Posts filed under ‘People’
World Bank told to investigate links to Ethiopia ‘villagisation’ project
An Anuak village in southern Ethiopia
By William Lloyd George guardian.co.uk
An independent panel has called for an investigation into a World Bank-funded project in Ethiopia following accusations from refugees that the bank is funding a programme that forced people off their land.
In a report, seen by the Guardian, the inspection panel – the World Bank’s independent accountability mechanism – calls for an investigation into complaints made by refugees from the Anuak indigenous group from Gambella, eastern Ethiopia, in relation to the bank’s policies and procedures.
The refugees claim the Protection of Basic Services (PBS) programme funded by the bank and the UK Department for International Development (DfID), is contributing directly to the Ethiopian government’s “villagisation” programme, introduced in 2010. The programme seeks to move people to new villages, but residents say this is done with little consultation or compensation, and that these sites lack adequate facilities.
In a letter sent to the panel in September, the refugees say some people have been forcibly relocated from their land, which is now being leased to foreign investors.
“These mass evictions have been carried out under the pretext of providing better services and improving the livelihoods of the communities,” says the letter. “However, once they moved to the new sites, they found not only infertile land, but also no schools, clinics, wells or other basic services.”
It says the government forced them to abandon their crops just before harvest, and they were not given any food assistance during the move. “Those farmers who refused to implement the programme … have been targeted with arrest, beating, torture and killing,” the letter says.
The refugees say they “have all been severely harmed by the World Bank-financed [project], which is contributing directly to the Ethiopian government’s villagisation programme in Gambella region”.
The letter says Ethiopian government workers, whose salaries are paid for through the PBS programme, have been forced to implement villagisation.
DfID has been criticised for failing to address abuse allegations in the South Omo region of Ethiopia, where residents told DfID and USAid officials of their experiences.
DfID is also embroiled in a legal action over its links to the villagisation programme. An Ethiopian farmer claims he was forcibly evicted from his farm. His lawyers, Leigh Day & Co, say DfID money is linked to these abuses through PBS funding in Gambella. DfID has said it is responding to the legal concerns and reviewing the allegations of rights abuses in Ethiopia.
In its report, the panel says that although the World Bank management denies links between villagisation and the PBS programme, the two are attempting to achieve the same things. “[Villagisation] is a programme that aims at fundamentally restructuring settlement patterns, service infrastructure and livelihoods, including farming systems, in the Gambella region, and as such constitutes a significant context in which PBS operates. In this sense from a development perspective, the two programmes depend on each other, and may mutually influence the results of the other,” says the panel report.
The panel says there are “conflicting assertions and differing views” on links between PBS and villagisation, the complaints by the refugees and the bank’s adherence to its policies and procedures, which could adequately be addressed through an investigation.
In a response to the refugees’ letter, the World Bank denied all links between the PBS and villagisation. It said it had not encountered any evidence of human rights abuses. It did admit the new sites “were not desirable”, but said the Ethiopian government had asked for assistance to improve them.
According to David Pred, founder of Inclusive Development International who helped the Anuak file their complaint, the PBS is funding the majority of government departments responsible for implementing the villagisation programme. “It provides both the means and the justification for villagisation,” said Pred.
The World Bank has been supporting the PBS programme since May 2006 with a commitment of more than $2bn. The bank’s board was scheduled to meet on Tuesday to discuss the panel’s report, but the meeting was postponed.
Human Rights Watch says many of the communities affected by villagisation have not been properly consulted about resettlement. It has interviewed several refugees from the region who reported that government officials have responded with violence and arbitrary detention when people have not agreed to relocate.
“The World Bank’s president and board need to let the inspection panel do its job and answer the critical questions that have been raised by Ethiopians affected by this project,” said Jessica Evans, senior international financial institutions advocate at Human Rights Watch. “If the World Bank doesn’t support this investigation, its Ethiopia programme will continue to be shadowed by controversy.”
The chairman of the UK parliament’s international development committee, Sir Malcolm Bruce, said the allegations against villagisation are unsubstantiated. Bruce, who visited Ethiopia last week, said the UK programme “is delivering a very good result”.
Source: Global Development
Development Improves in Ethiopia, But Just Slightly
Karsi Tadicha and her children stand next to their house in Bule Duba village, on the outskirts of Moyale, Ethiopia, June 2009.
By Martha van der Wolf
ADDIS ABABA — The United Nations Development Program has released its 2013 Human Development Index. Despite recent economic growth, Ethiopia is still near the bottom of the index.
Ethiopia ranks 173 out of 187 countries in the Human Development Index 2013, unveiled by the United Nations Development Program, UNDP, on Friday.
The Index is part of the Human Development Report that is presented annually and measures life expectancy, income and education in countries around the world.
Since 2000, Ethiopia has registered greater gains than all but two other countries in the world – Afghanistan and Sierra Leone. But it still ranks close to the bottom of the Index.
However, Samuel Bwalya, an economic advisor for UNDP, says that not only the ranking is important.
