Challenges, Opportunities and Successes: Resilience in Ethiopia

We, as a planet, need to be resilient in the face of the known and unknown impacts of climate change. Agriculture is likely to be one of the sectors most impacted by changes to the climate, representing a major barrier to attaining global food security. In developing countries the road to resilience is unfathomable given that development itself is a considerable challenge.

This challenge is evident in Ethiopia where 83% of the population depend directly on agriculture. A paper published in August 2012, authored by Alex Evans, lays out the obstacles Ethiopia must contend with such as:

• A high dependence on aid: 7.5 million people depend on food safety nets.
• Low natural resource security: 5% of land is irrigated and water storage capacity is extremely low.
• Population growth: Currently 85 million but this is expected to grow to 119 million by 2030 and 145 million by 2050.