Adele-in one of the Kebeles of Aysha woreda at-a food-fair. Oxfam has organized food fairs, where local traders brought the food items to the kebeles and people claimed the food items using food vouchers. Oxfam paid the traders after getting the vouchers back.
Twenty five years ago I listened for the first time to Bono singing the words “Well, tonight, thank God it’s them instead of you” . Those words captured the mood of the time and before long the Band Aid single “Do they know it’s Christmas?” was number one in the charts and raising cash in a unique way. The following summer I joined the millions who stayed up all night to watch some of the biggest bands in the World perform back to back. I really felt like I was watching something – if only from a distance – that was special. It was a bit like an armchair Glastonbury. I donated less than a fiver I think (I was a teenager after all) by calling the free phone number – no online or text donations then – and sat back feeling good about myself and fully deserving of some free Madonna and Sting.Now I work as a Campaigner for Oxfam, and this week I’ve seen the BBC story about how some of that money allegedly found its way into the hands of rebel forces in Ethiopia. Of course the story jumps on Live Aid to grab our attention, although the money was from different sources.
Getting money to the people who need it and for whom it was intended, must always be the priority for organisations involved in overseas development. Not just ‘more’ but also ‘better’ aid has become the mantra for groups delivering that service. However, reaching people in poor countries where civil conflict exists is even harder. Money like this is most often intended for things like schools and hospitals – essential services – and these are usually the first to go during unrest. People in need in conflict zones are the ones who need aid money the most. Can we turn our backs on them?
As I see it, and I’m not an aid worker, when you have decided which country to work in, you have to be realistic about routes for delivering aid. You have to reduce the risk by working with established groups, ones that the locals know and trust. Then you need to be able to see results. It’s not easy but its necessary.
Today, millions in Ethiopia and across East Africa are facing severe food and water shortages after years of poor rains. It is estimated that drought costs Ethiopia $1.1bn a year – almost eclipsing the total annual overseas assistance to the country. You could be tempted to say that aid doesn’t work. But this is simply not true.The aid provided over the past 25 years has saved countless people from starvation and chronic hunger. In the recent Global Hunger Index of all developing countries, Ethiopia was shown to be in the top five performers in alleviating hunger since 1990 in absolute terms. The proportion of children completing primary school has more than doubled since 2000. Of course this can be further improved. A lot has been learned in the last 25 years; there are great programmes going on in Ethiopia right now that help communities prepare for years when the rains fail.
Change can happen and does happen. What we need to do is learn from what really works and see donors and agencies like the World Food Programme shifting the weight of their support to back these kinds of initiatives. What we can’t forget is that in developing countries loopholes in the arms trade, unfair trade rules, climate change and lack of government investment in healthcare and education services are huge real issues that stampede on communties fighting to get back on their own feet in developing countries . For me stories like the Live Aid money one prove once again that long lasting change requires hard campaigning work on all these issues.
New York (CPJ) —Voice of America (VOA) reported today that its transmissions to Ethiopia are being electronic jammed. The Ethiopian government denied responsibility.
VOA cited “international shortwave radio monitors” and complaints from listeners in Ethiopia since February 22 about static the U.S. government-funded station’s daily, hour-long shortwave broadcast from Washington in Amharic—the country’s main official language. CPJ independently collected widespread local accounts of interference exclusively on the Amharic service. VOA’s half-hour broadcasts in the other two local languages, Afan Oromo and Tigrigna, were broadcasting normally, the sources said. David Borgida, a VOA spokesman told Bloomberg News the station had not identified the source of the interference.
“The Ethiopian government has long had a hostile relationship with VOA and that is why we view their denial of responsibility with some skepticism,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Tom Rhodes. “We note that the Ethiopian government has neither offered to investigate nor fix the problem.”
In media interviews today, government spokesman Shimelis Kemal denied any government involvement. “This is absolutely a sham,” he told CPJ, adding that “the Ethiopian government does not support the policy of restricting foreign broadcasting services in the country. Such practices are prohibited in our constitution.”
Kemal was the government prosecutor who charged 21 journalists, including five Washington-based VOA journalists, with anti-state crimes over their coverage of the aftermath of disputed elections in May 2005. Under his leadership, the Ethiopian Broadcasting Authority, the governmental authority responsible for issuing print and broadcast licenses, in 2009 ordered private station Radio Sheger to drop VOA newscasts and briefly revoked the accreditations of two VOA stringers, according to CPJ research.
