Ethiopia Registers Remarkable Socioeconomic Improvements over Past Years: Survey

Ethiopia's Socioeconomic Panel Survey indicated that the country has registered encouraging improvements in various areas including access to electricity and potable water over the past years. The Socioeconomic Panel Survey (ESPS 2021/22) was officially launched today at a ceremony held in Addis Ababa. The fifth wave of the ESPS has been implemented by the Ethiopian Statistical Service (ESS) with technical support from the Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS), World Bank and is nationally representative and provides national and regional estimates for rural and urban areas except for Tigray. Presenting key findings of the study, World Bank Economist Manex Bule Yonis said access to electricity increased from 42 million (50%) in 2019 to 62 million (63%) in 2022 and expansion of solar energy was the driving force for the improvement. He pointed out that access to drinking water from improved sources of the total population has increased from 58 million (70%) in 2019 to 73 million (74%) in 2022. And a ccess to piped water in rural areas increased from 36 percent in 2019 to 43 percent in 2022. The study further shows that about 96 percent and 36 percent of the rural and urban households respectively were engaged in farming while land ownership among rural farm households increased from 84 percent in 2019 to 90 percent in 2022. The use of improved seed also increased from 38 percent to 43 percent, and the use of chemicals increased from 35 percent to 40 percent and almost two-thirds of the households used inorganic fertilizer. Moreover, the study revealed that the share of rural individuals receiving health services in health centers increased from 45 percent to 49 percent. According to the study, child stunting declined by seven percentage points between 2019 and 2022. The ESPS is a collaborative project between the Ethiopian Statistical Service (ESS) and the World Bank Living Standards Measurement Study-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) team. The fifth wave was conducted from September 12, 2021, to June 30, 2022. It interviewed 4,999 households from 438 enumeration areas. The survey is crucial to design effective future development plans and revise the existing ones with a view to improve the livelihood of all citizens both in rural and urban settings, it was indicated. Source: Ethiopian News Agency