Report by the Council of the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front to the 6^th Organizational Congress

Honorable delegates to the 6^th Congress

Honorable allies of the EPRDF

Honorable guests

On behalf of the members of the EPRDF and on my own behalf, I welcome you to the 6^th congress of our organization.

This congress was called after prolonging the date, according to our constitution, as necessitated by the need to prepare ourselves adequately.

It is to be recalled that the EPRDF came up with an amended program and constitution by applying the correct strategies of the 4^th congress which was held right after its complex renewal movement.  It is known that the victorious line of the 4^th congress mainly aimed at effecting democratization and poverty eradication.  The line of our renewal clearly states that a developmental government must be in place and engage in continuous improvement in order to bring about sustainable development which would benefit all the peoples, at all levels.  As democratization in Ethiopia goes way beyond mere elections to include peace and its very survival, the program states that a democratic developmental government has to be established to realize these goals.  The creation of a democratic developmental state (government) was to be based on the strategies of our 4^th congress after which we were engaged in a relentless struggle to realize it.

It is to be recalled that correct directions were mapped out at our 5^th congress that were based on these strategies and which resulted in extensive activities that were undertaken in last three years.  Our fifth congress ruled that in order to fight poverty at the needed level and effect a leap in our economic development, a continuous annual growth of 7-10% must be grasped.  For this reason the 5^th congress was dubbed as the Leap platform for fundamental change.  This also applied to our plan to establish good governance and the democratic order.

The 6^th congress, therefore, will assess and evaluate the implementation and performance of the plans of the 5^th or Leap Congress and draw up new plans for further democratization, development, good governance and internal organizational work in the coming years.

Honorable members of the 6^th congress

Honorable allies of our organization

Honorable guests

In the last three years we were engaged in a relentless struggle to implement the development goals we set out in our 5^th or Leap Congress which has resulted in a continuous and rapid economic growth to the tune of 9.5% annually.  As our development is agriculture led, we have achieved an average annual growth of 13.3% proving that the strategy we adopted for this sector, as the most decisive in the overall economic progress of our country, is correct and that agriculture has truly played the leading role.  As the direction of our economy is agriculture led and market oriented, with special emphasis on the development of export trade, the annual growth in this sector has reached an average of 28.4%.  In short, as our economy has shown continuous growth in the last three years, based on the development strategy set out by our Leap Congress, we can safely say that this goal has indeed been successfully achieved.  As our poverty is deep rooted taking ages to reach this severity, it is unthinkable that it will be eradicated by a continuous rapid development of just three years.  However, it must be said that this success is extremely encouraging in that it has laid the foundation for future accelerated development.

The cardinal point of our economic development strategy is that it must be agriculture led and export oriented with special emphasis on accessing markets but especially international markets.  It is known that this economic strategy became the special mark (trade mark) of our organization because many were not so sure about its viability or success.  However, an average growth of 13.3% in the agricultural sector has proved that agriculture has the capacity to be the engine of our economy.  This development has enabled the farmers to engage in the production of goods for the international market, thus, making agriculture the most decisive sector for foreign trade development.  It must be recalled that prior to our Leap Congress (5^th), in a good year, the price of agricultural products would plummet discouraging the farmers to produce more in the coming year.  However, though there has been rapid and uninterrupted growth in the agricultural sector, in the last three years for the first time in our history, the price of agricultural products has not plummeted because our development is market oriented with special emphasis on accessing international markets.  Contrary to the previous trend the price of agricultural goods has been on the rise, continuously, in the last three years, encouraging our farmers to produce ever more.

We need to realize that it is not only because of our correct policies and strategies that we have achieved accelerated agricultural growth.  It must be said that infact this victory was achieved also because our developmental government made it its sacred duty to ensure that the farmers initiative for development would be enhanced through a holistic and institutional support rendered to them.  Though our developmental government stressed that agriculture, like all other economic sectors should be led by laws of the free local and international markets, it also committed itself to provide support to all sectors that would face challenges in this respect.

Agricultural technology must be improved continuously to accelerate the growth of this sector.  It is evident that the market at present is incapable of improving the technological capacity of the farmers.  It is because of this very fact that the government has been engaged in providing institutional support and capacity building opportunities to the farmers.  Extensive work was undertaken to train professionals in several colleges who would provide improved technologies to the farmers and convince them about the importance of their application.  These professionals, it must be said, have made an important contribution to our success in the sector and continue to do so.  We have also been engaged in putting in place a system whereby local and external research findings, in appropriate technologies, could be provided to the agricultural extension work.  The results achieved so far have been greatly impacted, positively, by the government’s efforts to improve the technological capacity of the farmers by coordinating research activities and the extension system and constantly improving upon them.

In order to establish market led agricultural development, extensive efforts were deployed to design marketing systems and improve upon them continuously so as to ensure that inputs that are in demand by the farmers are supplied, at reasonable cost and that their products fetch an attractive income.  This marketing system was designed in such a way as to incorporate the farmers’ cooperatives, the agro-processing industry, the private sector engaged in distributing agricultural products and those who are in export trade.  It must be noted that this work demanded a lot of work.  Be that as it may, this process did managed to create a condition in which the farmers could sell their products at attractive prices, enhancing and improving their initiative to engage in more development and triggering yet more growth in the agricultural sector.

The most serious bottleneck to the establishment of the agricultural marketing system was the limitation that is so prevalent in rural infrastructure.  With this understanding, the government was engaged in extensive activities to improve the existing highways and to construct rural roads to meet the challenge.  Parallel to this work great effort was also deployed to provide telecommunication services to all rural local councils and electricity to about half of them.  This is still continuing unabated.  Our efforts to provide rural infrastructure have, no doubt, been instrumental to the success of our rural and agricultural development.

The establishment of an efficient rural financial system is vital to the provision of credit and to facilitate the farmer’s savings which are extremely important to their engagement in development.  It is due to this fact that our government worked with commitment and determination to establish and improve upon the rural financial institutions and systems.  The government has facilitated the creation and expansion of rural banks through providing legal parameters to that effect.  It has also tried to help cooperatives use credits and facilitated payment arrangements to encourage the sector’s development.  The regional governments in coordination with commercial banks have also facilitated credit schemes for farmers.  The availability of extensive credit for the purchase of vital inputs, no doubt, contributed much to our success in this sector.

Beyond designing a correct rural and agricultural development strategy, the government made sure that services that would not be available to the farmers in the market would be in place so as to assist them engage in the sector’s development, extensively.  This was executed not in a piecemeal and uncoordinated manner, but in an organized and institutional fashion, with special emphasis to constant improvement that resulted in the shining developmental victory that we managed to grasp, so far.  This success is not only the result of our correct policy and strategy but also that of our commitment to provide an all out institutional support to the Ethiopian farmer.

Though it is a fact that the great success in agricultural development after the 5^th or Leap Congress is a result of our correct political line, and though, it is also a fact that it is attributable to our correct policies and strategies and will certainly serve as a stepping stone for further progress, there is no denying that it was subject to some challenges as well.  As it is extremely important to enumerate these problems and correct them to ensure the continuity of this success, we need to identify them, properly, in our evaluation.

