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Month: July 2020

Agency to Establish Landholding Adjudication Advisory Body

Posted on by Web Master

If approved by the parliament, an advisory body will be formed at all levels of government to oversee the urban landholding adjudication and registration process.

Drafted by the Federal Urban Real Property Registration & Information Agency, the bill proposes the establishment of an urban landholding adjudication and registration advisory commission at federal, regional government, chartered city, zone, urban centre and weredalevels.

The bill, which amends the existing urban landholding registration proclamation, states that the advisory commission will be tasked with organising a technical expert advisory team whenever necessary.

The need to institutionalise landholding adjudications and registrations triggered the formation of the advisory council, according to Arage Kibret, communications director at the Agency.

The advisory commission will employ the head of the landholding registration institution, an organ that coordinates and carries out urban landholding adjudication and registration and provides services for registered landholders, as a member and secretary.

The establishment of the advisory commission is indispensable to the sector, according to Berhanu Zeleke (PhD), lecturer of urban development studies at Kotebe Metropolitan University.

“But the staff that makes up the commission should be professionally qualified,” he said. “Obsession with the law can’t bring changes and transformation to the sector; it’s rather the performance that should be emphasised.”

The bill, which has been in the making for the past year, also allows online application for landholding rights. Anyone who claims landholding rights can apply via online platforms and receive the holding right certificate without a physical visit of the institution.

It also outlines that anyone who lost a landholding right replacement certificate shall receive the certificate in less than a month of time. The existing proclamation does not specify the time.

To devolve powers to the lower relevant bodies, the draft gives duties and powers to urban administration to establish and organise the land registration and information institute. The institute will be in place of implementing the proclamation and regulations, directives and standards at urban centres.

The draft states that adjudication of landholding rights can be suspended at any time, before or after public notice about the adjudication, when the authorised body issues an injunction order. The existing proclamation says that the land holding adjudication process is suspended only if it is approved and if there is an injunction order of a legally authorised body issued before the publication is made public.

The draft, which is expected to be ratified within the coming three months, also demands that an adjudication officer complete the announcement of adjudication through public notice within not more than five months.

The existing law does not specify the time in which the adjudication must be announced. It mandated regional or urban administrations determine the period in which the adjudication officer shall complete the work and leaves out the specific adjudication neighbourhood.

Landholders do not have to apply to be registered as landholders. The existing proclamation states that upon the completion of the landholding adjudication process, landholders have to apply to the registering institution to be registered as landholders.

However, the draft proclamation, which is now pending at the Council of Ministers for review, abandoned the landholding registration application process. Landholders after they are adjudicated become automatically registered as landholders. They only have to apply to obtain the certificate of landholding registration.

“This is to reduce bureaucracy and wasting time,” said Arage.

The main problems to the sector are related to insufficient GIS cadastral mapping, which is mapping, demarcating and documenting real parcels with satellite devices, according to Berhanu.

“Urban land parcels should be sufficiently mapped and demarcated through an aerial photographic survey, which is checked against a ground survey,” recommended Berhanu.

Registering, updating and implementing all the parcels across urban centres would greatly bring a great deal of efficiency to the legal cadastral system of the country, as most of the challenges emanate from its absence, according to Berhanu.

What Works for Trees Applies to Country

Posted on by Web Master

A group of 20 to 25-year-olds stand in the centre of a courtyard to the Bole Bulbula condominium complex in Addis Abeba. They surround several eucalyptus trees that are twice their age. They go back and forth, discussing how to proceed with cutting them down.

I lingered in the distance to hear what justification they could possibly have for cutting down these majestic towers of nature. They are home to the multitude of birds that adorn the neighbourhood skyline and greet the residents of the area in the morning with their melodious singing.

After over 20 minutes, I learned their unfounded justification. Given their layout, the roots of the trees threatened the foundations of the Condominium buildings. Ten more minutes and their true intentions became clear. The young men wanted to plant crops such as collard greens, spinach, carrots and tomatoes to sell to the condominium residents.

I could sympathise. Urban farming and community gardening are increasingly being forwarded as part of a solution to perpetual difficulty with food security and malnutrition. Also, in a country where the economy is slowing and well-paying job opportunities are becoming harder and harder to come by, initiatives such as these may seem innocuous and even admirable.

However, cutting down trees to make way for the purposes of planting does not make it any less of a part of the deforestation that has gone on in Ethiopia just because it is now being done in urban areas. It is counterproductive to go down this path even as there is a national campaign to restore Ethiopia’s rich forestry. It is well documented that farming and the production of coal and lumber has degraded our ecosystem over the past century from what was a rich forest land accounting for about a third of the country’s area.

The forests are gone now, taking with them the fertility of our soil that we boasted about at every opportunity. It turns out that trees are natural filtration systems, necessary to maintain the fertility of the soil. We cannot have the one without the other.

The irony, which may apply to the country as well, is that the condominium compound is surrounded on three sides by vacant land not allotted to any construction. Urban farming, but more likely community gardening, could be better served by bringing together residents and the local authorities to organise and coordinate a project that fits well into the Addis Abeba City Administration’s initiatives on urban farming.

