[{"bbox": [112, 77, 1145, 210], "category": "Text", "text": "At national level, the national Digital Ethiopia 2025 Strategy – implemented under the coordination of the Ministry of Innovation & Technology (MInT) and supported by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) – seeks to align digital transformation with the country’s goal to create decent and productive jobs and promote growth that could address poverty and harness the competitive advantages that new digital technologies can offer in economic growth and development."}, {"bbox": [112, 223, 1146, 462], "category": "Text", "text": "Building on this strategy, and recognising the value of well-trained human resources to realise this ambition, the Ethiopian Ministry of Science and Higher Education's launched the Digital Skills Country Action Plan 2030 for higher education and TVET institutions which provides for a long-term digital plan. Both strategic documents are aligned with Ethiopia's development plan for 2021-2030 which includes among its key aspects the need to promote the digital transformation of the country, recognising the need to expand access to Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure, promote digital literacy, and harness innovation and technology to improve service delivery and foster economic inclusion. In addition, it fits well within the scope of the continental Digital Transformation Strategy for Africa (2020-30), and global initiatives such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030."}, {"bbox": [112, 474, 1080, 501], "category": "Text", "text": "The Digital Skills Country Action Plan 2030 comprises five interconnected components to guide changes:"}, {"bbox": [150, 515, 942, 541], "category": "List-item", "text": "* development of enabling policies for the production of digitally skilled manpower;"}, {"bbox": [150, 544, 912, 570], "category": "List-item", "text": "* reform of digital skills programmes; using technology in teaching and learning;"}, {"bbox": [150, 573, 401, 598], "category": "List-item", "text": "* improved connectivity;"}, {"bbox": [150, 601, 605, 626], "category": "List-item", "text": "* capacity-building and process re-engineering;"}, {"bbox": [150, 629, 590, 654], "category": "List-item", "text": "* implication for higher education and TVET."}, {"bbox": [112, 667, 1145, 744], "category": "Text", "text": "Access to and use of digital services in Ethiopia have improved significantly in the past few years as a result of improvements in telecom and electricity infrastructure. That being said, challenges to the country's digital transformation remain:"}, {"bbox": [150, 761, 1145, 866], "category": "List-item", "text": "* Digital literacy in Ethiopia is low compared to the rest of the Eastern Africa region. The country ranks 112 out of 138 economies in terms of digital skills of the general population and lags behind peer countries like Kenya, Ghana and Rwanda. However, with 69% of the population under the age of 29, there is huge potential to transform digital literacy;"}, {"bbox": [150, 868, 1145, 1025], "category": "List-item", "text": "* In terms of digital connectivity, Ethiopia's internet penetration rate remains rather modest at around 20% in 2022 despite significant increases over the past decade. In terms of mobile subscriptions, the country stands at around 54%³. Despite recent efforts to extend the electricity grid to rural areas, coverage of electricity infrastructures in rural areas remains low. 44% of the population have access to electricity with huge differences between urban (96%) and rural areas (31%). This has hampered the expansion of digital solutions to rural areas;"}, {"bbox": [150, 1029, 1145, 1187], "category": "List-item", "text": "* Regarding digital governance, the necessary regulatory framework remains meagre, hampering (foreign) investments and digital entrepreneurship. In addition, despite increased attention to data protection and cybersecurity, concrete legislation still needs to materialise. Ethiopia could build on from previous exchange with EU services on data protection topics. Ethiopia can also turn to the EU services to consider further idea and experience exchange on the whole range of digital transformation issues, as defined by the Digital Decade instrument at EU level."}, {"bbox": [112, 1200, 1145, 1333], "category": "Text", "text": "Providing Ethiopia's labour force, and in particular its youth, with market-relevant digital skills and an increased understanding of (digital) entrepreneurship can ensure a broader participation in and ownership of Ethiopia's digital economy. As explained above, the current initiative is complementary to other EU-led actions regarding support to SME sector: therefore specific attention should be paid to SME/Start-ups' related skills need to ensure sufficient support to job creation in digital SME/Start-ups."}, {"bbox": [112, 1346, 242, 1371], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## TVET system"}, {"bbox": [112, 1384, 1145, 1596], "category": "Text", "text": "Literacy rate among adults have been low and has declined further. Literacy among youth (aged 15-29) was 68% in 2019, and is higher than the adult population literacy which is 54%. The learning outcomes are declining and for the last two years only 3.2% of 12 grade students passed the final exams. In 2021, the Ministry of Labour and Skills (MoLS) took over the TVET sector from Ministry of Science and Higher Education to be able to connect more closely TVET with the labour market. Government spends around 7% of the education budget on TVET. The public unit costs is the second highest in TVET (EUR 370 per student) after the higher education, which is more than a double the per-student cost of all the other education level combined. TVET unit costs also vary greatly across the regions (from EUR 370 to EUR 800)."}, {"bbox": [100, 1642, 515, 1668], "category": "Footnote", "text": "³ Digital Agriculture Profile Ethiopia, April 2022."}, {"bbox": [1051, 1667, 1158, 1691], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 6 of 28"}]