“I think what matters in the index is how you’re moving, your own human development progress within the country, so you’re moving from 0.275 to 0.378, that movement is what matters,” said Bwalya. “It means that your country is making progress in human development. Now the ranking depends on how other countries are also faring.”
This year’s Human Development Report focuses on the major gains made since 2000 in most countries in the global South.
UNDP believes sub-Saharan Africa can achieve higher levels of human development if it deepens its engagement with other regions of the South.
But those countries must overcome many challenges, such as low life expectancy, high levels of inequality and the growing threat for environmental disasters that could halt or reverse the recent gains in human development.
Bwalya says that government policies are central to human development in Ethiopia:
“The most important is to continuously commit to two policy arenas: the economic program in the country is robust and the government should have continuous commitment to development,” he explained. “The second is that it should continue the social protection program that has been so important in reducing poverty.”
While the Human Development Report and Index celebrate improvements across the developing world, a hard fact remains – 24 out of the 25 lowest ranked countries are on the African continent.
Source VOA
A New Day Beckons After Zenawi
By Graham Peebles
Redress, Al-Jazeerah, CCUN, September 8, 2012
Graham Peebles argues that the death of Ethiopia’s dictatorial prime minister, Meles Zenawi, provides a golden opportunity for the country to embark on the long delayed journey to reunite its fragmented communities, restore human dignity and establish democracy and human rights.
The death of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, announced on 22 August after his mysterious two-month disappearance, presents a tremendous opportunity to Ethiopia. Let a new day dawn for the people, one filled with hope and fundamental change, where human rights and justice are respected, where freedom is encouraged and cultivated in all areas and where fear is banished to the past.
Meles rose to power as a revolutionary to overthrow a dictatorship. Ironically he too fell under the spell of power, and the freedom fighter became the dictator, the greatest obstacle to freedom and liberty. He had been in power since 1991, when the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) led a coalition of armed opposition groups in overturning the rule of Mengistu Haile Mariam.
Control and repression
Notwithstanding the repeated accolades and platitudes expressed by heads of state upon his passing, let us be clear: Prime Minister Meles Zenawi presided over an undemocratic regime that repressed the people, tolerated no political dissent and, as Human Rights Watch states in its report, “One Hundred Ways of Putting on Pressure”, “since the controversial 2005 elections, Ethiopia has seen a sharp deterioration in civil and political rights, with mounting restrictions on freedom of expression, association and assembly”.
In fact, under Meles’s leadership the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) government has trampled on the human rights of the Ethiopian people, centralized power, falsely imprisoned in large numbers members of opposition parties and journalists, and responded with brutal force to demonstrations after the 2005 unfair elections, when the security forces murdered over 200 innocent people on the streets of Addis Ababa. Not to mention the killing of hundreds of people in Gambella, the persecution of the people of Oromia, along with human rights violations in Afar and the Ogaden.
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The media are party/state controlled, as is the sole telecommunications company and the judiciary, all of which is contrary to federal law enshrined in the constitution. In addition, as Rashid Abdi of Kenya’s Daily Nation says, Meles “orchestrated a discreet purge of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front … and the administration, demoting, sidelining or reassigning key potential rivals and opponents”. And, as the Inter Press Service (IPS) succinctly put it, he “ruled with an increasingly authoritarian fist for more than two decades”. Let us hope such times will now be consigned to the murky past.
Unity – the way forward
If responded to with intelligence and love, patience and tolerance, the political space created by Meles’s departure could be a beginning in which firm and lasting steps towards an open, just and free civil society may be taken, broad ethnic participation encouraged and divisions set aside. It could signal the start of a peaceful social revolution in which the perennial values of democracy are fostered, enabling the people to step out from the repressive shadow of the late prime minister and his EPRDF dictatorship and unite as one people, diverse yet unified, synthesizing the many and enriching the country. Such is the opportunity.
The keynote for the time ahead in Ethiopia should be unity, unity in diversity. There are many ethnic and tribal groups in Ethiopia, some 77 according to the US State Department, “with their own distinct language. Some of these have as few as 10,000 members”. The people of Oromo make up the single largest group and, along with Amhara and Tigreans, account for around 70 per cent of the country’s 85 million population. A further division exists along religious lines, with roughly 50 per cent Orthodox Christian – living mainly in the highlands – and 50 per cent Muslim, inhabiting the lowland regions.
Historically, these two groups and government have co-existed peacefully. However as the International Crisis Group (ICG) states in its report, “Ethiopia after Meles”, “tensions are mounting between the government and the large Muslim community. Muslim committees have protested perceived interference in religious affairs”. The authorities sought to link their demonstrations to Islamic extremism and terrorism, and Meles exacerbated matters by accusing the protestors of “peddling ideologies of intolerance” – this from a man who effectively outlawed all political dissent and banned freedom of expression. Christian Orthodox priests have also protested political interference and expressed their support for their Muslim brothers.
Such religious discord needs a sensitive response, not cliché name calling. Predictably, the “T” word – terrorism – has been wheeled out by a government that has sought to impose ideological control in every area of Ethiopian society, including the church. Let such repressive practices be buried along with Meles and let the current EPRDF government learn what is perhaps the greatest lesson of responsible government: to listen to the people who they are in office to serve.
