Community action/Ethiopia

Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE), is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the southeast, Kenya to the south, South Sudan to the west, and Sudan to the northwest. Ethiopia covers a land area of 1,104,300 km² (426,400 sq mi). As of 2026, it has around 138 million inhabitants, making it the 10th-most populous country in the world and 2nd most populous country in Africa. The national capital and largest city, Addis Ababa, lies several kilometres west of the East African Rift that splits the country into the African and Somali tectonic plates.

As in many neighboring countries, most environmental issues in Ethiopia relate to deforestation and endangered species.

Ethiopia had a 2018 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 7.16/10, ranking it 50th globally out of 172 countries.

According to the United Nations, Ethiopia loses 1.4 million hectares of forest annually, and has one of the highest deforestation rates in the world. The main causes of deforestation in Ethiopia are shifting agriculture, livestock production and fuel in drier areas.

Migration to urban areas is usually motivated by the hope of better lives. In peasant associations, daily life is a struggle to survive. About 16% of the population in Ethiopia lives on less than one dollar per day (2008). Only 65% of rural households in Ethiopia consume the World Health Organization's (WHO's) minimum standard of food per day (2,200 kcal), with 42% of children under five years old being underweight.

Most poor families (75%) share their sleeping quarters with livestock, and 40% of children sleep on the floor, where nighttime temperatures average 5 degrees Celsius in the cold season. The average family size is six or seven, living in a 30 square metre mud and thatch hut, with less than two hectares of land to cultivate.

The peasant associations face a cycle of poverty. Since the landholdings are so small, farmers cannot allow the land to lie fallow, which reduces soil fertility. This land degradation reduces the production of fodder for livestock, which causes low milk yields. Since the community burns livestock manure as fuel, rather than plowing the nutrients back into the land, the crop production is reduced. The low productivity of agriculture leads to inadequate incomes for farmers, hunger, malnutrition and disease. These unhealthy farmers have difficulty working the land and the productivity drops further.

Although conditions are drastically better in cities, all of Ethiopia suffers from poverty and poor sanitation. However, poverty in Ethiopia fell from 44% to 29.6% during 2000–2011, according to the World Bank. In the capital city of Addis Ababa, 55% of the population used to live in slums. However, a construction boom in both the private and the public sector has led to a dramatic improvement in living standards in major cities, particularly in Addis Ababa. Notably, government-built condominium housing complexes have sprung up throughout the city, benefiting close to 600,000 individuals. Sanitation is the most pressing need in the city, with most of the population lacking access to waste treatment facilities. This contributes to the spread of illness through unhealthy water.

Despite the urban living conditions, residents of Addis Ababa are more financially secure than those living in peasant associations, owing to their increased educational and economic opportunities. Unlike rural children, 69% of urban children are enrolled in primary school, and 35% are eligible to attend secondary school. Addis Ababa has its own university as well as its own secondary schools. The literacy rate in Addis Ababa is 82% as of 2008.

Many NGOs are working to solve this problem; however, most are far apart, uncoordinated, and working in isolation. The Sub-Saharan Africa NGO Consortium is attempting to coordinate efforts.