Ethiopiansarchive.thereporterethiopia.com/sites/default/files/Pdf Archive...Kenya Red Cross Society and sent to The Reporter, the figure ... committee of the ruling Ethiopian Peoples’

Vol. XXII No. 1123 |March 17, 2018 ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA www.thereporterethiopia.com Price 5.00 Birr

Cement price ... page 24

Number of... page 35TOP... page 35

By Kaleyesus Bekele

At a time when the local cement factories are finalizing preparations to make price adjustments the retail price of cement has already increased by 28 percent.

The price of cement, which was 210 birr per quintal, in the past two weeks, is sold as high as 270 birr in the retail market. In Addis Ababa a quintal of cement is sold at 250 birr while in Adama town a quintal of cement costs 260 birr. In remote regional towns

instability in some parts of the country. The retailers said due to the sporadic clashes particularly in the Oromia Regional State, trucks were unable to transport the cement to the central market. This has promoted the local retailers to increase the

price increment.

The Reporter, however, learnt that cement manufacturers are in the process to make price increment. Mesfin Abera, sales and marketing manager at Dangote

Cement price hikesFactories to make price increment

By Dawit Endeshaw

The number of displaced persons, who fled from Ethiopia to Kenya, has passed the 9,000 mark, The Reporter has learnt.

In a press release issued by the Kenya Red Cross Society and sent to The Reporter, the figure has escalated to 9,667 as of March 16, 2018. Red Cross has also estimated more people will continue to cross the Ethiopia and Kenya border.

The mass exodus of Ethiopians to Kenya began following the killings of nine civilians by the

Number of Ethiopians

to Kenya reaches over 9,000

By Brook Abdu

Hailemariam Dessalegn was on the pedestal chairing the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front

(EPRDF) Executive Committee meeting that went for the whole week starting March 11, 2018, for the last time. It was a must for Hailemariam to chair the Executive Committee meeting of the coalition as the statute of

the EPRDF states that such a meeting has to be chaired by the chair of the party.

After resigning from his post both as the prime minister and chairman of the EPRDF exactly

a month ago on February 15, 2018, Hailemariam has not appeared before the public to discuss national or party issues except for meeting foreign

TOP CONTENDERS

the price ranges between 280-300 birr per quintal. In Bahir Dar a quintal of cement is being sold at 300 birr. Cement retailers The Reporter talked to in Addis Ababa said that there is shortage of cement created as a result of the political

Abiy Ahmed (PhD),

Chair of the OPDO

Demeke Mekonnen,

Chair of the ANDM

Shiferaw Shigutie,

Chair of the SEPDM

Debretsion Gebremichael (PhD),

Chair of the TPLF

www.thereporterethiopia.com

2| The Reporter, March 17, 2018 Vol. XXII No. 1123EDITORIAL

Published weekly by Media & Communications Center

Address: Bole Sub City, Kebele 03, H. No. 2347

Tel: 011 6 616180 Editorial011 6 616185 Reception 011 6 616187 Finance

Fax: 011 6 616189PO Box:7023

0910 885206 Marketing E-mail: [email protected]

Website: www.thereporterethiopia.com

General Manager Amare Aregawi Managing EditorBruh YihunbelayEditor-in-Chief Asrat Seyoum

Sub city: N.lafto, K. 10/18, H.No. 614Senior Editors

Dibaba AmensisaEditors

Kaleyesus Bekele Yonas Abiye

Bruck Getachew Online EditorBrook Abdu

Assistant Editor

Senior ReportersSamuel Getachew Dawit Endeshaw

Reporter

Dawit Tolesa

Columnists

Leyou Tameru

Tsion Taye

Chief Graphic Designer

Yibekal Getahun

Senior Graphic Designer

Sofoniyas Tadesse

Dagmawi Gobena

Graphic Designers

Tsehay Tadesse

Fasika Balcha

Semenh Sisay

Netsanet Yacob

Head of Photography

Nahom Tesfaye

Photographers

Tamrat Getachew

Mesfen Solomon

Daniel Getachew

Cartoonist

Elias Areda

Fasil W/giorgis

Marketing Manager

Endalkachew Yimam

The appalling death and injury visited on innocent citizens exactly a week ago today in Moyale, a town in southern Ethiopia bordering Kenya, should never have occurred. The killings are unacceptable by any standard and should be condemned in the strongest possible term. They not only erode further the public’s trust in the government, but also exacerbate the turmoil rocking Ethiopia and feed into the international community’s narrative that the country continues to have a poor human rights record. According

force, including the commanderof the battalion they belong to, who killed nine people and injured a dozen others on faulty intelligence have been disarmed and detained pending an investigation. The investigation should be completed within the shortest possible time even as the public is kept apprised of its outcome and the ensuing trial.

It is primarily the responsibility of the government to ensure citizens’ inalienable right to life and security of person as enshrined in the constitution as well as the human rights conventions and international instruments adopted by Ethiopia. The government’s response to the Moyale killings cannot and must not be limited to expressing condolences to the families of the persons it says were mistakenly killed; it is duty-bound to bring to justice all the soldiers

everyone in the chain of command and individuals culpable of similar incidents in the past. The investigation team dispatched to ascertain what actually transpired on the ground, which consists

a thorough probe and submit a report that is not tainted by political considerations. It should take statements from the families of the victims, eyewitnesses, elders and other sections of the community to get a clear picture.

This brings us to the fundamental questions that everybody is seeking answers for. How could the presumably well-trained battalion act on erroneous information? Where and how did the breakdown occur? Why did the members of the

precautionary measures prior to deciding to use deadly force? Aren’t soldiers required to disarm or,if this is impractical, to neutralize even an enemy before they resort to taking lives? What are the rules of engagement for the army when it engages foes toting weapons and civilians? How credible will the punishment handed down by the military court be after the suspects have

Granted that some of the information disclosed

security reasons it is nonetheless important to release as much information as possible for the sake of transparency and to prevent the recurrence of the Moyale incident.

At a time the country is standing at a crossroads and trying to extricate itself from an unprecedented political quagmire, the continued death, injury and displacement of compatriots is worsening the plight of the victims and their loved ones. A nation once regarded as an oasis of relative stability in a restive region has been in the throes of political instability for two-and-half years now due to the inability to resolve differences through civilized dialogue.Barely a week after a state of emergency was declared and on the eve of the meeting of the executive committee of the ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) to nominate a new chair and eventually the new Prime Minister news of the Moyale killings came as a shock and turned what little hope there was into apprehension. How long can things go on like this? It goes without saying that the

security forces and the political leaders on whose instructions they are deployed keep uppermost in mind the well-being of citizens as they carry out their duties. True mistakes may be made. Nevertheless, it is of paramount importance to put in place mechanisms designed to minimize the consequences of the error, particularly where human lives are at stake.

The government owes the public the duty to guarantee its safety and security. It is imperative that the leaders of the EPRDF, who also occupy senior government positions, make every effort to set aside their apparent differences and agree on a consensus candidate as they go about the process of appointing the incoming chair of the Front and the premiere. For the transition of power to be deemed a success it should at least enjoy broad public support. This would go some way towards laying the foundation essential to deepening the democratization process and thereby restore the stability that the people yearn for.

Neither Ethiopia nor its proud and far-sighted people deserve to be in the complete mess they

are now. Ethiopians have coexisted harmoniously for centuries without letting ethnic, religious, cultural or political diversities come between them; they have displayed extraordinary heroism to repel any and all invaders and defend their beloved country’s sovereignty. It’s quite embarrassing and frankly speaking frustrating to see Ethiopia lurch from one crisis to another despite being home to people who can do it proud. Now is the time to deliberate seriously on where we are headed as a nation if we fail to secure a

have led to unheard of death, injury and internal displacement. The choice before us is clear: to take bold steps that help steer the country on the path to democracy and prosperity or fall into an abyss. There is still time to make the right choice. But it has to be done immediately because once

to regain it. Our heartfelt condolences go to the families of the victims of the Moyale incident and wish them the strength to get through this

in no uncertain terms.

incident in no uncertain terms!

HEADLINES


The Reporter, March 17, 2018 Vol. XXII No. 1123 |3

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The Reporter, March 17, 2018 Vol. XXII No. 1123

LIVING AND THE ARTS

He was found unconscious on one

fateful day in May 2016, face down on a

sidewalk. His neighbours rushed him

to the nearest hospital. After an hour

in a coma, he woke up to the sensation

of a needle pricking his skin. Due to

his history with low blood pressure,

the doctors did not try to make further

diagnosis. He was sent home with an

instruction for bed rest.

For the next two weeks, he felt

lightheaded, nauseous, and weak. He

could not go to work or continue with

his usual routine. By that time, he had

suspected something, but he was too

terrified to admit it to himself and make

the situation “real”. He kept on turning

a blind eye to the symptoms, hoping they

would disappear. The next morning,

he woke up with swollen eyes, almost

shut. His sister took him to Myungsung

Christian Medical Centre (Korea

General hospital) where the doctors

found out his kidneys were scared and

failing. He was diagnosed with a chronic

kidney disease. He was shocked, but not

completely surprised. He would need to

start dialysis soon and get a transplant.

Mekibeb Eshetu, 54, knew his life would

never be the same again.

“God, I have always asked you

for a decent life, but not a decent

death,” Mekibeb remembers praying

apologetically. “Please let me go in a

dignified manner.”

After five months of tiresome bi-weekly

dialysis, multiple blood exams and

consultations passed, his half-brother

was his nearest match. “A part of me

was filled with hope and positivity, but

FIGHTING THE

SILENT KILLER

In a country where medical assistance, quality and service at a reasonable

price is hard to come by, chronic diseases like kidney failure and its unending

trips to the hospital for dialysis is a tough ask for anyone. Lack of proper

diagnosis and facilities to undertake the necessary procedure in a country

which entertains “cure” rather than “prevention”; the less fortunate are

left a burden on their entire family and those who afford it, have the option

of going abroad, writes Senit Feseha.

www.thereporterethiopia.erethiopia.

16| LIVING AND THE A


14|


INTERVIEW

Although it has been just a year serving in Ethiopia, Irish ambassador to Ethiopia,

Sonja Hyland, is no stranger to the country anymore. She has travelled to many

areas in the country, including in the Somali, Oromia, Southern, Gambella,

Amhara and Tigray regional states visiting Irish aid projects in addition to

Reporter’s Samuel Getachew on the highlights of Irish aid in Ethiopia, trade, on

most famous Ethiopian-Irish actress, Ruth Negga. Excerpts:

PRIORITIZING

GENDER EQUALITY

14| INTERVIEW


12|


IN-DEPTH

The unprecedented turn of events that

shook the country to its core. The long

the country have caused the death of many

civilians and the destruction of both private

and public properties, which left many

Ethiopians and others bewildered.

Protests in Oromia and Amhara regional

and sit-ins, resulting in the ever more familiar

occurrences of civilian deaths and property

destructions. Commentators are saying that

the economy is in a downward spiral amid

of foreign currency.

Adding insult to injury, the UN estimates that

at least one million people were internally

displaced in the border clashes between the

Oromia and Ethiopian Somali states in 2017,

leading to serious humanitarian concerns.

These numerous crises pressured the

top leadership of the ruling coalition —

the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary

Democratic Front (EPRDF) – to hold a high

stakes meeting in December 2017. For 17

days. The “do-or-die” Executive Committee

meeting deliberated at length on various

issues and acknowledged that the problems

in the country were exacerbated by a lack

of internal party democracy and by the

weakness of the top brass.

Fast-forward to the future, what’s important

now is “how the transition will shake out and

who will be the next prime minster?”

