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Month: August 2020

Institute Releases Improved Crop Varieties

Posted on by Web Master

The Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research has availed 28 new improved varieties of grains, vegetables, fruits, pulses and oilseeds, which are five to 10pc more productive compared to the seeds currently being used.

The Institute, which has been conducting research on yield gaps and adaptability for the past six years, released these hybrid seeds whose main features centre on productivity, quality and adaptability. The improved seeds passed through five evaluation stages: pre-trial, trial, extension trial, verification trial and national variety trial.

These seeds were tested to be adaptive and productive in lowland, midland and highland ecology, as well as in warmer and cooler agro-climatic areas.

They sowed six to nine times to check that the varieties met the desired results, according to Taye Tadesse (PhD), crop research director at the Institute.

“The seeds will also be a competent, effective and suitable input to agro-processing industries, the export market, food and nutrition enhancement,” he said.

The Institute released five grains: wheat, barley, maize, sweet corn and teff; three pulses: bean, chickpeas and cowpeas: and three oilseed varieties. It also produced five vegetable varieties, two cotton hybrid seeds, one teffhybrid seed, and two-finger millet varieties.

The wheat varieties will be critical in filling the yield and ecological gaps, according to Taye.

“Wheat is one of the most critical crops in food security,” he said. “Ultimately, seed improvements reduce poverty and ensure food security.”

The barley seeds, one of which is for malt, focuses on tech-led industrial quality and quantity by partnering with breweries and other facilitators. The maize and sweet corn varieties are the most advanced in terms of yield, accounting for 12pc to 15pc increases in productivity.

“This is because maize is genetically more productive than other seeds,” said Taye.

However, all the released improved seeds are at least 10pc or more productive than the existing seeds, except for teff, according to Mandefro Neguse (PhD), state minister for Agriculture.

“The teffseed is only five percent more productive, because it is genetically less productive than other seeds,” said Mandefro.

The Institute plans to supply the seeds to farmers in the form of a pilot test through pre-extension and extension projects.

The Ministry of Agriculture, for its part, will be introducing the improved seeds to farmers and multiplying them in cooperation with public and private breeding enterprises, according to Mandefro.

“We’re also initiating agricultural clusters in Arsi, Bale, Shewa, Gojjam, Raya, Hararghe, and others for seed multiplication and productivity increases,” he said. “There is a high demand for improved seeds from farmers.”

The country needs improved varieties because of its location, according to Jemal Abdulahi (PhD), assistant professor of plant science at Haramaya University.

“As it is located around the equator, it has various soil types, climatic conditions and topographies,” he said. “This makes it more susceptible to crop diseases, pests and weeds.”

Farmers should work with the inputs they are using like seeds, fertiliser and soil types properly to increase their production, recommended the expert.

“Sowing improved seeds without implementing this package accordingly will be in vain,” said Jemal, who thinks that the government should also provide farmers with different types of fertiliser.

“There are various types that are suited for different soils across the country,” he said. “The farmers have difficulty getting other fertilisers than urea and diammonium phosphate (DAP).”

The performance of the new varieties should also be followed up on by the farmers and government agencies, he added.

 

The Gullible Victims of Social Media

Posted on by Web Master

People seem to be expressing discontent and reservations about the usage of social media as the initial euphoria of being able to comment and express opinions that were brought on with a change in government administration subsides.

“Maybe Ethiopians should not be allowed to use the internet in the current situation the country is in,” a friend said to me recently.

Banning the internet completely should not be a solution, but we need a crash course on how to use social media for our welfare. TikTok, the Chinese social networking service, is the only social media platform I am using at the moment. Compared to the older platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, its content seems to be lighter. It is not as politicised.

But internet trolls and extremists have penetrated their way into the platform. It is not just the politics that is hurtful. There is sexism as well. The sort of verbal abuse that female users of the platform are subjected to is appalling. Body shaming is normalised, and the vulgarity is shocking.

“Why do we say the things we’d never be able to say in person on social media?” a friend once asked. She went on to answer her own question: “The internet has a way of making us feel powerful, invisible and untouchable.”

I could not agree more. It also gives us a platform to express ourselves freely and in an uncensored manner. For too many users of social media, this means being as offensive as possible.

The state of Ethiopia’s politics is not helping either. I often pride myself on being non-confrontational, but the highly extreme views that are being propagated through such platforms make me want to shake some sense into whoever posts them. The amount of hate and hostility that is spewed on the internet against lingo-cultural groups is antithetical to the spirit of decency, solidarity and fairness that is being preached by those very same people.

Months ago, I was scrolling on Facebook when I saw a popular post by one of the minor celebrities who is highly active on social media. This is an individual who is not above opining on issues that are wildly harmful to groups. At the time, the video had over 100,000 comments. I decided to watch it.

I wish I had not been so naive. The video was 28 minutes of ethnic slurs and political incorrectness, and the comments were a long thread of tit-for-tat insults piled on one another. I felt hopeless, as if everything were beyond repair.

How can these people have nothing better to do than fan the flames of some hatred by playing to the whims of a person known for saying outrageous things and forcing a reaction? Are we this gullible?

The actors of such sexism and prejudice take part in mindless attempts to comment on current events or take actions to sow division. It is all politics, but it also sometimes is untruthful behaviour that ultimately leads to regret.

