PMFORUM Breaking News
Breaking News in the Project Management World
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Strategic Level Attention to Project Management in the New Year
Reported by Getachew Teklemariam Alemu in Addis Ababa
The last Ethiopian year (2000), the year that has brought a relatively better national consensus, hope, happiness, joy and hyperinflation together to the daily life of Ethiopians, was actually the eve of the 3rd Ethiopian Millennium.
According to the unique Ethiopian calendar (the Alexandria Coptic calendar), the year starts at 11th of September of Gregorian calendar or on the 12th of September in Gregorian leap year. The Ethiopian year is categorized into 12 months of 30 equal days, and a 13th month of 5 or 6 days. Have you ever confronted a motto" 13 months of sunshine"? It is an international motto for the tourism sector of Ethiopia.
According to wikipedia, Ethiopia has an estimated population of 78,254,090. It's total GDP accounts 62.19 billion dollars. The Gini coefficient for Ethiopia is 30, and the HDI is 0.406 making it 169th of the world countries.
Ethiopia has immense history and culture. If you have never heard anything about the 2nd most powerful empire of early times (after the Roman Empire), the Aksumite Empire, you do really have missed one big element of history. If you have never seen a country of above 85 ethnicities living harmoniously, and experiencing their culture and tradition democratically, you have missed one side of natural beauty. If you have come through a science class which teaches about human evolution, but fails to mention about the oldest ever human ancestor discovered in the Afar Region of Ethiopia, the 5.9 million years old Lucy, you got to question the competency of the teacher. If you have never heard that there is one east African country, which has never been colonized, you have left one big chunk of knowledge behind.
Though the precious history that it has, Today’s Ethiopia is one of the poorest nations of the world (with a poverty prevalence of 38.7 %(2004/05)). Education is still a privilege for an Ethiopian rural child (with primary education enrollment of 68% (2004/05)). Gender disparity prevails in every sector (for example the ratio of female to male between the age of 15 and 24, who can read and write, was o.65 (2004/05)). Mothers and children are still of the highly vulnerable members of the society for many environmental risks (child mortality was 140 per 1000 children (2004/05), while the number of mothers accessing professional delivery services is only 11%). HIV/AIDS prevalence has reached 4.4%(2004/05). Access to potable water stays at 77%(2004/05).
As can be seen from the indicators, we have many problems that need integrated development endeavors. The only way to realize the endeavors on ground is through taughtfull Project planning, implementation, and management. Hence, we have to swiftly move forward in this direction.
Poverty is our urgent agenda, thus all our resources (financial, human, technological, regulatory...etc) shall be tailored to projects, which would result in a higher impact on poverty reduction per total investment. Further, we have to focus more on maximizing the benefit of each project with regard to eradicating poverty. Both of the dimensions need strong project management knowledge base. Thus, in the New Ethiopian year, 2001, enhancing our project management competency, and its contribution to our prior agenda of reducing poverty shall be our national target.
On behalf of the managing editor of pmforum.org and pmworldtoday.net, the two popular online project management resources, David L. Pells, and all the pmforum team, I, an international correspondent of PMForum and PM World Today in Ethiopia, wish a happy and prosperous New Year to all Ethiopians.
The last Ethiopian year (2000), the year that has brought a relatively better national consensus, hope, happiness, joy and hyperinflation together to the daily life of Ethiopians, was actually the eve of the 3rd Ethiopian Millennium.
According to wikipedia, Ethiopia has an estimated population of 78,254,090. It's total GDP accounts 62.19 billion dollars. The Gini coefficient for Ethiopia is 30, and the HDI is 0.406 making it 169th of the world countries.
Ethiopia has immense history and culture. If you have never heard anything about the 2nd most powerful empire of early times (after the Roman Empire), the Aksumite Empire, you do really have missed one big element of history. If you have never seen a country of above 85 ethnicities living harmoniously, and experiencing their culture and tradition democratically, you have missed one side of natural beauty. If you have come through a science class which teaches about human evolution, but fails to mention about the oldest ever human ancestor discovered in the Afar Region of Ethiopia, the 5.9 million years old Lucy, you got to question the competency of the teacher. If you have never heard that there is one east African country, which has never been colonized, you have left one big chunk of knowledge behind.
Though the precious history that it has, Today’s Ethiopia is one of the poorest nations of the world (with a poverty prevalence of 38.7 %(2004/05)). Education is still a privilege for an Ethiopian rural child (with primary education enrollment of 68% (2004/05)). Gender disparity prevails in every sector (for example the ratio of female to male between the age of 15 and 24, who can read and write, was o.65 (2004/05)). Mothers and children are still of the highly vulnerable members of the society for many environmental risks (child mortality was 140 per 1000 children (2004/05), while the number of mothers accessing professional delivery services is only 11%). HIV/AIDS prevalence has reached 4.4%(2004/05). Access to potable water stays at 77%(2004/05).
As can be seen from the indicators, we have many problems that need integrated development endeavors. The only way to realize the endeavors on ground is through taughtfull Project planning, implementation, and management. Hence, we have to swiftly move forward in this direction.
Poverty is our urgent agenda, thus all our resources (financial, human, technological, regulatory...etc) shall be tailored to projects, which would result in a higher impact on poverty reduction per total investment. Further, we have to focus more on maximizing the benefit of each project with regard to eradicating poverty. Both of the dimensions need strong project management knowledge base. Thus, in the New Ethiopian year, 2001, enhancing our project management competency, and its contribution to our prior agenda of reducing poverty shall be our national target.
On behalf of the managing editor of pmforum.org and pmworldtoday.net, the two popular online project management resources, David L. Pells, and all the pmforum team, I, an international correspondent of PMForum and PM World Today in Ethiopia, wish a happy and prosperous New Year to all Ethiopians.
Long Live to Ethiopia, and Happy New Year!
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