Designed to divide
Amharic is the official language and, until recently, was used in primary school instruction. It has been replaced in many areas by local languages, such as Oromifa and Tigrinya, reinforcing ethnic divisions. The highly centralized EPRDF has employed divide-and-rule tactics to weaken political opposition and fuel separation along ethnic lines, disempowering the community, and engendering competition for land, natural resources and government funds. Fragmented ethnic groups competing for resources and bickering among themselves have little time or energy to protest against government policy and make easy prey for a regime seeking total control.
Division spawns conflict and, as the ICG found, “Exclusion and disfranchisement have provided fertile ground for ethnic and religious radicalization, already evident in some lowland regions, where the ruling party exploits resources without local consent.” The massive land sales is one issue alluded to here; displacing thousand of indigenous people, forcing subsistence farmers and pastoralists off the land, destroying large areas of forest and wildlife habitat which, for a few dollars, are turned over to international corporations who cultivate crops for their home market.
Democracy is participation, and the opportunity before Ethiopia now is to create an environment in which participation is encouraged and the people have a voice, and where unity is seen as the means and the goal, one where the Oromo people, those in the Ogaden, Amhara, Tigray and the other ethnic groups are fully included and the development of community groups is facilitated.
The opposition and Diaspora
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Under the Meles regime not only have the main ethnic groups been divided and disempowered, but the diaspora opposition too has been weak and ineffective. Fractured and despondent activists and opposition members of the various bodies need to unite at this time of uncertainty and opportunity and work collectively to establish a dialogue with the EPRDF government. A national dialogue is needed in which opposition groups inside and outside the country and the people – for too long silenced – are allowed to participate and indeed be listened too. Such a move would set a new and inclusive tone and engender hope that the ruling EPRDF recognizes the mood of the country.
The diaspora’s role is crucial in any movement towards democracy in Ethiopia. Consensus among the various factions is essential and the ideas of opposition – the preoccupation of the past – which serve only to strengthen division and thus play into the hands of the EPRDF, must be left behind. Constructive and creative contributions should be encouraged, bearing in mind the underlying principle of unity to soften government resistance to change and cultivate trust. As the ICG puts it,
Opposition forces may now be able to agree on a basic platform calling for an all-inclusive transitional process leading to free and fair elections in a couple of years. Such an arrangement should include all political forces, armed and unarmed, that endorse a non-violent process to achieve an inclusive, democratically-elected regime.
The federal constitution, written by the TPLF, full as it is of articles of decency and acceptability but disregarded by the government, is vague and ambiguous regarding the process of transition and succession in the event of the prime minister’s death. According to an Al-Jazeera report, “The Ethiopian parliament has been recalled from recess to swear-in Zenawi’s successor, Hailemariam Desalegn, the deputy prime minister, who will most likely lead Ethiopia until 2015, when the current term of the ruling party comes to an end.” This is by no means certain, and Desagelen is reportedly unsure about accepting the mantle of prime minister.
A provisional cross-party government is called for, one with broad support that would initiate reforms, repeal the unjust Anti-Terrorist Proclamation and other repressive legislation, free the media, especially television and radio, and begin to build a vibrant, active civil society. Such progressive steps would establish the foundations of a strong democratic platform that could be developed up to and after the 2015 elections.
Responsible support and development
The development much championed in Ethiopia, where the partisan distribution of aid, including emergency food relief, is an open secret, is at variance with equality, justice, human rights and freedom of expression. As Al Jazeera put it, “Zenawi has been praised for bringing development and economic growth to one of Africa’s poorest nations but his critics say that came at the cost of respect for democracy and human rights”.
To put Ethiopia’s much trumpeted economic growth in perspective, let us note that the average per capita income in the country equates to just 3 US dollars a day, food staples have quadrupled in price in the last four years – largely as a consequence of the extensive land sales – and, according to Bloomberg Business, Ethiopia’s “annual inflation rate climbed to 34.7 per cent in May as food prices surged“. In addition, the gap is increasing between the majority who are poor and the small number of wealthy Ethiopians, who are primarily members of the ruling party. As IPS reports “development has yet to reach the vast majority of the country’s population. Instead, much of this wealth – and political power – has been retained by the ruling party and, particularly, by the tiny Tigrayan minority community to which Meles belonged.” These party members have followed the trend of other dictatorships and invested their accrued wealth overseas.
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Development and democracy are closely related – not some Western idea of democracy, but a living social movement of participation and inclusion, evolving out of the actions and creativity of the people themselves.
Ethiopia is the recipient of over three billion dollars a year in development aid, second only to Indonesia. The USA, Britain and the European Union, along with the World Bank, are the main donors. In exchange for what amounts to over a third of Ethiopia’s annual budget, the West has a strategically placed ally in the Horn of Africa which will act when asked to and function as a military outpost for the USA, which uses it as a base to launch drone attacks.