The thought of cutting down trees despite greater needs for environmental sustainability, especially as we are witnesses to the compounding effects of climate change, should outrage us all. It is astounding how we live in the age of information and yet refuse to be informed. It is even more surprising how we manage to dismiss events as insignificant and fixable in the long-term, with remarks such as “it doesn’t matter.”

It is easy to dismiss the importance of trees that have already rooted and are fully acclimated and flourishing since none of us witnessed what it took to get them there or the bare land that has come to replace areas that were once covered in forests.

It is a testament to human absurdity that, given the current circumstances, many more trees may begin to be cut down under the logic, “we have trees to spare now, we have planted billions.”

But do we know how long it takes a tree to grow as tall as a building or the knowledge and experience that have gone into holding in place any system?

It is hard to say that we do. Sacrifices were paid to put in place almost everything we see around us, including the trees. When we cut them down, we have to weigh the consequences carefully. Otherwise, even our best intentions can take us down a path we will later regret.

Patience is something that we usually learn when we are older, but it is the virtue that can make or break our lives. Patience gives us time to rethink the puzzle presented to us and help us arrive at alternatives. It does this by letting the momentary slip of anger that plagues people pass and see things more clearly.

Egypt’s Posturing on the Nile Poses Existential Threat to Ethiopia

Posted on by Web Master

The Nile dispute between Ethiopia and Egypt is more than a technical disagreement on when and how the reservoir for the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is filled or how the waters of the Nile are shared. At the bottom, the dispute is driven by Egypt’s unyielding strategic desire to keep Ethiopia’s development in check to maintain the status quo regional balance of power in the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea corridor.

Egypt sees Ethiopia as a threat to its geopolitical strategy of controlling the Red Sea. When Egyptian leaders say the GERD poses an existential threat to Egypt’s water security, they are using the Nile as a proxy for a much larger battle over a shifting regional power balance. The dominant variable in Egypt’s water calculus is maintaining its status as the principal, if not the sole, regional hegemonic power controlling the Red Sea, the foremost strategic maritime passage linking Europe and Asia, and a vital lifeline for the world’s energy security.

When completed, the juggernaut that was to have an installed capacity of 6.4GW be the largest hydroelectric power plant in Africa and the seventh largest in the world. Beyond quenching its thirst for energy, Ethiopia will be able to export electricity to meet the needs of its Sub-Saharan African neighbours.

Egyptian geopolitical strategists see this as the seed for an Ethiopia-centered regional economic integration that will birth a comprehensive economic community seduced by transportation infrastructure projects that will facilitate regional connectivity through a network of low-cost electric powered railway tracks. This will make Ethiopia a concentric growth point for new investment cooperation projects, including coordinated industrial parks and cross-border economic cooperation zones.

Egypt sees the economic expansion of the Horn of Africa coming at the expense of its longstanding regional primacy. With the erosion of its regional primacy will come not only the devaluation of its political currency in the geopolitical power markets but also a perceived threat from a plethora of economically empowered Nile Basin countries.

Keeping Ethiopia poor and underdeveloped is a strategy that Egypt has relied on to maintain its regional primacy and global geopolitical status quo. It is keenly aware, as is the rest of the world, that Ethiopia’s potential for hydropower development is enormous.

The GERD “is of similar importance to Ethiopia as the Aswan Dam was for Egypt,” rightly stated the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. “It is not just an infrastructure project, but a project of the century, which should pave the way for the modernisation of the country.”

Modernisation coupled with Ethiopia’s massive population presupposes political and military power. With it comes a seismic shift in the regional power balance.

How does Egypt’s stand pose a threat to Ethiopia?

The GERD is Ethiopia’s bid to spur a transformative and sustainable economic development that will create job opportunities to its restive unemployed youth and combat its population’s chronic poverty. Egypt’s attempt to stop the full operation of the GERD is fueled by the desire to nip Ethiopia’s hope for prosperity and peace in the bud. Without an accelerated and sustainable growth that the GERD is said to turbo-charge Ethiopia’s drive for industrialisation, Ethiopia’s economy will collapse under the weight of its fast growing unemployed, restive and politically charged youth.

Ethiopia is behind sub-Saharan African nations in many key socioeconomic indicators, which was also highlighted in a recent report by eight Ethiopian economists, hydropower engineers and political scientists [including the author of this article].

Its GDP per capita is less than half that of the average for Sub-Saharan Africa and much more below that of Egypt. In terms of secondary school enrollment, Ethiopia is 20pc below Sub-Saharan Africa and 60pc behind Egypt.

Why is Ethiopia lagging behind?

The lack of access to energy is a big part of it as it was also echoed in the report. In terms of access to electricity, measured by kilowatts per capita, “Ethiopia’s number is a mere 14pc of Sub-Saharan Africa, four percent of Egypt and two percent of the World Average,” the report underscores.

Accounting for 70pc of Ethiopia’s annual surface water and two-thirds of its annual surface water, tributaries of the Nile represent 67pc of the hydroelectric power and irrigation potential of the country. The GERD represents the kernel of Ethiopia’s industrialisation strategy energised by a mega hydroelectric power and aimed at the awakening and unleashing of latent economic opportunities that have been left untapped for generations.

Egypt’s justification for blocking Ethiopia’s aspiration for eradicating poverty and promoting prosperity are based on two willfully orchestrated public relations campaigns of misinformation: Ethiopia, a country blessed with an abundance of water, needs not rely on the Nile River for its development, and Egypt’s water security and existence is tied solely to the Nile waters. The dual misconception concocted and spread by Egyptian diplomats and an army of hired PR experts has taken hold in the international arena.

The truth is that “Ethiopia is known as the water tower of Africa, but more than half its population does not have access to a safe and reliable source,” as World Economic Forum states. The UN World Water Development Report also notes that “Ethiopia’s annual renewable freshwater resources amount to some 122 Billion cubic metres (BCM) per year. However, only three percent remains in the country. The rest is lost in runoff to the lowlands of neighbouring countries.”

Ethiopia uses only 1.5 BCM of water for irrigation. To put this in perspective, the corresponding figure for Egypt is 65.5 BCM.

Contrary to popular opinion that is shaped by a systemic campaign of misinformation, Egypt has far more natural water resources than Ethiopia. Its desert hides a trove of groundwater left from the last ice age, spanning more than two million square kilometres, within the geographic proper of Sudan, Chad, Libya and Egypt.

Ethiopia’s 122 BCM surface water pales in comparison to the 150,000 BCM water lurking beneath the arid lands of the four nations, especially Egypt and Libya. This is “more water than the Nile River discharges in 500 years,” notes the American Geophysical Union (AGU), a nonprofit research organisation.

Libya has managed to tap into the vast underground reservoir using a web of pipelines that are collectively referred to as “the Great Man-Made River,” watering the coastal cities of Tripoli, Benghazi and Sirte.

“It’s a gorgeous supply of water – clean, not salty,” said Cliff Voss, a hydrologist at the US Geological Survey on the AGU report. “You can drink it without any filtration or treatment.”

Unlike landlocked Ethiopia, Egypt boasts a 2,900Km-long coastline, offering it enormous potential to use desalination plants to address its water needs. However, instead of decreasing its dependence on the Nile by building desalination plants, Egypt has chosen to spend several dozen billions of dollars to build a new “smart” city.

Egypt has the financial resources to build massive desalination plants to address its water shortage but instead expects Ethiopia to sacrifice its water sources so that it can continue to rely primarily on the Nile.

As a matter of fact, Egypt need not employ massive water pumps to unearth underground waters or spend billions on desalination plants. It can use a robust water management regiment to meet its current water needs even with the GERD in full operation.

The expected amount of saved water using strategies proposed in the paper “exceeds the expected losses caused by GERD by 12.1 billion cubic metres,” concluded a scientific paper by Egyptian professors titled, “Managing Risks of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on Egypt.”

What are the primary water management proposals?

Over four-fifths of Egypt’s farmland employs flood irrigation, according to the UN-FAO. The method is the least efficient form of irrigation, leading to the loss of enormous amounts of water from evaporation, infiltration and runoff. There is as high as 20pc wastage of the water allocated to the country under the Nile Waters Agreement.

Furthermore, Egypt’s agricultural lands are used to grow water-guzzling products for export, such as cotton, which requires thousands of litres of water to grow just a kilogram of it.

“Growing crops like rice and exporting it is akin to exporting water, which should not be allowed for a country like Egypt,” explained Abdelatif Khalid, who was head of Egypt’s Irrigation Department at the Ministry of Irrigation & Water Resources.

If Egypt faces an existential threat emanating from the Nile waters, it comes from its mismanagement of the scarce water resources, not from the GERD that uses the power of the water to generate electricity without consuming the water.

Ethiopia’s decision to build a dam on its sovereign land is in accordance to transboundary water sharing laws. This does not, in any way, represent an existential threat to Egypt. The impending shift in the power balance that the GERD entails is what is at the heart of Egypt’s posturing on the Nile conflict. All else is cacophonic noise choreographed with a traditional Egyptian dance of defiance.

Unstable Political Dispensation Can Use Resource Nationalism

Posted on by Web Master

Revolutions and counter-revolutions have become part of Ethiopia’s political vocabulary since the 1960s. They have reigned supreme as the fight for gaining more power and influence continues. Many lives have been lost in this process and will continue to be.

The pros and cons of revolutions are debated hotly, but one thing is clear, there is a political deadlock, and it does not seem there is any way out. The battle for the various types of nationalisms, built on identity and history are untenable and unlikely to be reconciled anytime soon. In the meantime, citizens are being put through trauma.

It is thus time to reorient our attention to an area that may not be original but nonetheless is more important than ever: resource nationalism. It is the construction of a political economy geared mainly to the utilisation of resources, through the state, for development purposes. If there is any purpose around which we can coalesce today, it is nationalism against poverty and for economic development.

Revolutions in Ethiopia were primarily for political causes and secondarily for economic reasons. Poverty has been depicted either as a consequence of political disenfranchisement or even a challenge not as worrying as perceived socio-cultural inequalities. In the end, we find ourselves at the lower rung of either the political or economic fronts, where instability has reigned.

It is only natural we set our imagination to work and adjust the aim of the revolutions we seem to be a constant part of toward addressing poverty. It is an ill in and of itself – an enemy we can be organised against successfully through resource nationalism.

If we advocate for a nationalism based on our natural resources, we can transform our economy. By clearly presenting programmes and development paths toward proper utilisation of natural resources in Ethiopia, we can get the various groups to coalesce in the centre. Political problems may not be addressed, but we would have created a foundation for coexistence that can be positively built on.

Our resource nationalism can and should start with a water revolution. The country is endowed with 12 river basins and a number of lakes, upon which agricultural, hydro power, fisheries and water tourism industries can be built for the betterment of the economy. Ethiopia is still home to many agriculture-based communities, with about two-thirds of adults employed in the agricultural sector. Without transforming this part of the population and empowering it economically, it is impossible to power an economic revolution, and resource nationalism could be a big part of it.

Proper utilisation of our water resources is furthermore a project for subsequent generations to undertake. The best example of this is the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which is in the later stages of its completion. It was the ambition of subsequent regimes to construct a dam along the Blue Nile and this has finally become a reality.

The GERD can be a kingpin and seminal moment for this water revolution and resource nationalism. It has already ignited the hope and aspiration of millions and served as a point of overlap between the various political groups. It is an encouraging beginning that we should be able to build on.

In bringing about this water revolution, a roadmap can be outlined by professionals specialising in water technology and water science. Water oriented strategic study centres and water science academies can be established as important strategic institutions where new ideas can be manufactured and debated, while water literacy programmes in schools can be launched. All of these would give succour to a brand of nationalism built around our natural resources and their use for the economic advancement of citizens.

Indeed, for resource nationalism to play a positive role, the national discourse around issues such as the GERD should be more nuanced. There should be an acknowledgement that these resources are means to a collective destiny, and should not be used as an argument to delegitimise any political groups.

Igniting the torchlight of the water revolution is in our hands. The completion of the GERD can set it alight.

The Problem with Addis Abeba’s Statues

Posted on by Web Master

In the heart of Piassa stands a statue of a man propped up on a horse. It has been there for close to a century, defiantly, even as the neighbourhood around it underwent a facelift and generations came and went. It was left untouched, but it was more than that. If anything, it has become more imposing and more pertinent, a touchy matter of disagreement in Ethiopia’s power politics.

This was because the statue is not just of a man. It is not there for the purposes of aesthetics or because it is a great piece of art. The equestrian statue of Emperor Menelik II is a symbol of power and influence, a reminder of things past and present, a physical token of that which is good and bad about Ethiopia’s history.

It is unsurprising then that this statue, a small object as far as structures go, inspires profound emotions between two chief political groups. For one side, it is a reminder of a time and political system they believe has disenfranchised and oppressed them. The fact that it continues to stand, they say, is an endorsement of a system they have fought to change and the Ethiopian state’s refusal to credit the prices their ancestors have paid and suffered under.

For the other side, the statue is the symbol of what they believe is the legacy – even if flawed, a legacy nonetheless – of their ancestors. They see in it a civilisation that stood the test of time, stubborn to outside influence and one of the forces (if not a leading one) that secured victory over an invading European force.

Both sides have a point. It is not a debate that will ever be settled by squaring off the pros and cons of Emperor Menelik’s II accomplishments on the throne and drawing a net positive or negative to answer whether the statue should be removed or kept.

The debate around statutes is thus not entirely about historical facts – politics does not afford this privilege. It is really about what people living in the present time want. And this requires us to consider two factors. The first is the right to self-determination, and the other is the status of Addis Abeba.

“All peoples have the right of self-determination,” says the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights. “By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.”

This is one of the fundamental foundations of Ethiopia’s Constitution, and it gives succour to the idea that any socio-cultural group has the right “to express, to develop and to promote its culture; and to preserve its history.”

It does not say anything about that piece of history being factual or acceptable by other groups. If the socio-cultural group wills it, they should have it their way.

The protection of this right is the primary function of Ethiopia’s federal system. The vertical separation of powers is critical to maintaining the rights of the countries’ diverse groups. Residents of Addis Abeba deserve and have this “full measure of self-government,” as the Constitution states.

It is only natural then that they are given the privilege to determine whether or not they can keep the equestrian statue of Emperor Menelik II, and other monuments and historical structures they believe are essential to express their culture and history.

But the matter is not as easy as this. The law alone does not ensure justice. It is rarely as interested in the historical, socio-economic and political dynamics of societies. It is only useful for judging the rightness of an immediate outcome – say, a man stealing jewellery – and indifferent to the conditions that led to it – the economic circumstances of the jewel thief. Society should not act in a similar fashion.

What this entails is that what works for Harer and Arsi cannot merely be applied to Addis Abeba, the nation’s seat of power. The circumstances are different. The city’s political and economic importance to the nation puts more burden on its shoulders to pay greater heed to the hopes, aspirations and political causes of the citizens outside of its immediate administrative demarcation. The same should hold true for cities that serve as centres of power of each regional state.

Notable about Addis Abeba is that it has been one of the chief – if not the biggest – beneficiary of the founding of the modern Ethiopian state by virtue of being the seat of power. Nothing else explains why the city had the first infrastructure for electricity and telephone, and why the nation’s first and for a long time only railway connected Djibouti to Addis Abeba.

Addis Abebans, and the many skilled workers that were attracted enough to make it their residence, contributed greatly to the development of their city. Still, they were helped by being the seat of power of the nation in the making. The growth and development of the city, which significantly echoes that of the country while also being part and parcel of it, was disproportionally felt by various groups.

As Addis Abeba grew, many living in and around it were negatively affected by it. This needs acknowledgement and restitution. The founding of this nation, in many ways reflected by the growth of Addis Abeba, resulted in the marginalisation and disenfranchisement of many citizens. But the various structures depicting historical figures in Addis Abeba tell only one side of this story while remaining largely silent about those that became disenfranchised.

We are, then, overdue for a compromise. It will not be achieved by removing statues, but it can be reached by making the capital more representative of Ethiopia’s history. The experiences of groups in this country are diverse – it is incumbent on Addis Abeba to reflect this. It just so happens there are many public spaces in the city hungering for something meaningful to be expressed on them.

PPP Framework Under Construction – the Big Picture

Posted on by Web Master

Ethiopia’s government intends to achieve lower-middle-income status by 2025 through the application of development policies and strategies that enable rapid, broad-based, sustainable and equitable economic growth. Many planned development projects under the Growth & Transformation Plan (GTP) programmes have been completed through government financing.

However, critical evaluation of the projects and programmes implied that government financing alone could not meet the growing demand for public services sustainably.

Trends in emerging markets and developed countries show the need for mobilising resources from different sources other than government financing to meet the constantly growing demand for public services. Partnerships with private sector players have been used by governments to fill in gaps in infrastructure financing.

Public-private partnerships (PPP) are a scheme used as one of the tools to improve infrastructure services through the utilisation of private sector investment.

With this ambition in mind, Ethiopia’s government has started setting up legal and institutional frameworks that could help to implement PPPs. The scheme is a long-term agreement between a contracting authority (a public enterprise or entity) and a private party under which the latter performs a public service activity that would have otherwise been carried out by the former.

The private player receives a benefit by way of compensation, such as tariff fees collected from users of a service or a combination of compensation, charges and fees. The scheme generally relies on allocations of risks associated with the implementation of the project or usage of public property in accordance with terms of the project agreements.

Thus, after conducting studies on the subject and evaluation of performances of various countries, the government of Ethiopia has adopted a PPP policy and legal framework as well as generic and sector-specific guidelines.

The highest decision-making body for PPP project development and implementation is the PPP Board. It is mandated to approve PPP project structures including feasibility studies; significant changes to the risk allocation or expected cash flow; major amendments on project agreements; identification of appropriate contracting authority for certain projects and recommendations for incentives. It also is in charge of approving tenders or negotiation results; recommending government support when required; delegating its responsibilities to the Ministry of Finance or to the PPP Directorate General and issuing guidelines.

The PPP Directorate-General is the other crucial body in the PPP institutional framework. It promotes participation of the private sector; provides technical assistance to the PPP board, to the Ministry and to the respective contracting authority; and makes recommendations regarding the framework. It also develops and implements guidelines; conceptualises, identifies and categorises projects for PPP; and reviews and issues opinions regarding the viability of proposed projects.

The third equally important body in the development and implementation of PPPs in Ethiopia is the contracting authority, a certain public body or public enterprise which intends to enter into a public-private partnership agreement with the private party to realise PPP projects. The contracting authority is in charge of executing preparatory activities for potential projects; submitting proposed projects to the PPP Directorate General and the Ministry; conducting feasibility studies and forming technically qualified project management teams to oversee the project development and implementation process.

Furthermore, a project management team is expected to be established for every viable PPP project. The responsibilities of the team are to undertake and run tasks on behalf of the contracting authority. Tasks assigned to the team include preparation and appraisal of PPP projects to ensure their legal, regulatory, social, financial, economic and commercial viability.

In line with these, the policy, laws and guidelines are properly set to create an enabling environment that is vital for opening up a competitive, transparent and accountable PPP market. Starting from PPP project initiation, forms of PPP and approvals to initiation, appraisal, feasibility studies review, tender process and special purpose vehicle (SPV) establishment, there is an impressive amount of preparation that has gone into preparing the legal and institutional framework for realising the success of PPP.

However, the question on when a framework is considered complete gives a way to see the issue from a market readiness and soundness perspective, the subject of private sector players’ evaluation and country investment framework completeness.

The project preparation guide on attracting investors to African PPPs by the World Bank proposes four areas of focus: PPP policy, legal framework, investment framework and operating framework, the latter of which deals with management’s abilities and works through the whole process. What constitutes the framework reflects the implementation and documentation of the framework, and the perspective of the private sector and how frameworks and programmes are relevant to significantly engage the PPP industry in a competitive and stable manner.

The private sector will be concerned about such issues as long-term fiscal sustainability, political commitment to PPPs, social acceptance of the tool, talent and experience retention, and a minimum legal framework providing the ability to engage in PPPs. Many of these affect the feasibility and readiness of each specific project, but they also affect the sustainability and reliability of the PPP tool and the existence of a proper pipeline.

The private sector is not only interested in the risk allocation that determines the bankability of a single project. It is also interested in and concerned about the entire PPP process in most, if not all, of its dimensions.

Using PPP programsme is not only directly beneficial from the perspective of general public management but is of paramount importance in accessing the PPP industry. The purpose is to generate the interest of a wide number of prospective investors as possible, and especially the interest of and access to reputable and experienced PPP developers.

Clarity of the general investment framework in terms of PPP legality, enforceability and transparency – the latter comprising access to reliable information – and transparent and equitable selection criteria and processes are crucial. Enforceable rights, dispute resolution processes and appropriation of risk are also among the vital elements that have a direct effect on PPP arrangements.

But it is beyond the clarity of a legal framework that PPPs are a direct part of what is of importance. It is also about the investment environment, which would include sector listing, investment administration, one-stop-shop services, technology transfer agreements and investment incentives.

The good news is that the new investment proclamation is helpful in expanding private sector engagement. The spectrum of investment areas allowed for foreigners are listed and broadened. It introduces categories of sectors in which joint investment with domestic investors will be mandatory and delegates powers to sectoral government institutions to issue, suspend and revoke investment permits in the area of energy.

The Ethiopia Investment Board, chaired by the Prime Minister, is empowered to decide, in consultation with relevant public and private sectors, to open or close investment sectors and allows the establishment of a high-level interegional council. The council is empowered to direct and oversee horizontal relationships between the federal and regional states and work for the synchronisation and simplification of systems at federal and regional levels. It can also deliberate and decide on matters related to investment administration, establish an oversight system that enables the evaluation of workflow between the federal and regional states and renders decisions on fundamental grievances and significant misunderstandings submitted by investors.

The new investment law has also expanded the Ethiopian Investment Commission’s (EIC) mandate by allowing all foreign investors to obtain its services; grants EIC the mandate to work with MOLSA in regulating matters related to work permits; allows EIC to create efficient coordination with regional states in the application and allocation of land to investors and receive and entertain any complaint against any decision of a federal executive body.

It is also worth noting that challenges to the dispute resolution mechanism were one of the hurdles that hindered the flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) to Ethiopia. The new investment proclamation provides clear recognition to public bodies to choose and apply arbitration when a negotiation effort fails. Here a big step was taken in enhancing the bankability of PPP projects when parliament approved the ratification of the 1958 New York Convention on the Recognition & Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards.

States that are parties to the Convention are obliged to recognise and enforce arbitration decisions as binding and enforce arbitral awards in accordance with the rules and conditions laid down there. This has the power of creating confidence for PPP developers, financiers and lenders because “reciprocity” was the major qualifying criteria before the adoption. It is also notable that the government of Ethiopia is currently drafting an arbitration law based on the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law Rules of Arbitration.

The enactment of such rules of procedures of arbitration will ease the choice of applicable rules of arbitration during PPP project agreement drafting. But there are still a few more issues considered crucial in fulfilling the PPP framework in particular, if not investment in general. There is, for instance, a need to consider revisiting the debt-to-equity ratio, which requires a 60/40 project financing scheme, ownership and management of off-shore accounts by foreign investors, working toward resolving the foreign currency crunch by strengthening the export sector or addressing foreign currency availability and transferability impediments in any way possible.

Addressing land acquisition-related barriers, enhancing efficiency in the administration of permits and license granting, adopting uniform and consistent environmental and social clearance requirements could also help in strengthening the investment framework further.

Undoubtedly, having a complete framework can be realised progressively, and the existence of a framework will not, in itself, ensure success. That can only be measured through projects. There are currently PPP energy projects that may be regarded as the “pathfinders” or pilot projects that will indicate how this model can be made into a comprehensive framework, which will always be “under construction” until most gaps are filled.

With Egypt’s Hegemonic Impulses, No Amount of Negotiations Will Cut It

Posted on by Web Master

The Nile River Basin has abundant water resources, which are selfishly exploited by Egypt, a country that prefers to pretend that it is a victim of scarcity. This imagined scarcity has its roots in Egypt’s stubborn view that the Nile is its sole property. It completely disregards the rights of other riparian countries to benefit from the Nile waters. The primary reason for this is Egypt’s insistence on hegemony and not its purported water shortage.

One does not have to look any further than Lake Nasser, impounded by the Aswan High Dam, and covering an area of about 6,500 square kilometres to make this point. The annual mean evaporation rate of the lake is 7.54mm a day, according to Egypt’s Water Resources & Irrigation Ministry, which amounts to 16 billion cubic metres of annual water loss.

Why should other countries be prohibited in the use of their natural resources when Egypt has the luxury of wasting close to a quarter of the storage of the lake behind the GERD just in evaporation every year?

The water that is lost in evaporation can irrigate millions of hectares of land and generate thousands of megawatts of power.

There is also the issue of floods during heavy rain seasons in the Ethiopian plateau. This could have been prevented if there was adequate storage in the upstream countries, especially in Ethiopia, which contributes the bulk of the Nile’s water. As a result, a valuable resource is lost, which could have otherwise been used to generate electricity and could have irrigated many hectares.

Some Egyptian researchers acknowledge that adequate storage capacity could help store water during heavy rainfall years to protect the downstream areas from flooding, guaranteeing a more regulated flow throughout the year. The need for more storage to balance shortages during drought and provide flood protection during years of heavy rain is supported by the study, “Climate Change Predicted to Increase Flow Variability,” authored by Elfatih A. B. Eltahir and Mohamed Siam, in the Nature Climate Change journal.

Egypt is in denial of the view that dams are necessary for the survival and development of the Nile Basin and that the GERD is just one of them. To meet the current and future needs of the growing population of the region, water storage anywhere in the region is not a luxury for any country. Sooner or later, water in each of the riparian countries has to be stored and be used in a planned manner for the benefit of all.

