Policy In Ethiopia Research Articles

Industrial Restructuring as a Driving Force in China’s Africa Policy: a Case Study of China’s Ethiopia Policy

Abstract Existing research suggests that natural resources, domestic markets, and decisive political influence attract China to build relationships with African countries. However, why China sought to deepen its relationship with Ethiopia since the mid-1990s despite its lack of these endowments? This article aims to address this empirical puzzle by combining theoretical perspectives from development economics and fragmented authoritarianism to analyse the driving factors behind China’s Ethiopia policy and its formulation and implementation process. Examining China’s diplomacy towards Ethiopia from 1995–2019, it finds that Ethiopia’s stable society and abundant labour force made it a key destination for China’s industrial transfer. And China’s need for industrial restructuring has driven its Ethiopia policy, with private enterprises playing a crucial role by proposing projects. These findings enrich the understanding of the motivations and processes behind China’s influence in Africa from an industrial restructuring perspective, offering insights into China’s diplomacy and its impact on Africa.

Revisiting the global weights of the integrated watershed health assessment framework and Weyib watershed health analysis: Ethiopia's policy prospects

AbstractWatershed health study has been considered as a global issue embodied in the United Nations' 2030 agenda toward sustainable water resources development, paving the way for integrated water resources management (IWRM) application, and visualizing intervention techniques to comprehend existing challenges. The watershed faces tremendous pressure due to erratic rainfall patterns, drastic water demand increase, hydrological extremes, and natural‐anthropogenic activities. This study aims to re‐evaluate the recently developed Integrated Watershed Health Assessment Framework (IWHF) global weights, Weyib watershed health assessment, and Ethiopia's policy implications using the integration of numerous data and multiple tools. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was used to estimate aggregate results from experts' survey responses, which depicted 50.89% priority for ecological conditions, followed by economic 23.30%, policy 13.82%, and 12% for socio‐cultural attributes. A slight discrepancy was exhibited when global weights were re‐evaluated, and the variables with substantial effects on IWHF in developing countries like Ethiopia were integrated. The majority of Weyib watershed health index (WWHI) indicators unveiled promising results except for stakeholders' collaboration and social obligation to restoration activities, information and educational campaigns, hydrology, wetland, and natural land‐cover. The water‐quality parameters laboratory findings were depicted as suitable for irrigation purposes. In general, the WWHI was in good health status, and a medium‐level priority was required for intervention activities to address deteriorated variables. Moreover, enhancing IWRM's application will contribute to tackling bottlenecks such as boost community awareness and stakeholder collaboration, legal and administrative gaps, overlapped mandates, and unpermitted water use resulting in undermining downstream demands and environmental low‐flow.

Boundary construction and education: un/belonging among Somali refugee students in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

ABSTRACT This study analyzes how un/belonging is experienced by Somali refugee students in public primary schools in the Bole Michael area of Addis Ababa. Drawing on data from interviews and focus group discussions, we place these micro-level experiences of un/belonging in conversation with the current Ethiopian policy for the inclusion of refugees in the national education system. While the inclusion of refugees is now the status quo for large refugee-hosting countries in the Global South, we find that this policy often ignores the specificities of refugees’ educational experiences in particular places. Somali refugees describe public primary schools as ‘difficult’ and ‘alien’ to their culture, while school authorities and teachers characterize Somali learners as ‘others’ who should, but fail to, assimilate. Our findings indicate the need for policies and practices to engage in negotiations between refugees and public schools to move beyond foundational efforts of providing access to schools to goals of learning and belonging.