Those supporting development within Ethiopia share the opportunity and responsibility for change within the country. Mediation between the various ethnic groups and political parties, encouraging openness and facilitating discussion is an obvious role that could and indeed should be undertaken. International donors have a duty to the Ethiopian people to play a major part in the transition towards democracy and must insist in the observation of human rights, trampled on under Meles’s rule. As the ICG points out, Ethiopia’s principal allies, the US, UK and EU, should andeavour to play a significant role in preparing for and shaping the transition. Not only must development aid “lift people out of poverty”, it must release them from repression and fear and not be employed to strengthen such regressive conditions as it has been in Ethiopia.
Required action
In order to realize the opportunity before Ethiopia, certain basic steps showing a renewed adherence to international and federal law need to be taken immediately by the EPRDF:
- All so-called political prisoners must be released;
- The internationally condemned Anti Terrorist Proclamation repealed; and
- Freedom of the media, assembly and dissent allowed.
These are fundamental requirements in moving Ethiopia forward and establishing an atmosphere of hope that will encourage political and civil participation and safeguard against the potential radicalization of opposition groups.
International donors need to recognize their collusion in a range of human rights abuses that have taken place under Meles and ensure these demands are acted on, linking development assistance to their swift implementation. As Human Rights Watch says, “Ethiopia’s international partners should call on the government to support fundamental rights and freedoms in the country and a prompt rollback of repressive laws. Ethiopia’s government should commit to respect for human rights and core rights reforms in the coming days and weeks.”
Denied good governance for many years, the people of Ethiopia have suffered much, too much and for too long. Let the current space afforded by the passing of Meles be filled with their united voices, articulating their grievances, expressing their hopes and concerns and, with the responsible support of international friends and partners, demand fundamental change, freedom and social justice.
Source: Al-Jazeerah
Ethiopia’s PM Meles health controversy continues as future debated
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi
CAIRO: The health situation for Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi continues to remain uncertain, even as government officials say he is “improving.”
But they have thus far refrained from detailing what the PM is suffering from, leaving many in the country wonder over what comes next for the East African country.
On Monday, Amsterdam-based Ethiopian Satellite Television said the prime minister was dead, saying it based the report on information from a Brussels-based think tank, the International Crisis Group.
However, the ICG released a statement saying it has “no direct knowledge” of Meles condition and is not in a position to speculate about it.
Meles Zenawi is 57 years old and has ruled Ethiopia since taking power in a 1991 coup.
For many Ethiopians, the health situation for their leader has sparked a debate over where Ethiopia is heading and if a post-Meles country will be better.
While the Prime Minister continues to use his power to crackdown on newspapers over reports that his situation is serious, many in the country, especially the youth, are wondering what their country will look like when the hardliner has left his position atop the country.
“It will definitely be interesting to see how we all react,” said one student activist, who asked not to be named due to the security crackdown on those speaking about the PM’s health.
The activist told Bikyamasr.com that “Ethiopia will be better when we are all, Christians and Muslims work together to build a country based not on one group dominating the other, but on the idea that we can have a solid country for all Ethiopians.”
According to most reports, Zenawi is gravely ill, although little else is known on what exactly he is suffering from. Newspapers have been silenced for reporting on his health condition as censorship and tightening of the government’s power takes form.
For many, it appears to be the final wind for the PM and his government, which activists have called “ruthless.”
Writer Buri Waddesso argues that the continued show of force by the government means that even without Zenawi at the helm, the government is likely to persist.
“The fact that the regime held together, even if haphazardly, without its leader of three decades at the helm augurs well for its continuing vitality. In the same vein, the failure of the opposition to even make a stir after the window of opportunity presented by Muslim protesters speaks volumes about its state as well as its preparation,” Waddesso wrote in an article published by opride.com.
“The problem is that these observations hold only in the short-term. There are a number of dynamics at work to make the future less certain than the present.”
One of those issues that Ethiopia will have to come to terms with is the near split in demographics of Muslims and Christians. Although Christians claim a majority in the country, it is likely the two faiths are closer in numbers than official statistics show. Add in the animists in tribal areas of the country and many fear a breeding ground for sectarianism.
But both Christians and Muslims tell Bikyamasr.com that Ethiopians do not want to battle over faith.
A student group in Addis Ababa has repeatedly said they do not see a battle over Islam coming in the country.
For them, the future of Ethiopia will be determined by how the government reacts in a post-Zenawi world, if it comes.
“We, and including our Christian brothers and sisters, believe that the future of Ethiopia will not be determined by politicians who have been in power for decades, but by our voices,” the student group said. “We are not afraid to take to the streets if we have to in order to be heard.”
And for many, despite the exodus of Zenawi from the political picture, his government is likely to remain, however tedious, and the people could be faced with a situation that demands their participation in protests in order to change the status quo.
“Ethiopians are ready and we have seen from the Arab world that protests can achieve more than working within the system. It is an uncertain period that we all are watching closely,” added the students.
ETHIOPIAN athletics legend Haile Gebrselassie has failed to qualify for the London Olympics.
Race is over: Ethiopian running great Haile Gebrselassie (centre) has failed to qualify for the London Olympics. Picture: AP
Gebrselassie overnight could only finish seventh in the 10,000 metres in an event in the Dutch city of Hengelo which Ethiopia was using as a qualifier for the Olympics.
