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The effects of poverty are particularly harsh on women and children. In Ethiopia, females make up over 50% of the total population while children and Adolescents represent 45.7% of an estimated total population of 70 million. Both these groups suffer from social and political marginalization, malnutrition, poor health, and lack of opportunities to gain an education and earn a living.
The magnitude of Children and Women in Especially Difficult Circumstances (CWEDC) is particularly hard to quantify due to lack of reliable data. There is, nonetheless, an abundance of empirical evidence which points to excessive hardships that are being experienced by Ethiopian children and women as a result of social, cultural, economic, and psychological pressures.
According to UN’s 2005 Human Development Index, 47% of children at age five are under weight for their age as a result of being severely malnutritioned. The mortality rate for children under five is 169 per 1000. Access to education is low through out the country. Primary enrolment rate stands at 51%.
Abject poverty, rapid urbanization, drought and famine, armed conflict, destabilization of families have left thousands of children in Ethiopia destitute, orphaned, displaced, unaccompanied, homeless, disabled and abused. According to the Ethiopian Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs 2004 figures, an estimated 4 million the children live in especially difficult circumstances and 100, 000 are at risk to becoming street children.
The statistics for women are as grim. Ethiopian women on average have 5.9 children. Maternal mortality hovers at about 870 women per 100,000. Contraceptive availability and use is extremely low with a prevalence rate of only 8%. The literacy rate for females above age 15 is 33.8. Combined gross enrolment ratio for primary, secondary, and tertiary schools is 29%. Women’s political involvement is extremely low with only 7.8% of parliament seats being held by females.
In the Ethiopian society, the girl child is discriminated from birth. The deep-rooted cultural attitude and traditional practices preach and perpetuate women’s inferiority, making the female population a highly disadvantaged segment of the society.
The Ethiopian Government's Social Welfare Development Policy
The Government of Ethiopia formulated a Social Welfare Development Policy in 1996, under which Children and Women are the major targets. The policy describes problems and provides recommended actions for prevention, control, and elimination of prevalent and deep-rooted social problems in the country.
Major Objectives
The major objectives of the Social Welfare Development Policy are to:
1. expand participatory social welfare development programmes and services;
2. study the causes of social problems and develop preventive measures based on knowledge generated by such studies;
3. rehabilitate members of society who are already suffering from various social problems and give them special treatment and attention.
Priority Groups
The groups considered a priority by the Policy are children and adolescents, women and elders, and families.
Strategies
Among the strategies that are indicated as essential to effectively implement the national welfare policies are:
community participation;
partnerships and coordination among institutions dealing with social issues;
studies and research to identify the root causes of social exclusion and proper solutions;
human resource capacity building targeting those working on social issues;
community awareness creation in order to promote a real change of attitude;
consideration of gender in every social program so as to ensure sensitivity to issues that affect women;
establishment of an information system on social issues linking institutions working in such areas;
updating of national legislation, in relation with the International Conventions ratified by the Ethiopian Government (Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the UN Conventions on the Right of the Child , Child Labour, and Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women );
strengthening the Monitoring and Evaluation Mechanism of the interventions in the social sector.
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