Abiy Ahmed's Domestic Policy in Ethiopia: Securitization and conflict resolution

The subject of this study is a set of political reforms carried out by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed from 2018 to the present. The object of the study is the internal political contradictions accumulated in Ethiopia from 1974 to 2018. The purpose of the work is to test the hypothesis that the policy of A. Ahmed is subject to the provisions of the theory of securitization of B. Buzan and O. Weaver and is aimed at transforming the conflict education of Ethiopia into a security regime. The topic of the study is relevant, since Ethiopia is considered by a number of scientists as a potential regional heavyweight capable of stabilizing the Horn of Africa region and ultimately influencing the security of the whole of Africa. Therefore, it is important to study the dynamics of political processes in modern Ethiopia. The research is based on the theory of regional security complexes by B. Buzan and O. Weaver. The methods of work are qualitative content analysis of official documents and expert opinions, as well as event analysis, logical and philosophical assumptions are allowed. A realistic approach is used to analyze the internal political situation in Ethiopia. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that the policy of Abiy Ahmed is analyzed not from the standpoint of historical approaches, but from the point of view of political science theory, which is applied to the political process taking place in our time. The author concludes that the political course of A. Ahmed is determined by the difficult situation in which Ethiopia found itself by 2018. The Prime Minister is trying to stabilize the situation in the country, using his rich experience and professional knowledge, trying to change Ethiopia's position as a conflict entity to a security regime, his internal policy traces approaches based on strengthening the central government, which, from the point of view of the theory of B. Buzan and O. Weaver, makes Ethiopia a functional entity capable of respond to existential threats and develop successfully.

Will policy help close the digital gender divide? An intersectional feminist policy analysis of Ethiopia's national digital policy

AbstractMotivationDigital technologies can enable development, but they risk further entrenching inequalities in society, such as through the digital gender divide. The divide can not only slow development, but also slow progress towards gender equality. As digital technologies become increasingly used by governments for economic development, the gendered aspects of digital technologies need to be considered.PurposeThis study aims to investigate how Ethiopia's current national policies involving digital technologies consider the digital gender divide. It asks the following research questions: (1) how do Ethiopian government policies relating to engagement with digital technologies consider gender and gendered issues? And (2) how do Ethiopian government policies capture the causes of the digital gender divide?Methods and approachI critically analyse Ethiopian policies using an intersectional feminist lens, adapted from the work of Kanenberg et al. (2019). I applied this to the Ten Years Development Plan (10YP), Digital Ethiopia 2025, Ethiopian Education Roadmap 2018–2030 (EEDR), and Education Sector Development Programme VI (ESDP VI).FindingsThe four policies show little consideration of gender and gendered dimensions of digital technologies. They rarely address the causes of the digital gender divide. Above all, they do not consider the underlying sociocultural barriers women face if they want to engage with digital technologies. The policies are thus unlikely to help close the digital gender divide. Ethiopia's integrationist approach to gender, as well as the patriarchal structures within which the policies are designed, probably explain these findings.Policy implicationsA transformational gender policy paradigm, one designed to position women and men to challenge the patriarchal structures they live within, is suggested as a means of capturing and confronting the barriers women face to engaging with digital technologies in the long term.

The effects of reproductive variables on child mortality in Ethiopia: evidence from demographic and health surveys from 2000 to 2016

BackgroundChild mortality is a crucial indicator reflecting a country's health and socioeconomic status. Despite significant global improvements in reducing early childhood deaths, Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa still bear the highest burden of newborn mortality. Ethiopia is one of five countries that account for half of new-born deaths worldwide.MethodsThis study examined the relationship between specific reproductive factors and under-five mortality in Ethiopia. A discrete-time survival model was applied to analyze data collected from four Ethiopian Demographic and Health Surveys (EDHS) conducted between 2000 and 2016. The study focused on investigating the individual and combined effects of three factors: preceding birth interval, maternal age at childbirth, and birth order, on child mortality.ResultsThe study found that lengthening the preceding birth interval to 18–23, 24–35, 36–47, or 48+ months reduced the risk of under-five deaths by 30%, 46%, 56%, and 60% respectively, compared to very short birth intervals (less than 18 months). Giving birth between the ages 20–34 and 35+ reduced the risk by 34% and 8% respectively, compared to giving birth below the age of 20. The risk of under-five death was higher for a 7th-born child by 17% compared to a 2nd or 3rd-born child. The combined effect analysis showed that higher birth order at a young maternal age increased the risk. In comparison, lower birth order in older maternal age groups was associated with higher risk. Lastly, very short birth intervals posed a greater risk for children with higher birth orders.ConclusionNot only does one reproductive health variable negatively affect child survival, but their combination has the strongest effect. It is therefore recommended that policies in Ethiopia should address short birth intervals, young age of childbearing, and order of birth through an integrated strategy.

Role of International Institutions in Ethiopia’s Rural Land Policy

This Article explores whether and to what extent Ethiopia`s contemporary land policy is influenced by international institutions chiefly the World Bank and the USAID. To this end, the article has identified and examined two opposing views, the first of which contends government policies including land policies in Ethiopia are dictated by some influential international institutions as the regime in Ethiopia is dependent on aid funds in implementing its social policies, which include land policy. According to this first perspective, such policies are not the result of organized collective action by the insecure land holders. The second view is that such policies are internally driven because international institutions have been unable to push through policy agenda their way meaningfully. Having considered such views, the article finds it is not persuasive to put the extent of influence of international institutions in Ethiopia`s land policy in black and white; yet, it seems unreasonable to argue that such institutions which contribute significantly to Ethiopia`s annual budget have no influence over land policy at all even if determination of the extent of their roles is complex and vague. For instance, some tenets of Ethiopia`s current land policy as a tool to poverty reduction and smallholder commercial agriculture are strikingly similar to the tenets of the WB`s 2003 Land Policy which include legalizing land rentals, land use collateralization for agricultural investors and establishment of customary dispute resolution methods, regularization of informal landholdings, and landholding registration programs without however conceding the fundamental aspect of land law. The USAID`s involvement in drafting Ethiopian current Federal and regional rural land laws has led to the inclusion of some of these elements. External pressures may not nevertheless have a decisive role as domestic political and bureaucratic interests in land policy at implementation phase may lessen their magnitude.

The impact of adoption of milk safety practices on food and nutrition security: Evidence from smallholder dairy farmers in Ethiopia

Despite the progress observed over the past decades, food and nutritional insecurity remain the prominent challenges in Ethiopia. In this respect, improved farming practices and productivity-enhancing agricultural technologies have been identified as pathways out of these problems; these technologies are the priority agenda of the government policy in Ethiopia. Nonetheless, the impact of the adoption of milk safety practices on dairy farmers’ food and nutrition security has not yet been addressed, especially at the smallholder farmers’ level. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the adoption of milk safety practices on dairy farmers’ food and nutrition security in Ethiopia, using primary data collected from 410 dairy farmers. Generalized propensity score matching was used to evaluate the heterogeneous impact of the adoption of milk safety practices on the household food and nutrition security indicators (per capita food consumption expenditure and food consumption score). The findings reveal that the adoption of milk safety practices had a moderate impact on food consumption expenditure but had no significant impact on food consumption score. An ordered probit endogenous switching regression was also used to account for unobserved bias and check the robustness of the generalized propensity score estimates. Accordingly, the results are similar to the generalized propensity score estimates, and unobserved bias was not a problem. In general, the impact of adoption of milk safety practices on food and nutrition security of smallholder dairy farmers is moderate in Ethiopia. This might be because of the high compliance costs with the adoption of milk safety practices and the lack of quality-based pricing systems. Hence, creating an enabling environment, which in turn, encourages the adoption of milk safety practices would help improve positive effects of the adoption of milk safety practices on food and nutritional security.

Exploring the perception of key stakeholders toward khat policy approaches in Ethiopia: a qualitative study

BackgroundKhat is an amphetamine-like plant, produced and commonly chewed in Ethiopia by a large group of the population. Although significant multidimensional harms of khat use have been reported, currently, there are no policies or organized activities against khat use in Ethiopia. Therefore, the current study aimed to explore the perception of key stakeholders toward khat policy approaches for Ethiopia.MethodsA qualitative study was conducted using focus group discussion (FGD) and in-depth interview (IDI). Ten stakeholders participated in the IDIs, and another 15 individuals participated in the FGDs. Key stakeholders were appropriately mapped and purposively selected based on their experience related to khat use and khat harm reduction. Interviews and FGDs were led by the study authors and were audio-recorded. The audio-recorded data were transcribed verbatim and then translated into English language. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis approach.ResultsParticipants preferred prevention and law regulation measures for khat policy approaches for Ethiopia. Proposed prevention and law regulation measures included regulating the transportation of khat, limiting the minimum age to buy and sell khat, prohibiting khat use at some public places, banning khat advertising and promotion, and imposing excise tax. Individual level khat harm reduction strategies were also proposed to be useful. However, the participants asserted that total khat ban in Ethiopia is not likely to be feasible and acceptable.ConclusionPrevention, treatment or care for individuals with problematic khat use, law regulation, and harm reduction were preferred approaches by stakeholders for khat policy in Ethiopia instead of total banning.