The 39-year-old two-time Olympic 10,000m champion – who had already failed to post a qualifying time for the marathon – admitted his hopes had been dashed after his disappointing performance against 12 of his compatriots.
“The Games in London, is over for me,” he said.
“I ran a good race till the last lap. I felt good but I manifestly didn’t have the speed to compete against my rivals.
“That’s life. I am not disappointed,” added Gebrselassie, whose epic defeat of Kenyan great Paul Tergat at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, his second Olympic title, is one of the great finishes of all time. Indeed for the ever cheerful Ethiopian great it is to be his last track race.
“The ‘spikes’, it is finished for me. I am 39. I have failed to qualify for the Olympics. And there is a very strong younger generation in Ethiopia now.
“I tried to qualify for my fifth Olympics. And I don’t regret trying to do so. “I simply came up against stronger rivals on Sunday.”
Tariku Bekele and Leleisa Desisa Benti finished first and second respectively – with the former posting the best time in the world this year of 27min 11.70sec – to book their tickets for London.
The third spot is being kept for Bekele’s older brother and world record holder Kenenisa, who has been struggling for several months with a calf muscle problem.
Gebrselassie said that he felt he was handing over the baton of Ethiopian track running to a golden generation.
“I am leaving the track in a calm frame of mind because there is a super generation taking over,” he said.
“I haven’t in any case run on the track since the Beijing Games (2008).
“Ethiopia will be stronger in London.
“I gave all that I had. It is why I am not sad or disappointed. I am always happy to run. These next months, I will devote solely to marathons and half marathons.
“In three years, I envisage a political career. I would like to become a member of parliament.”
Gebrselassie, a four-time world 10,000m champion, had come into the race boosted by his victory in the 10km Great Manchester Run in northwest England last week in 27min 39secs.
SOURCE AP
Taming Hunger in Ethiopia: The Role of Population Dynamics
Ethiopia has been deemed a population-climate “hotspot” – a place where rapid growth and a changing climate pose grave threats to food security and human well-being.
By Laurie Mazur for the Wilson Center
Certainly, the landlocked East African nation faces outsized challenges. One in ten Ethiopians is chronically food insecure, and nearly one in five go hungry in drought years. With almost half its people under the age of 15 and an average fertility rate of nearly five children per woman, Ethiopia’s population is the fifth fastest-growing in the world.
Given these challenges, does continued rapid population growth consign impoverished Ethiopians to chronic hunger? Some, in the spirit of Thomas Robert Malthus, would answer yes. Malthus famously argued in the 19th century that human numbers would inevitably outstrip food supply, because population grows geometrically while food supply can only increase arithmetically. Others, inspired by Ester Boserup, contend the opposite is true: population growth spurs invention that keeps supply ahead of demand.
A closer look at Ethiopia shows that neither the Malthusians nor the Boserupians quite get it right. The connections between population and food security are extraordinarily complex. Numbers matter, but so do other dynamics, such as migration and age structure. And context is paramount: the right policies are essential to encouraging – and reaping the benefits from – positive demographic trends, but those policies must be tailored to local circumstances.
Contrasts and Contradictions
Ethiopia is a land of stunning contrasts and seemingly contradictory truths.
Most Ethiopians live in brutal poverty, their per capita income among the lowest in the world. And yet, Ethiopia is one of the so-called “African lions:” its economy grew at a brisk 7.5 percent last year, more than twice the rate of emerging economies as a whole.
Ethiopia is a nation where small farmers struggle to eke out a living on tiny, degraded plots of land: in the densely populated highlands, roughly half the land is significantly eroded. Yet Ethiopia is also the target of aggressive “land grabs.” Since 2008, the government has leased or sold nearly 10 million acres of prime farmland in the less-populated lowlands to investors from China, India, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere, according to Human Rights Watch.
How do we reconcile these contrasts?
First, national averages are of limited use in a country like Ethiopia, with its diverse topography and staggering inequities. Geographically, Ethiopia’s regions are as distinct as, say, Arizona and Minnesota – and the outlook for environmental quality and food security vary accordingly. There are also huge disparities between rural and urban Ethiopians. To understand the relationship between population dynamics and food security, then, it is helpful to remember that there are many Ethiopias.
It is also helpful to set aside any preconceived notions about population and food.
Malthusians argue that population growth inevitably leads to hunger, as the resource “pie” is divided into ever smaller slices. The most obvious flaw in this theory is that technology has thus far allowed the size of the pie to increase. Another is that food and other resources are not distributed equitably; some people get much larger servings than others. The pie as a whole may be big enough for everyone, but only the slices of the poor continue to shrink.
The Malthusian narrative doesn’t fit Ethiopia, where the areas with the highest population densities are not usually the hungriest. In The Demographic Transition and Development in Africa: the Unique Case of Ethiopia, Charles Teller found that “high density can either increase vulnerability or strengthen resilience,” depending on a host of other factors, including technology, infrastructure, education, urbanization, and effective implementation of population and development policy.
