Emerging regions in Ethiopia: are they catching up with the rest of Ethiopia?

Abstract

This paper examines the performance of emerging regions in Ethiopia with a view of understand whether they are catching up with the rest of Ethiopia. Data showing regional performance in different indicators was collected from relevant ministries and institutions engaged in assisting the emerging regions and from the Central Statistical Agency in order to depict trends of regional development. A regression model was also estimated in order to test the existence of convergence in the Ethiopian regional inequality. The result showed that the emerging regions have improved their human development dimension in the form of education, health and water provision. On the other hand, they lag behind in infrastructural development, poverty reduction and private investment. Though regional development measured in terms of consumption per capita tends to converge in Ethiopia, the convergence is not due to the emerging regions. With this, it is suggested that there is a need to speed up the catching up process through the promotion of endogenous development, private sector attraction, poverty reduction and regional integration.

Keywords: Regional development, inequality, convergence, emerging Regions