Ethiopia

AFD focuses its work in Ethiopia on expanding access to energy, water, sanitation, and modern public transport, while strengthening the institutions that provide these essential services. With nearly half of Ethiopians still lacking access to electricity, AFD partners with Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP), a long-standing ally, through the RISED integrated project, which combines infrastructure development, institutional capacity building, and vocational training to ensure the long-term sustainability of the power network. Through peer-to-peer partnerships, AFD has become the leading bilateral partner in Ethiopia’s energy sector.

In response to rapid urbanization (with 70% of the population still living in rural areas), AFD also finances the Addis Ababa bus network and several urban development projects, including in secondary cities. In addition, it supports heritage cooperation through the restoration of iconic historical buildings, helping preserve Ethiopia’s rich cultural legacy. 

Since 2019, the Ethiopian government has been implementing a broad liberal economic reform program, further strengthened in 2024 to boost private sector growth and job creation. The AFD Group supports these reforms through budget support loans and technical assistance, focusing on state-owned enterprise performance, public–private partnerships, financial sector liberalization and supervision, tax mobilization, and public service modernization.

In co-financing with the European Union, AFD has tasked Expertise France with implementing a program to simplify the regulatory and financial framework for SMEs and startups. A targeted initiative in the menstrual hygiene product sector also aims to build a local, high-quality, and affordable value chain.

AFD has supported Ethiopian Airlines (training center, cargo terminal) and now prioritizes investments fully aligned with the Paris Agreement. In the agriculture sector, AFD collaborates with the Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI) to promote innovation, access to credit, coffee sector development, and irrigation expansion.

Since 2017, Proparco has invested €27 million in industry and tourism, contributing to Ethiopia’s sustainable and inclusive economic transformation.

The reform agenda launched by Ethiopia in 2019 included political liberalization and the strengthening of civil society. AFD supports this process through a dual approach: helping to modernize the public agency (ACSO) responsible for overseeing Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), and providing support to CSO networks active in human rights, access to justice, gender equality, and media freedom.

Since the Pretoria Agreement of 2022, which ended the conflict in Tigray, AFD has sought to contribute to national reconciliation efforts — supporting the transitional justice process, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, and initiatives aimed at the reintegration of former combatants into the agricultural sector.

AFD also promotes climate resilience, supporting family farming and agroecology in partnership with InterAide, groundwater management in Dire Dawa with BRGM, and biodiversity conservation in Maze National Park with the Hailemariam & Roman Foundation.