UNDP has produced a report celebrating the 10 year partnership agreement signed in 2004. Through this partnership agreement, the EU has provided EUR 3.3 billion to support UNDP's activities in 115 countries.

Highlights from the report - UNDP and EU in Ethiopia

 Over the last ten years, the EU and UNDP have successfully contributed to the sustainable social, economic and institutional development in Ethiopia, a country that has faced major challenges originating from heritages of past conflicts; the lack of effective democratic institutions; and an increasingly growing population still emerging from poverty.

With particular emphasis on developing capacities, the partnership has supported programmes in a range of different development areas including: recovery from conflict (mine action), democratic governance, human rights and poverty reduction.

The UNDP-EU Capacity Building for National Parliament project, which started in 2003, served to build capacity and awareness of roles and responsibilities within Parliament to support good governance. Building on these initial successes, the Democratic Institutions Programme (which the EU supported from 2010 onwards) focused on developing increasing levels of institutional capacities to ensure that parliamentarians, Ombudsman Commission, Human Rights Commission, Auditor General’s Office and other institutions were able to more effectively fulfil their mandates and responsibilities – including more formalized checks and balances – resulting in greater accountability, transparency and improved service delivery across the country. The programme has also successfully supported the promotion of human rights and access to justice in the country.

The democratic boost offered by the support of UNDP and EU has also been crucial in advancing on the MDGs, notably the reduction of extreme poverty. Focused on monitoring and evaluation, the Sustainable Development Poverty Reduction Programme has developed a grassroots approach, with the help of civil society organizations and non-state actors, in order to give more voice to the citizens and strengthen the governmental institutions dealing with extreme poverty issues in the country. The population below national poverty line in Ethiopia has decreased from 38.9 percent in 2004, to 29.6 percent in 2011 making Ethiopia one of the fastest movers in terms of human development.

The partnership also had an important impact on national policy formulation and development of capacities in the area of international trade. Within the framework of the Trade Capacity Building Programme the UNDP-EU partnership has advised and supported the Ethiopian Government’s process towards accession to the WTO.

As a legacy from the 1998-2000 war with Eritrea and after the 1977 Somali invasion, landmines heavily affected the regions of Tigray, Afar and Somali in Ethiopia. Two successive phases of UNDP-EU supported mine-action programmes have since benefited over one million people living in these regions. 17.93 million square metres of land was cleared, releasing arable land and thus contributing to increased food security. The programmes detected and destroyed 3,421 anti-personnel mines, 682 antitank mines and 25,309 pieces of un-exploded ordinance. 131,021 residents were educated on the risks of mines reducing their risk to be affected. According to the 2012 Landmine Monitor there has been a total number of 16,849 landmine/UXO victims (9,431 killed) in Ethiopia since record keeping started. The majority of the casualties occurred before the start of this project. By the end of 2011, this number had been reduced to zero.

Currently, the work of UNDP and EU in Ethiopia is anchored in supporting Ethiopia in achieving its ambitious Growth and Transformation Plan, which was approved in 2011. The support is given through the Development Assistance Group (DAG) Pooled Fund, which is administered by UNDP.

This alignment of UNDP, EU and other DAG members’ resources to national development goals has the potential to significantly support Ethiopia in achieving the goals set forth in the Growth and Transformation Plan, and to efficiently address the most pressing issues affecting Ethiopian society.
Future projects and investments will continue to focus on poverty reduction, aid effectiveness and on the strengthening democratic governance – both at local and national level.

The EU has provided EUR 17.75 million to UNDP’s programmes in Ethiopia in the last decade (2004-2013).

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