On the other hand, Boserupians would contend that population growth can actually diminish hunger, by forcing societies to modernize agriculture and improve productivity. But realities on the ground in Ethiopia don’t fit that narrative, either.
Tewodaj Mogues of the International Food Policy Research Institute said in an email, “The [Ethiopian] government’s various attempts at increasing agricultural intensification have not been very successful, therefore continued population growth creates substantial pressure on the land, especially in Ethiopia’s northern highlands.”
Of course, agriculture is modernizing in Ethiopia, but the benefits don’t necessarily accrue to the nation’s hungry. In the western lowlands, where land grabs are underway, tens of thousands of small farmers have been removed from their land to make way for agribusiness. According to Oxfam International, Ethiopia now supports the export of fruit, vegetables, and flowers worth $220 million a year. Those exports boost the nation’s foreign exchange, but they may also undercut the food security of poor farmers and reduce production for the domestic market. One displaced farmer told Human Rights Watch, “We want you to be clear that the government brought us here…to die….They brought us no food, they gave away our land to the foreigners so we can’t even move back.”
Beyond Malthus and Boserup
If the Malthusian and Boserupian explanations fall short, what are the root causes of hunger in Ethiopia, and how might they be addressed?
Mogues cited several “deep determinants” of hunger, including geography (for example, rugged mountainous terrain and a changing climate) and institutions (a broad term that includes the rule of law, governance, policies, investments and property rights). Many small farmers in Ethiopia lack secure land tenure, for example, which removes incentives to improve the land and discourages them from seeking employment off the farm, lest their land be taken away. The government’s ineffective aid to small farmers and concessions to agribusiness also fall under this heading.
Population dynamics matter too, especially at the household level. Mogues observed that high fertility rates affect food security in several ways:
In Ethiopia, women in rural areas play a key role in agricultural production, food purchases, non-production activities in the agriculture value chain, and in home preparation of food. Thus, high fertility rates mean that women are less able to devote time to these agricultural activities as they need to allocate more time and resources to child rearing, which has food security implications above and beyond the fact that produced or purchased food will have to be shared with household members in a larger household.
Age structures are also important. Nearly half of the Ethiopian people are “dependents” – under age 14 or over 65. This high dependency ratio diminishes productivity in agriculture and other sectors, because a lower share of the population is in the workforce.
Finally, migration – or the lack of it – plays a role. Government policies aimed at keeping ethnic groups in their home regions suppresses migration to cities and more productive rural lands. Freer migration could reduce pressure on overworked land, allow more appropriate division of labor, and energize development.
A Comprehensive Approach
How can the government and donors address the myriad causes of hunger in Ethiopia? With a “comprehensive approach to food security that includes attention to the full spectrum of population dynamics and geographic distribution,” said Charles Teller in an interview.
That means a robust safety net for the most vulnerable, integrated with ongoing programs to bolster nutrition and health. It means flexible migration policies and stronger rural-urban linkages, coupled with better planned urban development.
It also means agricultural policies that help small farmers improve their productivity, rather than displacing them. According to Ethiopian development expert Fantu Cheru, those policies can include foreign direct investment, as long as the government negotiates terms of engagement that are transparent and fair. For example, the proceeds from cash crops should be invested in improving production of staple foods through extension services, infrastructure, and better equipment for poor farmers.
And it means policies that support – and capture the benefits from – the transition to lower fertility. That demographic transition could improve food security in Ethiopia by freeing up women’s time and lowering the dependency ratio. But the transition is not automatic; it requires supportive policies, such as girls’ education, employment opportunities for women, and enforcement of laws against child marriage.
Importantly, it requires access to family planning and reproductive health services. Today, just 27 percent of married Ethiopian women use modern contraception. One in four have an “unmet need” for family planning – they wish to prevent or delay pregnancy but are not using an effective method of contraception. Addressing that unmet need would have important benefits for women and their families, and it could also help fight chronic hunger.
In this land of contrasts and contradictions, the causes of food insecurity are numerous and complex. Neither Malthus nor Boserup could fully capture that complexity, but both perspectives offer insight on the limitations of current policy – and help point the way to a less hungry future.
Laurie Mazur is a consultant on population and the environment for the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program and director of the Population Justice Project.
Sources: CIA, Central Statistical Agency (Ethiopia), Food and Agriculture Organization, Human Rights Watch, Journal of Peasant Studies, MEASURE DHS, Overseas Development Institute, Population Action International, Population Reference Bureau, Rodrik (2002), Teller (2011), The Economist, The Global Mechanism, UN Population Division, U.S. Geological Survey, United Press International, World Bank.
Photo Credit: “Early morning in Lalibela,” courtesy of flickr user Dietmar Temps
PEN honors jailed Ethiopian journalist
By PETER JAMES SPIELMANN
An imprisoned Ethiopian journalist and blogger who could face the death penalty for advocating peaceful protests in his Horn of Africa homeland was honored Tuesday with PEN America’s “Freedom to Write” award.
Eskinder Nega was arrested in 2011 under Ethiopia’s sweeping anti-terrorism laws, which PEN says criminalize any reporting deemed to “encourage” or “provide moral support” to groups and causes the government deems “terrorists.”