The growth, so far achieved, did cover the whole country with varying degrees of success.  However, the greatest growth was primarily achieved in the country’s surplus producing areas.  Growth in the pastoral and food deficient localities did not tally with that of the whole country, indicating that there is a problem of uneven development between different areas of the country.  That the policy and strategy which targets the pastoral areas of our country was designed rather late, that work around these areas is also extremely challenging and time consuming, that a tremendous amount of time and capital is needed to implement the strategies, that these areas have an extreme lack of executive capacity and a great challenge in good governance did contribute to these areas’ lagging and the problems of uneven development in the country.  Though, there was a tremendous effort to design policies and strategies that would fit the food deficient areas of our country, the demand for a huge popular mobilization and participation, which exacts a lot time as well as lack of capacity and appropriate procedural set up managed to hinder equal participation in development in these areas.  Therefore, in the last three years’ great victory in the rural and agricultural sector the fundamental challenge was uneven development between different parts of the country.

This uneven development observed in various areas of the country was not limited to the imbalance between localities because, even-though whatever was achieved did benefit the people who exist at different levels of the economic ladder, we can not claim that in this context the youth and women were equal beneficiaries with the rest of the population.  As many young people are landless and have no system available to them through which they can access and use family plots, and as other means of livelihood in rural areas are extremely limited, they have not been able to engage in development activities as much as their youth would allow.  The same is true about women who have not been assisted, also at the required level, by relieving them from household chores, to enable them to engage in horticulture and other economic activities that would make them beneficiaries in the rapid economic development of the country.

It is true that our developmental government did provide a holistic, organized and institutional assistance to support agricultural development which has registered truly good results.  However, there were challenges and problems that cropped up in the process which should be underlined and addressed in the coming years.  There are several shortfalls in the institutional support meant to effect technological change.  Though our objective was successful according to the directions in place, we have not managed to deploy professionals to all local councils (kebeles) in adequate numbers.  These professionals do lack experience and some problems have been observed due to the limitation of their capacity and efforts to convince the farmers and mobilize them.  The organizational structures that link the farmers and the extension professionals (agents) have not been enhanced to the needed extent and those above that level have not provided professional assistance and have not engaged in follow up work adequately, indicating that there are organizational, procedural and professional limitations in this area too.  The link between research and extension activities has also proved to be not as strong as desired.

Our work at improving the marketing system has been rather weak in that the co-ops were not as strong as they should have been and the link between these bodies and private investors is also rather weak.  The fact that modern marketing systems which should have developed parallel to the growth in agriculture were rather slow compounded the challenges.  All these problems attest to the fact that there were challenges in our efficiency regarding the sector.  It is known that rural infrastructure development demands extensive capital investment which means that there would be financial constraints.  Moreover the fact that we have not managed to mobilize communities, at the desired level, to participate in building rural infrastructure, especially rural roads has resulted in the curtailment of the speed of these activities.  The construction of rural infrastructure has also been impacted, negatively, by our inability to train, organize and deploy our human resource with speed and efficiency.

Though we have registered positive results in the field of rural finance, rural banks have not developed to the desired level as to address the farmers’ demands, adequately.  Our rural banks are also not linked with the co-ops and commercial banks to the desired extent.  Due to the accelerated growth in the agricultural field, farmers do have a lot of cash.  But due to the lack of efficient banking and input purchasing systems, they have not been able to use this cash to accelerate more growth which can be sited as another weakness in our work.

Honorable delegates to the 6^th Congress

Honorable allies of the EPRDF

Honorable guests

There is no doubt that we have to continue implementing the correct policies and strategies based on which we provided a holistic institutional support to the farmers, who in turn, were able to grasp this great success in the last three years.  Parallel to this work and also based on it, we should correct our mistakes and address all the challenges and weaknesses encountered so far.  Taking this approach into account the government has designed the five-year plan, which is currently under implementation.  Our organization, which is the ruling party, was the major player in designing this plan.  Therefore, it is not difficult to imagine that we would all adopt and work, to the best of our ability, for its implementation.  Using the 7-10% annual growth of the last three years as a basis of our objective this congress must aim at a yearly growth rate of 10% which would mean that our national income (gross domestic product) would double in another four years.  In order to achieve this objective we must not only diligently and with great commitment implement the 5 year plan whose policy and strategy have proved to be correct, but also focus on the challenges that would emerge in the process and solve them as swiftly as possible.

In the coming years we should strictly follow the directives of our development program and also give due attention to the following issues.

1. On Agriculture's Even Development

As agricultural development is highly influenced and impacted by natural conditions and as our country is endowed with various types of natural environment it is impossible that development in this area would be exactly the same in all localities of the country.  Taking this fact into consideration what can be done is that all corners of the land are made to participate in development as much as conditions allow and benefit the people to the maximum possible level.  Based on this approach, we must work relentlessly in the surplus areas, which are endowed with suitable conditions for agriculture so as to enable them to grow at a more accelerated rate.  We must focus on these areas because their development would benefit not only the people who dwell in them but also others by playing a pivotal role in accelerating the overall economic growth of the whole country.  It is known that focusing on these areas of economic growth is bound to benefit the people in other localities directly or indirectly and that is why work that ensures rapid growth in surplus areas is not only the task of those who live there but also that of the entire Ethiopian population.

In food deficient areas, we should strive to mobilize the people to engage in development, to the maximum possible level, as observed in the last three years to ensure that future stress of the nature encountered in the past caused by droughts is minimized to the possible extent.  We must mobilize farmers in these areas to an unprecedented level by applying, extensively, those technologies that were popular among them and improving upon those that had shortcomings.  As executive capacity is crucial to this work, special emphasis should be given to capacity building.  We should strive to create an economic linkage between the surplus producing and food deficient areas to help the later benefit from the country’s overall economic development.  We should, therefore, ensure that we, by and large, must be food self sufficient in five years time as mapped out in our five year plan.  We should work diligently towards that end.

Based on the strategies designed to develop the pastoralist areas of our country, we must engage in addressing the problems of lack of executive capacity to make sure that the pastoralists become beneficiaries of the overall development of our country.  We should also strive, parallel to the capacity building efforts in the pastoral areas, to facilitate the support rendered by the EPRDF run regional authorities (governments) to the pastoralist regions through the coordinating role of the central government.  The federal government should also provide a strong and all round professional and technical support to the pastoralist areas, even more than to the others.  Ethiopia’s pastoral people should have access to and strong linkage with the markets of the emerging areas of development so as to ensure that they benefit from the overall development of the country.