According to many commentators who are

following the matter closely, right now, what

the EPRDF desires to have is a leader who

can unify the party, gain popular legitimacy

and calm widening political and ethnic

tensions. Moreover, beyond the change of

guard at the top, a major shift in policy is

also in the agenda.

On the contrary, opposition party leaders

and activists argue, the demand of the public

is not addressed by a mere assignment

of a new PM, rather by regime change.

They added that though the government

announced a plan to widen the political space

and foster national consensus, including

the decision to release political prisoners in

early January; the result now has led to the

declaration of a State of Emergency (SoE)

ARDUOUS

TASKS

FOR THE

NEW PMIn a country embattled with strong rooted problems,

the successor of Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn

faces a daunting task to appease the mass. It has been a

little bit more than a month since Hailemariam tendered

his resignation. In the days that followed, the country

saw the enactment of a State of Emergency and protests

with the ever-familiar turn of events resulting in civilian

deaths, property destruction and economic strains. After

this torrid month, the premiership position is still vacant

with the council of the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary

democratic Front (EPRDF) set to convene next week in a

explores what the major challenges for the incoming PM

would be.

Regardless of who may succeed Hailemariam, Ethiopia’s next leader faces the challenging

task of reforming and democratizing the EPRDF. The leader must also unite a deeply divided

country behind a democratic and all-inclusive agenda, commentators suggest.

. d

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ent

ying

in a

weekly

s and

brother

t of me

vity, but



|19FASHION

By Hiwot Abebe

The fashion elite and trend influencers

of Addis along with various fashion

lovers gathered on Sunday March

11 for the launch of NHY Brand

Collection. The 1350 square meter

large-scale store includes clothes

for men, women, children, shoes,

accessories and jewelry. 11 brands

are represented in the store including

Zara, Mango, Bershka, Reserved,

Obvious, Mojito, House, Crop and

Panncho. The store, launched by

entrepreneur Nur Hussein, currently

has 40 sales staff and offers beauty

services in collaboration with Soreti

Spa and Wellness. Their services

include a nail salon, waxing, cosmetics

and hair extensions. The store is found

on the building next to Mafi Mall in

front of Bole Medhanialem Church.

The event featured a runway show

of the clothes in the store followed

by cocktails for those in attendance.

Danny Davis, Marketing Manager of

NHY Brand Collection, states they

opened the outlet to fulfill the demand

for quality clothing at affordable prices

for individuals that have the buying

power. He said they have a good

product line of fast fashion available,

ensuring the trendiness of their

shoppers. People in Addis, he says,

are more aware of fashion in Ethiopia;

they are more knowledgeable about

how it is consistently evolving. Young

residents have access to technology

and social media and therefore keep

up with what’s happening in the

international fashion world.

Meskerem Mekonnen, Directing

Manager of the store, stated they

are targeting middle to high-income

individuals that will embrace NHY as

an experience. She wants to introduce

shopping as entertainment. “We want

to fulfill the need for new trendy items.

We know there is a seasonal lag with the

western market but we’re planning on

filling that gap.” Meskerem previously

worked as a visual merchandizer

for Zara and Manager at Mango for

the past 5 years. She brings her vast

fashion experience to improve retail

fashion in Addis.

Anna Getaneh, former international

model and humanitarian, said she

was happy to see everything come

to life in the fashion show. The store,

she believes, will be able to showcase

global fashion to local fashion lovers.

Her label African Mosaic is one of

5 fashion brands represented in the

NHY’s collection along with Mafi, Ayni,

Yefikir, Zaaf, Lali and Pradaise. She

added the inclusion of local designers

is bound to increase competition with

international brands and improve

the quality of Ethiopian designers’

products.

Kunjina Tesfaye a member of African

Mosaic’s fashion incubator expressed

her excitement about the size of the

store and the fair prices considering

the international prominence of the

brands on sale. She was happiest about

the runway show. The fashion show

featured both female and male models

showcasing the clothes NHY currently

has on stock. The models strutted across

the large store in flowing dresses and

skirts, short or beaded shorts, colorful

muumuus and edgy jackets to the

energetic music provided by DJ Hash.

Anna Getachew and Sheldon Copeman

organized the colorful and exciting

fashion show. Yordanos, a member of

the African Mosiac team was happy

with the models that were part of the

runway and raved about the makeup,

lights and well organized fashion

show. Many in attendance were happy

to have authentic international brand

products.

Wintana, a self-described fashion

victim and her friend Seale, a project

manager, stated their excitement about

having a real shopping experience in

a shop that carries items in different

sizes and varieties. Shopping in Addis,

they added, can be arduous due to

lack of diversity in both style and size.

Aster, a woman in her early 30s said

she was happy with the service and the

variety of items for suitable for work,

casual daywear, and evening wear.

On the other hand, Melkamu, law

professional in his 30s said he found

the clothes intimidating and unusual

but was certain there was an audience

for it. His friend Abraham Gizaw, an

event organizer was glad there was

now a centralized store for all ages

and genders. He believes importers in

Addis need to focus on high quality

fabrics for local shoppers. He also

recommended that stores focus on local

weather conditions when importing

seasonal clothing.

The store will renew stock every two

months and hopes to hold fashion shows

to show case new arrivals. Meskerem

added that NHY Brand Collection plans

to branch out to Adama, Hawassa,

Bahirdar and Mekelle as well as open

exclusive Mango, Zara and Breshka

franchise stores this year. They also

plan on establish online shopping on

their upcoming website.

PROVIDING AN

ALTERNATIVE

RETAIL EXPERIENCE

INSI

DE

By Dawit Endeshaw

A new report jointly released by the Ethiopian government and donors on the number of people in need of food aid remains unchanged. The recent figures indicated by the report is now at 7.8 million people.

The report is the result of a multi-agency Meher assessment conducted at the end of 2017.

According to Mitiku Kassa, commissioner for National Disaster and Risk Management Commission (NDRMC), lack of Belg rain in pocket areas, rainfall shortage in South and Southeastern Ethiopia and a damage caused by armyworm on maize growing areas have contributed for no improvements in the number of population in need of assistance.

“More than anything, conflict related displacement of one million Ethiopians in 2017, has contributed a lot, he said; the figure would be less.”

The internal displacement especially in Oromia and Ethio-Somali regional states put millions of Ethiopians in need of food assistance.

From the total population, who is in need of assistance, Oromia and Somali take the lion’s share with 3.2 million and 1.7 million people, respectively.

“As far as food assistance is concerned, the report while waiting for finalization of the 2018 Humanitarian Requirement Document, partners have already responded to the food needs of relief beneficiaries through the distribution of about 120,000 MT of food assistance in round 8, starting from January 2018.”

In addition to this, the report revealed that, the total population who is in need of non-food assistance has reached to 8.49 million people.

The meher harvest assessment and projections for 2018 indicate the following priority needs: 2.4 million households in need of livestock support; 3.5 million moderately acute malnourished; 350,000 severely acute malnourished; 6.05 million will be without safe drinking water.

Aside from prevention tasks, works

have to be done to restore livestock resource of the pastoralist population, Mitiku said.

“Key interventions will include continued support for supplementary animal feed provision, fodder production and spate irrigation in drought-affected

pastoral and agro-pastoral areas, as well as large-scale animal health campaigns and destocking, as needed,” reads Humanitarian and Disaster Resilience Plan report.

In this regard, the total required assistance of USD 104.4 million will be

designated.

The aforementioned population who is in need of assistance pushed the required humanitarian assistance to USD 1.68 billion, from this USD 1.4 billion will be designated for food assistance.

The internal displacement especially in Oromia and Ethio-Somali regional states put millions of Ethiopians in need of food assistance.

The Reporter, March 17, 2018 Vol. XXII No. 1123Advertisment


4|

HEADLINES



Advertisment

1. ....................

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TENDER SUBJECT CLOSING DATE1 REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

INVITATION TO BID

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1. UNHCR Representation in Ethiopia,

Addis Ababa

Working hours:

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Late offers will not be considered.UNHCR, SUPPLY MANAGEMENT SERVICES, ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA

UNHCR Representation in EthiopiaTel.: +251 11 6612822P. O. Box 1076Email:[email protected]

By: Dawit Endeshaw

Dashen Bank SC has provided a loan of 650 million birr to BGI Ethiopia for the payments the latter will make for the purchase of the shares of Raya Breweries, The Reporter has learnt.

According to sources from Dashen that talked to The Reporter on the condition of anonymity, the Bank has already disbursed the mentioned amount to the client.

However, Asfaw Alemu, president of the Bank, though he did not deny the disbursement of the loan to the said client, said that any disclosure of the matter will

relationship with its clients.

BGI Ethiopia, the bottler of St. George and Castel beers in Ethiopia, is among the foreign breweries that invested in Ethiopia. Recently, BGI fully acquired Raya Brewery for 2.5 billion birr in which it holds 42 percent shares in the brewery.

The brewery bought percent of the shares of

share with a par value of a thousand birr.

Raya Brewery was established in Maichew, Tigray Regional State, and currently has the capacity to produce 700 hectoliters of beer annually. It was announced on

the inauguration of the factory that the construction took 1.7 billion birr. The

billion birr.

The inceptors of Raya were 58 individuals

Gebretensae (Let. Gen.) with an initial capital of two million birr. Then, the number of shareholders grew to 2,440 pushing the

capital up to 250 million birr.

In addition to the loan that BGI acquired from Dashen, Awash Bank also expended loan of 750 million birr for the same

disbursed near a billion birr for the brewery over the past three years.

Other than Raya brewery, BGI has concluded

deals with Unibra, a Belgian company, to acquire Zebidar Brewery, another brewery in the country. Unibra owns 60 percent of the shares in Zebidar while the remaining shares are owned by Zhimar General Industries SC and it has more than 2,000 shareholders under it.

Zebidar has a capacity of producing 350,000 hectoliters of beer per annum.

HEADLINES


6| The Reporter, March 17, 2018 Vol. XXII No. 1123

.... NEWS IN BRIEF

sees investment in EthiopiaA Japanese Pharmaceutical Company is considering manufacturing pharmaceutical products in Ethiopia.

Foreign Affairs State Minister, Aklilu Hailemichael held talks on Tuesday with a delegation from the Japanese Rohto Pharmaceutical Company about realizing the company’s aspiration.

Rohto Pharmaceutical Company Deputy General Manager and delegation head Shunhun Yan told journalists that they came to Ethiopia to explore opportunities in pharmaceutical and health sectors.

She added that the two sides discussed about the fertile grounds in Ethiopia to realize the plan, including the free trade access agreement that the country has signed with over 50 countries.

“We talked about free trade access with Ethiopia, like we have agreed with other countries. I believe that currently there are about 50 countries which have a free trade access agreement with Ethiopia,” Yan said.

The State Minister has expressed Ethiopia’s commitment to deliver the necessary support for the realization of the company’s plan.

Thedelegation will visit Qilinto Industrial Park and meet State Minister of Health, it was learned.

(ENA)

The trilateral meeting on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which is being built in Ethiopia, will be held early next month in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan.

Foreign and water ministers of Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt will attend the meeting that had been scheduled for last February but postponed for next month, said the Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Electricity of Ethiopia on Wednesday.

The meeting is expected to discuss on studies regarding the impact of the dam on the downstream countries, it was noted.

In a meeting held last January on the sidelines of the African Union (AU) summit here in Addis Ababa, leaders of the tree countries agreed to continue their cooperation.

During the meeting, they also agreed their respective ministers to look into issues raised regarding the dam and conduct a study within a month so as to address the issues.

They have also agreed to form a trilateral leaders’ summit to be held annually and to establish a joint infrastructure fund.

(FBC)

By Dawit Endeshaw

Oromia Agricultural Cooperative Federation Ltd has finally acquired Assela Malt Factory with a total cost of 1.34 billion birr.

In the opening of the bid on February 12, 2018, at the Ministry of Public Enterprise (MoPE), it was announced that three more firms had managed to submit their price offers besides the Federation. These were Calypso Agribusiness Ltd, Souflet Ethiopia PLC, and Malt Africa.

Following the Oromia Agricultural Cooperative Federation, the second highest offer, which is USD 42 million (1.1 billion birr), which came from Malt Africa, a sister company of Bavaria, a major Shareholder in Habesha Brewery SC. The remaining two bidders, Calypso and Souflet Malt, gave 977 million birr and 27 million dollars, respectively, to acquire the malt factory.

The offers made by all the interested companies were way above the initial price index of Assela Malt estimated by the Ministry. The initial price index was 866.7 million birr.

By the time of the bid opening, except Oromia Agricultural Cooperative Federation Ltd all the bidders proposed to settle 30 percent of the payment upon the signing of the acquisition and the rest after the transfer of the factory.

However, Oromia Agricultural Cooperative Federation, which managed to succeed in the acquisition, paid 35 percent down payment and it is expected to settle the rest within five years.

Established nearly 35 years ago, Assela Malt Factory is located in Oromia Regional State. The surrounding areas of the malt factory are also known for the high production of grains used for malt production. The factory is one of the major malt suppliers in the country along with Gander Malt Factory.

The current pair up capital of Assela Malt

is around 232 million birr.

The acquiring Federation, on the other hand, was founded about ten years ago and it has around 40 Agricultural cooperatives unions as its member.

It is to be recalled that the Ministry over the past six months of the current fiscal year, reported that it has performed well according to its plan when it comes

to transferring enterprises to a private ownership.

In this regard, though the Ministry planned to collect 1.7 billion birr revenue from the transfer of publicly owned enterprises, it has collected 12.7 billion birr.

This significant difference came mainly from the transfer of government’s 30

percent stake in the Ethiopian Tobacco Enterprise to Japan Tobacco with a total cost of USD 434 million.

Since its establishment in 1990s, the erstwhile Privatization and Public Enterprises Supervising Agency, which is now the Ministry of Public Enterprises, has transferred a total of 377 public enterprises to a private acquisition.

By Yonas Abiye

The House of People’s Representatives (HPR), on Thursday resumed its regular session marking it with an endorsement of seven members for the management board who oversee the state-owned publisher, the Ethiopian Press Agency (EPA).

Nominated by Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn, Firehiwot Ayalew, 52, has been picked to chair

the board that sees her retain the post for a second term in office. Meanwhile, the rest of the six appointees are new members. They are Solomon Tesfaye, Office of the Prime Minister, Amanuel Abrham, Deputy Government Whip, Addisu Gebregziabher (PhD), Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, Assegid Getachew, Office of the Mayor of Addis Ababa, Teshager Shiferaw (PhD), Addis Ababa University and Yohannes Shiferaw (PhD), Addis Ababa University.

Firehiwot currently is a minister of state

at the Government Communication Affairs Office (GCAO) for the past two years. Before joining GCAO, she has been a Communication Bureau Head of the Addis Ababa City Administration.

Established in 1961, EPA, which is the publisher of state-owned newspapers, has four publications including the Amharic daily Addis Zemen and English daily The Ethiopian Herald, the Afaan Oromo newspaper Bariissa, the Arabic Al Alem as well as Zemen magazine.

House appoints chair for

Assela Malt Factory

HEADLINES



Four TV stations to receive

The Ethiopian Broadcasting Authority disclosed this week that four television stations that have been operating without authorization are to be licensed soon.

Despite the restriction by the Ethiopian Broadcasting Service Proclamation on foreign nationals of Ethiopian origin not to be issued license, the TV stations operated without license.

However, the ownership of the four TV stations including Ethiopian Broadcasting Service (EBS), Kana, LTV, and Nahoo televisions, which were owned by citizens of Ethiopian origin will soon be transferred to Ethiopian citizens.

Gebregiorgis Abreha, Public Relations Director at the Authority informed ENA that this year two types of licenses are to be issued.

According to Gebregiorgis, the two types of licenses cover those stations, which were broadcasting via satellite without securing inland broadcasting certificate and new radio stations, will start transmission.

Since the four TV stations were operating outside the jurisdictions of the Broadcasting Authority, through negotiations reached with the Authority, all properties owned by the previous owners will be transferred to Ethiopian citizens.

(ENA)

Ethiopia to be reconstructedThe Czech embassy in Ethiopia has unveiled a reconstructed tomb of Czechoslovak army’s colonel Vitezslav Rosik who contributed to the development of the Ethiopian Air Force and died in 1955.

The grave was unveiled on Monday, when the 19th anniversary of the Czech accession to NATO was marked.

Rosik fought in World War One and he operated at the forming Czechoslovak Air Forces. During World War Two, he left to France and later Britain to fight Nazi Germany. He became a Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot and he fought in the Battle of Britain.

After the Czechoslovak Communist coup in 1948, Rosik was stripped of his post in the Czechoslovak military and had to retire because of he had been a RAF pilot.

In 1949, Rosik accepted the invitation by Emperor Haile Selassie who made him an aide for the development of Ethiopian Air Force.

The Czech government provided the finances for the reconstruction of his tomb at the Ferenji Cemetery at Gulele in Addis Ababa.

.

(The Prague Monitor)

By Birhanu Fikade

Just days after the announcement of a three-party joint venture in the development of the Port of Berbera, Ethiopia and Somalia are engaged in controversies and diplomatic rows in the self-declared Somaliland government.

Angered by the involvement of Ethiopia in the Port of Berbera, Mogadishu has issued repetitive denouncements against the port deal. Early this week, members of the Somalian parliament have voted to discard the contentious deal Ethiopia has entered with the Dubai-based DP World — buying 19 percent shareholdings of the Port.

Subsequently, Somalia went asking for the involvement of the Arab League to dissolve the deal stating, Somaliland is part of its territories and any deal with the self-declared republic of Somaliland should be considered as illegal. Somalia argued not only about the illegitimacy of the deal but also says the deal violates its sovereignty.

Officials of the Government of Ethiopia stepped in to counter-argue and said the deal is strictly business minded. Ahmed Shide, minister of Transport told a local TV this week that Ethiopia’s involvement in the deal meant no harm to Somalia’s sovereignty. He also said, Ethiopia is taking part in the port because it needs

alternative sea outlets as the needs for the growing population arise every time. Meles Alem, spokesperson with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, briefed the local media on Thursday and referred to the positions of the government. The legitimacy of investing in Berbera or other alternatives is purely economic, he said. The ambassador of Somalia and his mission subordinates were not available for comment since they have left for Mogadishu. Geopolitical experts locally are saying the deal would not hurt Somalia’s political domain. The

government in Mogadishu is allegedly planning got take the case to an international tribunal. Abebe Ayente, a geopolitical analyst, told The Reporter that Ethiopia is not the first country to have been involved in the growing business interest in Somaliland. “Since 2012, many countries have flocked to Somaliland; so why is Mogadishu echoing concerns now?” Abebe asked. Abebe said that Egypt, Russia and others including the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been conducting some sorts of activities in Somaliland. Given the various political commitments and

agreements both Ethiopia and Somalia have entered into over the years, Abebe said that the standoff is less likely to escalate into an international matter.

“It will be [Somalia’s reaction] a backdoor lobbying effort. There are countries in the Arab League which would indirectly influence Somalia at least to sound political concerns and I don’t think it will go further from that”, Abebe said.

It has been almost 21 years since Somaliland became a self-declared republic and expressed wills of economic developments with or without the recognition of the international community.

It is to be recalled that back in 2017, members of the Somaliland parliament have voted to allow UAE set up a military base at the Port of Berbera. A year before that, DP World signed a landmark 30 years concession to develop a USD 442 million multipurpose port facility. The joint venture agreement granted DP World a 65 percent control to manage and invest on the development of Berbera port.

Two years later, the silence from the Ethiopian side broke and made official that it has bought 19 percent stake as part of its plan to invest and develop in port facilities deemed alternative to the Port of Djibouti.

By: Dawit Endeshaw

Belay Ab Motors, a local vehicle assembler, has finally inked a contract to supply 400 sedan automobile vehicles with a total price of 352 million birr, The

Reporter has learnt.

The contract signing for the supply was held at the premises of the Public Procurement and Property Disposal Services (PPPDS) on March 16, 2018.

It is to be recalled that, three months ago,

the Ministry of Finance and Economic Cooperation (MoFEC), via PPPDS, floated a tender to purchase 400 sedan automobiles. These vehicles are expected to replace the high-powered automobiles currently in use by government officials.

In this regard, a National Competitive Bid (NCB) was floated which at the time attracted four local vehicle assemblers. In this regard, local assemblers have submitted their proposals for Lot 1 with

Belay Ab inks 352... page 35

From Left: Ahmed Shide together with DP World chairman and Solailand Foreign Affairs and

HEADLINES



By Yonas Abiye

The Ministry of Youth and Sport (MoYS) on Thursday said that the continuing strife and standoff in the Ethiopian Football Federation (EFF) has become worrisome which is bringing more shame and disgrace to the nation’s football.

In addition to the longstanding disputes candidates, the growing violence in football stadiums pose “serious concerns which even goes beyond the ministry’s role.”

On Thursday, Ristu Yirdaw, minister of Youth and Sports, presented an eight-month performance report before the House of Peoples’ Representatives (HPR) which marked its first regular session after a month-long mid-year recess.

He explained in detail problems which were echoed in a more serious tone from MPs during the question and answer

session which came after the report.

The disagreement among delegates started in early 2017. Others argue that murmurs of discontent first erupted, when the list of candidates was announced. The list includes a former president and the incumbent who is looking for another term in office. One point of disagreement on the side of the candidates was that FIFA rules are not being implemented appropriately. Thus, violation of these guidelines was said to have contributed for the postponement of the election.

The minister further mentioned that the earlier election attempt have been plagued with chaos and is still going on until now. With continuous disagreements among those in office, personal jibes among the nominees and the discontent of the general public, has been eroding the already “ailed football”.

Despite several attempts to resolve the erratic disagreements, the country’s

federation continues to suffer from unending and protracted proceedings that the Presidential Election of the EFF has not been able to take shape since November 2017.

He also indicated that the national stadium, which is under construction by a Chinese construction firm with a total budget of some Birr 2.47 billion, has achieved 69 percent of its completion.

Citing stadiums’ construction, Ristu said that the ever-growing interest and passion of the people for the sport is being complimented by government’s commitment in spearheading the growth of the country’s football and the sports in general.

However, he said the government could do nothing to interfere in the precedential election process except contribute as a facilitator to help them conduct a free and fair election.

“We have no stake in its structure. We

are not even a member of the Federation. Only regions and clubs are members of the association. Hence, we are not allowed to step in its structural and operational matters. We also have no desire to interfere in its structure since it is a very sensitive sector which is already under the close monitoring of FIFA and international bodies,” he said.

Other officials, who joined the minister in the House, on their part underlined the concerns highlighting how this violence has come about with worsening threats they describe as “unwanted” kinds of inter-state as well as intra-state violence.

They also cited violence which involved Amhara and Tigray regional states.

