region.   

References

UNICEF, 2019. Ethiopia and Central Statistical Agency.  Retrieved from

     https://www.unicef.org/ethiopia/reports/multi-dimensional-child-deprivation-ethiopia-first-national-  estimates