Content: Commentary

The Peace, Security & Cooperation Framework (PSCF) for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Great Lakes region came into being half a decade ago, generating a new hope for peace and stability in the Great Lakes region and beyond. But sources of conflict remain, which need to be addressed, writes Said Djinnit, special envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General for the Great Lakes region.

For the second time in our history, Ethiopia’s political leader has resigned through a peaceful process. Prime Minister Haile Mariam Dessalegn has left office showing an essential political virtue: patriotic restraint. What this shows is that our country can have normal politics, writes Abdul Mohammed, a regional political analyst.

Quality talent is difficult to come by in Ethiopia’s hospitality industry, exasperating customers of high-end establishments. Gaining hands-on experience will enable new graduates to address real service problems. Hoteliers and restaurateurs should likewise invest in the additional training to get them to acquire advanced skill-sets, writes David Desta (destadavid@gmail.com), a Cornell University graduate from the School of Hotel Administration who has been working in Ethiopia with Kuriftu Resorts for the past several years.

Bringing back the non-performing loans (NPLs) of the Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE) on track requires a clear understanding of financial situations of client businesses, a positive thinking attitude, and a clear focus as to where the Bank’s effort should be concentrated in solving the problem at hand, argues Ibrahim Jelan.

With the launch of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), it is expected that flight schedules and routes will improve to the benefit of leisure and business travellers, not to mention that travellers will be provided with more choices and cheaper fares, writes David Desta (destadavid@gmail.com), a Cornell University graduate from the School of Hotel Administration who has been working in Ethiopia with Kuriftu Resorts for the past several years.

The existence of poor and inefficient domestic financial resource mobilisation has become a cause as well as a means for the nation’s economic ills. To successfully implement development plans, the commitment of the government to work with the people is crucial, writes Kennedy Abebe (kennedyecondevt@gmail.com), an E-banking business development officer at Wegagen Bank.

In September 2015, leaders of 193 countries endorsed a new set of development goals, the sustainable development goals (SDGs), to make the world a better place for all human beings. The SDGs are broader than the millennium development goals (MDGs) and have 17 goals that cover a range of issues. Goal number three seeks to […]

Productive faculty, student experience and engaging social and intellectual campus infrastructure are the monitoring tools for excellence in the grand areas of teaching and learning, research and scholarship, and community services and engagement, writes Getachew Assefa (PhD) (getachew@triple10.ca), associate professor of Environmental Design at University of calgary and sustainability consultant.

The new president of Addis Abeba University (AAU) needs to come up with a novel and strategic plan to make the university competitive continentally. Getachew Assefa (PhD) (getachew@triple10.ca ), Associate Professor of Environmental Design at University of Calgary and Sustainability Consultant, suggests that the plan should be focused on excellence in the areas of teaching and learning, research and scholarship, and community services and engagement.

Conflicts and drought that affected many countries have been the primary contributors to the increase of hunger in sub-Saharan Africa in 2016. But political will has not evaporated and the world’s economy is recovering, scenarios African countries could use to eradicate hunger, writes Jose Graziano da Silva, director general of the Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations.

With stagnant growth over the past several years, Ethiopia is still a relatively unknown tourist destination. But a nation of 100 million people, diplomatic capital of Africa, and home to nine World Heritage Sites, Ethiopia should be at the forefront of tourism in East Africa, writes David Desta (destadavid@gmail.com), a Cornell University graduate from the School of Hotel Administration who has been working in Ethiopia with Kuriftu Resorts for the past several years.

The EPRDF has come a long way from the rebel force it used to be, to the major governing party it is today. But it appears to have failed to build a capable state bureaucracy and independent institutions that transcend itself, which impeded the realisation of its developmental vision. Still, its experimentation with democratisation and developmentalism testify to its willingness to re-invent itself and to play a leadership role, writes Addisu Lashitew (PhD) (lashitew@rsm.nl), a researcher at Erasmus University Rotterdam (The Netherlands).

A reasonable compromise between an impending era of automation, leading to mass job losses, and adapting the Luddite philosophy, in an effort to protect workers, is a work day that is comprised of six regular work hours for employees, carried out in two shifts, to mean a 12-hour work day for employers. This though would require significant complementary reforms specifically where wages are concerned, writes Samson Getachew (nosmasget@gmail.com), whose interests run amok in the areas of economics.

The economy of developing nations is in a vicious circle, where poor domestic mobilisation and allocation worsens the economic state of the country, which in turn exacerbates local financial sourcing. It has also made them highly dependent on uncertain external sources of finance for the functioning of their economy that are full of pre-conditions, ultimately perpetuating long-lasting socioeconomic and political problems, writes Kennedy Abebe (kennedyecondevt@gmail.com), an E-banking business development officer at Wegagen bank.

Over the years, key players such as the Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN have supported many countries in Eastern Africa to deal with the complex issue of managing forest resources. It has developed tools, guidelines, and generated data and assembled information on sound policy practices and approaches.

Ethiopia’s economy has been experiencing a phenomenal economic growth. Likewise, it has also been experiencing high inflation. Even as incomes have risen, the living standard has not done as well and should be an area that should most concern the government.

The long-serving parts of the economy need pruning. The eight-hour work day needs to be revised and reformed to widen the economic space and allow both human labour and technology have a fair playing ground.

Covering a market of 1.2 billion people and a combined GDP of 2.2 trillion dollars, Africa’s Continental Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) is a staggering proposition that by 2050 will represent a larger market than the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) of today. It will be of particular benefit to Africa’s small and medium-sized enterprises, write Mahamadou Issoufou, president of Niger, and Vera Songwe, UN undersecretary general and executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

There are significant barriers to households and businesses committed to engage in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) scheme in Ethiopia. This challenge requires innovative approaches to support the government’s efforts in advancing water supply and sanitation (WSS) access through self-supply, writes Salfiso Kitabo (skitabo@water.org), country director of Water.Org in Ethiopia.

The creation of a governance and development learning network that could evolve into a transnational centre, facilitated by opportunities to combine digital and print technologies, is crucial to the creation of good governance, writes Richard Joseph (Prof.), John Evans Professor of International History & Politics at Northwestern University, who has had decades of engagement in African politics, including that of Ethiopia.

The emerging conflict over the Nile water is rooted in a broader African “fertility” challenge – rapid human population growth, and poor soil productivity – writes Elfatih A B Eltahir (Prof) Breene M Kerr Professor of Hydrology and Climate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States, in a piece previously published by Nature Middle East.

Complex themes that are related to issues that constitute modern-day challenges in Ethiopia such as food security, water management and climate change were picked under the EENSAT programme. It strives to improve the nation’s capacity to capitalise on spatial data, writes B.H.P. (Ben) Maathuis (PhD) (info@eensat.org), project lead of EENSAT, and assistant professor at the University of Twente who has collaborated with public and private partners, like the National Meteorological Agency and the African Union Commission in Addis Abeba.

Asserting that entrepreneurship is critical to growth is one thing, but encouraging it through policies and capital is quite another. Hailemelekot T. Berhan (hailemt@gmail.com), thus, argues that the government should put its money where its mouth is for the reality on the ground discourages disruptors.

Projects funded by the European Union in the field of civil society and human rights in partner countries, such as Ethiopia, aim to promote the rights and values enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, writes Johan Borgstam, head of the European Union Delegation to Ethiopia.

The past couple of months do not lack global rankings by international institutions to measure the various economic and political statuses of the world’s nations.