In Search of African Cognoscenti: Politics of schadenfreude – agent provocateurs’ argumentum ad hominem

In Search of African Cognoscenti:

Politics of schadenfreude – agent provocateurs’ argumentum ad hominem

Youth Leadership Conference- Hawassa, SNNPR

Public Lecture, CX, MMXIII

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD,

Professor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies,

College of Business & Economics, AAU,

Summary

     Whether through legitimate elections or machinations, one-party states dominate Africa since independence, which have exhibited an enhanced degree of coercive power, resulting in a pervasive military ethos leading to the emergence of oligarchies through a long and painful process of ideological schooling, coups and counter coups. Practices such as free elections, the formatting of political parties, free and open public discourse are all concepts that need to be installed in the minds of ‘politicians’. Such a scene produces desperate and noxious regime-haters that defy logic, blissfully unaware of the negative impact that they have on Africa, by creating chaos in distant communities.

     Non-ideological conflicts among kibbutzim ‘African’ are also rampant despite the ‘political freedom’ in their asylum nations, they behave so because they are brought up in milieus, where certain dysfunctionalism is the norm! Supported by the West, they advocate violence in the edition of the Arab Spring that has now brewed an ominous talk of an Islamist Fall and Salafi Winter. Western onslaught of Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, etc… has only resulted in total disarray for the life and livelihood of their citizens. Europe is harvesting a deluge of refugees it helped create.

    Agencies of noxious regime-haters and activities to which they are often tied to, tend to be flustered and, at times, flustering. Their media thrive on fostering chaos and engender needless convolution and strife. Thus, as promoters of fake plural politics, they often do not efficiently realize the potential of the ideas they promote. The volume of their intrusions is not even nearly proportional to their impact raises the issue of whether their rhetoric in question was fundamentally constrained at the moment of their conception by the very chaotic structures that ground their articulation. Within such anarchy, ideas of pluralism may be artificially deflated by particular subterfuges of decrepit pecuniary exiles that wish to stall entire social transformation processes, until they are in charge.

Key words: dysfunctional politicians, cognoscenti, regime change

Pernicious people cloaked as politicians and rights activists defy reason and

derive carnality from sadomasochism, ecstatically oblivious of their deleterious violence-ridden mission. Whether it is ruthlessness or just plain idiocy, such reckless ‘agent provocateurs’ that augur their discourse on argumentum ad hominem find it tantalizing to waste the intellect of cognoscenti as their emotive cesspool

Great minds discuss ideas,

 Average ones debate events & Ssmall ones chew over people…

(Eleanor Roosevelt)

see paper here

A youthful ‘joie-de-vivre’

Civic Protest Alliances against Venality:

Quo Vadis ‘Political’ Ethiopia

Public Lecture - Respublica Literaria CXV, MMXVI

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

Professor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies,

College of Business & Economics, AAU

Abstract

     Large student demonstrations in the 1970s demanded land to the tiller and the equality of nations & nationalities. The ideological baggage that informed the era and that continues to ‘enlighten’ politics heretofore is important to note in at least three ways: the ubiquity of imperious economic policy, the stress on political organization, and the national question. Half a century later, HRW (2016) states, a human rights crisis is taking place in Ethiopia, triggered by the Addis Ababa Master Plan. While the political state and its security apparatus are intact, Lefort (2016) asserts, ‘Since the spring of 2014, it has been shaken by a rising tide of popular discontent. A Front that was righteous, disinterested, devoted as it was during the armed struggle, ready to listen and to serve, is now accused of having succumbed to an unholy trinity: corruption, bad governance & unaccountability. The Prime Minster has apologised for the havoc wrecked by protests (BBC, 2016). Is this the beginning of the end of the omnipresent state and the rise of political openness?

