Water-Resilient Economic Development Planning in Ethiopia

The document argues that Ethiopia's current economic development targets, as outlined in the 10-Year Development Plan (10-YDP), may be unsustainable because they increase water stress and climate vulnerability. While climate action is increasingly integrated into economic planning, the paper finds that national planning fails to adequately account for water resource requirements and their vulnerability to climate shocks. The authors suggest that water use efficiency alone is insufficient and call for proactive, cross-sectoral, and multilevel water-sensitive governance to prevent water challenges from undermining development gains.

• Ethiopia's national planning processes do not sufficiently account for the water resources required to meet development goals or the vulnerability of those resources to climate shocks and increasing water stress, despite a trend toward integrating climate action into economic planning.
• Analysis of Ethiopia's 10-Year Development Plan (10-YDP) indicates that current economic targets will exacerbate water stress and climate vulnerability unless these issues are managed effectively, and that improving water use efficiency by itself is an inadequate solution.
• Ethiopia faces increasing water demand driven by economic development and population growth, occurring alongside highly variable rainfall and climate change-induced intensification of droughts and floods.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Water-Resilient Economic Development Planning in Ethiopia. https://www.wri.org/research/water-resilient-economic-development-planning-ethiopia

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Water-Resilient Economic Development Planning in Ethiopia. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/water-resilient-economic-development-planning-ethiopia.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Water-Resilient Economic Development Planning in Ethiopia |url=https://www.wri.org/research/water-resilient-economic-development-planning-ethiopia |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendwaterresilient, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Water-Resilient Economic Development Planning in Ethiopia}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/water-resilient-economic-development-planning-ethiopia}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }