Ethiopia must work to tackle a variety of challenges, among which are the need to sustain the productivity of the natural resource base, and address emerging environmental issues of pollution and waste management, World Bank Group Country Director Carolyn Turk said.
Ethiopia's Environmental Analysis conducted by World Bank, Forest, Environment and Climate Change, Finance and Economic Cooperation ministries and Ethiopian Development Research Institute was launched here today.
Speaking during the occasion, WB Country Director Turk said Ethiopia should tackle many environmental challenges in order to maintain its strong and broad-based growth and achieve national poverty reduction targets.
The Country Director praised Ethiopia as a world-leader in sustainable land and water management, and has made significant advance in participatory forest management practices.
The programs, which she said the World Bank is happy to support, provide a solid foundation and for ensuring the long-term productivity of the country’s natural resource-base.
According to Turk, the Environmental Analysis is in line with the CGRE Strategy and GTP-2 and will enable Ethiopia to make informed decisions on regulatory issues and better incorporate environmental analysis in sectoral planning.
Forest, Environment and Climate change State Minister, Kare Cahwecha, said Ethiopia faces significant environmental and climate change related challenges that are aggravated by low adaptive capacity and climate sensitive sectors.
He noted that the Country Environmental Analysis has prioritized the near and medium-term environmental actions to secure public goods and improve performance of various sectors.
According to the Environmental Analysis lack of integration among the sectoral ministries and regional bureaus, problems of value addition in using natural resources and lack of strategy on green industry are identified as the main challenges that hamper effective actions against environmental climate change related actions. ( ENA)