       While the prime role of the state is advancing the economy, it must focus on major infrastructure, streamline the discretionary rule of its officials, eliminate monopolies and economic distortions that facilitate them and improve accountability. Leadership, political will and public support are essential to stemming any threats to stability. The causes and not just the consequences of these threats have to be addressed with urgency. The first requisite of good governance as a precursor of pluralism is a spirit of tolerance that requires political and policy differences to be resolved in a spirit of respect for the views of citizens. The state’s legitimacy stems or should transpire from an acceptance of the fairness and transparency of its procedures for choices to state offices and policymaking. Its sustainability depends on public confidence as well as the confidence in the fairness of its governing. Ethiopia can pursue its good governance transition goals consistently in varying contexts, but do so without resorting to a self-defeating, overly scripted and stage-managed political ploy? The protests and the apologies herald a new era of openness, albeit at a very high price.

Key words: Ethiopia, Oromia, authoritarianism, protests, good governance, pluralism, democracy

At the pinnacle of authoritarianism in Africa, social turmoil reigned when publics fell apart; when sheer anarchy spread; where the best, lost conviction, while the worst acted with brutal intensity and impunity. As the political space gets intricately turbulent, societies became permanently fluid and the task of avoiding distress becomes queerly indefinite. The mystified elite had grown insensitive to change, but the cost of ignorance is indeed too ghastly to contemplate.

See lecture here

Capacity Assessment for Ending Gender Based Violence in Ethiopian Schools

Capacity Assessment for

Ending Gender Based Violence in

Ethiopian Schools

Public Lecture - Respublica Literaria CXVIII, MMXVI

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

Professor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies,

College of Business & Economics, AAU

Abstract

         The overall aim was to undertake the development of the nationwide capacity assessment on GBV in schools. Furthermore, the study assessed and identified good practices in addressing GBV in schools together with the major challenges and gaps. The focus of the present study was on Secondary and TVET levels. The study has reviewed and documented the progress made in the area of GBV. It has examined all stakeholders’ interventions and identifies the capacity gaps of duty bearers (Woreda Education Officials, Parents Teachers Association, school clubs, Parents) and those of right holders (girls and boys) within the context of GBV. It has identified and shared information on a selected set of promising interventions and good practices that are considered prime candidates for scaling up in the area of education in collaboration with other sectors. It has explored issues, factors and conditions that promote or constrain scaling up of appropriate strategies and models and identified and reviewed both systems-wide changes and reforms needed for the education sector as well as targeted interventions dealing with specific constraints to GBV.

           Based on the findings of the study drawn from desk review and field research, the following major gaps have been identified in the response and prevention capacity of all involved stakeholders in the fight against SRGBV. These are lack of adequate policies/laws/regulations to effectively deal with SRGBV. This is the case both at national level, district and school levels. There are problems of awareness among the community and officials at different levels and even among students as to the adverse impact of SRGBV on victims. There are capacity problems mainly in terms of providing the required services and support to victims as well as in efforts geared towards prevention and limited collaboration among the various stakeholders. The recommendations augur on key elements of an advocacy campaign to promote against GBV in schools and strategic recommendations for future interventions that will contribute to minimize the GBV in schools.

           Key words: SRGBV, school girls, GBV, TVET,

See paper here

Rastafarianisim, Religion & Jamaica’s visit of His Majesty Emperor Haile Sellasse I

Rastafarianisim, Religion &

Jamaica’s visit of His Majesty Emperor Haile Sellasse I

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos

Ethiopian Patriots Diamond Jubilee CXVIII-II, MMXVI,

Talk @ Ethiopian Scouts, Addis Abeba, May 5, 2016

Above all, Haile Sellasse has created a general, warm and blind sympathy for uncivilized Ethiopia throughout civilized Christendom. In the wake of the world's grandiose Depression, with millions of white men uncertain as to the benefits of civilization, 1935 produced a peculiar Spirit of the Year in which it was felt to be a crying shame that the Machine Age seemed about to intrude upon Africa's last free, unscathed and simple people. They were ipso facto Noble Savages, and the noblest Ethiopian of them all naturally emerged as Man of the Year.”

