(Ecofin Agency) - The government of Ethiopia is seeking to drop the poverty rate in the country to 19% of the total population over the next ten years. The information was reported by Fitsum Assefa Adela (pictured), the Minister for Planning and Development.

In an interview with the Ethiopian News Agency, the official said that poverty reduction is one of the main priorities of Ethiopia's first-ever 10-year Perspective Development Plan, which is to be implemented from July 2020 to 2030, in line with the sustainable development goals.

“When we make efforts to achieve the goals on our national plan, we will simultaneously be achieving the Sustainable Development Goals,” Fitsum Assefa Adela said.

“The fast growth we registered during GTPs I and II (growth transformation plan, ed) has helped us cut poverty by half. As a result, we have now about 25 million, which is one-fourth of our population, under poverty. So poverty reduction will continue to be the priority in the coming planning period,” she added.

According to the minister, one of the changes to be made over the next ten years will be to not measure poverty solely by consumption as before, but by multidimensional poverty, so that “this poverty should be slashed, if not eliminated 100 percent.”