Kemal told CPJ the allegations were part of a “smear campaign” by “opposition Web sites in the diaspora” ahead of general elections in May.
VOA is one of a handful of foreign-based independent stations, including Deutsche Welle and AddisDimts Radio, a station operated by the banned opposition movement Ginbot 7, that have reported ongoing or recurring interference of their broadcasts, according to CPJ research. Also in 2009, Meleskachew Amaha, a VOA stringer, was thrown into prison for three weeks on false tax charges that were later dismissed.
It was a charity appeal on a global scale. In 1985, an unprecedented array of performers took part in two marathon, televised concerts in Britain and the United States – all to raise money for a terrible famine in Ethiopia. And it worked. It’s thought the concerts eventually generated about two hundred and fifty million dollars in donations from the public. But now, evidence has emerged that the aid agencies charged with distributing that money, were hoodwinked: that millions of dollars were diverted to buy weapons for rebels in Ethiopia – and that the United States knew this was going on. For Assignment, Martin Plaut of BBC investigates. Click below to listen:
ADDIS ABABA (Bloomberg) — News broadcasts to Ethiopia by the Voice of America’s Amharic-language service are being electronically jammed, the Washington-based broadcaster said.
“VOA deplores jamming and any other form of censorship of the media,” Danforth Austin, director of the U.S. government-owned news service, said in a statement read to Bloomberg News by spokesman David Borgida. The broadcaster hasn’t been able to identify the source of the interference, Borgida said.
Shimeles Kemal, a spokesman for the Ethiopian government Woyanne regime in Ethiopia, said it was not responsible.
“Ethiopia has a constitution which outlaws any act by any official organ to restrict the dissemination of broadcast material from abroad,” he said in an interview today from the capital, Addis Ababa.
VOA along with Germany’s Deutsche Welle provide the only two news broadcasts in the local language not controlled by Ethiopia’s government or Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front.
Ethiopian opposition parties have complained that the government is using the media for pro-Meles propaganda ahead of elections on May 23. In December, the U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia said it was concerned that private media in the country face alleged “harassment and intimidation” by the government.
Last year the state suspended the press accreditation of two Ethiopian VOA reporters for three days. One of them was later jailed for 17 days on tax charges and was released after being acquitted.
Last month, a reporter for an Ethiopian publication was jailed for criticizing Meles in a newspaper column, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. At least a dozen Ethiopian journalists fled the country in 2009 citing government harassment, the New York-based organization said in a statement last month.
A September study by the Open Net Initiative, a collaboration between Harvard University and two Canadian laboratories, found Ethiopia’s state-owned phone company blocked domestic Internet access to Web sites about human rights and political reform.
Ethiopian Review has asked scholars and prominent individuals what 10 things they would do immediately if they are elected president or prime minister of Ethiopia. The following is by Dr Getachew Metaferia. (Click here to read what others wrote.)
If I am accorded the highest honor of serving Ethiopia, I will initiate and execute the following policies. I hope any democratic leadership of Ethiopia can also consider them.
1. Based on our long history, shared values, and diversity, I will consult with a broad spectrum of our population and set a national collective aspiration, a vision, for Ethiopia. A nation without vision lives day-by-day and is destined to obliterate itself gradually. Our national vision is not abstract but embraces virtues such as: meet the basic needs of our people, declare war on poverty, cherish our diversity, tolerate differing opinion, etc.
2. I will convene a national peace and reconciliation conference. We must create a culture of peace in Ethiopia; reconcile our differences, and move on to build a pluralist Ethiopia where citizens feel safe and free, their human rights guaranteed, and equality assured.
3. Establish a constitution review panel. The constitution must ensure separation of power between the executive, the legislative, and the judiciary. Establish rule of law, guarantee ethnic, religious and gender equality, and build a vibrant democratic society.
4. Build transparent, efficient and effective government bureaucracy led by incorruptible professional civil servants and technocrats whose goal is to serve the nation and not any ruling party. The same goes with the national defense force whose objective is to defend the nation and maintain military ethics of the highest order. Our foreign policy, crafted and executed by professional Foreign Service officers, must promote and maintain the long-term national interest of the country.
5. Empanel blue-ribbon commissions, consisting of elders, religious leaders, learned individuals, civil society actors, and experts to investigate certain issues, such as land grab by foreigners, ethnic and religious-based conflicts, and submit their findings with appropriate recommendations.