TIME, Man of the Year, XVI, Nov 18, 1936

Summary

         Jamaica of Rastafarians received HIM Emperor Haile Sellasse’s memorable visit to Ja­maica on April 21 1966 as if it were the second coming of Christ. No other state visit has captured the triumph of hu­man spirit as this. This lecture is about religion, a set of beliefs vis-à-vis the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devo­tional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code gov­erning the conduct of human affairs.

        Calvinistic Methodists were born out of the Methodist Revival in 18th Century Wales (after John Cal­vin). They survive as a body of Christians now forming the Presby­terian Church of Wales. Wesleyanism is a movement of Protestant Christians who seek to follow the methods or theology of the eight­eenth-century evangelical reformers John Wesley and his brother Charles Wesley. Martinism is a form of Christian mysticism and eso­teric Christianity concerned with the fall of the first man, his state of material privation from his di­vine source, and the process of his return, called 'Reintegration' or illumination.

       So what is wrong with the Rastafarianism as a ‘religion’? Rastafarisim is an Abrahamic belief, which developed in Ja­maica in the 1930s, following the coronation of Haile Selassie I as Emperor of Ethiopia in 1930. Its adherents worship him in much the same way as Jesus in his Second Advent. 

   The father of African independence and African unity is being dully remembered by the Rastafarians, who deserve credit for this at a time when our historic leaders are being denied recognition by present generations. 

See talk here

Regional Cancer Centre of Excellence - Resource Mobilization Strategy

Regional Cancer Centre of Excellence -

Resource Mobilization Strategy

The First IGAD Member States Sub-Regional

Resource Mobilization Conference on Regional Cancer Centre of Excellence (RCCE) in IGAD Region

A five year Draft Resource Mobilisation Initiative

Addis Ababa, April 20-21, 2016

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD,

Professor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies,

College of Business & Economics, AAU,

Abstract

Cancer is a growing problem in the sub-region and a concern for each member state in the IGAD sub-region. A huge gap exists between current knowledge on cancer and action on cancer services. Optimal use of human and financial resources is crucial for the success of cancer services. Implementation of integrated and comprehensive cancer services by RCCE will make a difference in cancer control. Member states can increase cancer prevention through measures. Effective cancer prevention and control programmes must reach a large proportion of the population. Hence, efforts to prevent and control cancer as well as social inequalities related to cancer prevention and care need to be given higher priority by member states and their respective health ministries. Good care and support for cancer patients and improved services in prevention require the integration of cancer care into the existing health service.

The objectives of the resource mobilisation strategy identify the development aims of RCCE to ensure expansion to cover all local needs of prevention and treatment. This resource mobilisation strategy underpins the need for clarity of objectives, popular participation, and broad strategies for financial self-reliance. The linkage between the three areas is visible. Clarity and proper dissemination of objectives leads for effective participation that can further result in profitable fund raising schemes. Any fund raising effort is a business undertaking. Therefore, it should, be managed like business firm or enterprise. This is probably the only area of RCCE work that has similar management to private profit making organisations. In this context, it becomes incumbent on the RCCE to establish a different management set-up for the fund raising project, independent from the regular work. This has two advantages. It allows the business to be managed by professionals and secondly, it cannot contradict the objectives of RCCE.

Key words: cancer, prevention, treatment, RCCE, IGAD, member states,   

See lecture here

Trade & Monetary Policy Management: Does it have anything to do with Citizens’ Livelihoods in Ethiopia?

Trade & Monetary Policy Management:

Does it have anything to do with Citizens’ Livelihoods in Ethiopia?

