2015-03-10

By William Davison
(Bloomberg) — The U.K. ended support for a program funding
public services in Ethiopia partly because of the African
nation’s crackdown on journalists and opposition politicians in
the run-up to May elections, the Department for International
Development said.
The Secretary of State for International Development
Justine Greening decided to “accelerate” DfID’s withdrawal
from the multi-donor funded Promotion of Basic Services in
January after making an initial decision in May 2014 to focus
more on supporting economic development, according to a
statement made to the U.K. High Court on March 4 and e-mailed to
Bloomberg by DfID’s press office two days later.
“This was as a result of ongoing concerns related to civil
and political rights at the level of the overall partnership in
Ethiopia,” DfID told the court. “And in particular recent
trends on civil and political rights in relation to freedom of
expression and electoral competition, and continued concerns
about the accountability of the security services.”
The Horn of Africa nation will hold parliamentary elections
on May 24. Rights groups including Amnesty International and
donors such as the U.S. have criticized Ethiopia’s government
for criminalizing dissent using a 2009 anti-terrorism law.
Ethiopian officials say cases against the media and political
activists haven’t infringed on constitutionally protected civil
rights.
Ethiopian State Minister of Communications Shimeles Kemal
wasn’t available to comment when contacted on Tuesday.

Resettlement Plan

The DfID statement was an explanation to an Ethiopian
plaintiff, identified only as Mr. O, about why the organization
ended its support for PBS on Jan. 6. He has now dropped his
complaint that DfID funded an allegedly abusive resettlement
plan in the western Gambella region through PBS.
DfID planned to donate 368 million pounds ($554 million) to
Ethiopia this year, part of a 1.33 billion-pound five-year
package announced in 2010 that made it the single largest
recipient of British assistance. Aid in the past five years has
helped Ethiopia reduce child mortality by two-thirds and
introduce social welfare for 8 million of its poorest people,
DfID said.
DfID will re-direct the PBS funds into other health,
education and water programs because of the rights issues and
Ethiopia’s increasing ability to fund public services using
growing tax revenue, according to the court statement. “Those
programs involve a lesser degree of responsibility and authority
of the government of Ethiopia than the PBS,” DfID said.
The World Bank’s $4.9 billion PBS program runs from 2012 to
2016 and provides Ethiopia with grants to be spent by local
authorities on health, education, agriculture, water and roads.
After a two-year investigation, the World Bank’s Inspection
Panel said last month that there was an “operational link”
between PBS and the government’s resettlement program in some
areas of Gambella.