Special emphasis and focus should also be rendered to the participation and benefit of the youth and women in our country’s economic development.  Based on our land policy we should see to it that the youth have priority in acquiring land if and when it is available.  We should also create a situation whereby they can be engaged in and benefit from family holdings and create job opportunities for them in rural areas with the view of embracing them in development activities.  Women’s chores in the home should be reduced through concerted steps taken to remove this burden.  We should work towards making women equal beneficiaries in development through the expansion of horticulture and the creation of jobs other than farming.  But above all else, we should assist the youth and women to enhance their participation in and benefits from development in an organized and coordinated manner.  We should take up this case and work relentlessly to make their cause that of the whole society as a result of understanding the challenges facing these sectors of society and come up with tangible solutions.

2. Provide a Coordinated Institutional Support

We should continue on the correct direction of providing an all-round institutional support to the farmers and focus on solving problems that may emerge during the process.  We should also constantly improve agricultural technology, enhance and continue with training programs, put in place adequately agricultural extension professionals in all kebeles, upgrade the skills of development workers (professionals), improve the links between these agents of change and the farmers through improved and strong organizational set ups and create a condition where there is a trusting and caring relationship between all stakeholders as a result of our assistance in their enlightenment and exposure to positive experiences in the field.  We should strive to enable the agricultural structures above the kebele (local council) level, to acquire the capacity to support extension workers through strengthening various aspects of their work and to apply a system of strict follow up and support.  The valuable experience gained in the last few years, especially in the previous planting season, should be properly collected and analyzed to be used as an input for future work.

We should provide adequate support to the co-ops to strengthen and modernize them in order to improve our rural marketing system.  We should provide training in rural marketing and create linkages among private investors, farmers and co-ops in order to effect their numerical growth, modernization and overall development.  We must see to it that the rural marketing arrangements progress in tandem with agricultural development by introducing new and modern means of marketing through institutions such as commodity exchange facilities.  We should also improve our agricultural input system by creating a condition in which improved seeds could be harvested and distributed, adequately.  We must also see to it that a situation in which the farmers and the private sector play the most decisive role in development is created.  Based on our real capacity, we must also find ways and means through which we can produce fertilizers locally and avail them to the farmers at affordable price. 

We need to work diligently to improve our capacity to coordinate and lead the construction of rural roads and highways, as mapped out in our infrastructure development program, through the motivated participation of a vast number of farmers throughout the land. We should apply the five-year plan regarding telecommunications and electric power services by enhancing the capacity of    government   development   enterprises   in   an     accelerated fashion.  Administrative bodies at the kebele (local council) and woreda (district) levels should be strengthened by deploying trained personnel to enable them to lead these and other development activities.  It is expected of us to introduce improved working procedures for the kebele (local council) and woreda (district) level leadership and to ensure that their budget is adequate and that they are empowered to plan and execute the development programs of their respective localities.

We should provide all round assistance to rural banks to widen the scope of their activities through improving their system by closely working with the co-ops and coordinating their marketing, credit schemes and payment arrangements.  We should also  extensively engage in building awareness and coordinating the farmers to help them use the resources they acquire through their own labour, effectively.  We should enable the farmers to purchase needed inputs to further improve production and save the rest of their money in banks or reinvest it in other, viable economic activities.  We should be aware of the fact that as agricultural development accelerates, we will need to focus not only on providing adequate credit to the farmers but also ensure that the wealth they create is deployed for yet more development as this would have great impact on future growth.

Honorable delegates to the 6^th Congress

Honorable allies of the EPRDF

Honorable guests

It is known that our development strategy though, agriculture led, is not solely limited to that sector.  In fact all our developmental activities are geared towards creating an advanced industrial nation.  This being our goal, we have been exerting utmost effort, in the last several years, to ensure that agricultural development plays this role appropriately through which we have actually grasped, truly, encouraging achievements.  Our textile industry, which was in a state of perpetual crisis, has now embarked on a healthy path, to contribute its share to the country’s external (foreign) trade.  Similarly, the hides and skin, leather and meat sectors are showing tremendous growth.  Encouraging trends are also being observed in the construction, sugar and floriculture sectors, which have merited great investment to result in real tangible achievements.  For all these reasons, the industrial sector is second only to agriculture in the contribution it makes to the overall economic growth and external trade of the country.  Through these developments, the agriculture and export led strategy, which has resulted in these achievements has proved to be correct, indeed.

Our developmental government has not only designed a correct industrial policy and strategy but has also provided an all-round, institutional support to the private sector to facilitate their implementation.  First and foremost, the economic and institutional conditions that were more accommodating to the rent collecting, parasitic elements than to the developmental private sector have been reformed to fit the needs of the later.  Parallel to these activities, an all round institutional support is being provided to the developmental quarters especially those engaged in the export sector.

A plan was drawn up to ensure enhanced productivity and technological capacity in the productive private sector.  We have deployed great efforts to ensure the availability of trained workers at the desired quantity though the spread of quality education up to the university level and through the provision of extensive technical training schemes of upgraded standard.  Based on our industrial plan, which incorporates the development of the necessary technological and technical institutions to support selected sectors, a leather (hides and skin) institute has been established to provide assistance to the sector.  The same is in the process of being established for the textile industry, to help the sector improve its production and overall performance.  In order to make trained workers available to the private sector, we have arranged for foreign professionals with long experience in this field to provide training, freely or, at a minimal cost. These trainings are still ongoing. We have also facilitated for the private sector to employ skilled expatriates without any hassle or difficulty. Commodities produced locally have been graded, in detail, in order to assist the private sector to access the world market with quality goods. It can be said that the government, through coordinated technical training and capacity building activities, has been instrumental in challenging parasitism through redirecting those who had embarked on that path to real productive engagement, thus contributing its share to growth.

In order to facilitate the provision of adequate credit to the private sector, the Development Bank (DB) has been strengthened and services by government banks have also been greatly improved. Arrangements were made to enable the private sector to acquire credit at reasonable interest. Systems were also put in place to encourage the export sector. All these steps, have no doubt, contributed tremendously to our success in economic development. Encouraging results have also been achieved by relentless work to facilitate the participation of foreign investors in selected fields, contributing to our success.

Aware of the decisive contribution the development of infrastructure makes to our economic progress, the government deployed a huge amount of capital for the construction and distribution of telecommunication and electric power services and the provision of potable water. Focus was directed at those institutions engaged in economic development such as development banks, electric power and telecommunication services, customs offices etc. in order to ensure that a favourable environment exists for the private sector.  We have facilitated a favourable condition for those engaged in the export sector who can organize themselves and work together with the government, in a coordinated manner, and can also discuss the constrains that face them at common forums.  This approach has merited encouraging results, so far.  All told, relentless efforts were exerted to provide a holistic institutional support to the private sector with a view of directing their participation towards real development. In the event of their moving in this direction, unlimited support was offered to them to improve productivity and the quality of their goods, contributing immensely to our current success.

Supporting investors who own medium and large scale enterprises in the manner indicated earlier is an approach that is a must for a developmental government. However, it is really the small and micro enterprises that play the decisive role in reducing the abject poverty and unemployment so prevalent in our urban centres. It is because of this awareness that the  EPRDF, though belatedly,  drew up a plan for small and micro enterprises and tried to apply it to selected urban areas, especially Addis Ababa. Promising results have been achieved so far, but more importantly we have accumulated a wealth of experience, which is so important for our work in the future.

