African Studies Commons^™

Conceptualising Famine In Ethiopia, Getnet Alemu

International Conference on African Development Archives

This paper attempts to explain the nature of recurrent famine, not just as a result of a series of adventitious effects, but more importantly as the unintended outcome of an exclusionary growth model. This adventitious effects matter a great deal, but their impact can only be understood in the light of the inherent weakness of the growth model, which impoverished the peasantry and hence generated their vulnerability to famine.

An Economic Analysis Of Fiscal Federalism In Ethiopia, Abu Girma Moges

International Conference on African Development Archives

Fiscal federalism is a process of redistribution of fiscal decision-making power in an effort to improve the performance of the public sector in resource mobilization, efficient resource allocation and in the process enabling the economy achieve fast and sustainable economic growth. This paper addresses the economic rationale, implications and concerns of pursuing fiscal federalism in a poor country and in a political environment of ethnic federalism. The main findings suggest that when fiscal decentralization is exercised with high horizontal and vertical imbalances, it fails to diversify public output in line with the preferences and priorities of local population and to …

Papers Of The Second International Conference On Development Studies In Ethiopia, Sisay Asefa

International Conference on African Development Archives

Introductory remarks of the Second International Conference on Development Studies in Ethiopia, July 11-12, 2003, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

An Alternative View To The “Africa Dummy”, Paulos Gutema

International Conference on African Development Archives

For the last four decades the pace of economic growth in African countries remained too slow or stagnant. This problem is analyzed by first developing a framework that focus on growth process of indigent economy, where deferring current consumption is hardly possible, and by relaxing the usual assumption of unfailing market condition. The analytic result suggests that the degree and direction of effects of factors of market failure make a difference in nations' level of income per capita as well as its rate of growth. On this ground, the poor economic performance observed in the region can be well attributed …

Market Incentives, Farmers’ Response And A Policy Dilemma: A Case Study On Expansion Of Chat Production As A Cash Crop In The Eastern Ethiopian Highlands.\, Tesfaye Lemma Tefera, Johann Kirsten, Sylvain Perret

International Conference on African Development Archives

This paper discusses the reasons for and effects of the dramatic expansion of chat production as a cash crop in the Hararghe Highlands of Ethiopia. Despite the Ministry of Agriculture’s deliberate attempt to marginalize and openly discourage chat production, farmers continue shifting their scarce resources to chat production. Using data generated by a rural livelihood survey from 197 randomly selected households, economic and non-economic factors contributing to the expansion of chat production are identified and its food and nutritional security impact was analyzed. The case study confirms once more again the power of market incentives in encouraging agricultural activity of …

Environment Stress And Increased Vulnerability To Impoverishment And Survival In Ethiopia: A Synthesis, Tesfaye Teklu

International Conference on African Development Archives

At the core of this short paper is explaining the persistence of environment-induced famine conditions in rural Ethiopia. To start with, there are important empirical findings that set the context. First, poverty is Ethiopia is widespread and deep (MEDaC, 1999; MFDE, 2002). Officially reported poverty head-count measure based on the 1995 nationally representative consumption survey, for example, shows that 45.5 percent of the Ethiopian population could not afford costs of privately provisioned basic needs (MEDaC, 1999). The high-order poverty estimates also point poverty is deep and unequal among the poor.

Macroeconomic Development And Private Sector Performance In Ethiopia: The 1990’S Experience, Melesse Minale

International Conference on African Development Archives

After the downfall of the military government in 1991, the transitional government of Ethiopia committed itself to implement the stabilization and structural adjustment program with the help of the IMF and the World Bank. The objective of the program was to remove cost-price distortions, improve market related incentives, promote private enterprises and exports, and liberalize the economy and to reduce the role of the public sector in the economy. The a private led competitive economy operating under a free market and prudent fiscal and monetary policy environments was optimistically expected to emerge from this. The practical experience of the last …

No. 11: Regionalizing International Migration: Lessons For Sadc, Jonathan Crush, Vincent Williams

