ADDIS ABABA, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia has made progress in improving the wellbeing of children and women in the last five years, with key indicators in health, nutrition, education, child protection, showing marked improvements, according to a new report published on Monday.
The Situation Analysis Report of Children and Women in Ethiopia 2019, which was published by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Ethiopian government on Monday, mainly acknowledged recent progress for children, women in Ethiopia as it also emphasized continuing challenges in the country's human capital development.
The report, which mainly examined the situation through the lens of the well-being of children, adolescents and women, stated that the East African country "has scored noteworthy achievements, for example in monetary poverty reduction and in some aspects of health, nutrition and education."
It, however, stressed that the recent success "is not yet occurring at a fast enough pace and large enough scale to achieve national and global goals."
According to the report, under-five child mortality has declined by two-thirds in the last two decades in Ethiopia. It, however, revealed that "some 96,000 babies are dying every year from neonatal causes and 872,000 are not fully vaccinated."
The report also noted that also stunting in under-five children, which is said to be a sign of chronic malnutrition, has declined from 58 percent in 2000 to 37 percent during the period. However, this still leaves 5.4 million children, who are too short for their age and the current rate of reduction needs to double if Ethiopia is to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
"An even more notable reduction has been seen here, with the prevalence declining from 60 per cent in 2005 to 40 per cent in 2016. However, Ethiopia still has 15 million child brides, six million of whom were married before the age of 15. The rate of reduction needs to increase six-fold if child marriage is to be eliminated by 2030," the report disclosed.
Noting that grade 1 enrolments have generally risen as 6 in 10 children complete primary school and even fewer proceed to secondary school, the report also stressed that "children are dropping out of school for reasons that include poverty, child marriage, humanitarian emergencies, inadequate quality of learning, and a shortage of school infrastructure and learning materials."
Currently, 2.6 million children aged 7 to 14 years are not enrolled in school and more than half are girls, according to the joint report.
Ethiopia's State Minister of Finance Admasu Nebebe said during the report launching event in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa that the East African country "has demonstrated remarkable progress over the last decade. Even though significant achievements have been registered in the country, a lot remains to be done with the support of all developing partners."
According to Adele Khodr, UNICEF Representative to Ethiopia, the latest findings "show that when governments invest in children, as Ethiopia has done in the last two decades, the wellbeing of children improves, and they have better opportunities to fulfill their full potential."
"However, as the study shows, there is still more work to be done to end newborn deaths, improve immunization coverage, reduce chronic malnutrition, end child marriage, enroll every child in school, expand access to safe water and sanitation, and reduce child poverty," Khodr added.