This type of violence has also been spotted various times among the same

Violence poses concern beyond stadiumsDoping continues to leave its mark on Ethiopian athletics

By Neamin Ashenafi

Tana Forum, which aims at establishing a culture of dialogue that fosters change in the peace and security landscape in the continent, is set to take place in Bahirdar, from 21-22 April 2018.

The forum is organized with a firm believe that positive ideas could impact on insightful peace and security deliberations and help find solutions to security challenges, Michelle Ndiaye, Director of Africa Peace and Security Program and Head of the Tana Forum Secretariat told The Reporter.

According to Ndiaye, the Forum is an independent platform with informal discussions on conflict resolution and security challenges that urge stakeholders to engage and explore African led security solutions for Africa.

So far, the Forum has helped in the conceptualization of peace and security issues from an African perspective, by looking at more homegrown approaches to security challenges and conflicts.

“The Forum is also bringing more engagement from Africa’s stakeholders in the design and proactive management of peace and security on the continent,” Ndiaye said.

The 7th edition of the Forum is expected to deliberate on the peace and security matters of the continent with a theme of: “Ownership of Africa’s Peace and Security Provision: Financing and Reforming the African Union.” However, head of the secretariat said that the Forum has now faced challenges regarding the rapid growth and rising pressure from requests of wider and more inclusive participation.

“We are limited to only 200 seats per year; both capacity wise but also to maintain the original purpose of the Forum as an informal and open environment for

dialogue,” Ndiaye told The Reporter.

The presence of the private sector has increased, mainly through funding but the challenge remains in encouraging individual participation, Ndiaye said.

The Forum produces every year an outcome document for more action oriented and policy relevant solutions. It compliments formal meetings of regional and continental organizations by bringing stakeholders in a collaborative environment. Though the Forum is

an informal gathering and as such, it does not produce binding decisions to participating AU member countries.

“The Forum does not produce binding decisions but it promotes a better understanding of security threats, structural causes of conflicts and policy- relevant outcomes,” Ndiaye said.

The 7th edition of the Forum was set to take place in Hawassa, the capital city of the Southern Regional State.

Seventh edition of Tana Forum

Michelle Ndiaye, Director of Africa Peace and Security Program and Head of the Tana Forum Secretariat

wheatBy Dawit Endeshaw

Promising International, a UK-based trading company, has managed to give a lowest offer of 2.7 billion birr for the supply of 400,000 metric tons of wheat.

The latest purchase of wheat was first awarded to a Pakistan-based company — Shakeel and Company Ltd — where the company later failed to supply the wheat which led to the cancelation of the bid. Public Procurement and Property Disposal Service has then decided to rebid the tender.

On the earlier bidding process, it is to be recalled that, Shakeel was awarded to supply the same amount with 2.6 billion birr.

The Service has then refloated the bid inviting suppliers. In this respect, six known wheat suppliers in the international grain market have submitted their offer. From this, all suppliers’ offers, except one were opened.

The bid for the supply of 400,000 metric tons was divided into four lots, each with 100,000 metric ton lots. In this regard, Promising International gave the lowest prices of USD 250.15, USD 258.15, USD 260.8 and USD 261.45 per ton for each lot.

The company has also proposed to ship the wheat using seller vessels, if it does secure the contract. Promising was the second least bidder following Shakeel during the earlier cancelled tender.

During the latest bid opening on March 13, at the Service’s premises; unlike the remaining bidders that propose

Football federation ... page 35

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to ship the wheat either using their own vessels or using ships owned by Ethiopian Shipping and Logistics Service Enterprise (ESLSE), Promising gave only one alternative of shipping the bulk of wheat from the departure port to Djibouti using its own vessels.

In the process of providing both alternatives, bidders are supposed to list transport costs by their own vessels and vessels from ESLSE.

“Promising is supposed to give both transport costs, and in doing this should submit pro-forma from ESLSE,” said a representative competing bidder.

However, a representative of Promising responded saying it is not mandatory to have price pro-forma from ESLSE.

Promising; an internationally acclaimed grain trader is very familiar to the Ethiopian market with a major role in supplying wheat for years. It is to be recalled during purchases made a couple months ago, Promising International along with a second company called Intrade won the bid at a total price of Birr 3.3 billion.

“We will cross-check from the bidding document if it is mandatory or not,” Solomon Betre, head of Procurement at the Service, said.

As the opening of the offers commenced, the second least offer came from ADM International— a US based company followed by, Hakan Agro DMCC. In this respect, ADM and Hakan gave USD 269 and USD 272, respectively. These two price offers include transport cost of the wheat if they are shipped using the seller’s vessel’s.

The two companies unlike Promising

have submitted price pro-forma from ESLSE.

During the opening of the bid, the sixth bidder called, Midstar Singapore failed to submit bid security document (bid bond), before the opening of financial and technical documents.

The Reporter which attended the bid opening observed that, Midstar’s agent submitted the bid security document after the bid was opened and price read out.

“The bid security was supposed to be submitted before the bid closing time along with technical and financial proposal,” said Solomon.

As the result of Midstar’s failure to submit the bid security, its price offers were not read-out during the bid.

The latest wheat supply once it is awarded to the winning bidder, the wheat will be brought to the country and distributed to more than 5,000 bakeries and 300 flour factories.

“We will soon announce the results,” Solomon said.

According to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), there is an increase in the price of wheat.

“International prices of wheat increased in February 2018, with the benchmark US wheat (No.2 Hard Red Winter, f.o.b.) averaging USD 240 per ton, 5 percent up from the previous month and 14 percent higher than in February 2017,” reads part of a report on FAO’s website.

By Dawit Endeshaw

The Public Procurement and Property Administration Agency responded to a complaint over a multimillion birr worth tender to construct new home for the House of Peoples’ Representatives (HPR) and the House of Federation (HOF), in favor of local companies.

The Agency was looking at the complaint filed by Afro Tsion Construction Plc.

The international competitive bid for the construction of a multipurpose and complex office and facility building was floated a couple of months ago.

In this respect, both local and international companies have shown an interest for competitive Design and Build (DB) contract.

As the bid proceeded the Ethiopian Construction Work Corporation, which floated the tender, demanded all the participant bidders to have prior experience of executing Design and Build (DB) contract worth USD 50 million dollars.

Later, Afro Tsion, a local contractor, issued a complaint against this specific requirement. It submitted its complaint to the Complaint Hearing Department at the Agency.

The complaint stressed on the fact that

the requirement by the Corporation violates a procurement directive which states that local bidding companies should only be expected to fulfill 70 percent of the aforementioned of prior building contracts when in case required in respective bid process.

However, the tender document expects

all bidders, irrespective of their origin to have similar experience.

This will discourage local construction companies, Sisay Desta (Eng.), CEO of Afro Tsion told The Reporter. Established with an initial capital of Birr 50,000 in 1998, Afro Tsion is currently a major player in Ethiopia’s construction sector.

In line with the procurement directive, local companies are supposed to have a track record of executing similar projects; 70 percent of the mentioned USD 50 million.

The Agency, after looking into the case, wrote a letter to the Corporation to abide by the directive, The Reporter has learnt from officials from the Agency.

Once it is constructed, the building will serve as the new offices of the House of People’s Representatives (HPR) and House of Federation (HOF).

The site for the construction of the new office and facility building will be located in Arat Kilo area in front of the main palace. It will rest on a total area of 69,232.40 square meters for the said construction purpose. A preliminary architectural design has already been done where the building has 204,704-meter square gross built up area.

Once the construction of the new building is completed, it will replace the current parliament which is believed to be built in the early 1930s.

The new building of the complex, which is expected to cost more than two billion birr, had been in the planning over the past one decade.

The plan to build a new complex was first mentioned by Degife Bula, the then speaker of the House of Federation.

Architectural design of the planned parliamentary building

HEADLINES



By Birhanu Fikade

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has launched a new strategic plan which aims at eradicating the epidemics of HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis (TB), which requires USD 70 million to USD 90 million, The Reporter has learnt.

During the validation and joint review forum held on Friday and Saturday, members of the IGAD secretariat, health sector partakers and donors met to discuss the strategic plan designed to serve for the period 2018 up to 2025.

Tsegaye Legesse (MD), senior health advisor and coordinator for the TB/HIV grant with IGAD said that the new strategic plan is absorbed mainly on eliminating the prevalence of the three stated diseases mostly epidemic to the IGAD region. According to Tsegaye, USD 70 million up to USD 90 million is the estimated amount required for the implementation of the strategic plan.

Hence, health ministers of the IGAD community will further discuss the validated seven years plan for ratifications. The cross-border movement of people in the region is one area the new plan targets to curb the instances and out-breaks of diseases.

Desalgen Tegabu (MD), director of Policy and Planning Directorate with the Ministry of Health said that the strategic plan, among others, is poised in areas of coordination within member states to create a common clinical guide and information sharing platforms.

Both Desalegn and Tsegaye emphasized that, refugees and pastoralists are focal communities the strategic plan considered in addressing the challenges

of pandemics across the regions.

Chaired by the Government of Ethiopia, IGAD ministerial meeting on health is scheduled to take place on Monday and the actual costs of implementing the strategic plan is expected to be refined and adopted by the end of next month.

Among the granting entities to the health sector activities of IGAD, the Switzerland-based Global Fund is a partnership organization that has

invested USD four billion across countries.

To back efforts directed towards the reduction of new HIV infections, TB incidence, and HIV/TB related morbidity and mortality among cross-border and mobile population in IGAD member countries, the Global Fund has pledged to grant USD 10 million to IGAD and has disbursed USD 4.7 million to the cause.

By Birhanu Fikade

In a move to offer concessional loans to small towns across the regions, the Water Resource Development Fund (WRDF) co-financed additional 770 million birr for three small towns. This extends the total fund to 1.1 billion birr in less than a month.

Signing the agreement on Thursday, Wanna Wake, director general of WRDF, said that out of the 770 million birr total project financing requirements,

487 million birr is the direct loan WRDF has provided. That, according to Wana, makes 60 percent of the fund. The remaining 283 million birr is a contribution sought to be made from the channels of regional authorities.

Worrabe and Chencha from the Southern Regional State and Legetafo in the Oromia Regional State have received the funding which would enable them to construct potable water sources within two years’ period.

The water projects, according to officials of WRDF, are deemed to benefit some

200,000 local residents across the three towns. Late in February, the office of the Water Fund inked a similar co-financing project agreement of 400 million birr with six micro-towns which is expected to benefit 81,000 residents after completion.

In its aggressive move to reach its target against its previous trend, WRDF targets a fund of 10 billion birr to provide safe water and sanitation projects throughout the country. So far, the state run WRDF has been able to extend nine billion birr via co-financing deals for 92 projects.

Established 15 years ago, WRDF has only been able to pump huge amounts of funding this past two to three years. Backed by the World Bank Group (WBG), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the French Development Agency (AFD), the Italian Development Agency (AICS) and the like, WRDF is geared to finance projects focused on sanitary and hygiene. It is to be recalled that the WBG last year has extended USD 450 million that would reach 22 towns including Addis Ababa for projects that will focus on waste water treatments.

Desalgen Tegabu (MD)Tsegaye Legesse (MD)

HEADLINES



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Commercial Bank of EthiopiaInvitation for International Competitive Bid for Manufacturers

Bid No. 73/2017/181.

Description of Goods or Related Services Quantity Bid Bond/EMD amount

The bid document shall be obtained commencing from March 20, 2018st

300.00 (One Hundred Birr)

a must.

3.

the Bank.

4. Birr 69,000.00 (Sixty Nine Thousand Birr only)

5. Earnest Money Deposit (EMD)/Bid Bond shall be provided separately one day before April 24, 2018 st

6. April 24, 2018; 12:00 A.M.mentioned address.

April 24, 2018; at 02:30 P.M.8.