6. Provide quality education and improve access to education that propels Ethiopia to the 21st century. Education is every one’s human right, essential for the growth of the individual, and the nation. Our philosophy of education must be based on the history and cultures of Ethiopia and must address the needs of the 21st century. It must be practical and help solve Ethiopia’s myriad problems.
7. Build infrastructure to develop healthy communities. Healthy citizens ensure the security of Ethiopia and quality health service is a fundamental right.
8. Develop and expand Ethiopia’s agriculture sector; launch green revolution so that Ethiopia can feed itself. Restructure the land tenure system, utilize our rivers for irrigation, and initiate integrated rural development system.
9. Build small industries and protect them from foreign competitors that have become detrimental to our budding industries and to the ingenuity of our citizens.
10. Provide the Ethiopian diaspora with opportunities to use its resources [financial, intellectual, and expertise] in helping build the country in a more coordinated, creative, and transparent way. Its investment must be focused on development and must not compete or undermine the efforts of Ethiopians in the country. Provide health services, create jobs, transfer skills and expertise and build confidence between the diaspora and Ethiopians in the country.
(Dr. Getachew Metaferia teaches political science at Morgan State University. His recent book is titled Ethiopia and the United States: History, Diplomacy, and Analysis. [Algora Publishing, 2009]. He can be reached at [email protected])
Looking back at the last decade, Iran has improved relations with African countries by turning to them for investment and trade as it has become more isolated by the West.
In Africa, Iran has engaged in economic and development projects in a number of countries: in Senegal where Khodro, Iran’s largest car manufacturer, opened an assembly line in 2007; Nigeria with which it has agreed to share nuclear technology for the production of electricity; and it enjoys good relations with South Africa (a regional leader) where its support of the ANC during the apartheid era has meant that South Africa has remained a true friend.
However, nowhere is the success of Iran’s investment quite as clear as in Sudan. “Iran has been successful in strengthening ties with Sudan because the two countries have an ideological link. They are standing up against the West and imperialism,” Sanam Vakil, an expert on Iran at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, told Deutsche Welle.
Why Africa matters to Iran
As a result of its isolation from the world (particularly the West), Iran has had to turn to Africa in an effort to gain more relevance in global affairs.
“By strengthening its relationship with African countries, Iran is trying to overcome its de facto isolation,” Walter Posch, a researcher at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin, told Deutsche Welle.
Vakil agrees: “Iran is always trying to expand its areas of diplomatic and economic influence to counterbalance against its own isolation,” she said.
In spite of all its efforts, Iran’s success at extending its influence in Africa remains unclear, “perhaps with the exception of Sudan where there are Iranian cars,” Posch said.
With a reduction of military aid from China and Russia, Sudan two years ago turned to Iran for help and signed a bilateral agreement that includes military cooperation with the country. At a meeting late last year with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, his Sudanese counterpart, Deng Alor, openly voiced his country’s support for Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Israeli concerns
Iran’s nuclear ambitions are a threat to stability in the Middle East, and naturally its progress in Africa is being closely watched by Israel. In addition, Israel wants to counterbalance Iranian and Islamic influence in Africa, especially in the Horn of Africa which has a coastline with the Red Sea – a gateway to the Suez Canal. Therefore, Israel has tried to establish friendly ties with the only non-Islamic county in the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia, which has also used Israeli military aid to counter Islamic militants in the southeast region which borders Somalia.
Israel sees Iran’s inroads in Africa (especially in Sudan) as a threat to its ability to garner African support at the UN, and also as a threat to regional stability in the Horn of Africa because Iran’s advances contribute to the growth of Islam in the region.
In an attempt to counterbalance that perceived threat, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman visited Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, and Nigeria in September 2009, and pledged Israel’s support for these countries by promising development and economic aid.
Europe turns a blind eye
By and large, Iran’s efforts at establishing better relations with African countries have remained largely ignored by the EU.
Javier Perez, the EU’s political advisor for Sudan told Deutsche Welle that “Sudan is a high priority of the EU foreign policy in Africa, but the interest of Iran in Africa is not being followed as of yet.”
According to Posch, Europe’s current stance may be due to the fact that Iran’s trade and economic cooperation with Africa pales in comparison to that of other countries like China, the US, and some European nations.
Neverthless, Johns Hopkins University Researcher Vakil feels that “the Europeans should be watching this because it is happening in Europe’s backdoor.”