Whatever the motivations, many on social media are trigger happy. They are swayed too easily by opinions. And once an idea is out there, it is immediately picked up by the followers and echoes through the cyberspace occupied by active Ethiopian users of the internet. It is not unlike the proverbial Butterfly Effect, where the flapping of the wings of a butterfly somewhere causes significant weather anomalies elsewhere. We are at a time when a Twitter or Facebook post incapacitates a city for a day.

We have been handed a loaded gun in the form of social media. It has an inexhaustible ammunition clip and no safety catch. It is there to serve our enormous egos. Hopefully, we will learn one day to control it.

GERD – Where Past Injustices Must Give Way to Future Possibilities

Posted on by Web Master

Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan have been arguing about the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) since the commencement of its construction in 2011. Today, the mega hydropower project over the Blue Nile River is three-fourths complete. With the first phase of water filling having already taken place, the Dam now contains 4.9 billion cubic metres of water in its reservoir. Next year, 13.5 billion cubic metres more will be retained.

The negotiations between the three countries have mainly been focused on reaching an agreement over the filling and even the operation of the Dam. Most recently, the three countries proposed their respective version of a draft agreement over the filling and the operation of the Dam. The technical committee is then expected to work on merging those three proposals to come to the point of agreement.

The case of the GERD and that of the broader Nile water sharing are two different issues and must be addressed separately. For now, Ethiopia wants the agreement to focus on issues related to the filling of the GERD without implied or otherwise stated agreement that acknowledges the status quo regarding the sharing of the Nile water. Ethiopia strongly believes that the broader water-sharing agreement needs to be looked at holistically. The water-sharing can only be agreed upon by including other riparian states such that an agreement that binds them all is secured.

In the negotiations thus far, there seems to be a lack of willingness on the part of Egypt and Sudan to accommodate the simple fact that the Nile River is a regional watercourse and that its management must be approached from this perspective.

The stance of Egypt and Sudan in the negotiations seems to be driven by two motives: the applicability of the GERD for drought mitigation, demanding the minimum release of water during dry seasons, while at the same time pushing for the status quo to be binding. These two goals are not only a complete disregard for the rights of Ethiopia and other riparian states but are also an obstacle to reaching an agreement that satisfies all parties.

For any meaningful negotiation to take place, mutual understanding is necessary. From the start, the Ethiopian government has shown understanding of the importance of the Nile River to the Egyptians and the Sudanese. It is also important that Egypt and Sudan recognise the importance of the Blue Nile to Ethiopia and its right to use its own water resources.

Egypt and Sudan have been able to utilise the water flowing directly from the highlands of Ethiopia. Almost all Egyptians have access to electricity and clean water. They are also producing water-intensive cash crops – such as cotton – for export purposes and diverting flows to meet development projects.

On the other hand, Ethiopia, whose highlands contribute about four-fifths of the Nile, faces unjustified obstacles to using the River, particularly from Egypt. This is while around half of Ethiopia’s population has no access to electricity and clean water. Ethiopia also faces recurrent droughts that affect farmers that live on subsistence.

Ethiopians need for using the Nile River is not any less than that of the Egyptians or the Sudanese. As a matter of fact, the Blue Nile contains close to 70pc of its surface freshwater and over 70pc of the energy generation capacity of the country.

The current practice of the use of the Nile water – which in effect can be summed up as no country upstream beyond Egypt and Sudan can use the Nile water – is neither reasonable nor fair. It is also causing significant harm to Ethiopia and the other riparian countries by making them alien to their own resources.

Without looking at this injustice and finding a solution, negotiations in the future will not have a good foundation to rest upon. For upholding equitable and reasonable utilisation, a change in the I-will-have-it-all mentality is required on the side of Egypt and Sudan. The GERD is offering a new opportunity for this.

Egyptian authorities are playing for the continuity of the status quo, arguing that they have high water vulnerability and a historic right over the Nile. While the latter claim has neither the legal nor the moral ground, water vulnerability is not exclusive to Egypt either. In fact, with desertification intensifying and the population in the region growing exponentially, the entire basin’s access to water is at risk.

Ethiopia, being a landlocked country, has no access to the sea. Neither is its groundwater potential that much more reliable compared, for instance, with that of Egypt, as several studies show. Ethiopian farmers are at the mercy of the rainwater. With deforestation, the water retention capacity of the soil is highly reduced.

Complicating the problem further is the rhetoric and diplomatic gestures that have come from the Egyptian side. In recent months, Egypt’s signalling towards South Sudan, Somalia and Somaliland has been suspect in its motives. All of these three countries have security and stability problems. Not only is Egypt’s activity an end to the negotiations process but also a dangerous move that can exacerbate the already fragile peace and security of the region.

But perhaps the more worrying development has been the role that has been played by the United States, which showed partiality for Egypt although it feigned a neutral role. The US openly pressed Ethiopia to sign an agreement that is against its interests.

Following the first phase filling, there were also reports that showed that the United States is considering withholding aid money to Ethiopia. In addition to that, the US State Department released a press statement saying that Ethiopia may be running out of time to negotiate an agreement on the filling and operation of a mega-dam on the Nile River. These kinds of statements only cause more harm and add to the suspicion that the North American country is not a neutral body.