10.

By Kaleyesus Bekele

The Italy-based motor oil and grease producer, Petronas Lubricants, signed an exclusive dealership agreement with Gomeju Oil Ethiopia that enables the latter to promote and distribute Petronas products in Ethiopia.

Based in Turin, Petronas Lubricants is a subsidiary company of Petronas (Petroliam Nasional Berhad), Malaysia’s fully integrated oil and gas multinational which is ranked among the largest corporations on FORTUNE Global 500.

Petronas Lubricants was established in 2008 after two companies – Petronas Lubricants wing and FS Selenia, FIAT’s lubricants company – merged. FS Selenia has been producing lubricants for FIAT vehicles since 1936. Petronas Lubricants has four manufacturing plants – two in in Italy, one in Belgium and one in Spain.

At a launching ceremony held at Sheraton Addis on March 12 executives of Petronas and Gomeju Oil Ethiopia have announced their new partnership that allows them to supply Petronas motor and grease products to the Ethiopian market.

Steven Vandenheede, supervisor of Export Sales for Africa, Middle East and Overseas, said that Petronas products have been recommended for brand new vehicles produced by IVECO and New Holland. “We work closely with IVECO, CNH and Mercedes Benz. IVECO recommends new trucks to use Petronas motor oil when they come out of the manufacturing plant. As a manufacturer we are the only company who can manufacture recommended lubricants

by IVECO and New Holland.”

Vandenheede said that there are a large number of IVECO trucks in Ethiopia adding that IVECO was unable to import Petronas products due to legal issues. “Now thanks to Gomeju we can bring our products to Ethiopia.” Grease and motor oil of various types, automotive grease, oil spray, oil lubricants for cooling systems for automotive, agricultural and construction machineries are among the long list of products that Petronas Lubricants produces. Petronas Lubricants which produces 600,000 metric tons of lubricants generates USD 1.7 billion annual revenue.

Yigzaw Mekonnen, general manager of Gomeju Oil Ethiopia, said that Gomeju is proud to partner with the global leading lubricants manufacturer, Petronas Lubricants. “Petronas grease and motor oil are of high quality. The price could be a bit higher but that does not mean anything considering the high quality of the products.”

Yigzaw told The Reporter that unavailability of land for the construction of gas stations and marginal profit margin are the major constraints hampering the growth of petroleum companies. “These problems have been there for a long time and they are not resolved yet. We still

hopefully wait for the government to solve the problems.”

Gomeku Oil Ethiopia was established by Tewodros Yeshiwas and his wife Genet Gebreigzabher with a registered capital of 53 million birr in 2015. The company raised its capital to 100 million birr.

Gomeju Oil started its operation in 2016 with 24 gas stations. The company was officially inaugurated in May 2017. The number of gas stations has reached 40. The company has invested one billion birr on gas stations, buildings, and fuel tanker trucks and created 1,000 jobs. According to Yigzaw, the company will now focus on lubricants, LPG and bitumen supply.

Managing director and founder of Gomeju Oil Ethiopia, Tewodros Yeshiwas, told The Reporter that considering the scarcity of land in Addis Ababa Gomeju Oil has imported portable gas stations to be delivered to the Addis Ababa City Administration. The portable gas stations will be given to Small and Micro Enterprises organized by the Addis Ababa City Administration. “Due to busy schedule we could not hand over the portable gas stations so far. We want to contribute our share to youth job creation scheme,” Tewodros said.

Gomeju Oil is in the process to build an ethanol and lubricants blending facility. Tewodros told The Reporter that his company is finalizing negotiations with plant manufactures in the UAE.

Gomeju is also planning to join the aviation fuel market. The company has submitted proposals to build aviation fuel depot at the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport and in some regional airports.

Steven Vandenheede , export sales supervisor Africa, Middle East and Overseas, Yigezaw Mekonnen, general manager, Gomeju Oil Ethiopia


12| The Reporter, March 17, 2018 Vol. XXII No. 1123IN-DEPTH

The unprecedented turn of events that shook the country to its core. The long

the country have caused the death of many civilians and the destruction of both private and public properties, which left many Ethiopians and others bewildered.

Protests in Oromia and Amhara regional

and sit-ins, resulting in the ever more familiar occurrences of civilian deaths and property destructions. Commentators are saying that the economy is in a downward spiral amid

of foreign currency.

Adding insult to injury, the UN estimates that at least one million people were internally displaced in the border clashes between the Oromia and Ethiopian Somali states in 2017, leading to serious humanitarian concerns.

These numerous crises pressured the top leadership of the ruling coalition —

Democratic Front (EPRDF) – to hold a high stakes meeting in December 2017. For 17 days. The “do-or-die” Executive Committee

meeting deliberated at length on various issues and acknowledged that the problems in the country were exacerbated by a lack of internal party democracy and by the weakness of the top brass.

now is “how the transition will shake out and who will be the next prime minster?”

According to many commentators who are following the matter closely, right now, what the EPRDF desires to have is a leader who can unify the party, gain popular legitimacy and calm widening political and ethnic tensions. Moreover, beyond the change of guard at the top, a major shift in policy is also in the agenda.

On the contrary, opposition party leaders and activists argue, the demand of the public is not addressed by a mere assignment of a new PM, rather by regime change. They added that though the government announced a plan to widen the political space and foster national consensus, including the decision to release political prisoners in early January; the result now has led to the declaration of a State of Emergency (SoE)

FOR THE

In a country embattled with strong rooted problems, the successor of Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn faces a daunting task to appease the mass. It has been a little bit more than a month since Hailemariam tendered his resignation. In the days that followed, the country saw the enactment of a State of Emergency and protests with the ever-familiar turn of events resulting in civilian deaths, property destruction and economic strains. After this torrid month, the premiership position is still vacant with the council of the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary democratic Front (EPRDF) set to convene next week in a

explores what the major challenges for the incoming PM would be.

Regardless of who may succeed Hailemariam, Ethiopia’s next leader faces the challenging task of reforming and democratizing the EPRDF. The leader must also unite a deeply divided country behind a democratic and all-inclusive agenda, commentators suggest.


The Reporter, March 17, 2018 Vol. XXII No. 1123 |13IN-DEPTH

and pressurizing the public through force instead of opening up for genuine and an all-inclusive discussion.

Thus far, the government has released many prisoners including prominent opposition

pledge made by the coalition. However, the

imposition of a state of emergency, highlights the crisis in the country which requires an urgent, robust and courageous response by all stakeholders.

It is within this context that, the executive committee of the coalition is in session to address these demands of the public, as of last weekend. After the end of the executive meeting, the 180 members of the council are also expected to name a new party leader when it reconvenes next week, which according to the culture of the party is the “PM”.

Regardless of who may succeed Hailemariam,

task of reforming and democratizing the EPRDF. The leader must also unite a deeply divided country behind a democratic and all-inclusive agenda, commentators suggest.

According to an analysis that appeared in international media outlets and shared by many opposition political parties and activists in the country, projects that the upcoming PM should address include repealing repressive legislations such as the anti-terrorism proclamation and the charities and societies law, reviving the press and civil society, reforming the electoral board and the security sector.

Similarly, Kibur Gena, a businessman and former president of both the Addis Ababa and Ethiopia chambers of commerce and sectoral associations, outlined three major issues that need to be addressed by the incoming PM. He stated that issues such as “solidifying the country and bringing back the debilitated sense of nationalism and unity, addressing the issue of unemployment,

since the majority of the population is youth and unemployed; addressing such a problem, the new PM has to work tirelessly

accountability in all tiers of administration.”

Hence, Kibur asserted that “these things should get priority and swift response in a very short period of time, so as to restore peace and stability in the country.”

To the contrary, former EPRDF executive committee member who is currently in the opposition camp, Gebru Asrat, is skeptical that the incoming PM will bring any substantial change to the current problems that are rocking the country.

any substantial change to the problems that

the past two and a half years.” Gebru stated.

“Since the PM is not free to decide as he wishes, and render every activity based on the framework of the party, it is naivety to expect change that will materialize by assigning a new PM,” Gebru argued.

“The party is working to sustain its hegemony; leaders of the party are not willing to entertain any dissenting view both from the pubic and other stakeholders.

demands. Change is attainable if and only if the ruling party is willing to discuss over the causes of the crisis and entertain views of other stakeholders. So long as the ruling

Gebru explained.

Both Gebru and Kibur emphasized that the EPRDF cannot do it alone. Whe Hailemariam addressed the public about his resignation, he emphasized the need for a national consensus, but consensus is not a single

next PM must embark on a transition that encompasses good faith negotiations with the opposition.

For many, the question, “Who will become

important. What they rather want to know is how genuine the current EPRDF is ready to reform and lead Ethiopia to a new chapter of real democracy.

In this regard, restoring unity will be the toughest one. This issue is followed by so many questions including the federal system, distribution of resources and the like, Kibur explains.

Apart from this, making the economy work is also another challenge not only here in Ethiopia rather across African countries. However, in the Ethiopian context repealing some legal regulations and frameworks that hinder business activities should be abolished and the government should create a conducive environment in this regard.

In the arena of corruption, there is no change made that is tangible so far, many argue. There were some trials in an on and

sickness. According to commentators, the law that governs corruption itself should be amended in a way to not only punish those who wrong the people but discouraging the act from the outset to solve the malignant problem by focusing on prevention instead of cure.

Though Kibur expects the new PM to navigate through this wave, he is also skeptical if the party is willing to widen the political space and engage in a dialogue with all parties, so as to give lasting solution to the current problems of the country.

“In my view every decision is passing through the party, and hence a single individual

therefore though we are inferring to the PM we have to ask the party,” Kibur said.

In providing solutions to the problems that the country faces now, there are two beliefs, the one that claims the SoE will provide a long-lasting solution and the other the solution should be garnered from an open discussion with the public and all stakeholders, analysts suggest. The meeting by the executive committee is “I think discussing over these issues and in

change rather fueling the problem but the discussion will pave the way to restore peace and stability in the country,” Kebur said, expressing his hope and despair.

To the contrary, Gebru argued that the demand from the public is a basic political question; of course there are social and economic demands. However, the prevailing question is etched on the frontier of political reform.

mean sharing of power. However, by that I mean opening up the political space so as to entertain all dissenting views both from the public, opposition political parties, civil societies and so on.

Despite widespread fears of uncontrollable violence, for some, the crisis can also be an

hopeful transition.

Those who follow the events closely say that if reformists within the EPRDF prevail in the ongoing power struggle and act with extreme caution, putting the country before an individual or party interest, Ethiopia has a real chance for a transformative change.

Those who follow the events closely say that if reformists within the EPRDF prevail in the ongoing power struggle and act with extreme caution, putting the country before an individual or party interest, Ethiopia has a real chance for a transformative change.