Public Lecture - Respublica Literaria XCXIV, MMXV

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

President, Ethiopian Management Professional’s Association

Professor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies,

College of Business and Economics, AAU

Abstract

      In its third economic update, the World Bank Group identifies opportunities and challenges to help Ethiopia tap into its significant export potential and further transform its economy - to boost exports. Its recommendations hinge on “More than ‘what’ is being exported; it is the ‘how’ that is hindering exports. In this connection, the lecture raises the issues of why the state is devaluing the currency so dramatically, at an inflated cost to consumers on virtually all imported products – petroleum, wheat, edible oil, fertilizer, beer malt, soft drinks, clothing, etc. The surprise 22% devaluation of the birr on August 31, 2010 and the 5% annual devaluation is recognition that its policy setting had been a factor in inhibiting Ethiopia’s external performance. However, by itself, this move falls short of addressing the problem, which reflects numerous and complex factors. Given the role that the exchange rate peg had played in promoting domestic price stability, such devaluations leave open the question of the strategy to maintain macroeconomic stability, while it seeks to boost export performance. Moreover, it is not out of the question that the devaluation alone might prove to be disappointing in terms of its impact on trade performance.

     In the very short term, due to a “J-curve” response whereby the trade balance initially deteriorates as import costs are driven up while the export response is slow to take effect. In the medium-term, it depends on the response of imports and exports to the lower cost of goods relative to imports. Where products and services (even basic) are almost solely dependent on import, this policy simply aggravates inflation putting the life of poor in danger as there is no bulk for supply (export), there is no enough (basic goods) for domestic consumption. Policies should target on boosting production before resorting to export promotion (and discouraging import). Accordingly, a more comprehensive policy response, sustained over the medium term, is required to redress a situation generated by years of policy settings inimical to good export performance. Progress on the priority areas outlined in the lecture is the key to achieving the transformational goals of the GTP—even if the ambitious growth targets were not met, success on the transformational element would be a great accomplishment.

Key words: exchange rate, trade, devaluation, J-curve, imports and exports

See lecture here

China & Africa: A Ravenous Dragon’s Unrelenting Push

China & Africa:

A Ravenous Dragon’s Unrelenting Push into the ‘Dark’ Continent

Public Lecture, CXXV, MMXI

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD,

Professor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies,

College of Business & Economics, AAU

Abstract

     China has shifted from a centrally planned to a market based economy and experienced rapid economic and social development. It has lifted more than 500 million people out of poverty. On December 4 and 5, 2015, South Africa hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping in Johannesburg for the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. Notably, going beyond its tradition of doubling financing to Africa at each of these meeting, China tripled it this time. Sino-African trade has increased rapidly, since 1999. Combined with China’s tolerance of African states’ human right records, this has contributed to Beijing’s highly successful diplomatic scuffle in Africa. Beijing has moved in rapidly with the necessary resources that have so far been the subject of lengthy negotiations with the Bretton Woods funders, many times at the cost of project redundancy.

     What can Africa learn from China? The political economy of Chinese reforms and the shared gains between political elites and the private sector can be partially transplanted to the African context. Rural reforms in China helped accelerate economic take-off through a restructuring of property rights and a boost to both savings rates and output. China has experimented with a degree of decentralization that could yield benefits for many Sub-Saharan African countries. Africa can learn from China’s policies toward autonomous areas and ethnic minorities to stave off conflict and China’s experiences and conduct developmental experiments for poverty alleviation goals. There are four developments in particular that merit attention: a focus on quality and not just price, the push to employ more local talent, greater interest in building local capacities and diversifying risk.

     Today, a more vigorous debate has begun about the nature of African ties with China. Hyperactive Chinese involvement is undoubtedly helping address the infrastructure shortcomings that hold up growth. Meanwhile, in some countries, the flood of Chinese émigrés already far surpasses that of European settlers during colonial times. With Chinese dominance of the African economic and political landscape, powerful forces and trends of unity and disunity, chaos and order mark this moment of globalism. Considering the drive, characteristics and dynamics of the Chinese economic assault, the fundamental question facing African nations is not whether they have options for participating in the process of balanced benefits in the spirit of true globalism; it is indeed how they wish to integrate into the process and at which speed, to be partners and actors.