Realizing the importance of providing a holistic institutional support to the small and micro enterprises, as we did to the other sectors, we have tried to offer such assistance. We have provided technological, consultancy and extension services such as those offered to the agricultural sector. We have also facilitated on the job, technical and professional training in appropriate institutions. Credit schemes where designed and arrangements made for these enterprises to access government budget, earmarked for development, thereby ensuring their creation and growth. There was much effort to assist small and micro enterprises in marketing including the creation of business opportunities in government development ventures that would serve as markets for their products. Support was also made available to them in the supply of land and the establishment of an enabling environment including good governance. Beyond the development achieved in this sector, we have acquired valuable experience and knowledge which can serve as an input for our work in the future.

As evidenced in other sectors, our developmental government has designed correct policies and strategies and provided support to all those engaged in development including the industrial and urban sectors which have registered commendable results. Be that as it may, however, there were challenges in the urban and industrial sectors, too.  In fact the success achieved in industrial and urban development has proved to be much less than that registered in the rural and agricultural sector, proving that these challenges were formidable, indeed.

It must be noted that there is an uneven development in the urban and industrial sectors as well. But evidence abounds in the advanced countries to prove the fact that big and medium industrial enterprises are never distributed evenly for they have an unavoidable, inherent tendency to cluster in certain areas suited to them. However, it is possible to increase these development centres, numerically, in coordination with activities in rural areas to create development centres as has been abundantly demonstrates in many places.  Though there is a lot of work geared towards establishing industrial areas in different parts of our country, experience in this sector demonstrates that they are really limited to Addis Ababa and its vicinity.  It must be said that it has not been possible to create several industrial centres such as Addis Ababa that are linked together to create industrial belts.

The reason for this is that while our industrial growth which is based on rapid agricultural development should have grown at a much faster rate, it is rather sluggish. But it is true that it takes quite a while for agricultural development to reach a level where it creates conducive environment for massive investment in the industrial sector.  As things stand today, we have observed that investment in the industrial sector and urban development have shown a substantial increment indicating that in due course, these sectors will start to grow at a much accelerated rate. It must be stressed that industrial development was not closely coordinated and linked with that of agriculture. Centres of development of the industrial sector were not established in the corridors of rapid agricultural growth to create strong economic linkages. All embracing development zones were not established at the desired level, indicating weaknesses in follow up mechanisms and capable leadership. Attracting investment to all corners of our country was also wanting. For all these reasons, the balance between agricultural and industrial growth was much slower than it should have been.

It is true that the government provided an all round institutional support to the private sector which is appropriate and correct. However, these activities had limitations that need to be mentioned. It is a fact the private sector's organized work as a partner of the government in its development agenda was limited to those engaged in the export sector. The consultative forums where both sides engaged each other in pertinent discussions suffered from interruptions and were also limited to the federal level curtailing the possible benefits for all concerned. Though government banks did make the effort to improve their services and offer adequate financial support, initiating a positive trend, their efficiency was not of the desired quality, causing the achievements to be diminished. Even though there was a relentless effort to put in place the Civil Service Reform Program (CSRP) which did effect some positive trends in government service delivery, the process was not devoid of bottlenecks which impacted our urban and industrial development, negatively. The fact that the endeavours to build the technological capacity of the private sector exacts a tremendous amount of time and capital did mean that we have not been able to reach a level in which we can provide support at the desired level and quality. We recognize this as another challenge.

The obstacles and weaknesses just enumerated were the challenges we faced in our urban and industrial development efforts. However, the most serious problem facing us today, in this sector, is that so far it has not even started to impact the object poverty in the country's urban areas, in a fundamental way. This is partly the result of the fact that our towns and cities have not been able to grow at the desired rate, but more importantly, it is because small and micro enterprises have not developed fast enough to make a difference. Work around small and micro enterprises started in earnest, rather late and was applied in certain selected pilot projects which meant that we did not approach this important work in an all embracing, holistic manner and by providing institutional support. But it must be said that this was the only venue available to us, at the time.  Great success was not achieved in this sector, also because we focused on establishing new small and micro enterprises neglecting hundreds of thousands of those that were already in existence.

Small and micro institutions would develop properly when the unemployed especially the youth and women own it and participate in its development in an organized manner, creating a condition whereby society also owns the challenges as its own and participates in the efforts to solve them. Our work in this field did not actually merit a condition in which the participants understood and owned the program. Not only that, but we also failed to motivate the rest of society to participate wholeheartedly, compounding the difficulties in which the beneficiaries themselves did not support or even appreciate the efforts.  Attitudes such as being picky about work and lack of motivation in the creation of jobs for themselves were also some of the challenges encountered in this sector. It is not hard to imagine that these challenges have actually reduced the success that was achievable in the development of small and micro enterprises.

There is no doubt that we must continue implementing the policies and strategies that have, in the last three years, proved to be so successful in rallying  all development forces around our policies and which were executed through an all round institutional support. We must see to it that the urban population especially the youth and women are beneficiaries of that continuation. It is more than evident to this congress that we need to work relentlessly for the implementation of the five year plan along with its goals, objectives and directions. Be that as it may, we need to address the challenges mentioned earlier, by focusing on the following issues.

1. Solving the Challenge of Unemployment in Urban Areas

The primary problem in urban areas is unemployment especially that of women and youth. All developmental efforts in urban areas, in the following years, therefore, should have the reduction of unemployment as its paramount objective. As small and micro enterprises in urban areas have the ability to create jobs for the unemployed, we must engage in providing an all round support to develop them for this particular reason. We need to design a strategy in which the urban youth and women can work in an organized manner to own these enterprises along with their families who would support them and commit themselves to work for their success. As any program, no matter how good, which does not acquire the support of the main actors, can not be sustainable, we need to focus on convincing and mobilizing these sectors of society to support the development of these enterprises as an urgent agenda.

We must provide an all round institutional support to the small and micro enterprises by collecting and analyzing the experiences achieved, so far.  By designing and implementing a training program and an extension and technological support system, in all of the regional capitals, we must improve their quality.  We must work to solve the housing problem so prevalent in urban areas, by basing our approach on the experiences gained so far and with an objective of extensive job creation. However, in the short run, we should focus on improving the existing small and micro enterprises and enhancing their capacity to create more employment. Aware that these enterprises can be established in all urban centres throughout the land and believing that they can be linked with rural development, to become truly successful, we should work towards incorporating them in the development zones that link our urban and rural areas.

2. Rendering Enhanced Support to Medium and Large Scale Enterprises.

It is known that unemployment would be tackled properly through the decisive role played by small and micro enterprise development but it is also true that our industrial development can not bring the desired results if our activities are not supported by medium and large scale enterprises which should provide leadership to the industrial sector. In order to ensure this, we should, based on our achievements of the last three years, strive to support the developmental elements of the private sector and assist the parasitic ones to embark on the right or productive path.

