ADDIS ABABA (HAN) December 1, 2015 – Public Diplomacy and Regional Stability Initiatives News. The Reporter Newspaper interviewed Prime Minster Hailemariam Dessalegn on November 26 covering a wide range of topics. In an hour and a half the Prime Minster addressed the current drought situation, the problems of good governance problems and the economy and other areas.
The Prime Minister emphasized that the root of the current drought phenomenon had to do with the irresponsible emission of the ‘greenhouse gases’ by the world’s most advanced economies over many years and the fact that this had eventually resulted the rise of temperature levels of the ocean and produced disruption of the usual rainfall cycles as demonstrated by this year’s El Nino phenomenon, possibly the most serious on record.
The Prime Minister said the Government had been working intensively since it became clear that there was a serious situation to address the incident of drought in various regions, providing food assistance, water and other support to those affected.
The Prime Minister stressed that the concern was not so much with the actual numbers affected but rather with the conditions of each and every household in widespread drought affected areas. He pointed out that the Government had now developed the capacity, through health and agricultural extension workers to screen almost each and every household in affected areas and had the ability to monitor and to address actual condition of households.
It was doing everything possible to respond to the situation. As for governance, the Prime Minister said good governance was not something that trickled down from the top to the bottom. It was not merely something given by politicians; it was also improved through active involvement of the public at large.
Referring to economic development, Prime Minister Hailemariam said the Government had now evaluated the performance of the Growth and Transformation Plan by sector as well as by macro level. The results overall had been substantive though not as much as anticipated in some sectors including agriculture and industrial development.
These would be highlighted during the coming year. He emphasized, however, that the country’s growth rate had continued to be in double figures and noted this had been attested by International Monitory Fund and World Bank. MFA
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