Southern African Migration Programme

Research on unauthorised migration to South Africa has addressed a range of issues surrounding the effects of current immigration policy on migrants, and the impact migrants have on South Africa’s society and economy (DHA 1997: section 1.4.6). One finding that is particularly relevant to a discussion of regional labour migration regimes is that current South African immigration policy does not account for labour migrants who retain a social and domestic base in their countries of origin. Another is that most unauthorised migrants are temporary or contract workers who seek employment in industries—such as construction—that depend increasingly on this kind of …

No. 29: The New Brain Drain From Zimbabwe, Daniel S. Tevara, Jonathan Crush

Southern African Migration Programme

All the signs point to the existence of a growing exodus of skilled Zimbabweans from the country. Although the precise dimensions and impacts of this “brain drain” have yet to be determined, the Zimbabwean government has recently sought to stem the tide with various policy measures. The education and health sectors appear to be the hardest hit although professionals in other sectors have also been leaving in numbers.

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) has undertaken a multi-country study of the brain drain within and from the Southern African Development Community (SADC). SAMP’s primary contribution is to examine the skills …

No. 28:Changing Attitudes To Immigration And Refugee Policy In Botswana, Eugene Campbell, Johan Oucho

Southern African Migration Programme

For the last two decades, Botswana has had the reputation as a “country of immigration,” based on the large-scale import of skilled expatriates from Africa, Asia and the West. Successive census reports and immigration data, as well as previous SAMP surveys undertaken in the late 1990s, confirm the appropriateness of the designation. The SAMP surveys concentrated on three themes: (a) the attitudes and migration behaviour of skilled foreigners in the country; (b) the attitudes of Batswana towards cross-border migration to South Africa; and (c) the emigration potential of skilled Batswana. The surveys highlighted the tolerant and generally welcoming attitude prevailing …

En Attendant Le Plan Marshall : Consommation Endogène De La Littérature Camerounaise, Pierre Fandio

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Despite the numerous forms of "aid" it has always received, Africa remains the only continent on the fringe of the tremendous development that the rest of the world has been experiencing in the last two centuries. The sectorial analysis of the literary works in this paper illustrates how the implementation of the various "Marshall Plan" is meant to bring about the development of a whole continent and a country like Cameroon. This could be done by involving actors of the cultural domain in the analysis of data and formulation of solution. Such development could give a boost to profitable endogenous …

Leadership: The Missing Variable In The Economic Development Of Sub-Saharan Africa, Osei K. Bonsu

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Contemporary economic theories, modernization and dependency, have overlooked the fact that the development process depends on the interaction of social factors. Specifically, the theories have ignored the role of leadership in analyzing economic development. This dissertation seeks to incorporate the importance of leadership into the analysis of development. It argues that sub-Saharan African countries have not developed economically because leaders in the region have been less than successful in establishing a culture conducive to industrialization. African leaders have failed to establish the high moral and scientific cultures necessary to promote economic progress. In place of those cultural attributes, the leaders …

No. 10: Criminal Tendencies: Immigrants And Illegality In South Africa, Jonathan Crush, Vincent Williams

Southern African Migration Programme

South Africans believe that immigrants are largely responsible for the post-1994 crime wave in the country. In a national survey of South African citizens conducted recently by the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP), for example, respondents were asked what, if anything, they had to fear about people from neighbouring countries (McDonald 2000: 209). Almost half the population (48%) felt that migrants were a “criminal threat” (compared to 37% who thought they were a threat to jobs and the economy, and 29% who thought they were a health threat). The simplistic, and largely unsubstantiated, association of foreignness with criminality, job-stealing and …

No. 24: Spaces Of Vulnerability: Migration And Hiv/Aids In South Africa, Brian Williams, Eleanor Gouws, Mark Lurie, Jonathan Crush

Southern African Migration Programme

Seventy per cent of the 36 million people infected worldwide with HIV live in Sub-Saharan Africa and within this region the countries of Southern Africa are the worst affected. The eight countries with the highest rates of infection are in Southern Africa, followed by six countries in East Africa, and then five other countries, only one outside Africa. The reasons why the highest rates of infection in the world occur in Southern Africa are unclear. Although the countries of the region have much in common, their histories over the last twenty years have been very different.

