is to reduce aid dependency over time, the authorities in the country see further scaling-up of development cooperation as necessary to meet the MDGs. LXVI. Reforms are, therefore, needed to wean Ethiopia off aid.  Aid should also be channelled into productive ventures to lower the costs of doing business, increase productivity and insert goods from Ethiopia competitively into international markets.  Rapid Population Growth and Socio-economic Implications LXVII. There is growing concern among observers regarding Ethiopia’s capacity to cope with the implications of a growing population for economic growth, job creation, food security and service provision. According to projections based on the 2007 census, Ethiopia has a population of close to 80 million. It is gearing to overtake Egypt as Africa’s second most populated nation after Nigeria. The data from the 2008 report of the Population Census Commission of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia show that the population of Ethiopia was growing at a rate of 2.6 percent per annum in 2007, on average, as against 2.5 percent in 2005. While such a rate is not the highest among African countries and even though it seems to have stabilised, it should be considered relatively high when viewed in the broader context of socio-economic development efforts being made at both Federal and regional levels. Moreover, there are disparities among regions with average population growth rates of 4.1 percent, 3.0 percent and 2.9 percent in Gambella, Benishangul-Gumuz and Oromia respectively. With a growth rate of 2.6 percent per year, the country’s population looks set to double within another 27 years. As shown in Table 7.1, by 2050, there will be more than 170 million people in Ethiopia. LXVIII. Without any doubt, the above figures could represent major constraints to the commendable efforts being made by the Government. Such efforts include, among others, providing quality education to all, particularly primary education, establishing adequate number of health centres, particularly in rural areas, facilitating access to such essential facilities as water and sanitation, electricity, housing and land, and substantially reducing poverty. Land Policy in Ethiopia LXIX. Land is an emotional and complex issue in the whole of Africa. It constitutes the real source of power in imperial and contemporary Ethiopia. However, land is public property administered by the government since the 1975 radical land reform which brought to an end the exploitative type of relationship that existed between tenants and landlords. - 37 -