External parties such as the US and the World Bank must maintain, if all the parties agree, their observer role with impartiality. If the US continues to show favoritism, it will adversely affect the natural process of the ongoing negotiation, and it will have a negative impact.

Knowingly or unknowingly, the international media are also skewed towards the interests of Egypt. The media needs to look at facts on both ends and should hold an impartial stance and let the negotiation process take its natural course.

It is thus worthwhile for the three countries to consider some points that could help them come to a workable agreement. Fragmented solutions will eventually create more problems. The entire Nile basin must be considered as one organ and the countries along it must bear the responsibility of its proper use.

Here, a proper system must be put in place for the management of the resource. Drought and water shortage in the region should be mitigated by a coordinated regional effort, more importantly by sustainable and more effective use of water resources across the region.

The Nile basin farming and system of agricultural production, particularly irrigation water use in Egypt and Sudan, which consume large volumes of the Nile water should be reconsidered. Egypt and Sudan need to put more effective methods for water use in their cities and towns. Where feasible, alternative water sources such as extraction of groundwater and desalination of seawater should be considered. More importantly, to avoid unnecessarily wasting water in the region, where water is a scarce commodity, Egypt must stop diverting the Nile River from its natural watercourse to the Sahara Desert.

Another issue is the colonial agreements being pushed by Egypt and Sudan as proof of their supposedly historic right to use the Nile. It is not only unjustified and a snub to all upstream countries but also an implicit justification of colonialism. These conditions are not acceptable to Ethiopia and the other upstream countries. The better way forward is starting fresh and cultivating the will to forge toward a holistic approach and a win-win solution.

All parties must accept that negotiation is the only way to reach an agreement. Distracting from this and playing around with the geopolitical circumstances of the region can contribute to the disruption of peace and security in an already volatile part of the world.

The agreement, when it is eventually arrived at, must be flexible to accommodate future changes. There may be challenges that the current generation overlooks. It is thus critical to ensure that there is a system in place to re-negotiate and come to an understanding on any new problems that may arise.

The Economics of Urban Food Insecurity: Woes of Low-income Survival

Posted on by Web Master

We are going through tough times as the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is severely affecting communities. As the pandemic continues to threaten public health, the nation’s low-income urban dwellers with weakened purchasing power are facing an even more difficult challenge. Their primary concern is food inflation.

For many of us, urbanisation is a sign of prosperity. However, not everybody feels the same way. Although our urban centres have enjoyed decades of growth, there are longstanding complaints among low-income urbanites that have remained unaddressed. The cost of living is rising, and income inequality have widened. The prices of teff, wheat, onions, tomatoes, cooking oil and meat are skyrocketing at a faster rate than the income growth of this demographic. Government interventions have helped but not to an adequate degree. The upward climb of prices has been unabated and has become routine.

In addition to the pre-existing socioeconomic realities, lockdown measures put in place in response to COVID-19 and the desert locust infestation have added to the headache. The latter may subside soon, but the former may continue to spread until the end of 2020, at the very least. Under such circumstances, the fate of food prices, to be optimistic, will be uncertain.

Food inflation has been tracking at above 20pc for most of this year, driving general inflation upwards. At the same time, no comparable income growth was observed.

There are more questions than answers. The consequences are too early to predict precisely. There is no reflective, statistically significant evidence of where the rate of inflation will land. At least for now. What little studies there are show that the consequences will be severe. Taking a relatively small sample, a report by the International Food Policy Research Institute revealed that incomes have dropped among the 600 households that were sampled.

We need to worry, because the ability of the urban, low-income household to withstand a slight price change is easily compromised. Whether from nutrition or the economic point of view, slight variations could jeopardise their security disproportionately. The stakes are high.

While the impact will be felt by most households almost immediately, the difficulties across demographics will not be uniform. Most informal workers and construction sector employees are paid less and work part-time or temporarily, while women are in even more vulnerable positions.

Therefore, combined with non-food item increases, the food price hike will put more pressure on urban and semi-urban food market-dependent communities. Overall, due to wide structural diversity, the gap might not be effectively compensated by targeted adjustments in the nominal wages of certain sectors.

The nation’s capital and largest urban centre, Addis Abeba, is characterised by relatively considerable wealth and income concentration. In the meantime, it is home to a sizable number of low-income residents. Furthermore, its food supply requires longer value chains than smaller cities. It enables intermediaries to gain more control over pricing. Because of the size and system complexities, the issue deserves unique attention and effort.

What should be done then? More supply?

It is an oversimplification to take supply alone as a magic solution. In the short term, balanced supply does not guarantee fair pricing. Urban food system dynamics are multilayered – the role of intermediaries that are scattered across value chains are predominant drivers of the spike in the price of food items as much as the supply itself, if not more. Such inefficiencies in the supply chains as well as in the overall market are aggravating factors.

Under the circumstances that currently afflict Ethiopia, it is appropriate to recognise the federal leadership’s coordinated and multidimensional response and mobilisation to the outbreak. Besides its extensive effort in flattening the curve of the transmission, the leadership is cautiously intervening to mitigate the economic impact of the pandemic.

