Ireland gives Ethiopia 14.4m for healthcare

IRELAND is to grant Ethiopia 14.4 million to improve its healthcare provisions following the signature of an agreement between the two nations, the official media reported on yesterday.

Priority would be given to preventing disease and strengthening basic health services in order to reduce deaths from major communicable diseases, the Ethiopian News Agency quoted the finance ministry as saying in a statement. Recurrent droughts and prolonged food shortages in recent years have exacerbated the impact of diseases, notably malaria, in the Horn of Africa nation.

Ethiopian Finance Minister Mulu Ketsela and Irish Charge D'Affaires Pauline Conway signed the agreement late on Tuesday.

Ethiopia appealed for 320 million for food and medicine yesterday to care for more than seven million people who will go hungry next year without international aid. Simon Mechale, head of the Ethiopian government's emergency agency, said another two million were at risk because of a chronic food shortage.

"The magnitude of the disaster last year was enormous," Simon told senior United Nations officials, international charities and donors in Addis Ababa.

"But despite a significant increase in food production we still face many challenges this year."

Ethiopia has a population of 70m people and is one of the poorest countries in the world, with an average annual income of 85.

More than 56 million Ethiopians eke out a hand-to-mouth existence on tiny plots of land. Poor roads and a host of legal and political problems discourage good farming practices so even the smallest disruption of the rain cycle creates a potential catastrophe.

This year, the government needs 841,000 tons of food and 70m to support subsistence farmers.