A new study indicates that Ethiopia is experiencing the largest decline in fertility rates in sub-saharan Africa since the early 2000s.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), in collaboration with the German and Austrian Embassies in Ethiopia, organized a dissemination session to go over the study entitled: “From Land of Famine to Land of Hope; Will Ethiopia Become a Model for an African Upswing?”
The longitudinal study showed that Ethiopian women are now giving birth to an average of 4.6 children per woman as opposed to 6.8 previously. It was conducted by the Berlin Institute for Population and Development with financial support from the Austrian Development Cooperation
Despite the decrease in the birth rate, the population still appears to be increasing at an alarming pace. The population continues at 2.6 percent annually. Life expectancy has risen to between 15 and 16 years since the 1990s. It is now 62 for men and 66 for women.
Addis Ababa has a unique a city-country divide with a 1.8 percent fertility rate difference. The capital residents have adopted more modern thinking around family planning, according to the report. The decline in fertility rates has not been evenly spread throughout the country.
The assessment reviewed Ethiopia’s performance with respect to health and suggests only one element of the MDGs has not been achieved yet. There has been remarkable progress in the health sector, participants said, as maternal mortality has been reduced and infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS and malaria, have been fought hard. The panel says the government must work hard to create jobs.
The panel recommended that the successful heath extension program to improve the care of children and decrease maternal death be extended to other health related problems. Job opportunities should be explored in uncultivated lands and the government must focus on creating jobs in agriculture, textiles and manufacturing. In terms of education the issue of quality should be solved and the government should invest in good teaching, infrastructure and preschool. Technology should emphasized in order to incubate young entrepreneurs.
The partnership is formed by UNFPA and the two embassies to foster knowledge sharing and strengthening evidence-based information for advocacy and policy dialogue about population and development issues. This comes at a time when the 25th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD at 25) is being celebrated in 2019.
After the authors, the Berlin Institute for Population and Development, presented the results, a presentation was made on the “Current Population Dynamics of Ethiopia” by the Institute of Population Studies of Addis Ababa University. They said population control should not be politicized. The panelists argued that birth control should be promoted.
Ethiopia sees largest decline in sub-Saharan fertility rates
Auditor General, deputy limited to two terms
An amendment bill to the Auditor General Establishment Proclamation, passed by the House last week, means that the auditor general and deputy will not be able to serve more than two six-year terms. An explanation provided to the parliament last week was that this supports international principles and will bring fresh power to the office.
The amendment also means the two top leaders will obtain benefits after service, in addition to specifying on the job benefits and salary. The explanation also stated that the Auditor General has the responsibility to audit the annual budget, subsidies given to regions and loans provided from the federal government too. The note elaborated that unknowingly the power to audit government subsidies and loans to the regional governments was taken away previously but it is being restored now.
The establishment proclamation stated the the auditor general has the power to audit public enterprises in addition to government institutions, but it didn’t give the necessary framework on how that should be done. The office of the auditor general proposed the establishment of one independent institution to look into these enterprises.
Private sector asks Gov’t for reliable ICT infrastructure
Although, Ethiopia has spent over three billion USD for telecom infrastructure by rolling out over 17 thousand fiber optic cables across the country, the business community is asking for more. They say more reliable ICT infrastructure is needed to grow the business environment.
“Most government portals such as wereda net have failed to provide services which means increased costs and wasted time for the business community,” Messay Hailmariam, CEO of Ronbit Consultancy said in a study he presented.
Of 33 federal institutions only six currently provide online service, according to the Minister of Innovation and Technology.
The limited capacity of ICT infrastructure and the failure to develop government portals are another problem.
“The Ministry of Innovation and Technology is working to improve the limited capacity of wereda.net by increasing the speed and bandwidth to modernize the country’s information technology system,” Getahun Mekuria Minister of Innovation and Technology said.
“The costly Internet will not make the Ethiopian business community competitive with international firms,” Messay adds.
“Developing a strategy for fostering mobile money services, can be a key enabler for improving access to finance that contributes for the growth of business in the country as business without ICT development is unthinkable,” Messay says.