The Addis Abeba City Administration has also shown responsiveness to long-term food-related concerns through its initiatives aimed at helping the poor. School feeding programmes and advocating the launch of a mega bread factory – Sheger Bread – are notable initiatives in addressing urban nutrition realities. However, a decline in tax revenue and the presence of competing government priorities have a chance to limit government spending ability on grassroots stabilisation efforts in the foreseeable future.

In the long term, inclusive economic growth is the safest exit. Isolated fiscal or monetary stimulus measures alone are unlikely to calm post-pandemic food price volatility meaningfully.

Instead, building sustainable resilience to food system hardships requires the combined effort of individuals, communities, government, nonprofit organisations and the private sector. Each has an irreplaceable role in unleashing much-needed resilience against inflation. Paying equal attention, organising and mobilising these stakeholders should be among the priorities of the government.

The hardships of the pandemic are unprecedented, and its path is uncertain. Independent economists, research and educational institutions may offer alternative strategies to the government, but consensus among professionals and technocrats is not expected or required. This is except, of course, on one front: the urgency of affording attention and recognition to one of Ethiopia’s biggest foes, food insecurity.

Go Away Class Struggle, Identity Politics Is Here to Stay

Posted on by Web Master

A political party consultation was held at the UN Economic Commission for Africa’s (ECA) hall for national consensus. The most controversial statements came from Merera Gudina’s (Prof.) presentation on nation-building and the opportunities and challenges thereof. It offered an interesting reading of modern Ethiopian history, delivered with confidence and taking on subject matters unlikely to have made everyone happy. There only seemed to be one problem.

What happened to all of the class politics, its legacy and its contribution to the current political dispensation? Was it just really a temporary blip in the behemoth that is identity politics when it comes to Ethiopia’s political history? Was class analysis really only necessary in Ethiopia’s past, to understand power relations between the various languages and cultures of different groups and nothing more?

Yes. To understand why class has had, and will continue to have, very little impact on the political discourse and will not be used as a successful means of political organisation, it is essential to look at how Karl Marx understood it.

Ironically, Marx would have rejected identity politics. In his reading of history, the masses have been long divided by social categories and nationalities. They have had what is known as “false consciousness,” as opposed to class consciousness. This means that the masses will be barking at the wrong tree until their interests are aligned with their economic class. This effectively rules out identity-based politics by Marxian standards as the correct means of organising the masses.

Communist revolutions are final – marking the endpoint of history – because these will only happen when the masses, the proletariat, align with their class interests and will consciously organise and establish institutions along these lines, Marx theorised. All other revolutions will only have temporary outcomes, because the masses will not have identified what is at the root of their exploitation – the lack of control over the means of production.

“The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure, and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness,” Marx wrote in “A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy,” articulating economic determinism.

Identity politics aims for the superstructure. It can influence the so-called “Base,” but economic structures are still the real foundation.

Here, people familiar with Marx’s theory would point out one crucial factor. The workers’ alignment of interest with their class was supposed to come on the eve of the communist revolution which, according to Marx, would only happen once capitalism has reached its late stage.

They would be right. That is how Marx saw history playing out. When the Student Movement broke out in the late 1960s, Ethiopia was a peasant society. Feudalism was still the name of the game. No wonder the masses identified with their lingo-cultural groups and showed little, if any, display of class interests.

In fact, Ethiopia is still an agriculture-based economy – if we go by the amount of employment. It should thus be in the future – as we are fully wedded with capitalism, and the mass of the workforce finds itself working in industry and is urbanised – that class politics take its rightful place, according to Marx’s analysis.

But this assumed one big element Communism failed to consider, psychological behaviour does not leave much space for class identification. The hole it created was later addressed by Communist regimes facing peasant-based societies – from Ethiopia to Russia to China – in a contradictory manner. Since the masses have yet to recognise their real interests, and could never hope to fight against systems organised by elites, a vanguard movement needed to be created to bring about the dictatorship of the proletariat – in essence, the establishment of a one party-state.

Vanguardism was an answer to Marx’s failure to recognise that people are not by nature wholly preoccupied with their economic place in society. We are social creatures to whom language is more than a means of communication; culture is more than a lifestyle choice; and religion is more than a tool for answering what happens after death.

These three things are part of what form our identity. Without them, most of us, or perhaps even all of us, are incapable of identifying our place in the universe. And the greater heterogeneity of the society we find ourselves in, the more critical these elements become to forming our identity. This is true for any country, and it is also true for Ethiopia.

The best means of illuminating this is perhaps the experience of the United States. One popular hopeful that wanted to ride the class consciousness wave as economic inequality worsens in the country was Bernie Sanders, US presidential candidate this year and in 2016.

His positions on healthcare, labour rights and international trade agreements, all of which focused on the challenges of low-income and middle-class Americans, should have won him their support across the board. But, no. The United States is a heterogeneous society. Black Americans and poor white working-class Americans did not look past their socio-cultural identity, create alliances alongside their class interests and put him in the White House.

African Americans vote for the party – or the typical Democrat, Joe Biden – that vows to acknowledge their historical marginalisation and swears by cultural diversity, although the Democratic Party’s record on realising a more equitable distribution of wealth is questionable. White working-class Americans, by and large, voted for the Republican Party, which has long vowed to cut taxes for the rich and stop the expansion of healthcare coverage. It is not about class. Some overlap may occur, but it is about identity mainly.