Gebru Asrat, former EPRDF executive committee member who is currently in the

opposition camp and leader of Arena Party

Kibur Gena, a businessman and former president of both the Addis Ababa and

Ethiopia chambers of commerce and sectoral associations


14| The Reporter, March 17, 2018 Vol. XXII No. 1123INTERVIEW

Although it has been just a year serving in Ethiopia, Irish ambassador to Ethiopia, Sonja Hyland, is no stranger to the country anymore. She has travelled to many areas in the country, including in the Somali, Oromia, Southern, Gambella, Amhara and Tigray regional states visiting Irish aid projects in addition to

Reporter’s Samuel Getachew on the highlights of Irish aid in Ethiopia, trade, on

most famous Ethiopian-Irish actress, Ruth Negga. Excerpts:

PRIORITIZING


The Reporter, March 17, 2018 Vol. XXII No. 1123 |15INTERVIEW

Prioritizing ... page 36

Ireland has been a partner for Ethiopia in meetings its humanitarian and development needs for decades. Next year, we will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the opening of our Embassy here and of Irish Aid’s cooperation program. We currently provide 30 million euros (one billion birr) a year to support Ethiopia’s development priorities. There has been steady progress in reducing poverty, hunger and malnutrition, maternal and infant mortality, and building more resilient and prosperous communities. We would love to get to the stage where aid from Ireland is no longer needed and our partnership is based on mutual exchange and experience sharing on science, technology and innovation; education and skills training; trade, investment and entrepreneurship; tourism, culture and heritage; and best practice in transparent, open and citizen-responsive governance. We are starting to build partnerships with Ethiopia in some of these areas already that don’t rely on aid money. That’s our long-term vision. In the meantime, we are committed to continue to support Ethiopia’s development priorities. You have highlighted how, in particular the issues of women and girls will be a priority in the efforts of Ireland in Ethiopia. Why is that? No country can exit poverty and meet its development goals without

empowering women and girls. There is overwhelming evidence that not only countries, but governments, institutions and companies do better when they are gender balanced. It makes total sense - if you are only using 50 percent of your potential talent base, you are not going to get very far. If women don’t have equal access to education, economic opportunities, an equal say in decision-making right up from the home to the top echelons of government and business, and access to reproductive health care so they can choose when and whether to have children, then we are trying to fly on one wing. That’s the case in Ireland, in Ethiopia, in Europe, in Africa – everywhere.

We want to support Ethiopia in its efforts to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment because it is the right thing to do but also because Irish Aid’s investments in health, social protection, governance, job creation, rural livelihoods and agricultural development programs will not deliver results unless women are fully included. You have been in the country for less than a year. What have been the highlights so far? The Embassy organized a fantastic visit of our Deputy Prime Minister

The Reporter: Ireland recently announced needed resources to the Ethiopian Humanitarian Fund. Tell me about that?

Sonja Hyland: The Government of Ethiopia and the UN launched the 2018 Humanitarian and Disaster Resilience Plan this week. The plan outlines the immediate humanitarian needs in Ethiopia, with more than eight million people needing humanitarian assistance. The Plan also outlines the need to invest in resilience and prevention. Ireland immediately responded by announcing three million euros (100,000,000 birr) to the Ethiopian Humanitarian Fund which will go to support the eight million people in need in Ethiopia. We want to assist by disbursing funds as early as possible so that the government, UN and NGOs can reach vulnerable communities as early as possible. We are really encouraged that gender equality is a central priority in the Plan, because women are disproportionately affected by humanitarian crises. Within Ethiopia, the efforts of Irish aid and those of the Irish celebrities are historic. From Bono to Bob Geldof, there has been an engagement in helping the humanitarian needs of the nation. How do you envision your nation to be engaged in Ethiopia when it comes to aid?

No country can exit poverty and meet its development goals without empowering

women and girls.


16| The Reporter, March 17, 2018 Vol. XXII No. 1123LIVING AND THE ARTS

He was found unconscious on one fateful day in May 2016, face down on a sidewalk. His neighbours rushed him to the nearest hospital. After an hour in a coma, he woke up to the sensation of a needle pricking his skin. Due to his history with low blood pressure, the doctors did not try to make further diagnosis. He was sent home with an instruction for bed rest.

For the next two weeks, he felt lightheaded, nauseous, and weak. He could not go to work or continue with his usual routine. By that time, he had suspected something, but he was too terrified to admit it to himself and make the situation “real”. He kept on turning a blind eye to the symptoms, hoping they would disappear. The next morning, he woke up with swollen eyes, almost

shut. His sister took him to Myungsung Christian Medical Centre (Korea General hospital) where the doctors found out his kidneys were scared and failing. He was diagnosed with a chronic kidney disease. He was shocked, but not completely surprised. He would need to start dialysis soon and get a transplant. Mekibeb Eshetu, 54, knew his life would never be the same again.

“God, I have always asked you for a decent life, but not a decent death,” Mekibeb remembers praying apologetically. “Please let me go in a dignified manner.”

After five months of tiresome bi-weekly dialysis, multiple blood exams and consultations passed, his half-brother was his nearest match. “A part of me was filled with hope and positivity, but

FIGHTING THE SILENT KILLER In a country where medical assistance, quality and service at a reasonable price is hard to come by, chronic diseases like kidney failure and its unending trips to the hospital for dialysis is a tough ask for anyone. Lack of proper diagnosis and facilities to undertake the necessary procedure in a country which entertains “cure” rather than “prevention”; the less fortunate are left a burden on their entire family and those who afford it, have the option of going abroad, writes Senit Feseha.


The Reporter, March 17, 2018 Vol. XXII No. 1123 |17LIVING AND THE ARTS

I could not accept the idea of putting him at risk, no matter how big or small.” After a lot of thinking and persuasion from family, they decided to go with the transplant. “I was not ready to die” he said. They went to Thailand to get a costly kidney transplant surgery.

The health of the new kidney lasted for only two years. On late 2017, he went through a chronic renal/kidney transplant rejection. His body rejected the new kidney and started attacking it, assuming the new kidney to be a foreign entity.

“No one prepared me for this. We all thought that once a person gets a transplant, it would all end happily.” However, he was put on dialysis and was told he would need another kidney transplant. He was heartbroken.

Kidney failure is one of the deadliest diseases. It can consume the mental, emotional, physical and financial state of sufferers, and those closest to them.

Kidney disease has no severe signs and indications. Some of the symptoms can be fatigue, feeling cold when others are warm, shortness of breath after very little effort, feeling dizzy or weak, trouble thinking clearly, feeling very itchy, swelling in hands or feet, swollen or puffy face, metallic taste in food, upset stomach, nausea, vomiting, and change of colour, state, frequency and pressure of urination.

Without medical examination and professional opinion, the disease can stay under the radar for a very long time and go undetected until very advanced.

Celebrated yearly in the month of March, World Kidney Day is designed to raise awareness on prevention, timely diagnosis, proper follow up and latest medical interventions in more than 100 countries. Ethiopia is one of the participating countries that has acknowledged this praiseworthy day.

Last week, on March 8 (this year’s world kidney day), St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College held a press briefing. On the occasion, St.

Paul distributed important messages to the public.

The meeting was led by: Engeda Abebe (MD), head of Surgical Department, Birhanu Worku (MD), head of Kidney Transplant and Munim Ibrahim (MD), head of Dialysis Centre. The main objective of the briefing was to raise health awareness about the disease, inform about preventative measures, and support individuals who have been working tirelessly to treat the illness.

Speaking at the meeting, Dr Munim stated that the services the hospital has been giving since it started kidney transplants, two years ago include giving indiscriminative attention for all patients with both acute and chronic kidney disease, handling

renal replacement therapies and dialysis. He further stated: “We have not stopped working from day one, including

weekends because it is our main objective to serve the public”.

Dr Birhanu mentioned that the hospital has served seventy patients that needed transplants over the past two years. “Our hospital has given a good number of transplants each year as an African nation and the rates are almost equivalent to other countries in the West that are said to provide good numbers on a yearly average.”

The public should always count on prevention rather than care, the doctors said. “Everyone is encouraged to make yearly check-ups,” Dr Engeda stated at the meeting. Globally, individuals with hypertension, diabetes and

people aged above sixty are those primarily at risk. But in Ethiopia, while the above factors still

remain the primary causes; there are many other contributing factors. He went on to say: “It’s so sad

that when most of our patients come to see us, we could not figure out what exactly caused their kidney

failure. It is because they have waited until it is too late to visit the hospital. A person should get regular physical

check-ups, even if the check-ups could not prevent some cases, it will at least give people time to mentally and financially prepare themselves for what is coming.”

Dr Birhanu described preventable causes of kidney disease. In addition to diabetes and hypertension; kidney diseases can be caused by blockages in the urinary tract, kidney stones, pregnancy, unregulated traditional (herbal) medications, and needless usage of over the counter medication,” he said, adding that although some kidney diseases can be caused by unpreventable reasons, they can be cured or delayed in

Fighting the silent ... page 38

Kidney failure is one of the deadliest diseases. It can consume the mental,

emotional, physical

sufferers, and those closest to them.



Capturing Africa’s ... page 30

African women... page 30

VIEWPOINT

COMMENTARY

Since 2000, at least half of the world’s fastest-growing economies have been in Africa. And by 2030, Africa will be home to 1.7 billion people, whose combined consumer and business spending will total USD 6.7 trillion.

Seven years ago, the Harvard Business Review pointed out that Africa is also home to many of the world’s biggest opportunities. And yet, despite its tremendous business potential, Africa has not risen to the top of Western business leaders’ agendas.

In fact, between 2014 and 2016, US exports to Africa fell by almost half, from USD 38 billion to USD 22 billion. And while the United Kingdom’s investments on the continent more than doubled between 2005 and 2014, reaching £42.5 billion (USD 57.6 billion), only 2.5 percent of its total exports are to Africa.

Western countries are quickly losing ground to China, which increased its exports to Africa more than sevenfold – to USD 103 billion – from 2005 to 2015. If Western businesses hope to keep up, they will need to tap into the African countries and sectors with the highest potential for growth.

By 2030, more than half of Africa’s population will reside in seven countries: Nigeria, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Tanzania, Kenya, and South Africa. But, more important, 43 percent of Africans will belong to the middle or upper classes, up from 39.6 percent in 2013, implying considerably higher demand for goods and services. By 2030, household

consumption is expected to reach USD 2.5 trillion, up from USD 1.1 trillion in 2015.

Nearly half of that USD 2.5 trillion will be spent in three countries: Nigeria (20 percent), Egypt (17 percent), and South Africa (11 percent). But there will also be lucrative opportunities in Algeria, Angola, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Sudan, and Tunisia. Any one of these countries would be a good bet for companies seeking to enter new markets.

By 2030, the sectors generating the most value in Africa will be food and beverages (USD 740 billion), education and transportation (USD 397 billion), and housing (USD 390 billion). But there will also be strong growth in consumer goods (USD 370 billion), hospitality and recreation (USD 260 billion), health care (USD 175 billion), financial services (USD 85 billion), and telecommunications (USD 65 billion).

Of course, much of this growth will depend on the African Union properly implementing its new Continental Free Trade Area, which would create a single market for goods and services, offering corporations many points of entry. Moreover, the CFTA will increase the need for connectivity, so there will be new opportunities to invest in infrastructure and sectors ranging from transportation and energy to information and communications technology (ICT) and water supplies. For its part, the African Development Bank can help investors find promising projects through its Program for

Infrastructure Development in Africa.

Another major growth area between now and 2030 will be in African business-to-business spending, which will reach USD 4.2 trillion, up from USD 1.6 trillion in 2015. Here, the largest sectors will be agriculture and agricultural processing (USD 915 billion), manufacturing (USD 666 billion), and construction, utilities, and transportation (USD 784 billion), followed by wholesale and retail (USD 665 billion), resources (USD 357 billion), banking and insurance (USD 249 billion), and telecommunications and ICT (USD 79.5 billion).

The expected growth in agriculture and agricultural processing reflects the fact that food and beverages will constitute the largest share of total household spending. Moreover, 60 percent of the world’s unused arable land is in Africa, which still contributes a meager share of worldwide agricultural exports. That means there is a lot of room for growth. And, because severe hunger still affects many African countries, investors can even contribute to the public good by investing in fertilizers, machinery, water and irrigation systems, and other areas of the agriculture sector.

