Not sure how your links support your argument. Literacy rate data is from 1994 onwards, steadily up except one hiccup (by the way I can’t imagine how literacy rate could drop 6% in a year; short of mass extinction of a literate group it must be a change of methodology); life expectancy growth accelerated from ~2000 and is slowing down a bit again; hunger data is from 2000 onwards, same for HDI which you already removed.

So, how is GDP per capita, an important metric, “a bit of a exception” among two other random stats (one of which even accelerated)?

Meanwhile, annual GDP growth rate does seem a lot more steady since 2004: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG?locat...

> Literacy rate data is from 1994 onwards, steadily up

Supporting the argument, since progress keeps following the trend.

> life expectancy growth accelerated from ~2000 and is slowing down a bit again

Slight waviness superimposed on the overall trend.

> how is GDP per capita, an important metric, “a bit of a exception”

GDP per capita had a trend reversal in 2000, unlike the other metrics.

> annual GDP growth rate does seem a lot more steady since 2004

Most likely a change in methodology that gives less noisy estimates.

> GDP per capita had a trend reversal in 2000, unlike the other metrics

Two other less important and less immediate metrics. The “exception” easily outweigh them both.

I spent some time browsing the World Bank's data portal and found another metric that shows similar exceptional growth: number of pupils in primary education https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRM.ENRL?locations=E...

That one takes off in 1993, about a decade before GDP exploded. Maybe the secret to Ethiopia's growth is just that the population became educated enough to do something useful with the money invested by foreign entities?

Certainly could be.