Ethiopia is no different. Finding a moderate way of conducting identity politics is all we can hope for. Class politics is fantasy. Do not simply take my word for it.

Take the major political players of the latter half of the 20th century. Two – Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Party (EPRP) and All-Ethiopia Socialist Movement (MEISON) – centred their movements on class struggle. Three – Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) – made identity politics their central theme.

Now, tell me, which ones are relevant to Ethiopia’s politics today?

The Glory of Modern Day Carêmes: Qurt Siga Eateries

Posted on by Web Master

Once while having coffee with friends, a woman and man, at a Tele Bar located near Gambia Street, the topic switched to a cheering natter involving meat eateries.

The man started to chatter about how, week in and week out, he goes to a livestock market to pick a sheep. He never allows his guard down in the culling, skinning, eviscerating and cutting. He almost wholly consumes it alone as well.

The woman went on about how she was amazed by the sight of a fattened ox accompanied by six or more people, like a bride, ceremoniously led to slaughter. She recounted in awe how she accompanied them in her vehicle for a long while, stopping when the ox got tired and how it hardly moved without assistance.

As the thought of meat watered their mouths, they brought up the idea of eating tire siga, a raw meat delicacy. We went to Abuare, in the direction of Balderas, and turned right into a green gated compound. Only vehicles looked welcome, and no other food was served besidetire siga.

No one orders in kilos. It is just lunch that we order. For 50 Br a pile of ribs, six individual portions. Though not fit as my friends, I joined the fight. As we were devouring and washing our throats with a sparkling yellow tej, honey wine, the woman started to complain that the meat was from a fattened, and then to its end, a bit underfed ox.

The man for his part said the one they – the two – had together a month or so ago, at Dukem, was the best. They had gone there only for the sake of eating meat. The woman then started to discuss how out of this world the meat she had at a wedding some months back was. I said, for my part, I have never seen anything like the meat we have just had. They looked at me with surprise.

There is a ritual to feasts, indeed to the traditional way of eating raw meat delicacies. A man who calls his kin to a feast does not do so to save them from starving. They all have food in their own homes. When we gather together in the moonlit village ground, it is not because of the moon. Everyone can see it in their compound. We come together because it is good for kin to do so, Chinua Achebe, the famed Nigerian novelist, once said.

It sums up the spirit of a tire sigafeast around a table in Ethiopia among friends and family.

Yidnekachew Tessema – a built to last national icon, plateful in every tier of responsibility the game names, one of the most travelled people one can imagine – said that his favourite “dish” was raw meat, though in the old days he was fond of doro wator spiced chicken. The cocktail circuit was certainly not for the tough kid from Arada, as he told Gedamu Abrha, in his 1969 colourful interview.

Tired of the raw chuck steak myself, I used to eat dishes made of tenderloin at an Italian restaurant close to my office.

Having the “aristocrat” of steaks there with its unique mushroom sauce and mashed potatoes as its side was aura equivalent to the famous bon mot, “my idea of heaven is eating paté de foie gras to the sound of trumpets.”

The tire sigaeateries of today could be said to be manifested in the 19th century’s Marie-Antoine Carême.

“The king of cooks and the cook of kings,” as he was called. He was one of 25 children from one of the poorest families in France. In his teens, he was accepted as an apprentice chef and after much study under many masters went on to found la grande cuisine française.

His creations reflected his considerable artistic abilities, his pastries often looking more like sculpture than food. The art is now manifested first and foremost by the village qurt sigaeateries – popular with many customers.

Unfortunately, the market’s potential is undercut by a myriad of problems. The East African livestock trade is characterised by illicit (informal) trade between neighbouring countries, seriously affecting Ethiopia, according to the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). In the 2000s, an estimated 325,800 cattle, 300,000 skins and 150,000 hides of animals were estimated to slip out of Ethiopia every year.

Diseases, nutrition, traditional husbandry and a rough market are the main hold-ups. On the former point, high microbial load in abattoir and butcher shops characterised by low meat quality make it a potential source of food-borne infection caused by E. coli, S. aureus and Salmonella, as well as food spoilage, as have been shown in a study conducted by Abebe Bersisa, et al.

It is also the case that as butchers buy animals from traders and have them transported to nearby abattoirs, they complain of high taxation, as they do not get receipts from cattle traders for formally keeping records of their expenses, according to a BCaD Consulting 2015 study.

The already minimal per capita consumption of meat by Ethiopians – at nine kilograms just one-eighth the OECD average – is stifled due to escalating meat retail prices. Much of the price is captured along the value chain by brokers rather than by those adding value.

With the current business model of sourcing animals from non-commercial breeders through the interplay of multiple brokers, it is hardly possible to process high-quality meat at a competitive price for the international market and lower the cost of meat at domestic markets.

Concerted and multiple intervention strategies to unleash the sector’s potential is important. Perhaps some lessons can be taken from the thriving village of Carêmes of Ethiopia.

