ETHIOPIA: Bill Gates

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation appoints Ethiopia representative

Ethiopia development boss announced to step up coordination of anti-hunger and pro-health programmes…

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced the appointment of its first official representative in Ethiopia on the back of calls for a coordinated global agricultural policy to tackle poverty in developing nations.

Haddis Tadesse, who has worked as an external relations officer for the Bill Gates Foundation since 2007, will be based in Addis Ababa.

The role is part of The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's work in Africa focusing on improving people's health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and poverty... The foundation invests more than half of its resources in Africa, and says it wants to build closer and more effective partners on the ground in Ethiopia which faces severe humanitarian challenges.

Tadesse will serve as the foundation's liaison to the federal government of Ethiopia and the African Union. He also will help the foundation strengthen its relationships with health and development partners operating in Ethiopia, including donor agencies and NGOs.

Ethiopia, with a population of over 80 million people is a country of immense hardship. More than 75 per cent of people rely on agriculture for sustenance. However, the majority of the population struggle to maintain a living largely due to the climactic and environmental conditions as well as a lack of resources. About half of Ethiopians are officially in poverty and international agencies report child malnutrition in the country as the highest in the world.

The situation has become acute following the East African drought, the worst in 60 years, affecting more than ten million people across East Africa.

Ethiopia also faces challenges from widespread infectious and communicable diseases that account for about 60 to 80 per cent of health problems across the country, including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

Ethiopia is an important country for The Bill Gates Foundation, which provides more than USD 265 million in funding to partner organisations for health and development programmes. The foundation includes support for the Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) with funds provided to stimulate the Ethiopian economy by increasing production for smallholders.

In a recent landmark speech in Rome at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Bill Gates told the international agricultural gathering that it had fallen short of delivering the help small farmers in developing countries need when they need it… and a more coordinated strategy was required.

"Investments in agriculture are the best weapons against hunger and poverty and they have made life better for billions of people," Mr Gates said.

The humanitarian organisation's founder also called for a drive to unite around a common global target for sustainable productivity growth, to develop agricultural production in line with recent successes in tackling preventable diseases via mass coordinated vaccination programmes...

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