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 Ato Sioum Gebeyehou. (Click here to read what others wrote.)
If I were the president or prime minister of Ethiopia, here are the 10 things I would do immediately:
1. Revise / amend the Constitution that genuinely serves the interests of the ENTIRE people of Ethiopia.
2. Freeze / reverse the current secret land give away, long term land lease away and the sale away of Ethiopian assets in Western Capitals.
3. Abolish the current ethnic based Kilil Administrative Map and replace it with a new modernized map of administrative and economic programs by integrating subdivisions based on geographic location, natural resources, man-made features and administrative history.
4. Establish National Reconciliation and Reconstruction Program to heal the wound of religious conflict and repair the ruptured societal relationships caused by the ongoing Kilil experimentation as well as evident and/or assumed past human rights violations.
5. Open a transparent dialogue with Eritrean people for an economic integration through confederation, federation or integration.
6. Establish a National Planning, Tracking and Monitoring Commission for developing and implementing an integrated national long term and short term programs in the four Key Results Areas of economic prosperity.
a. National Peace Creation Program
b. National Human Rights and Justice Program
c. National Democratic Governance Program
d. National Capacity Development Program
7. Design “a one stop shop” to streamline, harmonize or synchronize the wasteful and fragmented budget allocations flowing from multilateral or bilateral nations such as of USAID, UNDP or World Bank loans or grants. This will assist budget allocations based on the integrated national priority programs instead of the current independent, redundant, overlapping or for “nice to do” programs.
8. Design a Diaspora Networking and Interaction Program to attract and facilitate their active and formal participation in the rapid economic development strategy of the nation for Policy and Technical Assistance in the four Key Results Areas of their strengths
a. Introducing Good Governance Programs
b. Attracting Global Resources
c. Transferring Knowledge
d. Developing Local Resource
9. Develop a Quick Win Initiative: Corruption Eradication Program. Unleash the power of Free Press/Freedom of Expression which is the only way to fight corruption by naming and shaming those responsible for it, but equally balanced Human Rights based policy and procedures to establish guidelines to protect whistle blowers as well as to be responsible and accountable for what is being said.
10. Develop a Quick Win Initiative: Export Revenue. By catering organic Ethiopian animal products to World Market by lifting the embargo through Sound Animal Health Programs and Standardized Testing. The three Key Results Areas of Management are
a. Animal Health Management: Animal Health to Enhance Livestock Production.
b. Forage Management: Forage Management and Amelioration of Land Degradation.
c. Marketing Management: New Marketing Strategies to Maximize Export Revenue. (Ethiopia has the largest animal population in Africa)
(Sioum Gebeyehou is a civil engineer and project management consultant currently residing in California. He can be reached at [email protected])