As of 2012, the African countries with the highest agricultural value-added in terms of annual growth included Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Mali, Mozambique, Rwanda, and Tanzania. In addition, Angola, Morocco, and South Africa now all have sizable markets,

Over the next 12 years, Africa’s expanding population and strong economic growth across globally competitive sectors could translate into especially high returns for

do not step in to meet the consumer demand of Africa’s growing middle class, their Chinese competitors will, writes Landry Signé.

Africa has a long history of female leadership. Yet leadership can be a challenging aspiration for the continent’s young women, owing to enduring barriers to success. If African countries – and Africa’s women – are to meet their potential, this must change.

Women were leaders on the frontlines of Africa’s decolonization struggle. Queen Anna Nzinga, the monarch of the Ndongo and Matamba Kingdoms in what is now Angola, spent decades fighting to protect her people from the Portuguese and their expanding slave trade. In 1900, Yaa Asantewaa, queen mother of the Ashanti Empire (part of modern-day Ghana), led a rebellion against British colonialism. Nearly three decades later, women in southeastern Nigeria organized a revolt, known as the Aba Women’s Riots, against British colonial policies.

More recently, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf – a Nobel Peace Prize laureate – led her country to reconciliation and recovery following a decade-long civil war, managing a devastating Ebola epidemic along the way. Former Rwandan Minister of Health Agnes Binagwaho has dedicated her career to achieving equitable access to health care in her country and beyond. As a young teenager, Kakenya Ntaiya agreed to undergo female circumcision (a traditional Maasai rite of passage) in exchange for the opportunity to get an education. After earning a PhD in education, she founded Kakenya’s Dream, which focuses on educating girls,

ending harmful traditional practices, and uplifting rural communities in Kenya.

Yet barriers to women’s leadership in Africa today remain systemic, widespread, and they begin early. They start at home, where girls are expected to take on more responsibility, including chores like childcare, cooking, and laundry. This, and other factors, undermines African girls’ educational attainment: 47 percent either do not complete school or never attend at all.

Girls’ paths are no easier when they grow up. From limited land rights to the enduring expectation that they perform the majority of unpaid household labor, women in Africa face major economic, legal, and cultural barriers to advancement. According to the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Report, Sub-Saharan Africa has closed the disparity in economic empowerment by only 68 percent, with women still far more likely to be unemployed, underemployed, or hold precarious employment in the informal sector.

But while the barriers to women’s leadership are formidable, they are not insurmountable. Whether in politics or health, law, or engineering, African women are showing the world how to unleash their fellow women’s leadership potential.

In Uganda, Favourite Regina is keeping refugee girls out of early marriage and pregnancy, as part of an initiative led

by CIYOTA, a youth-led, volunteer-based organization established in the Kyangwali refugee settlement. In Nigeria, Blooming Soyinka employs a half-dozen economically disadvantaged and disabled artisans at Africa Blooms, creating conditions for those employees and their families to thrive and educate their children. In Kenya, Fanice Nyatigo is developing MammaTips, an app that will provide timely information on pregnancy, breastfeeding, immunization, and other important health matters to new mothers. These are young people – all Mastercard Foundation Scholars – to watch, as they are only just beginning to demonstrate the breadth of their potential as leaders.

Africa needs more such remarkable woman leaders. And, though research on how to champion female African leadership is sparse, early findings from the scholars program suggest that there are several pathways that young African women can take – and that we can support – to assume their rightful place among the continent’s leaders.

For starters, while education plays an important role, experience shows that it is not enough. Deliberate investment in leadership programs for young women are also essential. Young women need opportunities to practice leadership, whether in school, the workplace, or the community. And they need supportive

From limited land rights to the enduring expectation that they perform the majority of unpaid household labor, women in Africa face major economic, legal, and cultural barriers to advancement. But while the barriers to women’s leadership in Africa are formidable, they are not insurmountable, write Shona Bezanson and Peter Materu.

| CO N R


The Reporter, March 17, 2018 Vol. XXII No. 1123 |19FASHION

By Hiwot Abebe

The fashion elite and trend influencers of Addis along with various fashion lovers gathered on Sunday March 11 for the launch of NHY Brand Collection. The 1350 square meter large-scale store includes clothes for men, women, children, shoes, accessories and jewelry. 11 brands are represented in the store including Zara, Mango, Bershka, Reserved, Obvious, Mojito, House, Crop and Panncho. The store, launched by entrepreneur Nur Hussein, currently has 40 sales staff and offers beauty services in collaboration with Soreti Spa and Wellness. Their services include a nail salon, waxing, cosmetics and hair extensions. The store is found on the building next to Mafi Mall in front of Bole Medhanialem Church. The event featured a runway show of the clothes in the store followed by cocktails for those in attendance. Danny Davis, Marketing Manager of NHY Brand Collection, states they opened the outlet to fulfill the demand for quality clothing at affordable prices for individuals that have the buying power. He said they have a good product line of fast fashion available, ensuring the trendiness of their

shoppers. People in Addis, he says, are more aware of fashion in Ethiopia; they are more knowledgeable about how it is consistently evolving. Young residents have access to technology and social media and therefore keep up with what’s happening in the international fashion world.

Meskerem Mekonnen, Directing Manager of the store, stated they are targeting middle to high-income individuals that will embrace NHY as an experience. She wants to introduce shopping as entertainment. “We want to fulfill the need for new trendy items. We know there is a seasonal lag with the western market but we’re planning on filling that gap.” Meskerem previously worked as a visual merchandizer for Zara and Manager at Mango for the past 5 years. She brings her vast fashion experience to improve retail fashion in Addis.

Anna Getaneh, former international model and humanitarian, said she was happy to see everything come to life in the fashion show. The store, she believes, will be able to showcase global fashion to local fashion lovers. Her label African Mosaic is one of 5 fashion brands represented in the NHY’s collection along with Mafi, Ayni, Yefikir, Zaaf, Lali and Pradaise. She

added the inclusion of local designers is bound to increase competition with international brands and improve the quality of Ethiopian designers’ products.

Kunjina Tesfaye a member of African Mosaic’s fashion incubator expressed her excitement about the size of the store and the fair prices considering the international prominence of the brands on sale. She was happiest about the runway show. The fashion show featured both female and male models showcasing the clothes NHY currently has on stock. The models strutted across the large store in flowing dresses and skirts, short or beaded shorts, colorful muumuus and edgy jackets to the energetic music provided by DJ Hash. Anna Getachew and Sheldon Copeman organized the colorful and exciting fashion show. Yordanos, a member of the African Mosiac team was happy with the models that were part of the runway and raved about the makeup, lights and well organized fashion show. Many in attendance were happy to have authentic international brand products.

Wintana, a self-described fashion victim and her friend Seale, a project manager, stated their excitement about having a real shopping experience in

a shop that carries items in different sizes and varieties. Shopping in Addis, they added, can be arduous due to lack of diversity in both style and size. Aster, a woman in her early 30s said she was happy with the service and the variety of items for suitable for work, casual daywear, and evening wear.

On the other hand, Melkamu, law professional in his 30s said he found the clothes intimidating and unusual but was certain there was an audience for it. His friend Abraham Gizaw, an event organizer was glad there was now a centralized store for all ages and genders. He believes importers in Addis need to focus on high quality fabrics for local shoppers. He also recommended that stores focus on local weather conditions when importing seasonal clothing.

The store will renew stock every two months and hopes to hold fashion shows to show case new arrivals. Meskerem added that NHY Brand Collection plans to branch out to Adama, Hawassa, Bahirdar and Mekelle as well as open exclusive Mango, Zara and Breshka franchise stores this year. They also plan on establish online shopping on their upcoming website.

The Reporter, March 17, 2018 Vol. XXII No. 1123Advertisment


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#CarPaintingsArtist mixes realism with abstraction in vehicle paintings

Microsoft’s new Outlook.com design is rolling out

#REPORTERBOOK

“Is that a photograph of a car/motorcycle, or is it a PAINTING?” That is the question that fine vehicle artist, Shannon “Shan” Fannin, loves hearing from the viewers of her paintings. It takes some visual investigation to know for sure. At first, her paintings seem photo-realistic. Upon further inspection, you begin to notice the distorted reflections of figures, cars, and landscape.

“I really enjoy a painting that combines realism with a bit of abstraction. I look at my work as 95 percent realism, and five percent of my personality and sense of humor thrown in. I can never pull off complete realism. I admire those that do, but I need a bit more freedom in my work. Besides, if I tried for total realism, I’d never finish a painting. I’d always second guess myself and never be satisfied until the work was perfect. It would never be perfect. Instead, I shoot for a balance that incorporates the rules of perspective, color, shape, form and then I break a few of them.”

Shan lives in Austin, Texas and has been a professional artist since Fall 2014. She has taken a handful of community college art classes, but feels that the easel is her best teacher. She is also a guest writer for Artists on Art, CREATE! Magazine, and StudioVox and writes about art marketing, how a formal art education vs. life knowledge mold an artist, and much more. On the right are some of the artworks.

(Bored Panda)

Microsoft is beginning to roll out its new Outlook.com design to all users in the coming weeks. The redesigned Outlook.com first entered into beta back in August, and Microsoft also recently started testing UI and feature improvements to the calendar and people sections of the mail service. The new design for mail inside Outlook.com will now be standard for all users in the coming weeks, with no need to toggle the beta mode on.

All Outlook.com users will also be able to opt-in to try out Microsoft’s calendar and people changes, which include a redesigned look and better contact information on profile cards. The overall changes to the mail portion of Outlook.com include improved Skype integration, with support for video calling within an inbox. Microsoft has also tweaked category organization, added new themes for inboxes, and improved the interface for using add-ins in Outlook.com.

While the mail section of Outlook.com will roll out as the default for all users, Microsoft appears to be testing its calendar and people changes further. The beta toggle will remain for these updates, allowing Outlook.com users to switch their calendar back to the existing user interface until feedback has been collected on the changes. Microsoft isn’t revealing when the calendar and people sections will be automatically updated for everyone to the new user interface.

(The Verge)



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YouTube’s mobile app gets a dark mode

#REPORTERBOOK#ThisWeekInHistory

#Shopping

The Mozilla Foundation has released a new version of Firefox today that can prevent some websites from asking to send notifications to your device, as reported by Ars Technica. In addition, this version of Firefox — release number 59 — also stops some sites from accessing your device’s camera, microphone, and location unexpectedly.

The new feature prevents your notification center from getting cluttered with piles of news stories from various sites. When turned on, all websites by default will have such requests blocked, but you can tell Firefox to accept notifications from trusted websites.

To manage your notification permissions in Firefox 59, go to options in Windows, or preferences on Mac. Then, click on “Privacy & Security” and find the section marked permissions. From here you can individually manage your permissions for location, camera, microphone, and notifications.

Other items mentioned in the Firefox 59 release notes include annotations on screenshots in the browser, different ways to customize your tabs and windows, and the following performance updates: faster load times for content on the Firefox Home page; faster page load times by loading either from the networked cache or the cache on the user’s hard drive (Race Cache With Network) and improved graphics rendering using Off-Main-Thread Painting (OMTP) for Mac users (OMTP for Windows was released in Firefox 58). Firefox 59 is available now for all platforms.

(The Verge)

YouTube’s mobile app is getting a dark mode. The company announced this week its dark theme, first introduced on its desktop site last year, is launching today on the YouTube iOS app and arriving soon after on Android. With the setting enabled, YouTube’s background turns from white to black throughout the YouTube experience as you navigate, search and browse its app.

