The high official so spoke during last Monday’s Regional Consultation for the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development in Africa, where a high-level dialogue to assess the prospects of the Ethiopian economy was part of the agenda.
Speaking to the forum, Sewasew advocated breaking the cycle of excessive debt service, ensuring sustainable management of debts, addressing the systemic problems that cause macroeconomic imbalances and taking advantage of innovative climate financing mechanisms to support urgent needs in mitigation, adaptation and resilience building.
She also stressed the importance of international cooperation to collectively address regional challenges through the Official Development Assistance mechanism, and called on African countries to enhance their Domestic Resource Mobilization (DRM) capacity to fully manage their own development agenda.
The minister pointed to Addis Ababa’s ongoing transformative efforts to increase DRM through fiscal reforms, strengthen the public-private partnership model and making the Stock Exchange work.
For his part, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Claver Gatete, warned that the continent faces a financing gap of $1.3 trillion each year to meet its sustainable development goals by 2030, which requires a unified response.
Gatete considered that the two-day regional consultation organized by the ECA with stakeholders will help create a collective voice to address debt, better public financial management, domestic resource mobilization, more concessional loans and climate finance.
The Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development will take place in Spain from June 30 to July 3, 2025.
The state and prospects of the economy in Ethiopia were the focus of a high-level dialogue organized by the Ministry of Planning and Development that brought together representatives of the financial and private sectors, development partners, civil society organizations, universities and professional associations.
The head of that State portfolio, Fitsum Assefa highlighted the significant advances in agriculture, industry, tourism and infrastructure, as well as the average growth of 7.3 percent in the last six years.
Assefa specified that they closed the Ethiopian fiscal year 2023-2024 with an 8.1 percent GDP growth.
She considered that development partners are crucial to drive the long-term transformation of Ethiopia.
In this regard, UN Resident Coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov noted that the country’s strategic policies create an enabling environment for sustainable development and voiced readiness to collaborate with initiatives in digital technology, agriculture, renewable energy and the like.
Co-chair of the Canadian Development Partners Group, made up of 35 partners, Ashley Mulrney, affirmed her dedication to working together with the African nation to achieve its long-term growth aspirations.
For his part, the Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Program, Samuel Doe, said that the ongoing economic reforms will drive significant change and reiterated his commitment to support initiatives that involve the private sector, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises.
World Bank Senior Economist in Ethiopia Vinayak Nagaraj underlined Ethiopia’s vast potential in manufacturing, agriculture, services and trade, among other sectors, and his support in the national long-term economic transformation agenda.
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