In the last 6 years, the Ethiopian textile and apparel industry has grown at an average of 51% and more than 65 international textile investment projects have been licensed for foreign investors, during this period. The country has achieved an average annual export growth of 27.4% over the last decade where the manufacturing industry contributes 13% to the GDP. The industry has been growing on an annual average of 10.2% for the same period.
But The covid-19 pandemic threatens global health and sets health systems under pressure in all part of the world. In addition to the dramatic social consequences, the crisis brings major disruptions in economic systems, adversely affecting all sectors and value chains. Private companies in developing and emerging markets are particularly impacted by the social and economic fallouts of the current crisis. The challenges they have faced include securing their workers’ health, implementing new regulations, maintaining core activities and mitigating economic losses as much as possible. On the other side of the coin, many private sectors were willing to make use of their resources available in order to contribute to mitigating the health and/or economic impacts of the crisis in the country where they operate.
The project has aimed at mitigating the adverse impact of covid-19 for the 1,500 workers of the garment factories in Addis Ababa and Butajira, their families and the factories’ surrounding areas (a total of 350,000 people).