According to a study the slow Implementation of National ICT strategies and programs, limited capacity and underutilized infrastructure such as fiber optics, data centers and lack of an on-line payment platform through which companies can buy/sell challenges the growth of business in Ethiopia.
It recommended that the government intervene to accelerate the rollout of high-speed broadband infrastructure and attract foreign firms and support business innovation and productivity across the economy in addition to pushing forward plans of partially privatizing the state-owned monopoly operator, ethio-telecom in hopes of bringing opportunity to enhance the benefits of advancement in communication infrastructures.
Boeing admits faulty system part of ‘chain of events’ in 737 MAX crashes
Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg has said “it’s apparent” that the 737 MAX 8’s MCAS maneuvering system contributed to two fatal air accidents. Investigators had long suspected the system’s role in the disasters, after the preliminary findings on ET 302 crash was released by the Ministry of Transport.
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 plunged into a field shortly after takeoff in March, killing all 157 people on board. Indonesian Lion Air Flight 610 nosedived into the sea last October, killing all 189 passengers and crew. Investigators noted “clear similarities” between both accidents.
“The full details of what happened in the two accidents will be issued by the government authorities in the final reports,” Muilenburg said in a video posted Thursday. “It’s apparent that in both flights the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, known as MCAS, activated in response to the erroneous angle of attack information,” he added.
Dagmawit Moges Minister of Transport said “on the basis of initial information gathered during the course of investigation the facts have been determined”. The Flight 302’s crew “had performed all the procedures, repeatedly, provided by Boeing, but was not able to control the aircraft” she said.
She further added that first the aircraft possessed a valid certificate of air worthiness, the crew obtained the license and qualification to conduct the flight and the takeoff rule appeared normal including normal, values of left and right angle-of-attack (AOA) Safety Recommendation
“After takeoff repetitive un-commanded aircraft nose down conditions are noticed in this preliminary investigation, it is recommended that aircraft flight control system related to flight controllability shall be reviewed by the manufacturer” she added.
The MCAS system reads the 737 MAX’s angle of attack (the angle of the plane’s nose) through a nose-mounted sensor. If the nose drifts too far upward, it manipulates the tail to keep the plane level and avoid a stall. However, investigators and Boeing whistleblowers claim that the sensors can deliver false readings, and the system can overcompensate, throwing the aircraft into a dive.
The 737 MAX 8 is grounded worldwide following the Ethiopian Airlines disaster, and Boeing is currently previewing a software update that Muilenberg said will “eliminate the possibility” of a similar accident happening again. The update will need to be approved by air regulators worldwide before the 737 MAX will take to the sky again.
A group of Boeing engineers told the Seattle Times last month that pilots were unaware of how to override the MCAS system, and Boeing has promised to rectify this too by providing “additional educational materials.” In addition, two critical safety features that could have warned pilots of an impending dive were sold as optional extras by the manufacturer. One of these – a warning light – will now be fitted as standard.
With the troubled jet grounded worldwide, attention has since focused on the Federal Aviation Administration’s certification of the jet. A US Senate investigation is now focusing on examining whether the FAA’s inspectors were properly trained, and the Department of Transport is also forming a commission to review the FAA’s certification process.
In the aftermath of the most recent crash, a group of FAA and Boeing engineers claimed that the FAA delegated much of its safety review of the 737 MAX 8 to Boeing itself, and trusted the company’s conclusions. They also claimed that Boeing downplayed safety concerns involving the MCAS system to bring the jetliner to market faster.
There are also reports that US and European regulators knew at least two years before a Lion Air crash that the usual method for controlling the Boeing 737 MAX’s nose angle might not work in conditions similar to those in two recent disasters.
The European Aviation and Space Agency (EASA) certified the plane as safe in part because it said additional procedures and training would “clearly explain” to pilots the “unusual” situations in which they would need to manipulate a rarely-used manual wheel to control, or “trim”, the plane’s angle.
Those situations, however, were not listed in the flight manual, according to a copy from American Airlines.
The undated EASA certification document, available online, was issued in February 2016.
EASA and the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ultimately determined that set-up was safe enough for the plane to be certified, with the European agency citing training plans and the relative rarity of conditions requiring the trim wheel.
