Background

The Forum for Social Studies (FSS), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and the Centre for Development Research (CDR), University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, issue a call for abstracts for a book on ‘RE-THINKING DEVELOPMENT IN ETHIOPIA’.

Context

In recent years, Ethiopia has made significant advances in expanding education, health and infrastructure services to its people. Official government statistics point to a reduction in poverty levels spurred by increasing pro-growth and pro-poor investment in critical social and economic areas. Despite the gains, however, formidable challenges remain, including pervasive poverty; increasing demographic pressure; a fragile natural resource base, particularly land; and chronic food insecurity that has put the Government in an unenviable position of having to provide food assistance and safety net support to between 13-14 million dependents every year…….the latter a cruel reality even during periods of relatively good agricultural production. It is against this backdrop that FSS and CDR are launching this project for a book on rethinking development and a critical reflection of Ethiopia’s development experience, including successes and challenges, over the past 20 years or so.

The purpose of the book is to provide insight into ongoing debates among Ethiopian researchers, policy makers, NGOs and international organisations in Ethiopia regarding the country’s development experience over the past two decades. This book will move beyond conventional clichés evolving around food insecurity, environmental degradation, and governance issues that dominate foreign media coverage of the country. It will highlight the development path Ethiopia is taking, and how the country aims at moving beyond aid dependency and current levels of poverty.

Please, submit abstracts of 500 words maximum to: (1) Dr. Meheret Ayenew, e-mail: fss@ethionet.et or meheretay@yahoo.com; and (2) Ms. Birgit Habermann, Email: Birgit.Habermannn@boku.ac.at until 15 June 2011. An editorial board will select paper contributions among the submitted abstracts.