The emerging partnership between the government and the developmental elements in the private sector, as manifested by the forums that engaged both sides deserves special focus and attention. First and foremost we must assist in the formation and growth of the private sector's organizations. The consultations between the government and members of this sector, who are engaged in export trade, must continue unabated to create a condition in which common convictions and consensus are attained. Sectors that deserve special considerations should be selected with the intention of providing them with similar forums where they can air their views. Beyond these efforts it is vital to set up other consultative platforms with the organizations of this sector as a whole. Parallel to this, we should have similar permanent (standing) forums for workers' organizations to ensure their involvement and benefits in the ongoing development and enhance their participation as well as guarantee industrial peace. These consultative forums must not be confined to the federal level but must also exist at the regional levels and reach even further down the administrative structures. In order to ensure success we should base our work on the positive trends (the achievements of the last years) and strive to support the developmental private sector and bring the parasitic elements to the right, i.e. productive path.

We need to identify possible development zones (centres) in various areas that are agriculture based and that would be instrumental in expanding the scope of Ethiopia's industrial development. These areas should be linked and run in a carefully planned manner. The plans should coordinate all possible sectors and incorporate agriculture, small and micro enterprises and several industrial zones to use all possible opportunities for development. Though we need to create a conducive environment for the private sector, in all urban centres, we must give special emphasis to the capital cities (federal and regional) that are deemed to have the potential of becoming centres of industrial growth. To these cities we need to provide land, infrastructure and all round institutional support as much as the regions' capacities in these areas permit. We should provide relevant information to the private sector and identify areas that would be most productive for them. To usher a situation in which rapid growth in investment increases and proceeds to real development, we must engage in post investment activities, provide support, do follow up, issue licenses and identify developers in all possible fields. The intensive efforts geared towards attracting foreign investors should continue with more vigour and should be employed in such a way as to facilitate the spread of industrial development.

In order to offer an all round institutional support to the private sector, we must improve banking services, increase investment credit, strengthen and expand institutions that provide technological inputs and effect close collaboration between the private sector, the technical and vocational training institutions, universalities and the fields of research and human resource development. All said and done, it is very important to create a favourable environment for the development of the private sector through the provision of infrastructural services, as clearly mapped out in our program and through the ongoing Civil Service Reform Program(CSRP) thereby discouraging the parasitic elements that hover over this sector.

Honourable delegates to the 6^th congress

Honourable allies of the EPRDF

Honourable guests

The provision of education and health services beyond being instrumental in providing a healthy, educated and enlightened human resource is in itself one of the objectives of our program. For this reason the Leap Congress (5^th) stressed the need to do whatever possible to realize this objective. It is to be recalled that we had planned to achieve 68-70% coverage in primary education enrollment within two years. We also had an objective of enrolling 30 thousand school leavers in institutions of higher learning with in the said time. In the health sector, our target for the same period was to commence with the implementation of the extension program and to provide a better and more appropriate plan regarding the campaign against HIV and AIDS. Our performance in the social sector, in the last three years, went way beyond our target and can be evaluated as extremely satisfactory.

Currently, the overall enrolment in primary schools stands at 91.8% and that for first degree courses has reached 36,500. We have also now reached an enrolment level of 31.5% in high schools and there are now 87,200 trainees in the country's technical and vocational training institutions. In short we can claim that we have indeed grasped excellent results in the field of education. Due to our relentless efforts to ensure equity and justice in the right to education, the Afar and Somali Regions which were lagging behind even by our standards, have, in 2006, reached an enrollment level of 23.1% and 29.5% respectively.  This is up from 13.8% for the Afar and 15.1% for the Somali regions. Women's participation is presently 45.4% at the primary, 36.1% at the secondary and 23.2% at the tertiary levels, marking a great progress. Due to the government's commitment to spread higher education we are now in the process of establishing 13 more universities which are expected to admit 32,500 students in the coming academic year. Though the figures just presented demonstrate the efforts of the government, it must be pointed out that the private sector too is making a tremendous contribution in the provision of higher education. Preliminary data for 2006 indicates that private sector institutions of higher learning have 30,000 and 27,000 students enrolled in diploma and degree courses, respectively.

Parallel to focusing on the spread of education, special effort was rendered to its standard and quality. New teachers training institutions were designed and preparations under taken to collect and compile our experiences, with a view of using them for better services in the future. So far, preparations to offer continuous training to teachers on the basic tenets of the country's political and economic issues have been completed and will certainly contribute to the quality of education as evidenced in the positive results attained so far. Efforts have also been made to provide continuous training to school principals, supervisors and instructors in ethics and related subjects with a view of improving the quality of leadership in the management of education. There were also preparations that are meant to improve the management system at the tertiary level. The preparations for all these activities have now reached the final stage. Parallel to this, the program designed to ensure equity and fairness in the distribution of primary and secondary education throughout the country was given special focus. The educational system designed for the special( particular) needs of the pastoralists, which is now in place , has resulted in a tremendous improvement in primary school enrolment. The plan to ensure women's equal participation at all levels is also showing satisfactory results.

As it is essential to improve the standard and quality of education, the instructors of the technical and vocational training institutions are being provided with appropriate skills at various colleges and universities. Those who were already engaged as instructors in these institutions are also being given on the job training, continuously. Though our endeavours to strengthen these institutions by employing foreign instructors have been rather sluggish, we expect improvement in the coming year in which we will be able to start this work in earnest. Revision of the curriculum is being conducted continuously and within the time frame of the plan. Technical and vocational training institutions are closely linked with all sectors which are engaged in production and services in order to provide human resource development as well as study and research services. This approach will assist in ensuring that these institutions are based on reliable financial capacity, have trained human resource, adequate research database and the necessary preparations. At this point in time this process is at the implementation stage.

Parallel to the expansion of higher education, we were also engaged in conducting preliminary studies to improve the management of these institutions, which is now at the final stage. In order to start improving their curriculum and also modernize them, some fields were selected to conduct relevant and extensive studies. According to this plan, work will soon start in the departments of law and engineering and similar approach will be applied to the other fields as well. With the cooperation of the Indian government, upgrading the quality of education in institutions of higher learning through the use of modern information and communication technology will begin next year. The plan to this effect is ready and through the evaluation of this pilot project, similar work will continue in all universities.

All told, we can surmise that a great success was achieved in the spread and improvement of the quality of education, in the last three years. Our achievement in this field was truly encouraging as it was way beyond our target. This shining victory was possible due to the government's prioritization of education based on its awareness that it is the most decisive factor in our quest for development. Many of our developmental partners were not convinced about the importance of focusing on the spread of technical, vocational and higher education, which meant that we had to mainly relay on our own device in shouldering this task. This being the case, it is quite easy to understand the level of commitment and persistent struggle this task exacted. However, all our efforts would have, no doubt, been in vain had the people themselves not been highly committed to the spread of education. This great strategic victory which was achieved through the collaboration of the government and the people has laid a strong and reliable foundation for future progress in all fields. Great as our achievements may have been in this sector; however, we recognize that this work was not devoid of challenges.

