Country or Region: Ethiopia
Sector: Strategy and Policy Analysis
Client: European Commission
Since 2018, Ethiopia has launched large reforms to transform key sectors of its economy including the telecoms sector, showing an overall opening to foreign investment and private sector participation, with the objective to become a middle-income country by 2025. The ICT sector is one of the priority sectors of reform in the Homegrown Economic Reform Agenda HGER)19 and the Ten-Year National Development Plan (2020-2030).
In June 2020, the Team Europe initiative (TEI) has been proposed in the area of the digital economy in Ethiopia. It identifies the digital transformation as one of the main areas where European Partners can have a substantive impact by joining forces and an opportunity to promote fundamental values (inclusiveness, human-centric digitalisation underpinned by a rights-based approach, the responsible use of technology) and to support the Ethiopia’s creative potential.
This project aimed to support the government of Ethiopia in its transformation process. The global objective of the project was to promote rapid economic growth through the digital transformation of Ethiopia, stimulate innovation, create jobs and speed up access to quality public and private services in order to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs.
A Response Strategy was provided, which promoted Team Europe’s values of inclusivity, gender sensitivity, and a human centric approach. The strategy set out a proposed route to digital transformation in Ethiopia, including supporting the establishment of an EU-Ethiopia Digital Partnership.