Egypt thus has to learn to collaborate with the other riparian countries for its own sake. It has to start considering the necessity of coexisting with these countries to ensure water security in the long term. Even to this day, the nation refuses to recognise these countries as legitimate and serious stakeholders to be reckoned with.

But it is being forced to do that because these countries have needs and a growing and demanding population. They will begin using the water on the tributaries sooner or later, and this has already started with Ethiopia. The status quo is no more workable. Egypt has to respect the rights of the other riparian countries and has to stop rushing to the doors of other countries and institutions outside the region to prevent other riparian countries from exercising their legitimate rights.

Ethiopia is the source of over 80pc of the Nile water and is also well-placed to store the Nile water for its benefit. It is also a country for which the Dam is not a luxury – cultivable land has been swallowed by water and inhabitants have had to be relocated for the construction of the GERD. This is not to mention the billions of dollars that have been, and will continue to be, poured into the project.

In doing so, Egypt and Sudan will benefit immensely. They will be less impacted by sediment deposits and flooding and will receive a more regular flow of water throughout the year, and the effects of drought will be minimised. However, Ethiopia will undertake such a project, because it sees a future of prosperity for itself and the region at large. Ideally, the beneficiary countries should appreciate this vision, cooperate and maybe even share the costs.

It is only absurd that, under these circumstances, Egypt persists in being uncooperative. It is clear that – diplomatically or in terms of sustainable usage of the Nile’s resources – it is in its benefits to strike a mutually beneficial deal.

The problem, as it is in most cases, is politics. Egypt requires the continuation of its hegemonic utilisation of the Nile. It is an ambition that can only be satisfied by denying the needs of others; in the Nile’s case, it is a relatively economically strong country attempting to advance itself regionally to the detriment of poorer states.

Egypt has to get over this feeling and accept the fact that sustainability can only be guaranteed through equitable resource sharing – advice that countries around the world would be wise to follow.

Another problem keeping Egypt from striking a mutually beneficial deal is the fear of change; fear that the upstream countries would prosper and it cannot predict what would occur when they would have greater muscle regionally. It falls into this negative outlook, because it refuses to acknowledge that it would be a beneficiary of prosperity through peaceful coexistence, cooperation and integration of their economies.

To combat its hegemonic impulse and fear of the future, Egypt has to change its outlook and work on a meaningful, future-oriented regional cooperative platform. This comes with the acceptance of the riparian countries as equal partners and the promotion of common agendas.

Building and developing trust should come as the first step in this endeavour. Trust is the cornerstone of healthy relationships, be it between individuals, groups or countries. With trust, we would be talking more about abundance instead of scarcity, collaboration would take centre stage, and optimism would fill the air.

No doubt, legal instruments binding the relationships need to be put in place so that no party would attempt to take advantage of the healthy climate and opportunities that trust brings along with it. But there are few substitutes for goodwill, peaceful dialogue and negotiation, and the principle of fair give and take.

All this will bear results if the leaders are sincere and the citizens are well-informed about issues. The people of the Nile Basin can only be served best if their leaders are sincere and keep them well-informed. Leaders looking for shortcuts and lacking vision would only delay future catastrophes, and they should not be allowed a free ride.

With leaders bold enough to overcome hegemonic impulses and fear of future change and willing to promote trust and respect of each others’ rights, the Basin could be more prosperous if resources were shared more equitably.

Biases Start in Household, Contribute Negatively to National Discourse

Posted on by Web Master

It is not easy to rescue ourselves from the prejudices and biases that are a part of our everyday life. In this period, when politics hovers over almost every facet of life, our individual and group relationships are becoming ever more toxic.

Recently, a friend asked to meet me to help her get a job for her nephew. She mentioned that he has a three-year-old daughter from his five-year marriage. As she went on telling me the story, my presumption was that due to the economic impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak, he might have lost his job.

But this was not the case. Her nephew runs a phone accessories shop that his wife had opened for him. The income was not something that led him to complain that much.

What was the problem?

It turns out that he was not the one that wanted a new job. It was his family, who wanted him to be able to support himself and separate from his wife. They have grown uneasy about his marriage to a woman from a different ethnic group. They believed that his economic independence was necessary to get him out of the relationship.

I ended our meeting with the lady, because she took offence at my opinion. But what is starting to happen is clear. Politics is coming into households, and it is impacting individual lives. These are not the first couple I have come across where the partisanship in the national discourse is lending itself to disagreements between couples.

Many people in Ethiopia today are disillusioned with the trappings of hate. This has much to do with the biased preconceptions and disappointment over the uncertainty about the rapidly changing socio-political life of the country.

It is quite common to find people who categorise others, giving them too many labels based on their backgrounds. It is heart-breaking that many people are giving too much attention to trivial things that should not be considered important enough to come between families.

How people are raised and what they have been told as a child grows with them. If it is not rejected, wherever it comes from, whether from family or friends, it affects how we perceive ourselves and others. It is equally hard to see the bias we carry around with us, not to mention that we are usually unwilling to recognise what is wrong with our worldview.