Our task of ensuring quality education was faced with several problems which were directly linked with shortage of resources that caused overcrowded classrooms, the necessity of shifts, lack of adequate information and teaching aids and other vital equipment. Moreover, the educational institutions were not strengthened with competent management from top to bottom resulting in lack of awareness regarding our overall policies strategies and plans, among the main actors such as teachers and instructors. It must be said that in the main, these challenges emerged because we failed to create a situation in which these important elements could own our plans as to become organized agents of fundamental change. The fact that the technical and vocational training and higher education institutions have not been closely linked with development activities and the private sector to create a strong cooperation, at the desired level, has contributed to the problems of quality education and training. Equity in the spread of education among the pastoralists and others was faced with various challenges as we did not, in time, design a curriculum fit for mobile populations and their culture. The other fundamental problem is that women have not reached a level in which they are equal beneficiaries with men.

Our five year development program has laid out detailed plans for education and training. This congress is, therefore, expected to adopt these plans and work towards their implementation. Moreover, future efforts must be made to focus on the following issues.

1. Improve the Management System of Education

It is a fact that ensuring of quality education demands reform in the system of management from top to bottom. In this regard, we need to compile, analyze and coordinate the experiences gained and the preparation conducted, so far, and work continuously so as to bring about a fundamental change in the management of education. It is extremely important that teachers, instructors and students internalize the need for change and work towards its realization in an organized fashion. For this particular reason, we need to provide all round support to the teacher's associations in our country. All government institutions form the level of primary schools to that of the ministry of Education and all those in between must engage teachers' associations in continuous consultations and dialogue. These forums must enable all actors, in this sector, to adopt a common position and reach a consensus regarding all plans and their implementations. A condition must also be created whereby students can organize themselves and engage in continuous dialogue and consultations with all the pertinent bodies. The reform of the educational system from top to bottom, will be the focus of our attention until the next congress.

2. Coordinating the Educational System and Economic Development

It is important to create a strong linkage between the technical and vocational institutions, the universities and all developmental activities by basing our approach on the work done so far and improving upon it. In these efforts the regions must play a front line( pivotal) role. Technical and vocational institutes in all areas must try to address the need for trained human resource in their respective localities and design their programs accordingly.  Arrangements should also be made to allow trainees to do apprenticeship in various fields. These institutions should be able to provide short courses, demanded by the private sector and the government and assist development efforts in their vicinity through conducting studies, research and other such services. They should   particularly, assist small and micro enterprises by designing special programs to ensure their success.  We should also work towards the collaboration of the regional governments and the universities for better results in development.

3. The Expansion of Education

We should expect that focusing on quality education in the next few years will exact huge additional costs. It is clear that this responsibility can not be adequately shouldered by the government, alone.  Taking this reality in to consideration the community, at large, must take the responsibility of improving the existing schools and also building new ones. All administrative bodies everywhere must mobilize communities to build schools and hand them over to the government for utilization. The private sector must be involved in the growth of this sector to make even more contribution by ensuring the provision of quality education. Parallel to the activities of all these stakeholders the issue of equity in the sector must be ensured especially among the pastoralists and women in particular.

Health

Great progress has also been achieved in the provision of health services.  A new strategy that incorporates testing,  prevention, and care and support in the fight against HIV and Aids has been designed and implemented.  Based on the strategy to place two professionals in each kebele 30,000 extension workers who will serve in all kebeles (local councils) throughout the land will be trained and deployed.  So far, 17,405 have already been trained and will take up their posts soon.  The rest will be trained in the next few years.  Based on the plan to build health posts in each and every kebele (local council), 6,175 have already been constructed and are offering services.  The rest will be built in the next few years.  It must be noted that health extension services are now in the process of accessing the pastoral and urban areas.  Even though these services have not been in place comprehensively, the results have indeed proved to be quite satisfactory. 

This is amply demonstrated by the fact that children's vaccination that stood at 62% in 2005 has reached 80% in 2006.  Family planning services have grown by leaps and bounds in just a few years to benefit 33% of our women at child bearing age.   The plan to distribute pre-medicated mosquito nets to 10 million families has been implemented as a result of which 14 million of these nets have been delivered and six million more will be on the way at the end of this year.  The plan to distribute equipment to all health posts has been so successful that 2,238 of them are now in the process of receiving them.

Extensive work has also been undertaken to strengthen the health extension and other services through the expansion of health and human resource development which is incorporated in to the overall design of our work in this sector.  The capacity of the universities to train health officers which stood at just 300 has now grown to provide proper training to 2166 trainees.  When they graduate every health centre, old and new, will be provided with the services of at least one health officer.  Preparations are also underway to enable these professionals acquire masters degrees which would enable them to offer basic surgical services based on our plan, to build one health centre for every 25,000 people.  We are in the process of building new infrastructure and upgrading those that were already functioning.  This approach, we believe, will enable us to provide upgraded and better health services.  In this regard 523 health posts will soon become health centres as their construction is already in progress.  Eighty nine (89) new health centres are also either already at the stage of being functional or will be built soon.  An agreement has been reached with GTZ to upgrade yet 500 more health centres that were functioning at the health post level, in the past.  According to our objective to improve the quality of the health centres' services we planned to purchase new equipment for 319 of them.  Presently, we have been able to provide 285 health centres with these equipment which means that we are short only by about 17% of our target.

Parallel to the rapid development of the health infrastructure, we are engaged in a relentless effort to implement our HIV-Aids strategy.  The plan to spread testing and counselling services have enabled us to provide them in 735 institutions.  Ninety three (93) others have also started to offer free treatment.  Forty five thousand infected people are being treated in these institutions our of which 33 thousand use these services permanently.  Health institutions that provide services to avoid the virus' mother to child transmission have now reached 170.  Preventive education in health is available not only in urban but also in rural areas.

Parallel to the preventive activities and the development of health infrastructure, we are applying relentless efforts to improve the country's hospitals.  Twenty three (23) highly qualified health professionals have been deployed to 13 of these hospitals.  Though the number of doctors who graduate every year has increased astronomically, these professionals are rather reluctant to serve in public hospitals, forcing us to design a new strategy.  To overcome this challenge we have conducted studies that can help in improving the distribution of drugs and medical equipment which have now been finalized.  It is hoped that the findings will help to start this work soon.  In the effort to avail quality information and data regarding the health sector, a foreign expert has been employed to do this work.  When the findings are ready and adequate preparations are in place, this important service will begin.

The great victory in this sector was achieved not only because the government designed a correct policy and strategy to benefit all the people but also because the citizens themselves, various partners and stakeholders managed to succeed in playing their respective roles, effectively.  It is important to note that various government and international organizations provided extensive financial support to assist us in fighting HIV and Aids and implement the health extension services.  The health service has embarked on the right direction because the government applied a new and unusual approach for the sector's development and worked for its implementation with great drive and commitment.  It also continuously compiled all the experiences and other data regarding the campaign against HIV-Aids to effect a correct and successful direction to fight the scourge.  Though shining victories were achieved in the health sector, there is no denying that there were several problems, as well.