Setting a research agenda to advance maternal, newborn, and child health in Ethiopia: An adapted CHNRI prioritization exercise.

Critical to the improvement of maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) in Ethiopia - where 14 000 mothers die from pregnancy-, childbirth-, or postpartum-related complications each year - is high-quality research and its effective translation into policy and practice. While Ethiopia has rapidly expanded the number of institutions that train and conduct MNCH research, the absence of a shared research agenda inhibits a coordinated approach to inform critical MNCH policy needs. The HaSET Maternal and Child Health Research Program (MCHRP) conducted a mixed methods formative assessment and prioritization exercise to guide investments in future MNCH research in Ethiopia. We adapted the Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative (CHNRI) method, soliciting 56 priority research questions via key informant interviews. Through an online survey, experts scored these on their ability to generate new, actionable evidence that could inform more effective and equitable MNCH programs in Ethiopia. At a workshop in Addis Ababa, experts scored the questions by answerability and ethics, usefulness, disease burden reduction, and impact on equity. Research priority scores were calculated for both the online survey and workshop scoring and averaged to attain a ranked priority list. We validated and contextualized the results by conducting consensus-building discussions with MNCH experts and two community workshops. In total, approximately 100 participants were involved. Average research priority scores ranged from 58.4 to 83.7 out of 100.0. The top identified research priorities speak to critical needs in the Ethiopian context: to improve population coverage of proven interventions like integrated community case management (ICCM), family integrated newborn care, and kangaroo mother care (KMC); to better understand the determinants of outcomes like home deliveries, immunization drop-out, and antenatal and postpartum care-seeking; and to strengthen health system and workforce capabilities. This exercise expanded on the CHNRI methodology by comparing prioritization across different audiences, formats, and criteria. Agreement between both scoring rounds and consensus-building discussions was strong, demonstrating the reliability of the CHNRI method. By sharing this research priority list broadly among researchers, practitioners, and donors, we aim to improve coordinated MNCH evidence generation and translation into policy in Ethiopia.

An overview of Civil Servants Training Policy in Ethiopia: A Qualitative Document Analysis

In-service training has provided to civil servants through Civil Service Training Institutes (CSTIs) established for this purpose. Such practice is widely accepted and implemented the world over. However, the absence of the required policy environment has forced these institutes to ‘ride a blind horse'. This study, aimed to examine the policy environment established to facilitate the training provisions of CSTIs in Ethiopia. To this end, a document analysis method was employed, and data obtained from government documents were analyzed to determine the extent of the facilitation of the existing civil servants' training policy environment and to see the prospects of having favorable civil service training policy in Ethiopia. As the research findings revealed, Ethiopia is a pioneer country in introducing a civil service and civil servants training system in Africa and developing countries of the world. Despite this, currently, Ethiopia deprives of a facilitative civil service training policy environment. The Federal Civil Service Commission is mandated to coordinate, formulate civil service training-related policy environments, supervise, and monitor policy implementation. However, by now, Ethiopia does not have the required federal-level policy framework to regulate civil service training programs either in the form of embedded or independent document. Ethiopia also lacks most of the indicators that are directly related to the policy foundations of the civil service training. The prospect of having a CST policy seems far from reach unless especial attention is provided to the sector. Keywords: Civil Servant, In-service Training, Civil Service Training Institute, Training Policy, Ethiopia. DOI: 10.7176/DCS/13-2-04 Publication date: February 28 th 2023

Review on Agricultural Input Use and Policy in Ethiopia

Ethiopian policymakers have made a series of policies and investments to boost agricultural production and productivity, especially staple food crops that have helped reduce poverty in the country. The goal of this process is to increase the availability of seeds, fertilizers, improved land use practices and input subsidy options to farmers. Although some evidence suggests that this process has helped improve agricultural yields and output, policymakers recognize that further improvements are needed. This article examines lessons learned from Ethiopia's previous experience in providing smallholder farmers with access to seeds, fertilizers, land use practices, and input subsidy options, identifies the challenges faced and the country's ongoing efforts to strengthen input systems and markets, and proposes policy solutions for the future.