Nega is still in jail after a judge in Addis Ababa found him guilty Jan. 23 on terror charges. He could face the death penalty at sentencing.
Ethiopia has arrested close to 200 people, among them journalists and opposition politicians and members, under last year’s anti-terrorism proclamation.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, more journalists have fled Ethiopia than any other country in the world over the past decade.
Nega was honored at PEN/America’s annual gala dinner Tuesday at the American Museum of Natural History, with some 500 PEN members and supporters in attendance.
PEN/America granted him the year’s PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award.
Forty-six women and men have received the award since 1987; 33 of the 37 honorees who were in prison at the time they were honored were subsequently released.
Accepting the award was his wife, Serkalem Fasil, a free expression advocate in her own right, who served 17 months in prison for treason starting in 2005 and gave birth to their child behind bars. She won the International Women’s Media Foundation Courage in Journalism Award in 2007.
“The Ethiopian writer Eskinder Nega is that bravest and most admirable of writers, one who picked up his pen to write things that he knew would surely put him at grave risk,” said Peter Godwin, president of PEN American Center. “Yet he did so nonetheless. And indeed he fell victim to exactly the measures he was highlighting, Ethiopia’s draconian `anti terrorism’ laws that criminalize critical commentary.”
Nega has been publishing articles critical of the government since 1993, when he opened his first newspaper, Ethiopis, which was soon shut down by authorities.
He was the general manager of Serkalem Publishing House, which published the newspapers Asqual, Satenaw, and Menelik, all of which are now banned in Ethiopia.
Nega has also been a columnist for the monthly magazine Change and the U.S.-based news forum EthioMedia, which are also banned in Ethiopia.
He has been detained at least seven times under Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, including in 2005, when he and his wife Serkalem were imprisoned for 17 months on treason charges for their critical reporting on the government’s violent crackdown of protests following disputed elections, and briefly in February 2011 for “attempts to incite Egyptian and Tunisian-like protests in Ethiopia” after he published articles on the Arab uprisings.
Nega has been denied a license to practice journalism since 2005, yet he has continued to publish columns critical of the government’s human rights record and calling for an end to political repression and corruption.
Nega was again arrested Sept. 14, 2011, after he published a column questioning the government’s claim that a number of journalists it had detained were suspected terrorists, and for criticizing the arrest of well-known Ethiopian actor and government critic Debebe Eshetu on terror charges earlier that week.
Shortly after his arrest, Nega was charged with affiliation with the banned political party Ginbot 7, which the Ethiopian government considers a terrorist organization. On Nov. 10, Nega was charged and further accused of plotting with and receiving weapons and explosives from neighboring Eritrea to carry out terrorist attacks in Ethiopia. State television portrayed Nega and other political prisoners as “spies for foreign forces.”
He is being held in Maekelawi Prison in Addis Ababa, where detainees are reportedly often tortured.
Source: Bloomberg Businessweek
Ethiopia mourns death of Maitre Artiste world laureate – Afewerk Tekle
Afewerk Tekle, 80, died from severe stomach ulcer complications after receiving treatment at a private hospital in Addis Ababa.
The artist’s death has received wide media coverage in the Horn of Africa country, with a national committee being set up to arrange funeral arrangements.
Tekle was born on October 22, 1932 in the historic city of Ankober in Shoa Province.
Sent to England in 1947 to become a mining engineer, Afewerk’s artistic talent was soon discovered and he was accepted at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London and later went to the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of London, the famous “Slade”.
While studying in England he made several artistic pilgrimages to continental Europe.
On the completion of his studies he returned to Addis Ababa where he held a one-man exhibition at the Municipality Hall in 1954. It was the first significant art exhibition of post-war Ethiopia.
Soon after his exhibition he left Ethiopia for a study tour in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and Greece. In addition to these countries, he carried out various studies in England.
Also read: Ethiopia’s conundrum – A statue for Nkrumah or Selassie?
He also made a special study of the Ethiopian illustrated manuscripts in the British Library, the Bibliothẻque Nationale in Paris and the Vatican Library, thereby gaining a deeper knowledge of his own artistic heritage.
After two years of this extensive study, Afewerk, by now a well–equipped artist, returned with full confidence to his native land, to tackle the task ahead.
On his arrival in Ethiopia, Afewerk opened his studio in the National Library of Ethiopia.
Soon afterwards he was given his first challenging commission by the Ethiopian government: The decoration of St. George’s Cathedral, one of the capital’s two most important religious edifices, where he worked on murals and mosaics for three and a half years.
He also designed his own house, studio and gallery, known as “Villa Alpha”. He was architecturally inspired by his own cultural heritage, especially by ancient Aksum, the mediaeval castles of Gondar and the old walled city of Harrar.
His paintings included titles such as “Backbones of African Civilisation”, “African Movement”, “African Atmosphere” and “African Unity”, and for Expo 67 in Montreal, Canada, “Africa’s Heritage” which are now in the permanent collection of the National Museum of Ethiopia.
After many studies he produced over 10 designs for an African Unity emblem and flag.