As the health service system was new, it did not have the necessary adequately trained human resource and also lacked a coordinated management structure from top to bottom which was compounded by challenges in the mobilization of communities to shoulder their share in its implementation.  The other shortcoming is that we failed to man and equip all these facilities from the health post up to the highest level (hospitals) with appropriate quality standard because the capital needed to do so, properly, is truly immense.  This service which demands pharmaceutical and medical training facilities was faced with serious financial challenges as well as sluggishness in its distribution mechanisms.  To address these challenges adequately, therefore, we need to especially focus on the following.

1. Managerial Reform and Training

We need to continuously improve the standard of the professional skills of our health workers not only through the plans already in place but also through on the job training and experience sharing mechanisms.  Special methodologies should also be designed to this effect.  We need to improve the management of health extension and infrastructure services through continuously improving (reforming) the managerial and follow-up mechanisms which should be enhanced by strategies which mobilize the community for greater participation.  We also need to tackle challenges caused by financial constraints through implementing the plan designed to speed up the delivery system of drugs and medical equipment.  The government must assist in strengthening health workers' associations and help them organize consultative forums which would enable them to expand and improve the quality of the sector.

2. Overcoming Financial Constraints,

Communities must be highly mobilized to assist in the construction of health infrastructure with a view of addressing the immense financial constraint faced by the sector.  We should make maximum effort to assist the population to internalise the fact that all health institution can not possible be built by the government alone and effect their participation, more than ever before.  We should also solicit more financial and material assistance from those governments, international organizations and NGOs that support the development of our health sector through strengthening our relationship with them so as to acquire better support regarding the level and quality of their assistance.  We should also try to produce medicine and health equipment locally, thus creating investment opportunities and jobs for our people, on the one hand, and saving the country's foreign currency, on the other.  For this reason, the development of the pharmaceutical industry must be identified as an issue that should be incorporated in to the category that deserves special focus for national support and assistance.

Honourable delegates

Honourable allies of our organization

Honourable guests

It is clear that our victory in the economic and social sectors, in the last three years, is attributable to our correct policies and strategies and the continuous capacity building efforts that accompanied their implementation.  That we adopted correct policies and strategies were practically proved in the last three years is a fact, and we did engage in a relentless effort to implement our capacity building strategies, in those years.  However, no one can deny that the main challenge, even today, remains to be limitations in our execution capacity.  It is abundantly clear that in order to continue on the path of success, improving the quality of leadership at every level of government and ensuring popular participation are truly critical.  In other words, it means that bringing about fundamental change in democratisation and good governance are decisive to the continuation of our economic development and over all progress.   Good governance and democracy do have a direct and positive influence on our economic development as pointed out earlier.  But, they also indirectly impact development, also positively, through their role of ensuring peace and stability in our country.  The reason for our decision to adopt "WE SHALL ENSURE THE CONTINUTATION OF OUR VICTORIES IN DEVELOPMNT THROUGH THE REALIZATION OF DEMOCRACY AND GOOD GOVERNANCE, BASED ON FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE!" as the lead slogan of this congress was to illustrate their importance.

Beyond good governance's and democratisation's direct and indirect impact on our development, their existence in our country is an objective of a fundamental nature, in its own right.  This realization is actually the reason for our commitment.  Deeply aware of the fact that democratisation and good governance will be a reality in our country through building democratic institutions and improving their performance continuously, on the one hand, and enhancing a democratic culture on the other, we have been engaged in extensive activities to that effect, in the last three years.

The Civil Service Reform Program is in the process of being implemented in the federal and regional governments to ensure that the executive perform their duties in an accountable and transparent manner and that they are shouldering their responsibilities in managing the country's developmental activities in a way that is expected of them.  The civil service reform program is being executed by prioritising those sectors that have a profound influence on our overall development activities.  Due to these efforts, therefore, service delivery in many government institutions has improved becoming instrumental in creating a significant human resource that is willing to acquire experience and use it for better performance, in the future.  Impressive as this success may be, however, we recognize that there were challenges that hampered the momentum of our work and impacted our results, negatively.

We have not grasped results that match our expectations because the leadership capacity and commitment to effect this transformation in the context of our age old way of life, style of work and culture was lacking.  High level professional skills to match our needs were also wanting.  Leadership qualities with rich experience in pushing ahead such a tremendous transformation and the commitment needed were also few and for between.  The civil service was also plagued with backward attitudes geared towards personal gains (benefits) which are incompatible with the goals of our reform.  It was rather difficult to motivate civil servants to change their attitude and overcome the challenges posed by those who stand adamantly against the reform by refusing to perform their duties appropriately.  The corrective measures taken against these challenges were also sluggish and lacking in quality, and not so effective in standing up to those who were bent on using various tactics to hamper the reform.  The tactics meant to derail the reform were in fact more pronounced and applied, vigorously, during the recent national elections.  The major challenges to the Civil Service Reform Program are, in the main, those just enumerated but the fact that adequate efforts were lacking was evident not only at the levels of the federal and regional institutions but also in those that are at the district (woreda) and local council (kebele) levels.  Lack of drive and commitment was indeed a major problem.

There were various activities whose main objective was to strengthen the legislative with the view of enabling it to oversight and control the executive at all levels, effectively.  Various committees were organized in the House of Peoples' Representatives to closely oversight the performance of the executive, in the one hand, and to engage in capacity building efforts to enable members of the House to perform their tasks more efficiently, on the other.  Due to these activities several proclamations were passed and the executive's performance evaluated.  Conducive environment has also been created for the office of Ombudsman and the Human Rights Commission which were actually established earlier.  Audit and control mechanisms were also strengthened and the results are quite promising.

Extensive work was undertaken after the 2005 elections to strengthen the House of Peoples Representatives and the House of Federation.  Both Houses have become platforms where the opposition parties express themselves adequately and where the ruling party implements its policies using its legal rights to lead the country and where both Houses oversight and control the activities of the executive.  Efforts were also made to implement a fitting Rules of Procedure and Code of Conduct using the skills of foreign experts who benchmarked the experiences of advanced democracies.  Based on these studies the Rules were customized to fit the particular conditions of our country.  Amendments were formulated based on these studies after which extensive dialogues were held between the ruling and the opposition parties.  This code of ethics has already become the guiding light of the House of Peoples' Representatives and is truly serving as an instrument for the opposition parties to air their voices adequately.  Due to this Rules of Procedure and Code of Conduct, the House properly oversights and controls the executive and the ruling party leads the country as it should.  This document has eventually helped the House of People's Representatives to be run with excellent rules of procedure and code of ethics.