Family policy, intrahousehold bargaining, and child health

AbstractThis study examines the effects of an exogenous change in family policy in Ethiopia on women empowerment and the allocation of resources toward child health. Empowerment is formalized as an unobserved latent variable based on a large set of questions pertaining to women's autonomy and decision‐making power. Exploiting the time and regional variation in the implementation of the law, the study finds that early implementation of the reform increases women's access to information, literacy and education levels, and their assertiveness toward family planning and domestic violence. In addition, more decision power in the hands of women is found to have a positive impact on investments in the health and nutrition of children. The findings suggest that factors that do not enter the individual's preferences may affect outcomes for individuals and emphasize the role of intrahousehold heterogeneity. The results are robust to a battery of validity and specification checks.

Diaspora policy in Ethiopia: institutional dimension

The article touches upon the new branch of Ethiopian public policy – diaspora politics. This sphere is considered through the prism of the evolution of key state institutions designed to regulate the contacts of Ethiopian citizens and state with compatriots living abroad. The modern Ethiopian diaspora is a complex phenomenon given its multi-ethnic and multi-religious, geographically unevenly distributed composition. Moreover, its representatives do not always have legal status in a receiving country. Despite this, in recent decades, the Ethiopian authorities have done a lot to establish a dialogue with the diaspora and attract its resources for the social and economic development of the country. The study examines the main objectives of Ethiopia’s diaspora policy, the development of a system of state institutions in this field, the influence of different Ethiopian identities on the contacts of the Ethiopian government with the diaspora, the role of the diaspora in the inflow of foreign investment into the country, the main problems and difficulties hampering the effective interaction between the Government and the Ethiopian diaspora abroad. Conclusions on possible prospects of diaspora policy of Ethiopia at the present stage have been drawn.

Negotiated Securitization? Examining Ethiopia’s Post-2016 Refugee Policy Shift

The year 2016 is remembered globally for the adoption of the New York Declaration and its Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) as the new global refugee response model. In this regard, Ethiopia has been one of those African countries that have adopted the Declaration, made specific CRRF pledges and has become a CRRF pilot country. Such national policy move heralded the shift of refugee policy in Ethiopia in the post-2016 era. Nonetheless, compared to the focus accorded to refugees and the role of international institutions and donors, the role of African hosting states in the governance of refugees and how they navigate internal and external demands and adopt policies have been paid little scholarly attention. This study, therefore, aims to fill in this scholarly gap and contribute to the existing debate in the academic and policy circle on state response to refugees in the era of CRRF from the Global South perspective by providing an empirical insight into the nature, dynamics and shift of refugee policies in Ethiopia and the factors that contributed to this effect.

Health Policy and Systems Research Capacities in Ethiopia and Ghana: Findings From a Self-Assessment.

Health systems are complex. Policies targeted at health system development may be informed by health policy and systems research (HPSR). This study assesses HPSR capacity to generate evidence and inform policy in Ethiopia and Ghana. We used a mixed-methods approach including a self-administered survey at selected HPSR institutes and in-depth interviews of policy makers. Both countries have limited capacity to generate HPSR evidence, especially in terms of mobilizing adequate funding and retaining a critical number of competent researchers who understand complex policy processes, have the skills to influence policy, and know policy makers' demands for evidence. Common challenges are limited government research funding, rigidity in executing the research budget, and reliance on donor funding that might not respond to national health priorities. There are no large research programs in either country. The annual number of HPSR projects per research institute in Ethiopia (10 projects) was higher than in Ghana (2.5 projects), Ethiopia has a significantly smaller annual budget for health research. Policy makers in the 2 countries increasingly recognize the importance of evidence-informed policy making, but various challenges remain in building effective interactions with HPSR institutes. We propose 3 synergistic recommendations to strengthen HPSR capacity in Ethiopia and Ghana. First, strengthen researchers' capacity and enhance their opportunities to know policy actors; engage with the policy community; and identify and work with policy entrepreneurs, who have attributes, skills, and strategies to achieve a successful policy. Second, deliver policy-relevant research findings in a timely way and embed research into key health programs to guide effective implementation. Third, mobilize local and international funding to strengthen HPSR capacities as well as address challenges with recruiting and retaining a critical number of talented researchers. These recommendations may be applied to other low- and middle-income countries to strengthen HPSR capacities.