Corporate Agility: Now in Information Age or Never

Posted on by Web Master

In the contemporary world, corporate agility will be an ever-critical element to how organisations survive in the world. It is an important factor that requires a board of directors, executives and managers to adopt fundamentally new ways of thinking.

They have to shift away from the old linear, industrial model toward a more collaborative and holistic view of the world and their role in it. There must be a significant shift in how decisions are made in corporations toward agility as opposed to a more traditional organising and governance style.

What do we need to consider to be prepared for the next wave of change? How should we organise to remain perpetually agile?

These are questions that need to be answered in the realm of change. Granted, they need to have been answered before. But there is urgency to the present, which requires foresight reinforced by hard work.

What will be the consequence of it now?

The answer can be summed up in two words – information age. At any time within the past three decades, we have stood in a moment of unprecedented change in the global corporate world. A failure to adapt to this, which affects how goods and services are produced, distributed and delivered, will mean that the agile business will run circles around the dinosaur organisations.

Today, many organisations find themselves recovering from massive layoffs and profit losses. Corporate human resources are being challenged to deliver like never before, and at the same time being forced to transform the way they operate to meet new challenges. It hardly seems the time to be discussing radical new models of corporate infrastructure.

The best answer to this “why now?” question is thus that business cycles have not gone away. But our experiences within those cycles has changed. As the economy recovers and then expands, forward-thinking leaders cannot afford to make strategic management decisions the same way they did during the last cycle.

What is changing is that there used to be wait times. The business cycle was more linear and predictably paced. In the Internet age, time and the manner of doing business are significantly changed to a cyclical direction, and the pace is situational. All forms of business in the internet age are significantly challenged by the wave of change and could not resist its force. If they remain idle for a moment, they will be dealt a fatal blow.

Traditional managers who suffer from myopia are the primary obstacle on the road to change. They lack the energy to adapt constantly and boldly throw away strategies and plans that are not working out properly.

Companies led by agile managers know how to staff up (and down), not only over the course of the annual budget but overnight. They know how to partner with others for technological support. They understand the need to offer a workspace for employees instead of just providing a desk with what may be needed at a given time. They embrace iterative solutions and strategic thinking.

Critically, they also understand that human capital is still a business’s most precious strategic asset. It is one of the things that the Internet age has not changed. They work to improve the agility of their employees and to improve their creativity. They know that success comes through their human capital.

This is a crucial point to remember since labour demand will always outmatch supply, and with today’s highly educated and technologically-adept workforce, there will be a talent surplus. This gap will not be filled by rigid, archaic, traditional business setups of past decades. In fact, this may, to a certain extent, explain why younger age groups are more mobile than their predecessors.

Let us now put ourselves in the shoes of business leaders. If our firm fails to attract talent or become an employer of choice, it will be unable to compete for that surplus talent. The solution is to be agile now and create an attractive enough work environment that responds to the talent that is out there. Without this, the nation is doomed.

Leaders of companies should be vigilant and agile toward change and the process of business dynamics for this reason. Organisations that want to thrive in the future will have to plan for several kinds of cycles, not just the obvious general business cycle of the old guard. Leaders should be agile and need to learn how to operate effectively within this environment.

Studies show that it takes anywhere from 18 to 30 months for large-scale organisational change to go from planning to being implemented. This is to show that such changes do not happen on a whim but take time as well as energy.

When we refer back to changes in the business landscape in Ethiopia over the last three years, we can observe many developments, especially in the financial sector and public enterprises. The financial sector alone has exhibited a dramatic move from where it was 10 years before in terms of governance talent acquisition, technology, liberalisation framework and product development.

The names and brands of banks and insurance firms are now recognisable, and their numbers are increasing at a meaningful rate. Millions have been banked and are making use of mobile banking and interest-free banking, and insurance services are taking root. These are all positive developments that need to be built on to realise long-term sustainability.

Partly, this stems from the increased agility that is being shown by the current regulatory policy, which is more accepting of the notion of financial liberalisation. This, too, is something to celebrate.

With Ethiopia on Precipice, It’s Still Not Too Late

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Ethiopia has been on a roller coaster ride since widespread protests erupted in 2015, leading to the demise of the administration led by Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and the emergence of Abiy Ahmed (PhD) as Ethiopia’s new premier in the spring of 2018.

The high expectations that greeted his appointment have now given way to serious doubts. The country seems to be lurching from one crisis to another and is now facing a perfect storm in the making.

I was in Addis Abeba two years ago when Prime Minister Abiy came to power, and I was able to witness the frenzy with which Ethiopians welcomed his appointment. His acceptance speech was powerful and uplifting.

“T-shirts with the PM’s photo were everywhere in Mesqel Square,” I wrote in a letter back then. “He addressed the crowd, and he didn’t disappoint. A gifted orator, he spoke of forgiveness, unity and Ethiopian-ness. It resonated with the people.”

I could not help getting caught up in the mass euphoria myself.

He travelled to areas of community clashes to promote reconciliation and healing. Speaking in local languages, he extolled the bravery and sacrifice of fighters from the Tigray region. Within weeks, he freed journalists and thousands of prisoners. He lifted the state of emergency that was in place at the time and invited Ethiopian political groups abroad to return and participate in the political process.

