An Interview with Paul Ackroyd

Paul Ackroyd is head of the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development in Addis Ababa. DfID has been one of Ethiopia principal international partners, cofinancing a number of key operations supported by IDA. 

The past 15 years in Ethiopia have seen political, security and  climate-related crises. But is there also an evolution in Ethiopia’s development profile that is noteworthy?

“Ethiopia for the first time in history has a government that is serious about wanting to reduce poverty. It took time to rebuild the institutions of the state, so that there was a time lag from the fall of the Dergue. Then as we were coming up with a state that looked functional, they got involved in the war with Eritrea, which set everything back.

But since then, we have seen the government trying to put in place policies and programs necessary to address the widespread poverty. We’re beginning to see some results from this -- particularly the poverty headcount coming down quite significantly -- and all of this when they’ve been under some real resource constraints, such as bringing in about half the donor inflow per capita as you see in other parts of SubSaharan Africa.

We’re beginning to see some changes in the structure of the Ethiopian economy. The fact is that we have three years of around 10% growth, that we see some new commercial operations – particularly in horticulture--  opening up. There is a lot of building around Addis Ababa. There is something significant going on, changing the face of Ethiopia. How deep-seated it is, how sustainable it is, remains to be seen.”

Are donors working differently with Ethiopia?

“Ethiopia is moving from a crisis orientation toward a long-term development paradigm. There will be upsets along the way—particularly if there is a year of low rainfall. But the institutions and the mechanisms are there now.

IDA is particularly significant because it is by far the largest source of funds in Ethiopia. The Bank has responded to the harmonization agenda, and by that I mean that I’ve seen people at the Bank really believe in the harmonization agenda. It was critical during the crisis in 2005. (when the Bank convened donors around a strategy of protecting basic services to the population through block grants to local governments.)”

What are the biggest challenges for the future?

“With respect to donor harmonization, the next big challenge is moving from a situation where every donor needs to be at every meeting. We need to reduce transaction costs for ourselves and focus on a logical division of labor. 

For Ethiopia, it’s getting the growth agenda going -- three years of 10% growth is great. The challenge is making sure it’s sustained and that it’s not just climate-driven.”