Regional Reports - the European External Action Service

of 15-49 which indicates that the active age population is highly affected by the epidemic
of HIV/Aids) a high level of civic engagement is found in the town;
• According to disaster vulnerability assessment report of the Disaster Prevention and Food
Security office of DDA, more than 48,275 people in rural Dire Dawa are identified to be
chronically food insecure and another 60,000 people are acutely affected in bad
production years. A complex combination of factors has contributed to the alarming
increase of rural food shortage vulnerability;
• Socially Marginalized Groups basically include individuals or households who are street
children, street prostitutes, beggars, disabled, and those poor households, which are
potentially at risk, or are the hosts where socially marginalized groups come from.
Studies conducted in this area indicate that inability of families to meet basic needs (food,
clothing shelter) of their family members followed by loss of parents, which account for
76% and 12% respectively, are the two most important factors compelling their members
to start socially unacceptable ways of life i.e. Prostitution, beggary and “streetism”.
Delinquent behaviour, lack of employment opportunity and substance addiction were also
identified as factors contributing to the process of social marginalization;
• Informal settlement in Dire Dawa town trace back to the year 1930,s and increased at an
alarming rate from the beginning of 1950's up to the middle of 1960,s where the number
of informal settlement escalated to about 6159;
• According to a CSA report, an estimated number of 84,725 youths (15 - 29 of age) live in
Dire Dawa accounting 31.6% of the total population. It is also observed that, the lion
share of the youths (51.5%) are females which are about 43,618 in number and accounts
for 16% of the total population;
• Like other urban areas of the country, the major problem related to the youth in Dire
Dawa is basically unemployment. According to CSA report on Urban Bi-Annual
Employment Unemployment Survey, 54 percent of the total unemployed people are
youths. The other major problem of the youth, is the epidemic of HIV/AIDS;
• Tremendous progress had been made in the education sector of Dire Dawa
Administration since the new Education and Training policies of the country were put in
place in 1994. However, the existence low Gross & Net Enrolment Rate, a wide gender
gap and wide location disparity indicate the overwhelming amount of work remains to be
done to achieve Universal Primary Education (UPE) targets. It is also observed that there
is very low level of enrolment in grade one at the appropriate age (i.e. at age 7). Since the
level of enrolment in grade one is a decisive factor in achieving UPE as well as for
minimizing the gender and location gaps, attention has to be given to it in order to
maximize the apparent intake rate and to reduce the gender gap in both locations. Thus, it
needs great effort and commitment to bring the rate to a higher level so as to catch up
with the target of UPE, which presupposes that the Net intake Rate level should reach
100%;
• All the rural areas of the Administration are accessed by either all - weather or dryweather
roads. The all - weather RR50 standard road branching from the Dire Dawa -
Harar road is running east to Belewa for 43km and to the east to Lege-odagununfeta for
35km. However ,the construction of the Lege-oda 35km road was suspended after
covering a distances of about 14km. Dry-weather roads having a width of 4m have also
been constructed using the income generating schemes (IGS) in various rural parts of the
47