His rapprochement with Eritrea was perhaps his boldest move. He travelled to Asmera to meet with President Isaias Afwerki, who reciprocated with a visit to Ethiopia. They agreed to a normalisation – through informal channels – of relations between the two countries, a move that earned the Prime Minister a Nobel Peace Prize in 2019.

Those were exciting times, full of possibilities but also fraught with peril. I added this note of caution in the letters I was writing at the time:

“Abiy Ahmed has the intellect – out of the box approach to solving problems. There are, however, storm clouds on the horizon. The mass adulation is worrisome and deeply troubling. It may lead to the emergence of a populist Prime Minister.”

Things have gone in a relatively different direction, but the danger was not avoided.

The Prime Minister got into hot water not long after his rise to office, most noticeably with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which was largely believed to have exercised disproportionate power over the previous three decades. It did not sit well with the TPLF that the other members of the EPRDF coalition seemed to be absolved of responsibility.

OPDO and ANDM, which represented the Oromia and Amhara regional states within the EPRDF, respectively, rechristened ODP and ADP, were blamed for having made an alliance aimed against the TPLF. All of these differences were polarising, to say the least, and heightened tensions. Matters were not helped by the establishment of Prosperity Party in place of the EPRDF. Over the years, TPLF and other political forces describing themselves as “federalist” also came into opposition with Prosperity.

Worsening this problem of polarisation is the role of the media. One of the early welcome measures taken by the Prime Minister was allowing freedom of political speech. Privately-owned print and digital media proliferated. The press, unfortunately, lacked the requisite self-restraint and good judgment. Some broadcasts at times border on incitement to violence. Conspiracy theories and speculations abound.

Except for a few independent media outlets, the press serves the agenda of respective political ideologies. Resident commentators, self-styled historians and political entrepreneurs spin a convenient narrative to fit their viewpoint. Some spew hateful comments referring to lingo-cultural groups, seemingly oblivious to the consequences of their opinions.

The state of the economy is also in bad shape. Foreign direct investment is dwindling, and the availability of foreign currency is in its usual state of deficiency. A large number of unemployed youth is a powder keg. Young Ethiopians have been leaving their country in large numbers seeking jobs elsewhere for some years now.

They travel across lawless Libya to Europe or go to Egypt across Sinai to Israel. Others cross the Red Sea into war-torn Yemen with hopes of reaching Saudi Arabia or the UAE. They endure all kinds of abuse and humiliation. The women are routinely raped; others lose their kidneys to organ peddlers. Those who reach the Mediterranean Sea often perish in the unforgiving waters aboard their rickety boats with no ship willing to rescue them in these times of rising anti-immigrant nationalism in Europe.

All of this is because they could not find opportunities back home, or they did not believe they could. As political instability rocks the nation and the economy is battered, their lot will become worse.

The stark manifestations of the poor state of Ethiopia have been making themselves obvious for some time. Recently, the killing of Hachalu Hundessa, political activist and musician led to the loss of property and lives. The internet was shut down for two weeks after that.

Shortly after this episode, some of the major opposition politicians were rounded up and jailed, as were thousands of others who were suspected of being involved in the violence that occurred following Hachalu’s death.

An uneasy calm prevails at the moment, but mass demonstrations by activists have erupted in the US, Canada and Europe. Some condemned the PM and demanded his resignation. Others hailed him for jailing those they believed were perpetrators.

A spate of high-profile killings over the past two years have added to the anxiety, the most recent of which was that of Hachalu. Simegnew Bekele, chief engineer and lead project manager of the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), was found dead in his car in Mesqel Square in 2018. His death was ruled a suicide. I took the loss of this patriotic Ethiopian and a dear friend personally. The assassination of Se’are Mekonnen (Gen.) and Ge’zae Abera (Maj.Gen.) in Addis Abeba and Ambachew Mekonnen (PhD) and his colleagues in Bahir Dar last year was another shocking incident.

Topping all of this, Ethiopia now faces three major crises, each of which will require all hands on deck to meet the challenge. Let us start with the GERD. The deadlocked negotiations over the Dam has raised the tension between Egypt and Ethiopia. An increase in hostilities would be catastrophic for both countries.

It is encouraging to see Ethiopians closing ranks on this issue. Our unity and resolve make us less vulnerable. It is Ethiopia’s sovereign right to use its share of the Nile water by building a hydroelectric dam to generate energy for its economic development.

Another worrying matter is the postponement of elections. It was supposed to take place this year, according to the Constitution, but was postponed because of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Adding to the dilemma is the decision by Tigray Regional State to hold elections through its own election commission despite the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) saying that only it has the power to conduct them. Here is an opportunity for the PM to put his skills in conflict resolution into practice by reaching out to the Tigray regional government and finding common ground.

As the French philosopher Albert Camus said, “Peace is the only battle worth waging.”

Just as worrying is the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been surging at an alarming rate in Ethiopia lately. It may run a protracted course in Africa over the next “few” years, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). This once-in-a-century global scourge has already wreaked havoc on the public health systems and economies of some of the most advanced nations in the world. One can only imagine what this could do to African countries with weak health systems and fragile economies if it lasts for a few years.

Our collective effort is needed to meet these challenges. One important element of this is the need for political elites to engage one another, instead of talking past each other. Differing views and cross-fertilisation of ideas are healthy and can only enrich both sides of the debate.

