Halving hunger by 2015? : an evaluation of the Millennium Development Goals and the conflicting food security initiatives in Ethiopia's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper

Abstract

Adopted in 2000, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) offer a new way to achieve development. The Millennium Project asserts that MDGs will be best achieved within a country by tailoring their poverty reduction strategy paper (PRSP) towards the MDGs. By allowing countries to take ownership of their development strategy, it is possible for the country to achieve the goals. Using Ethiopia as a case study, this thesis evaluates the extent to which the country was able to tailor their PRSP towards hunger alleviation as well as the extent to which its PRSP replicates the previous failed attempts at top-down, structural adjustment. This thesis asserts that the Ethiopian PRSP development strategy uses a top-down trade liberalization approach and the Ethiopian government's efforts to guarantee food security in the PRSP are likely undermined by the document's concurrent emphasis upon the commercialization of agriculture and the liberalization of agricultural trade.