Vegetation coverage changes driven by a combination of climate change and human activities in Ethiopia, 2003–2018

Climate change often leads to the vulnerability of vegetation cover, while the impact of human activities on vegetation cover is undoubtedly more complex in this context, especially in Ethiopia. This paper analyzed the spatiotemporal dynamics of vegetation growth in Ethiopia from 2003 to 2018 by the enhanced vegetation index (EVI) based on different time scales and explored the coefficient of variation and driving factors of the fractional vegetation coverage (FVC). The results indicated that the EVI mainly presents a “double peak” pattern, with large spatiotemporal differences between quarters and months in Ethiopia. The FVC increased by 0.0005 per year, but vegetation showed a browning trend after 2013. The FVC degraded area accounted for 43.9% of the total area, of which the significantly degraded area accounted for 7.51% due to human activities, mainly in northern, central, and southern Ethiopia. The effects of precipitation and maximum temperature on vegetation differed on time scales. Spatially, the vegetation on the northwest side of the Main Ethiopian Rift Valley (MERV) was dominated by a combination of maximum temperature and precipitation, while vegetation on the southeast side of MERV was mainly influenced by precipitation. However, the spatial overlay analysis with degraded and healthy vegetation zones revealed that human activities were the key driver of vegetation cover change rather than climate change. This study provides support for further development of vegetation health conservation policies in Ethiopia and monitoring of vegetation dynamics in other countries around the world.

Benchmarking policy goals and actions for healthy food environments in Ethiopia to prevent malnutrition in all its forms using document analysis

ObjectiveUnhealthy diets resulting in overweight and obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases are of increasing concern in Ethiopia, alongside persistent undernutrition, and have been linked to unhealthy food environments. Little is...

The effectiveness of industrial policy in developing countries: causal evidence from Ethiopian manufacturing firms

ABSTRACT Prioritising the growth of particular sectors or regions is often part of a low-income country’s growth strategy. We study a prototypical example of such policies in Ethiopia, exploiting geographic and sectoral variation in the form and scale of the policy for identification. Using product-level data on Ethiopian manufacturing firms, we show that the policy was unsuccessful: in the best case scenario its benefits were around one-tenth of its cost. Subsidised loans did not improve productivity, leading only to an increase in fungible assets not machinery. Tax-breaks improved productivity but reduced firms’ capital levels. Further results suggest that these were both the consequence of volatility and the lack of effective bankruptcy protection. There are two key policy implications of our findings. Firstly, we highlight that ineffective industrial policies can be extremely expensive and thus may impede rather than promote countries’ pursuit of their development objectives, given that ‘blunt’ industrial policies like the one we study are common. Second, our results suggest that policies that rely on improving access to capital will be more successful in a stable economic environment with effective bankruptcy protection and that access to capital is not necessarily the key constraint to improving productivity in many of the firms we study.

السیاسة الإثیوبیة تجاه نهر النیل من منظور القوة الجیواقتصادیة المائیة

Ethiopia occupies a geographical position controlling the Nile River water, a source of its geoeconomic power that it seeks to exploit to shift the strategic balance in its favor within the framework of expanding its regional sphere of influence. The study aims at showing the extent of the impact of the hydro-geoeconomic power of Ethiopia on the countries of the Nile River region. In the analysis, the study uses the concept of hydro-geoeconomic power and the concept of the international river. It also focuses on theories of hegemony and the theory of power transition. In this context, the study presented the importance of the Nile River from the perspective of the hydro-geoeconomic approach. It also addressed the internal and external determinants of the Ethiopian policy towards the Nile Basin countries. It also reviewed the fundamentals of the Ethiopian policy towards the region. Finally, the study presented a final vision regarding the limits on the impact of the Ethiopian policy on the regional system of the Nile Basin countries and concluded in this regard that the rise of the Ethiopian hydro-geoeconomic power is mainly linked to its external relations which provide grants, financial aid, or assistance.