It is impossible to control others and what kind of value they attach to those they consider “different,” but we can control how we process those thoughts in our mind and how we treat others. We should not be conditioned to accept and tolerate harmful things. It is not easy to recognise when this happens. But when we are willing to destroy someone’s marriage because we are unnerved by the ethnic identity of one of the partners, that should serve as a clue that there is something deeply wrong there.

Despite such hardships we are passing through, we can all decide to turn things around for the benefit of everyone. All the bad that happened can be ended if there is a public who values and respects others just because they are humans.

We should not remain captive to the hate that is destroying the goodness in individuals. National consensus will not come by itself but when different social groups actively seek it by reflecting on their worldview and questioning their biases. As individuals and part of society, we have a responsibility to respond constructively and address biases.

Respecting and valuing parents and seniors does not mean buying into their bad influence. This is because we always get to select how we see, react and value the things we are told. We need to begin to think that nothing affects us until we let it impact us negatively. We need to stop the enabling role of discrimination and disapprove of wrongful perceptions for the betterment of our society.

As Ethiopians, we claim to fight against all sorts of discrimination, but we have a long way to go to overcome the contributions we make to these discriminations ourselves.

THE OFFICE: DARKLY COMEDIC, LIGHTLY TRAGIC

Posted on by Web Master

The advantage that TV shows have over movies is the sheer amount of time at their disposal for character development. And there are few shows that have taken to exploiting this advantage with a sense of zeal that has rarely ever been achieved as has the American version of The Office.

It is supposed to be funny. And it is. The shenanigans the characters get themselves into episode after episode are creative and endlessly amusing. The problem is that, as the seasons go on, it feels like we are laughing at the characters, not with them. It is a strange show on insisting to never allow its characters any extended period of happiness.

Every success is met with ever greater threats to personal and professional life; every emotional contentment is checked with a life crisis. It is a sitcom that takes place inside a universe filled with angst, regret and constant failure. There are moments of light-hearted comedy, but it is an overall depressing affair that takes to task most things we hold dear to life, such as love, friendship and trust.

Adopted from a British sitcom of the same name that shot Ricky Gervais to fame, The Office is set in what is supposed to be a branch of a typical, modern American paper company called Dunder Mifflin. It is supposed to be a workplace where the characters try desperately to keep their private lives out of their professional ones.

But, of course, this is impossible. As much as the modern corporate structure attempts to formalise and rationalise relationships between co-workers, the personal sneaks its head in. Human resource departments, endless paperwork, cubicles and the compartmentalisation of tasks are no match for personalities, attitudes, beliefs, ethnic identities and sexual attractions.

We are no less animals just because we have been forced into working spaces.

The embodiment of the general tone of absurdity and hopelessness the show wants to set up is Michael Scott (Steve Carell), the branch manager. He has the intellect of Homer Simpson, the political sensitivity of Donald Trump (but in a more well-meaning way) and the maturity of a 12-year-old. Yet responsibility falls on his shoulders to oversee the management of the branch, which he bumbles through thanks to his professional underlings.

He gets more second chances than any real life might have afforded him. But he manages to be lovable, partly because of the thoughtful performance of Carell, partly because of his loyalty to his employees.

What Michael sees in the branch office is not just one other extension of a company that sells paper but a place where people meet, become friends, fall in love and grow together. It is a sacred place, and its importance is evident in more than yearly performances. It is about people, and he is there to make their lives easier. Some of Michael’s mischief has not aged well, especially the racial and sexual jokes, but there is something about such a dedication to the employees, the troops, the crew, that partially excuses his behaviour.

Another employee that manages to be lovable despite his misogyny, homophobia and racism is Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson), also a farmer of German ancestorship. For most of the season, he comes off as unlikable, but manages to win over audiences in his ability to surprise everyone by showing personal improvement and a hidden sympathy for others. Here, too, what redeems the character most is the loyalty he shows for his fellow workers and a sycophancy to Michael that is never properly explained throughout the series.

Besides Dwight and Michael are an assortment of employees with diverse personalities, all of which are developed over the seasons into three-dimensional characters. They are all used as punching bags to a life that gets the last laugh. It is a point made again and again throughout the episodes, with the caveat that some level of relief may be found from the general discomforts of life by belonging to the group and finding its acceptance.

But there is a plot point that runs throughout the show that escapes a logical explanation and seems quite out of place with The Office’s despondent theme: the fairytale-like romantic relationship between Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer). It is a relationship that keeps reinventing itself, even as every character wallows in personal misery.

These two characters are given their personal piece of heaven; they are perfectly content with each other. True, there are attempts here and there by scriptwriters to throw some challenges their way but nothing of the kind of daunting personal and professional life crisis every other character has to live through.

They are left alone to play some very sophisticated pranks on Dwight and remind everyone of the good fortune some people are rewarded with without having to put any more effort into their endeavours than everyone else has. Their romantic relationship – for a show that insists on realism, despite the absurdity thrown in for laughs – is a deus ex machina, and their existence serves as a reference point to how abnormal and unfortunate everyone else is.

SHOPS V. PEDESTRIANS

Posted on by Web Master

The makeshift plastic shops on this street close to St. Joseph Church in Saris have taken over one of the pedestrian sides. Pedestrians are thus forced to use the one-way road in conjunction with vehicles as they are displaced by the shops, most of them small eateries.