We have been attacking each other’s ethnicity, religion and politics for such a long time that we have failed to realise that we have driven the country to the edge of a precipice, consumed by our virulent polemics and hate messages.

We ought to take a deep breath and appreciate how our multicultural country is better and stronger when it celebrates and recognises its diversity.

“Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilisation,” said Mahatma Gandhi, facing problems in India not unlike our own.

Let us show the world that our ancient civilisation can indeed rise to the challenge. We need to recognise that we are not each other’s enemy but do face common challenges – poverty, lack of political maturity and now a terrifying pandemic. The latter is on top of pre-existing heavy disease burdens, such as malaria, tuerclosis, cholera and typhoid fever, that claim too many lives.

Remember the oft-quoted Ethiopian saying, diir bi’abir Anbessa yassir– which loosely mean that many cobwebs together can cage a lion.

The path to peace is through dialogue by fostering mutual understanding for the sake of the country and people we profess to love. There is an urgent need to step back from the precipice before it is too late.

Federal Prosecution’s New Face Promising for the Justice System

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The nomination of Gideon Timothewos (PhD) as the federal attorney general, which would still need to be approved by parliament according to the law, could not have been a better move in the effort to improve the independence and accountability of the federal public prosecutor’s office.

This comes four years after the establishment of the Attorney General’s Office, back in 2016, under the administration of then Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn. The establishment of an autonomous federal ministerial office with its own legal personality was intended to create institutional and professional independence. It absorbed the powers and duties of the then Ministry of Justice.

The Office has been institutionalised to provide uniform, effective and efficient legal services, creating an independent chief legal officer within the executive organ. The main task of the office is to ensure the rule of law, prepare criminal justice policy, enforce criminal law and serve as the principal advisor and representative of the federal government.

The establishment and stipulated independent existence of the Office was a promising step forward in affirming the Office as the sole legal representative to institute criminal proceedings and to intervene, where public and government interest requires, in civil cases.

Nevertheless, the Office has yet to live up to the intent of its establishment. The Office has failed to be perceived as either independent or accountable to the law. It has been politicised, making it lose public and legal professionals’ confidence.

The problems were not fixed with the most recent appointee to the Office, Adanech Abiebie, who has previously served as mayor of Adama and minister of Revenues. Her media briefings, especially on the events that occurred following the passing of Hachalu Hundessa, were too close in style and presentation with the politics of the incumbents.

How well Gedeon performs in this job is yet to be seen, but he checks many of the prerequisite boxes for someone to hold that office. This is freedom from political and party affiliation. Up until his nomination to the Office, he has not been known for his political views or affiliation with political parties. This could go a long way in helping him to organise the public prosecution office to live up to the professional, institutional and public accountability it was supposed to have.

I have never met Gedeon, although we have common friends. His humble personality and intellectual rigour is famous among those who knew him as a student, friend and co-worker, especially at Addis Abeba University. His close friends describe him as a humble, down-to-earth family man who is always ready to help others. His co-workers speak about him as a man of integrity who displays professionalism.

I heard about him in my early teens. We went to the same high school, Lideta Catholic Cathedral – he was several years my senior – and was often mentioned by teachers as a role model we should all look up to. Where professionalism is involved, I am thrilled to see him in this position. The system needs his expertise.

The politicisation of the Office has made the justice system suspect. In cases where the interests of powerful individuals are at stake, the problems become even tougher. Such a crisis can only be improved by appointing judges and prosecutors who keep the spirit of the law at heart.

The public demand for an independent judiciary is constitutional. The supreme law proclaims that all levels of courts should be free from any interference, influence of any governmental body and government official. Having an attorney general who recognises the fundamental importance of this part of the Constitution is extremely important to Ethiopia.

The justice system plays a fundamental role in the protection of justice, the rule of law and human rights. It is an indispensable institution for checks and balances on the other branches of government, ensuring that the laws of the legislative and the conduct of the executive comply with that of the nation and international laws.

Establishing an independent and impartial justice system that guarantees justice in full conformity with the facts of the case and the law is the government’s way into the hearts of the public. Admittedly, this is a tall order to expect from just one person, no matter how powerful his position might be.

In fact, if history has any lessons for us, it is that professional training and academic skills are no guarantee for doing what is right. Gedeon’s time in office, for instance, will be measured by how major political figures currently in jail will be perceived to have been treated by the justice system. If he succeeds in ensuring that this process is not politicised but looks at the facts of the matter, he will leave an enduring legacy in the justice system.

He has an impressive track record. We have yet to see what he can do as the federal government’s chief legal officer.

“It makes me laugh.”

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Musa Adem, an opposition politician and political scholar, said concerning what he perceives to be the narrow or insular perspective that “Oromo and Amhara elites” have in discussing the challenges, opportunities and fate of Ethiopia, during a discussion held among political parties for national consensus at the UN Economic Commission for Africa’s (ECA) hall.

ELASTIC LOAD

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A blue taxi cab is carrying a load much larger than its size in Bole. Part of the load is covering at least a third of the windshield. Indeed, in Addis Abeba, such sightings are not abnormal given laxer traffic laws compared to the developed world and few alternatives for specialised transport companies.