Key words: Africa, China, trade, infrastructure, diplomacy, human rights
See lecture here

Stemming Violence against Women, Conflicts, Vulnerability to Diseases and Linkages to HIV/AIDS Prevention, Care and Treatment -- CONCEPTUAL ENQUIRY AND ACTIONABLE RECOMMENDATIONS

      

       Gender and the politics of rights in modern society challenge the masculine structures of the state, market and civil society; it challenges men in modern society to recognise the existence of the patriarchal order and of the manifold ways in which they both dominate women's lives. Indeed there is progress in stemming VAW and conflicts and women’s empowerment but states need promote women's participation in policy formulation and encourage the implementation of CEDAW, Dakar and Beijing Platform for action and recently Solemn AU Declaration on Gender and Development in Africa through various bodies and institutions to ensure food security, environmental protection, end of armed conflict in the region and develop of infrastructure and to promote trade and development of vibrant economy in the region. On the other hand, AIDS is now deadlier than war itself.  In fact, the epidemic has become a full-blown development crisis. Because of the insidious ways it destabilises already fragile and complex geopolitical systems, AIDS has become a key issue for human security in SSA. If current trends are maintained, 70% of people currently HIV-positive in sub-Saharan Africa will die of AIDS in the next 10 years.

   Recommendations zero on implementing the IGAD Gender Policy, broadening partnership, enhance learning and knowledge management, develop national policy and legal frameworks, develop Gender Focused Alternative Conflict Management: Leadership training and mentoring/apprenticeship - leadership gives agency for women, enhance movement for social progress or emancipation and mainstream governance, HIV/AIDS, rights women’s political empowerment initiatives, rights based sustainable livelihoods for women synergised to implement CEDAW. On women: peace, security and public policy; it is recommended to build substantive capacities for political culture development civic education, policy and programme co-ordination; institutional co-ordination; and human capacity development aimed at strengthening the civic engagement which will be linked with human rights groups and official democratic institutions; gender, women’s human security and implementation of UN SCR No. 1325; women entrepreneurship: development of gender responsive budget systems and engendering new aid modalities. The prospects for good governance will ultimately depend on the configuration of political institutions in state and civil society. The key question is therefore whether the endowment of political institutions is conducive to conflict management.

See paper here

A Zest of ‘Democratic’ Rendezvous: Pluralistic Choices and Political Trajectories in an Information Technology Infused World

A Zest of ‘Democratic’ Rendezvous:

Pluralistic Choices and Political Trajectories in an Information Technology Infused World

Wisdom is the right use of knowledge

Charles H Spurgeon (1834–1892)

Public Lecture, CXX, MMXI

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD,

Professor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies,

College of Business & Economics, AAU,

Abstract 

        At least five billion people worldwide will own smartphones, giving every individual with such a phone instant access to the full power of the Internet, every moment of every day. Information is the central theme of several new sciences, which emerged in the 1940s, such as Information Theory and Cybernetics. We stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another. In its scale, scope, and complexity, the transformation will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before. Academic research has consistently found that people who consume more news media have a greater probability of being engaged civically and politically. Many studies in this area take social media use as the starting point or independent variable, and therefore cannot rule out that some deeper cause — political interest. Further, social media use is a form of engagement in and of itself, helping to shape public narratives and understanding of public affairs.

    There is always an excess of potential possible in social media-led protest open transition processes. Ideologically fledgling, institutionally weak and economically distressed nations could not be expected to exhibit as wide a variety of elements and forms of articulation as does historically sedimented, robust democracies in highly developed nations. Nevertheless, there is still, within the limits imposed by history, potential for openness of political transition than any single participant’s strategy can actualise. Transition process openness can be analysed at two distinct but closely related levels: political agency and ideology. The lecture asks whether democracy enters protest nations as an external ideology, in sterile abstraction from the immediacies of indigenous traditions, beliefs and values, by parachuting democracy from the West. The West has effectively disenfranchised Arab politics, tending to its vexation with oxygen that is fueling the inferno. It is ethically wrong, but ethics is an alien concept in these failed states and indeed, in any of the systems that claim the moral high ground to change it.

