Content: Contributors

The Nigerian economist, Sam Aluko, famously said in 1999 that, “the poor cannot sleep, because they are hungry and the rich cannot sleep, because the poor are awake and hungry.” We are all affected by deep disparities of income and wealth, because the political and economic system on which our prosperity depends cannot continue enriching […]

Education increases economic growth, helps families and communities to prosper and empowers people to gain employment and live healthier, more fulfilling lives. In the 21st century global economy, a well-educated and skilled workforce is critical for countries and companies to thrive. That is why we should all be concerned that many parts of Africa continue […]

Microfinance is, at its heart, an effort to provide financial services to people who are not served – or are under-served – by the formal banking system. With appropriate, accessible and fairly priced financial services, people can build their savings, cover the costs of unexpected emergencies and invest in their family’s health, housing and education. […]

A recent survey by the World Economic Forum (WEF) rated government lower than both business and media in its ability to respond to global challenges. On one level, this is understandable, given the plethora of challenges that governments face and the lack of long-term solutions to many problems that demand one. But, on another level, […]

The words of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, Africa’s first female head of state, are testament to years of wasted potential in too many African countries. She once said, “Sub-Saharan Africa is rich in resources, talent, energy and spirit. But it has not been rich in leadership. It is made up of rich countries […]

As human beings, how we see ourselves as compared to others will have a negative or positive impact on our individual and collective behaviours. It could even determine our destination. Among the thousands of students who won scholarships to the US and other European countries five decades ago, very few remained there. There were almost […]

Poverty has been the lone challenge that Ethiopians have had to suffer through for many years. It has even gone so far as to become the major defining image of the country. For the majority of the past century, for example, various parties in developed nations have thought ofEthiopiawhenever they have been concerned with poverty. […]

History is full of people and institutions that rose to positions of supremacy only to come crashing down. In most cases, hubris – a sense of invincibility fed by uncontested power – was their undoing. In other cases, however, both the rise and the fall stemmed more from the unwarranted expectations of those around them. […]

Egypt’s sense of nationhood is tied up in control of the Nile. So too is energy self sufficiency for Ethiopia. The clash between these two realities could have deadly consequences. America will be tempted to intervene – on the wrong side. The issue is a major dam under construction by Ethiopia on the Blue Nile […]

For a while now, I have been flaccidly participating in online debates about religion, culture, the state and politics. In the virtual world, which is underpinned by the dynamic technologies of the Internet, we can generally find two groups of people. On one side of the aisle we have liberals, or those who think they […]

Regional integration is crucial for Africa’s development. It is essential in building economies of scale and creating a competitive continental economy. It promises to open up new markets, by eliminating trade barriers and through investments in key sectors, like water and energy. It can unleash the full potential of Africa’s workforce. This is well documented […]

There are well-worn arguments both about the potential of Africa’s exceptional natural wealth, and the reasons why it fails to deliver. The debate goes on, and intensifies with every new discovery. We estimate that Africa has 120 billion barrels of oil reserves, no less than half of Saudi Arabia, and 600 million hectares of uncultivated […]

It is obvious that education is an engine for economic development. An education system is said to be efficient if maximum output is obtained from a given input, or if a given output is obtained with minimum input. The Ethiopian government has been working towards achieving universal education by the year 2015. Since 1991, the […]

The deep desire to escape from the devastating wars of the past has achieved little. Slogans have changed from “All things to the war front” to “All things to the number one enemy – poverty”. This is a worthy change, as it unites the country, but the way to tackle it is starkly different for […]

Each generation needs to equip itself with knowledge, skills and an accepted ethical education that can help it to sustain responsible citizenship. The great books, along with strict cultural practices, establish the values that help develop each generation in accordance with contemporary socio-economic and even political conditions of nations. Taking this idea into account, the […]

This might be considered as a message from an ordinary Ethiopian to the Government of Ethiopia led by the ruling EPRDF. All over the world, a government in power is required to pay attention and make adjustments for every economic, social and political aspect of the nation under its very rule. No different couldEthiopiabe. Ethiopia, […]

Africa’s population growth figures are staggering. The continent had a fertility rate of 5.4 children per woman between 2005 and 2010 – double that of any other region – and it is projected to decline only to 3.2 by 2050, still higher than other regions (the rate is under 2.5 in Asia, and below 2 […]

The conflict between short political mandates and long-term objectives is an old and well-known problem in electoral politics. To galvanize political support, policymakers often resort to “benevolent” political measures, such as short-sighted tax reductions or infrastructure investments, which are often more beneficial to their own election polls than to their electorate. Such political myopia is […]

One of my earliest childhood memories is of swimming in a small gully near my grandmother’s home, amidst a dusty collection of tin-roofed adobe buildings huddled together in the plains. After the rains, the gully became a deep triangular cleft cut into the ground, filled with muddy water. Children gathered like ants to spilled sugar, […]

Come September, member states of the United Nations will debate what should replace the millennium development goals (MDGs) when they expire in 2015. The official conversation is moving quickly, and the month ahead will offer a significant opportunity for public review before the process moves behind closed doors. If our new development goals are to […]

Natural disasters, driven by climate change, threaten to undermine the hard-fought gains made over the last decade, just as Africa is beginning to realise its vast agricultural potential. Smallholder farmers, who constitute the bulk of the sector across our continent, are especially vulnerable to the changing weather and require government assistance to deal with it. […]

Since the dawn of the Ethiopian Millennium, prices have been rising dramatically throughout the country. Inflation has, thus, been a fundamental economic problem. Ethiopians, as a whole, and the poor Ethiopians in particular, have been the victims of this persistent rise in the general price level. It is obvious that the impacts of inflation prevail […]

The future of our planet depends on the global economy’s rapid transition to “green growth” – modes of production based on clean technologies that significantly reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Yet carbon remains badly mispriced, owing to fossil-fuel subsidies and the absence of tax revenues needed to address the global externalities […]

Africans like their mobile phones, too. So surely the African continent will simply follow the same telecom development and usage pattern as the rest of the world, just maybe a little later? Well, not quite. Africa has proven to be somewhat different when it comes to mobile telephony. Just look at the unexpected speed with […]

Hunger is expensive: The World Food Program (WFP) announced recently that child malnutrition in Ethiopia costs 55.5 billion Br every year. That is 16.5pc of the gross domestic product: nearly a fifth of the country’s earnings. Ironically, hunger also disproportionately affects small holder farmers: The United Nations Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that half […]