The House is in the process of addressing the shortcomings in the execution capacity of the National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) that was manifested during the last elections with the assistance of an extensive study and analysis by foreign experts which will lead to corrective measures.  The preparations are about to be concluded and at the beginning of the new year (Ethiopian) a new Election Board will be appointed to carry out the district (woreda) and local councils' (kebele) elections and by-elections equipped with a better capacity.  The reform program regarding the Audit, Human Right Commission and the Office of Ombudsman is in the process of being implemented, in a satisfactory manner.  Through this work the capacity, follow up and control mechanisms of these institutions will improve significantly.  The capacity building program for members of the House of Peoples' Representatives is also underway and will continue, in the future.

Important as these achievements may be, both Houses that ought to be the showcase of democratisation in our country are not without shortcomings.  In the first place the reforms at the Federal level have not yet been stream lined to the kebele (local council) structures effectively.  It is true that preparation are underway and studies have been conducted to greatly increase the members of the kebeles (local councils) and engage communities to participate in their activities and control them, properly. However, these preparations have not moved to the implementation stage and will not be ready before the next district (woreda) and local council (kebele) elections.  Moreover, the Audit and Human Right Commissions and some other institutions that are at the federal level have not had adequate attention, follow up and control with a view of strengthening them.  Even though the relationships and consultations between representatives of the ruling and opposition parties are improving, they are not at the level worthy of a democratic parliament.  No doubt, improving the capacity of the members of the House will demand concerted efforts, in the future.

The extensive activities geared towards improving the judicial and administrative institutions of the country, in the last three years, did show some encouraging results.  Previous legal provisions, especially those in the criminal code, have been revised so as to make them consistent with the Constitution, while some other basic laws are being addressed in the same manner.  The plan to train judges and prosecutors in special institutions has been implemented and is now at the final stage.  This program has had the benefit of foreign expertise involvement and was applied in a way that would serve future training schemes in addition to making a contribution in upgrading the skills of those who participate in it.  Preparations to improve or reform the legal courses at the universities have been finalized and will be ready in the coming semester.  Improvements have also been realized in the efficiency of the legal system to finalize all cases in the pipeline, as swiftly as possible.

Though such important achievements were grasped, there are challenges in this sector that have become bottlenecks that hamper the process of democratizaion.  Shortage in appropriately trained human resource being the main bottleneck is not going to be solved any time soon, given the present sluggish training process.  This problem has been compounded by the fact that the reform was applied to some limited strata of the legal structure and did not include the whole court system along with prosecutors a well as the police, in a coordinated manner.  It is also a fact that some judges, at various levels, did engage in machinations of deliberately slowing down services and were not up to the ethical standard expected of them.  These challenges, therefore, slowed down the legal system's effective modernization and accountability.

Basing our work on the victories achieved and experiences gained in the last several years, we shall strengthen and improve the quality of the three branches of government, continuously, to achieve real transformation in the following years.  In order to be successful in this endeavour we need to focus on the following issues.

1.  The Executive

The reform that focuses on the executive to improve its quality and performance should be based on our capacity building strategy to implement the Civil Service Reform Program, even more vigorously.  We should, therefore, in this regard organize the forces of change at the federal level, properly, and follow their work on a daily basis to check their performance against the plan, focusing on those sectors that have a decisive role in our country's economic development.  To do this effectively, we need to design a system to improve the civil service with new, trained human resource and do away with the old, backward and laid back culture regarding labour.  In the process we should reward those who work diligently and ethically and hold accountable these who fail to perform their duties.   Through this process we must create a civil service that has the capacity and attitude worthy of the policies of an elected government.  We will try this approach in selected institutions.  Understanding that these issues are extremely important for our economic development and democratisation, we should implement these policies and strategies with enhanced efficiency and commitment.

At the federal level the reform should continue unabated.  But, the capacity building and Civil Service Reform Programs must access all levels of government including the kebele (local councils) and woreda (district) leadership after undergoing certain improvements to fit each level.  This must be done because of the importance of the woreda (district) and kebele (local councils) administrations to rural development.  Due to this fact special focus should be rendered to their running and total transformation.

 2. Regarding the Legislature

With regard to the legislature of the country, future activities should focus or providing support and follow up to those institutions that are accountable to the House of Peoples' Representatives such as the National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE), the Audit and Human Rights Commissions etc. with the view of strengthening them to offer better services, on the one hand, and implementing fully the Rules of Procedure and Code of Conduct of the House, on the other.  This will enable the deputies to acquire appropriate capacity and will also create a condition in which the relationship between members of the ruling and the opposition parties becomes civilized and democratic.  Through these processes, this institution will play the pivotal role that is expected of it in Ethiopia's democratisation.

All parliaments or councils from the regional on to the kebele level should be offered the opportunity to learn from the federal experience to acquire better capacity in performing their duties.  For this reason, it is essential to revisit the procedural and organizational content, pattern and style of work of the regional parliaments and reform them to effect better results in their follow up and oversighting work.  In order to strengthen the participation of the public the number of representatives in the woreda (district) parliaments must be greatly increased to enable them to engage in their work in an organized and effective manner.  These parliaments or councils must adopt their budgets and declare them in an open and transparent fashion and strictly control the executive.  All parliaments, at all levels, therefore, should see to it that they promulgate laws efficiently, control the executive effectively, ensure popular participation, provide adequate space for members of the opposition to express themselves, and enable the elected party to execute its duties in managing the business of governing.  By doing so, all parliaments and councils will play the appropriate role expected of them in democratisation.  It is towards this end that we should work with diligence and great commitment.

3. Administration of Justice

In order to strengthen and render more effective the administration of justice, the reforms should continue in all courts of law, at all levels.  Special emphasis should be given to establish accountability by including the work of the prosecutors and the police force, effecting a condition in which the administration of justice is modern, accountable and applied in a uniform manner, everywhere.  Along with these reforms, we should engage in extensive training of legal professionals and relieve unethical judges of their duties and thus, overcome the challenges in the sector.  We should also, as quickly as possible, revise old laws to make them compatible with the Constitution.

Though reforming the government institutions that we just mentioned is decisive, we should be aware that they are not the only ones that should be involved in the business of democratic administration.  In fact, in the establishment of a multi-party democracy special considerations are made with regards to political parties, professional and mass (popular) associations, non governmental organizations (NGOs) and the media.  For this reason, our efforts at establishing the democratic order must also focus on all of these institutions.

 Political parties and organizations are indispensable in representing the voices and aspirations of various sectors of society in a multi-party democratic order which can only be created and thrive in a condition where, first and foremost, all parties respect the law and abide by the Constitution.  Beyond respecting the laws of the land all parties must also be ready to ensure that these laws are abided by and that all political parties promote their goals peacefully and in a strictly legal manner. In other words, a stable and strong multi-party democratic order can be in place only when the supremacy of the law is established and when all parties are committed to respect this arrangement.  Under such a condition all parties would respect the differences of outlook among themselves and settle issues through dialogue and negotiations, in a civilized manner.  It is extremely important for all parties to work together on the matters where an agreement has been reached there by promoting the culture of cooperation.  The opposition parties' inalienable right to express themselves freely (to be heard) must also be strictly respected in a multi-party democratic order.  By the same token, the right of the ruling party (which