COVID-19 Crisis Demonstrates the Local Talent, Capacity Within

Every disaster brings with it the opportunity for resilience and pushes us to work harder for a solution. If there is a silver lining in the middle of this crisis, it is the chance to observe students and professionals who have been given an opportunity to implement their skills and inventions.

Is it not motivating to see the country finally look to in-house solutions instead of going elsewhere for answers?

Anyone who visits hospital warehouses around the country used to find many pieces of medical equipment that broke just a few months after they were purchased - only now is the country using the skills of biomedical engineers to repair these machines. Also, all across the country, manufacturers have gone into overdrive to produce protective gear and material such as hand sanitizer for use in a time when personal hygiene is extremely critical.

These initiatives could have come in handy at any time. Hospitals in Ethiopia are typically overburdened with patients with preventable diseases such as cholera, amebiasis, giardia and typhoid fever. But better late than never.

This is just one example. Ethiopia has never been able to properly express and stimulate its local capacity. But this pandemic is showing that we have the tools and knowledge right here and that it is up to us to utilise these resources. The Ethiopian government needs to recognise this and create an enabling environment to establish systems that allow the public to actively engage economically.

The country cannot thrive without using its available skilled human resources, which can also save a chunk of foreign currency. The cash can be allocated to create the conducive, affordable, and innovative environment that the country desperately seeks. This will drive not only economic growth but also institutionalise proper systems that can support change makers.

The current crisis comes at a time of severe macroeconomic challenges. But because of inflation, public debt and the shortage of foreign currency, the country has never been in good economic shape to begin with.

Leaders have thus had to find a way to tackle the crisis at hand but with little else at their disposal beside local talent and capacity. This means the economic system should be geared even more toward inclusivity, opening up opportunities to those with ideas, allowing the country to unlock its untapped economic and social potential.