Key words: Social Media, Internet, People’s Uprising, Democracy, ideology, Agency
See full lecture here

‘Villagisation’ in Ethiopia The Development & Human Security ‘Realpolitik’

Public Lecture - Respublica Literaria CXII, MMXV

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

Professor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies,

College of Business & Economics, AAU

Abstract

     The villagisation programme to transform rural society started in earnest in Jan 1985 under the Dergue to relocate more than 30 million peasants over a nine-year period. The plan now is to resettle 1.5 million people in four regions: Gambella, Afar, Somali and Benishangul-Gumuz. The aim is to give rural people better access to amenities such as agricultural extension services, schools, clinics, water, electricity and cooperative services. It would strengthen local security and self-defence. Improved economic and social services would promote efficient use of natural resources and would lead to increased production and a higher standard of living. Nonetheless, critics point to the fact that instead of improved access to services, however, new villages often go without them altogether and the resettlement of people is connected to leasing large areas of land for commercial purposes.

      Good intentions of the state notwithstanding, it must listen to the social and environmental activists and convince its sceptics by proving itself right. In this regard, it must host roundtables for dialogue to convince them that the human and environmental impacts will not adversely affect the intended purpose of the schemes. It must ensure that all recommendations of impact assessments are implemented correctly by setting up a monitoring system that checks on progress. On the other hand, international lobby must also refine its advocacy so that protests that are not based on scientific facts and solid evidence and impact assessment evaluation do not hamper well-meaning development projects. In fact, a balance must be created between what is logically tenable in terms of the incessant dependency on international charity and ‘unsubstantiated’ militancy against such development projects, without which, that dependence will not be addressed. Ultimately, the legitimacy of the fledgling political pluralism process underway will depend in important ways on it being perceived as reasonably honest, transparent and accountable to its citizens in the execution of the state’s responsibility. A skilled and committed leadership at the district and federal levels can mitigate conditions that are hostile to political pluralism.

     Key words: villagisation, resettlement, conflict, ACM, service provision, political pluralism

See talk here

Unravelling African Integration Physical Infrastructure, Energy, ICT & Trade: the Greater Horn & the Great Lakes of Africa - A Comparative Case Study

     Africa faces the usual panoply of challenges endemic in developing countries with too few instruments and too few resources, while also grappling with the perennial problem of managing development. These are sequencing of policy reforms, all subject to the political constraints of containing the disruptive impacts of policy reforms to acceptable levels. This is a particularly important problem for Africa given the very narrow margins for manoeuvre imposed by fiscal and external deficits, subsistence levels of household income for much of the population and a complex political weave in the regions social fabric. Getting the priorities right and managing change are thus particularly vital issues for African integration. Hence, infrastructure development (energy, ICT, roads, railways, hydro dams, power transmission and industry – sugar factories, metallurgy, fertilizer plants…), a consumer goods revolution is just beginning in much of Africa.

      Emerging export industries—in mining, manufacturing and exportable services—are already making their mark as sources of growth in the economy and will soon overtake traditional foreign exchange earnings from minerals and agricultural goods. However, two overwhelming pressures in Africa’s current economic climate—inflation and challenging new regulations—are putting strains on private business and could potentially dent the country’s positive growth prospects. Hence, Africa should modify regulatory policies that inflate business costs and depress urban consumer incomes, go for bolder and more unconventional agricultural policies and put in place a smarter set of policies for the financial sector.

       Much of the public investment laid out in the two cases are needed, justified, and on the whole appropriate, but how such investment is to be financed remains only partially addressed and the issue of who should carry out the investments is—in at least three specific cases—quite questionable. The case for government investments in public goods such as roads and power infrastructure is undeniable, as it is laying the essential foundations—the necessary conduits and circuitry—of a modern economy.