A number of different …

No. 23: Gender And The Brain Drain From South Africa, Belinda Dodson

Southern African Migration Programme

South Africa is experiencing a substantial “brain drain”, underestimated in official emigration statistics. Yet there is uncertainty over issues such as why some leave and others stay, whether people who leave do so for good, and whether the brain drain will accelerate in the future. The surveys upon which this paper is based aimed to add some substance to the debate on the loss of core skills to the South African economy. They present a profile of the skilled population of South Africa and provide some insight into the factors determining emigration potential. Two distinct surveys were conducted: one of …

No. 25: Zimbabweans Who Move: Perspectives On International Migration In Zimbabwe, Daniel Tevara, Lovemore Zinyama

Southern African Migration Programme

The movement of people across political boundaries has generated considerable debate in Southern Africa. There is a compelling need for Southern African countries to harmonise regional migration policies and to ensure the freer movement of people across the region. However, it must be noted that disparities in levels of development are still evident in the economies of the region. There are fears in countries such as South Africa and Botswana that the freer movement of people will flood them with migrants from the less developed countries. There are also concerns in all the countries of SADC that freer movement will …

No. 09: Transnationalism And African Immigration To South Africa, Jonathan Crush, Vincent Williams

Southern African Migration Programme

The demise of formal apartheid has created new and as yet only partially understood opportunities for migration to South Africa. Legal migration from other Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries, for example, has increased almost ten-fold since 1990 to over four million visitors per year. South Africa’s (re)insertion into the global economy has brought new streams of legal and undocumented migrants from outside the SADC region and new ethnic constellations within. The easing of legal and unauthorized entry to South Africa has made the country a new destination for African asylum-seekers, long-distance traders, entrepreneurs, students and professionals (Bouillon 1996; Saasa …

No. 07: Evaluating Refugee Protection In South Africa, Jonathan Crush, Vincent Williams

Southern African Migration Programme

South Africa’s policy on refugees has its origins in the country’s much-criticized Aliens Control Act (96 of 1991) (ACA), which in numerous respects has failed to provide adequate guarantees to applicants (de la Hunt 1998,2002: 123; Human Rights Watch 1998:170; Handmaker 1999a, 1999b). Until the recent implementation of its first ever Refugees Act (Act 130 of 1998) in April 2000, South Africa’s policy on refugees depended on the ACA, with the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) responsible for enforcement.

This paper evaluates the process of refugee policy reform that began in 1996. This process led to the Refugees Act in …

No. 08: Thinking About The Brain Drain In Southern Africa, Jonathan Crush, Vincent Williams

Southern African Migration Programme

The movement of skilled people from one country to another is one of the most hotly contested public policy questions today. Debates amongst politicians, academics and bureaucrats about the scale and character of skilled migration, and the policies required to address these movements, are taking place in countries throughout the world (Zweig and Changgui 1995; Odunsi 1996; Phillips 1996; Carrington and Detragiache 1998; Iredale 1998; Iqbal 1999). As the opportunities for skilled personnel to move increases with globalization and the shift to a service economy (Sassen 1988, 1998), as the costs of international travel decrease, and as the ability to …

Are More Children A Blessing? Determinants Of The Demand For Children In Jimma, Ethiopia, Bedassa Tadesse, Sisay Asefa

International Conference on African Development Archives

Based on data from a cross-section of urban households in Southwestern Ethiopia, in this paper, we examine some endogenous household characteristics that could be targeted through market-based policy measure(s). We use a count data model and the theory of consumer behavior to first identify some important socio-economic determinants of the demand for children. Then, we simulate the average number of children desired by a woman of median household characteristics and the extent to which an exogenously set population policy goal of lower fertility can be achieved. Finally, we present the extent by which market based policy measures could help reduce …

1st Annual International Conference On Contemporary Development Issues In Ethiopia, Western Michigan University

International Conference on African Development Archives

No abstract provided.

