Ethiopia's economy has been staggering for ages because of the wrong economic policies pursued by previous governments and natural disasters such as drought. The effects are manifested mostly in food scarcity and food insecurity. The magnitudes of the challenges are so immense that they appeared to be almost irreversible. Nevertheless, the present government led by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) wasted no time to introduce new policies and strategies to tackle the multifaceted development hurdles of the country. Today, the Ethiopian economy has improved substantially and has made tremendous progress during the past decade.

One of the several programs which the government is vigorously implementing across the country is the Sustainable Development and Poverty Reduction Program (SDPRP). The SDPRP is a comprehensive three-year program designed to serve as a framework for development partnership between the Ethiopian Government and other stakeholders. The program was endorsed by donors and development partners at a Consultative Groups (CG) Meeting held in 2002. The donors and development partners pledged a total of 3.6 billion USD for the period covering 2003-2005 and several of those pledges had started materializing in the fiscal year 2002/2003.

The broad trust of Ethiopia's strategy during SDPRP period 2002/03 - 2004/05 is based on the development of agriculture, strengthening private sector growth and development especially in industry; rapid export growth through production of high value agricultural products and increased support to export - oriented manufacturing sector; undertaking major investment in education and strengthening the ongoing effort on capacity building; deepen and strengthen the decentralization process; improvements in governance, empowerment of the poor and provide enabling environment for private sector growth and development; agriculture research, water harvesting and small-scale irrigation; and focus on increased water resources utilization to ensure food security.

The contribution of the international community to the strenuous efforts being made by the government to achieve and maintain impressive growth has been and remains commendable. The debt relief accorded to Ethiopia recently by its major creditors to the tune of 3.3 billion USD clearly underscores the recognition by the international community to the Ethiopian government satisfactory progress in implementing sound macroeconomic and structural policies.

The Ethiopian Government's commitment and determination to end the cycle of food insecurity and bring sustainable economic development has also received the appreciation of the G-8 member countries in their recent meeting held in USA from June 8-10, 2004. The G-8 member countries endorsed a new initiative, among others, to support the Ethiopian government's framework that offers a real chance to break the cycle of famine in the country, to offer unified support for the government's reform program to realize the government's goal of attaining food security for five millions food insecure people by 2009, to support land reform by funding the rollout of a land user rights system through out Ethiopia by 2006, to expand support for rural infrastructure development, to help the government meet or exceed the road building goals set out in its Poverty Reduction Paper (PRSP), to work in a coordinated fashion to develop agricultural markets and facilitate regional economic integration.

The relentless efforts made by both the people and government of Ethiopia to bring about sustained economic development coupled with the continuous support of the international community would definitely put Ethiopia on the right path to steady progress and betterment of its people.