Key words: infrastructure, transformation, entrepreneurship, capital, policy, trade, peace & security

See paper here

Enterprises, Employment & Human Security in the Greater Horn of Africa

         A major contributing factor to the appalling situation of the youth in Africa is that there is and has been a shallow understanding of, and a feeble grip on, the essential components that constitute the required human qualities for development, and the intensive and comprehensive nature of their development and utilisation processes. Human security, a post-Cold War concept, is a multi-disciplinary understanding of security involving a number of research fields, which equates security with people rather than territories, with development rather than arms. It is about ensuring freedom from want and freedom from fear for all persons is the best path to tackle the problem of global insecurity refers to an emerging paradigm for understanding global vulnerabilities that arise from unemployment and lack of entrepreneurship.

        There is simply no alternative to defining the scope of the state and the establishment of sound institutional capacity for real-time strategy development, sensitivity analysis, policy coordination, and attention to the details of implementation of entrepreneurial employment. Hence, public and private sector employment generation schemes underpin the need for community commitment (targeting, rationalising and effecting public works schemes) to the success of public works initiated. Participation implies local commitment, decisions, innovativeness, resource contribution and legitimate social capital to preside on the collective will and decisions of community, who, at the end, determine the requisite basis that participation to happen. The foci of the initiative are grounded on a firm conceptual base for remunerated safety nets in developing methodology for comprehensive self-assessment of the population and analyses of the operational capabilities: objectives, inputs, outputs, effects and impact of employment-support projects.

       In addition, it concerns outlining proposals for capacity development on mechanism for participation that can assure sustainability. These include building the rules and institutions of finance and the market and legal empowerment of the poor that seeks to generate new policy recommendations that will reduce poverty through secure, enforceable property and labour rights, within an enabling environment that expands legal business opportunity and access to justice.

Key words: employment, entrepreneurship, human security

See talk here

Battles of Adwa & Guræ, the Calamity of 18th, 19th & 20th Centuries & Dawn of Pan Africanism

     

     Axum, the Seat of the earliest Ethiopian kingdom and one of the holiest grounds, the Church of St. Mary of Zion. The earliest monasteries in Ethiopia, established by the “Nine Saints” who spread the gospel are also found in Tigray. Thus, it is properly considered the birthplace of Ethiopian state, religion, culture and civilization. As the area through which all trade and communications passed to and from the ports of Adulis and subsequently Massawa, it was the gateway of the Ethiopian Empire. During the last quarter of the 19^th century, there had been constant internal and external warfare and famine in Tigray.

     During 1890, Menelique received the response to his letters to the European powers announcing his coronation and requesting their recognition. Notably, Britain and Germany responded that according to Article XVII of the Wuchalle Treaty concluded with Italy, Menelique’s communication ought to have been made through Italy. Angered by this response, Emperor Menelique at once wrote to King Umberto on September 26, 1890, denouncing Article XVII of the Treaty of Wuchalle. The relation between Ethiopia and Italy rapidly deteriorated. Ultimately, an advance party led by Ras Makonnen and aided by Ras Alula, Ras Mikael of Wollo and Ras Wolle of Yejju as well as a number of other commanders was dispatched to join Mengesha in Tigray. On 7^th Dec 1895, Ethiopia gained her first victory at Amba Alage. After the arrival of the Emperor with the Empress Taitu and King Tekle Haymanot of Gojjam, the Ethiopian forces successively defeated the Italian army at Mequelle on 21 Jan 1986 and at Adwa on 1^st of March, 1896.

     Adwa has become a quintessential emblem and a pedestal for Pan-Africanism - an important political form of a religious Pan-Africanist worldview appeared in the form of Ethiopianism. Ethiopia’s African diasporic religious symbolism grew in the 1800s among blacks in the US and the Caribbean, through a reading of Psalm 68:31, Ethiopia shall soon stretch forth its hands unto God, as a prophesy that God would redeem Africa and free the enslaved.

Key words: Adwa, Victory, Mequelle, Amba Alage, Menelique, Mengesha, fascist Italy,

See the talk here