“Today's Children, Tomorrow's Leaders”: Are We Neglecting The Agents Of Change?, Assegedetch Hailemariam

International Conference on African Development Archives

There is an abundant body of knowledge that suggests that early experience influences later human behavior. This paper reviews and analyzes existing literature to demonstrate that human development, at the individual level, has far reaching consequences on social, economic and political development of a people. For instance, education, one measure of human development, has been inaccessible to more than 50% of school age children in Ethiopia. To effect fundamental changes in Ethiopia, attention and resources must be dedicated to children’s well being and potential. In addition, the paper discusses early psychological processes in human development in contrast to the current …

Nationalism As A Contingent Event: Som Ereflections On The Ethio-Eriterean Experience, Mesfin Araya

International Conference on African Development Archives

What is politically significant and what really attracts scholarly research in any nationalism is the awakening of the masses - i.e. the effective transition from elite-based to mass-based nationalism; this study is concerned with that transition in the Eritrean experience in the modern political history of Ethiopia.

Financing Small Famer Development In Ethiopia, Haileleul Getahun

International Conference on African Development Archives

Agriculture in Ethiopia is the most important sector, as measured by its contribution to total output, employment, and export earnings. Small –scale peasant farming is the most predominant mode of cultivation, and it is the peasant farmer who has suffered the most from the lack of capital, lack of technology and deterioration of the soil. Although agriculture remains the backbone of the Ethiopian economy, production has been declining since the 1960s while the rate of population growth has been steadily rising. Thus Ethiopia, which could once feed itself, has been importing food on a large scale. The fall in agricultural …

Differential Adoption Of Technologies And Its Implications For Policy Choice Between Equity And Growth, Beyene Tadesse

International Conference on African Development Archives

Government policies often attempt to create simultaneous impact on economic efficiency and equity. The Ethiopian government optimistically has targeted to simultaneously achieve at improvement in agricultural efficiency (growth) and equitable distribution of the benefits by all farmers in the whole part of the country. However, many scholars most often argue that growth and equity are inversely related in most development processes. Thus, the main objective of the paper was to evaluate the interhousehold and interregional technology adoption pattern (implies both growth and equity). The conceptual relationship of growth and equity, and experiences in adoption studies were first assessed. Then three …

Ethiopia, The Tplf And Roots Of The 2001 Political Tremor, Paulos Milkias

International Conference on African Development Archives

No abstract provided.

Reflections On Development In Ethiopia, Paul B. Henze

International Conference on African Development Archives

I visited Ethiopia frequently and traveled extensively in all parts of the country during the Derg period. I observed firsthand the deleterious effects of the Derg's attempt to turn the country into a communist "people's republic".1 Since the fall of the Derg in May 1991 I have made eleven visits to Ethiopia (with a twelfth scheduled for June 2001), usually for periods of several weeks, totaling well over a year of travel in the country in all. During these same years I have also spent time in 16 other post-communist countries, ranging from Slovenia and Armenia to Mongolia, observing the …

Perspectives On Institutional Reform And Development In Ethiopia: The Critical Role Of Building Enabling Institutions For Economic Growth And Development, Sisay Asefa

International Conference on African Development Archives

This paper provides some normative perspectives on sustainable economic and political reform in contemporary Ethiopia, by focusing on the need to establish enabling institutions for economic growth and development. The paper begins with the basic premise that poverty in Ethiopia is primarily a problem of institutional failure, and that at a successful economic reform not only must be focused on poverty-focused economic growth in a country where about 50 percent of the population is below the poverty line, but it must also be accompanied with institutional reform and development that may result in a positive-sum outcome for all constituent groups …

Sustainable Small Hydropower Development In Ethiopia Case Study Ropi Hydropower Plant (Bilate Basin, Ethiopia), Zelalem Hailu, H.B. Horlacher

International Conference on African Development Archives

The paper considers a case study of the Ropi hydropower site in the Bilate basin in Ethiopia to show the effect of seasonal variability of river flow on the magnitude and reliability of power supply.

Bureaucratic Neutrality In An Ethnic Federalism: The Case Of Ethiopia, Berhanu Mengistu, Elizabeth Vogel

International Conference on African Development Archives

The question addressed in this paper is whether bureaucratic neutrality, or the depoliticization of civil service, is compatible with ethnic federalism. This question is explored by reviewing the classic theories of bureaucracy as a foundation for examining the research question and contextualizing bureaucratic neutrality in Ethiopian ethnic federalism.