Source: The Africa Report
UN Urges Lebanon to investigate Ethiopian Maid’s Death-A Call for human rights
Lebanon human right abuse
The UN special rapporteur on slavery has urged the Lebanese government to carry out a full investigation into the death of an Ethiopian domestic worker.
Alem Dechasa, 33, killed herself on 14 March, a few days after she was filmed being beaten by men and dragged into a car in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
Gulnara Shahinian said the “cruel” images reminded her of the many migrant workers she met in Lebanon last year.
She urged the country to uncover the truth about such rights violations.
Last month, eight civil society groups called on the Lebanese authorities to reform restrictive visa regulations and adopt a labour law on domestic work to address high levels of abuse and deaths among migrant workers.
‘End impunity’
On 8 March, the Lebanese television network LBCI released a video filmed on 24 February by an anonymous bystander in which a man physically abuses Ms Alem outside the Ethiopian consulate in Beirut.
As she tries to resist, he and another man drag her into a car.
LBCI later identified the man beating her as the brother of the head of the recruiting agency that brought her to Lebanon.
He alleged that his brother’s agency had been trying to return her to Ethiopia because she had mental health problems.
Police later found Ms Alem and took her to a detention centre.
Following a request by the Caritas Lebanon Migrant Center, they transferred her to the Deir al-Saleeb psychiatric hospital two days later, but did not arrest those alleged to have carried out the beatings.
Ms Dechasa killed herself at the hospital on the morning of 14 March.
After the beating video was circulated, the labour and justice ministries began investigations, but their outcomes have not been made public.
On Tuesday, Ms Shahinian issued a statement strongly urging the Lebanese authorities to investigate the circumstances leading to Ms Alem’s death and make public their findings.
“There are a number of reports circulating about the human rights violations Alem Dechasa experienced as a migrant domestic worker in Lebanon and the facts surrounding her death,” she said.
“States are under an obligation to ensure the realisation of the right to truth about violations in order to end impunity and promote and protect human rights and provide redress to victims and their families.”
Ethiopians give lacklustre welcome to Kwame Nkrumah statue: This is an insult for the founding fathers of OAU
The arrival of Ghanaian great Kwame Nkrumah in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa 40 years after his death has been met with notable local resistance.
This is an insult for the founding fathers of OAU
Ethiopians are signing a petition demanding that a statue of the pan-Africanist leader which was recently unveiled outside the new African Union headquarters be joined by one of the late emperor Haile Selassie or removed.
As well as the signatures, a group of Ethiopian elders, opposition politicians and scholars have written to the AU Commission voicing their disappointment at its decision to “ignore” the deposed emperor.
The golden statue of Nkrumah was erected to commemorate his founding role in the Organisation of African Unity, the AU’s predecessor.
The late Ethiopian monarch’s supporters have argued that their man, who became internationally famous for his resistance against the Italians under Mussolini, was a longer-standing supporter of African liberation than Ghana’s founding president.
“It is Haile Selassie who is described by African leaders as the father of Africa not Nkrumah,” said Yacob Hailemariam, an opposition politician who has spoken out against the choice of the Ghanaian.
The campaign has, however, infuriated Ethiopia’s current leader Meles Zenawi who said it was “crass” to question Nkrumah’s choice as an African symbol and has repeatedly denounced Selassie, who died in 1975, as a “feudal dictator”.
“It is only Nkrumah who is remembered whenever we talk about pan Africanism,” Mr Meles told local media. “It is a shame not to accept his role.”
The AU confirmed that it had received a letter signed by prominent Ethiopians, many of them living abroad, but declined to comment. The protest letter says that Selassie who ruled Ethiopia for 40 years had “the legal, moral, historical and diplomatic legitimacy to have his statue erected next to Kwame Nkrumah.”
The inauguration of the new headquarters in Addis Ababa was meant to underline Ethiopia and Africa’s burgeoning friendship with China which funded the $200m construction. However, the summit served to remind the outside world of the AU’s reliance on foreign funding and on its propensity for squabbling as Cameroon’s Jean Ping and South Africa’s Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma fought each other to a draw over the leadership of the 54-nation club.
The revelation that the AU relies for two-thirds of its funding on Western donors and that many members had both failed to pay their dues or fulfil their aid promises made during last year’s Horn of Africa famine, dampened the occasion. The empty coffers reminded many observers that the main patron of pan-Africanism in recent years was the deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi who was killed last year.
The statue row has enabled Ethiopia’s downtrodden opposition to rally support and opposition blogs have started to refer to the AU’s new 100 metre tall marble home as the “sarcophagus of Africa”.
Under Prime Minister Meles, who backtracked on his promise to leave office and ran again at the last election, the country has become increasingly authoritarian, imprisoning opposition leaders, curtailing non-governmental organisations and harassing political opponents.
The two competing African champions might have found the whole row quite strange as they were close supporters of each other’s causes before the emperor was deposed by the Derg coup leaders in 1974.
No observer of present day Ethiopia can fail to be inspired by the high ideal, vigilance, dedication, and far-sightedness of Emperor Haile Selassie I; architect and builder of the nation.