The setting is meant to give YouTube a more cinematic feel, but it has other advantages, as well.

It can be a bit easier on the eyes to use a dark theme when you’re staring at a screen for a long period of time, for example, and it can help you to better focus on the content, not the controls. Some tests have also shown dark themes to save battery life — that’s helpful for an app like YouTube where users are spending more than an hour per day watching videos on mobile devices.

YouTube says its dark theme will cut down on glare and allow viewers to take in the true colors of the videos they watch on mobile.

The option to turn YouTube dark was first introduced among a series of updates to the YouTube desktop experience in May 2017, when YouTube’s cleaner, simpler and Material Design-inspired interface also rolled out. The option to enable a similar dark theme on mobile soon became a top request.

(Tech Crunch)

On March 17, 1969 Golda Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel, after serving as Minister of Labor and Foreign Minister. The world's fourth and Israel's

described as the "Iron Lady" of Israeli politics.

A marketplace in Harar, eastern Ethiopia, in the 1970s



24| CONT`D FROM PAGE 1

Cement price . . . Cement Ethiopia, told The Reporter that the 15 percent currency devaluation made by the National Bank of Ethiopia last October has increased the production cost of the cement factories. “We import coal, spare parts and cement bag and the currency devaluation has increased the price of our imported materials at least by 15 percent,” Mesfin said. In addition to that the cement factories entailed to new charges to the raw materials they use to produce cement. “Our factory made exploration for minerals like pumice, clay and sandstone at a huge cost and settled compensation payments for local residence. But now we are forced to pay 15-20 birr per ton for the raw materials we mine. This also has increased our production cost,” Mesfin said. However, Dangote Cement Ethiopia has not made price increment so far. “So far we have been absorbing the additional costs. But we can’t keep on doing that.” According to Mesfin, considering all these facts Dangote Cement has conducted a price adjustment study and presented a proposal to the management of the company. Dangote Cement will introduce 10-15 percent increment in the coming few days. Dangote sells a quintal of cement for 218 birr for wholesalers. One of the new entrant to the Ethiopian cement market, Habesah Cement, on Thursday introduced an 11 percent increment. Mesfin Abi (Eng.), CEO of Habesah Cement SC, told The Reporter that cement factories have been under pressure due to escalating production cost. Habesha Cement, which was selling a quintal of cement for 195 birr, increased the price to 218 birr as of Thursday. Mesfin said that following the currency devaluation the cost of coal import has increased significantly. “In addition to the birr devaluation the price of coal in the international market has increased since

last October. Our coal import cost has increased by 25 percent,” Mesfin said. According to Mesfin the spare part and cement bag import have also increased due to the currency devaluation. “All these factors have escalated our production cost. Unless we make an increment we are going to incur loss. But we did not transfer all these costs to our customers. Habesha made only 11 percent increment.” Cement is an energy intensive industry. Seventy percent of the production cost is coal import which the bulk of it is imported from South Africa. The price of cement was 60 birr per quintal until 2002. It soared during the Ethiopian millennium in 2008 to 500 birr. When Sheik Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi’s Derba Cement began rolling in 2012 it stabilized the galloping price to 200 birr. Haile Assegidie, CEO of Derba Cement, told The Reporter that the price of cement which was 210 birr is now sold at 270 birr. “This is caused due to the frequent interruption in the transport of cement from the factories to the market. Factories around Addis Ababa were unable to transport their products. Cement factories found in Dire Dawa were also unable to send their products. In addition to that factory employees were unable to go to work due to absence of transport. This has contributed to the rise in the retail cement market,” Haile said. Haile who is president of Ethiopian Cement Producers Association said that the price of coal in the international market has increased by 20 percent. “There is also the 15 percent currency devaluation. There is high inflation rate and employees are demanding salary increment. Our employees went on a ten day strike demanding salary increment. We are now paying fees to youth cooperatives for the raw materials. All these factors have increased our cost of production and

cement factories are losing. But before we make the increment the retail market made increment. This is a big blow to the factories,” Haile said. According to Haile, cement factories have witnessed 25-30 percent production cost rise depending up on their size. “The big factories such as Derba have experienced a 24-25 percent increase in production cost while the small factories have noted a 30 percent surge in their production cost.” According to Haile, Derba Cement is undertaking a price adjustment study. “The price increment will affect the cement market and the construction sector in general. If we make increment comparable to the surge in production cost it will diminish the demand for cement. The factories are losing so now we are thinking how much of the cost should we absorb and how much we should transfer it to buyers.”Haile believes that the factories should absorb some amount of the cost and the retailers should also absorb some amount of the cost. “Otherwise the demand for cement will fall and this will affect the construction sector direly. It will affect all of us so we need a designed solution.” Gemechu Waktola (PhD), CEO at i-Capital Africa Institute and Assistant Professor at Addis Ababa University, told The Reporter that the local cement industry is in a precarious situation. “There are multiple factors that increased their production cost. The political instability is also affecting them.” According to Gemechu, dearth of foreign currency, decline in government spending and the spiral inflation rate are affecting the cement industry. “Big construction projects have slowed down. Public expenditure on major construction projects have been reduced. The government’s focus is now on political stability and this decelerates the demand for cement,” Gemechu told The Reporter. “The currency devaluation has certainly escalated the production cost. Retailers

have increased the price of cement and when the factories will make price adjustments the price of cement will further soar. The soaring price of steel is already hampering construction projects. The increasing price of cement will reduce demand and this will affect the construction sector. The real estate business and government housing projects will also be affected.” Gemechu said that the factories have fixed and variable costs adding that they cannot keep on absorbing the increasing production cost. He believes that the problem is beyond the control of the cement producers and recommended that policy makers and cement producers should together deliberate on the matter. “In our annual cement summit we were advocating for lower cement prices to boost demand. Now it is even going to be more expensive. It is a critical time for cement producers.” The Ethiopian Chemical and Construction Inputs Development Institute closely follows the developments in the cement industry. Hadush Teum, deputy director cement sector, told The Reporter that some retailers are trying to take unfair advantage of the situation. “We are not informed of the coal price surge in the international market. We will try to verify that. But the retailers are making increment before the cement producers make price adjustment and that is in appropriate.” Hadush said that cement producers have cumbersome coal import cost adding that efforts are underway to exploit the local coal deposits. “The cement production cost is higher in Ethiopia compared to other countries. In Iran the production cost of cement is USD 30 per ton while in Ethiopia it is USD 90 per ton. To reduce the high cost of production we should start mining coal locally. It requires government intervention.” There are some 20 cement factories in Ethiopia with a total annual production of 17 million tons while domestic consumption stands at 8 million tons.

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The Reporter, March 17, 2018 Vol. XXII No. 1123 |25FEATURE

By Hiwot Abebe

Betel hem Dejene, a 25-year-old entrepreneur, sits in a workroom with 15 others for an icebreaking exercise. She is creating a business plan. Outside individuals work in offices getting an early start on their day while some gather in the kitchen to get their morning coffee boost. The office is blueMoon, an agribusiness focused business incubator and Bethlehem is part of the 2018 Bega-batch of startups to join the organization. Her idea is to produce paper from straw and bamboo instead of wood. She and a team of five joined blueMoon to gain knowledge on how to start their business and acquire investors. Bethlehem expressed it was daunting to commit to a four-month long incubation program but, three weeks in, she has found it enormously useful.

blueMoon is a collaborative work environment open to individuals or teams in need of temporary office space, young entrepreneurs, creative professionals in need of support and consultancy. blueMooon is not the first innovation hub of its kind in Addis but it is certainly the largest. Divided into co-working space and offices for companies or freelancers and incubation space for fresh startups, blueMoon caters to a

diverse group of people.

While there is a global tech slowdown, African cities are highly investing in the market. iceaddis, the first innovation hub and startup incubator in Ethiopia began working in 2011. According to Markos Lemma, founder of iceaddis, there were maybe 5 or 6 hubs of this kind in the continent at that time. According to a recent survey by GSMA’s Ecosystem Accelerator, a program that works to enable partnerships between operators and developers in Africa, there are 314 tech hubs and incubation centers across 93 cities. Which compelled us to ask why these incubators and hubs have mushroomed in such as short period.

Markos points towards the conducive environment created by many local entrepreneurs understanding the requirement for youth involvement in the economy and the need for high tech solutions to local problems whether it is in health, transportation, agriculture or education. iceaddis, blueMoon and xHub Addis all accept applications from startups and accept business ideas. iceaddis focuses on technology and social enterprise while blueMoon looks for innovators combining agriculture and technology to improve agribusiness in Ethiopia. xHub Addis, founded by Tewodros Tadesse, began as an initiative of Center for African Leadership Studies

in 2014 with the purpose of offering mentorship to young entrepreneurs, give back to the community and create something of lasting value. Social entrepreneurship and tech-based startups are accepted for a yearlong incubation process.

Coalescing between entrepreneurs, innovation hubs, telecom operators and giant tech companies is laying the groundwork for the rise of a thriving tech industry. The GSMA research found that the merging of these different sectors is driving innovation by facilitating funding, co-working spaces, skill sets, and more importantly a vast network to support startups. blueMoon founder Eleni Gabre-Madhin (PhD) maintains innovative, big ideas are best nurtured in intensive, small programs, with lots of coaching and mentoring by high-level entrepreneur-advisors who themselves have gone down the same path, surrounded by equally ambitious and exceptional-minded peers, and linked into high power networks where things happen. These are the main staples of business incubators.

Sixty four percent of Ethiopia’s population is below the age of 24. And while 70 percent of students graduate from science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, the country is encumbered

by high unemployment and lack of opportunities for the youth. Ensuring youth engagement in the economy means securing the future of our nation. Biruk Yosef, Incubator Coordinator at blueMoon states the importance of youth participation in agriculture. After all, 80 percent of Ethiopia’s population depends on agricultural production. “We is trying to make agriculture sexy”, he says. “We are tapping into youth creativity to raise the living standard and put Africa into the global economic playground.”

Bethlehem’s co-entrees Nebil Khalifa and Tadesse Alemu are working on a hydroponic animal feed business. They are planning on producing high-nutrition organic Alfalfa in a controlled environment circumventing the long harvest time for most plants. Their hydroponic method produces full-grown plants ready for harvest in a week instead of the regular 2 months. Their experience at blueMoon has been ‘enlightening’. Nebil says their way of thinking has changed and blueMoon has opened their eyes to a new world. They have been learning to run a business, developed personally, understood the importance of image building and learning the value of ideas.

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COMMENTARY +

VIEWPOINT +

The decade since the global financial crisis has been tumultuous, to say the least. True, no great war has erupted, and we have more or less avoided the mistakes of the Great Depression, which led in the 1930s to greater protectionism, bank failures, severe austerity, and a deflationary environment. But renewed market tensions indicate that these risks have not been eradicated so much as papered over.

In a sense, the story of the 2008 financial crisis begins when the global order was created from the ashes of World War II. Initiatives like the Bretton Woods institutions (the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund), the Marshall Plan, and the European Economic Community supported the reconstruction of significant portions of the world economy. Despite the Cold War (or perhaps because of it), they also re-started the globalization that WWII had brought to a halt.

This globalization process was interrupted during the late 1960s and early 1970s, owing to the Vietnam War, the suspension of the US dollar’s convertibility into gold, the 1973 oil price shock, and the great stagflation. But the United States and the United Kingdom then underwent a kind of conservative revolution and a revival of neoliberal economic policies, including widespread deregulation, trade liberalization, and unprecedented capital-account openness.

While this redesigned globalization process helped to fuel growth and development, its effects were uneven, and the financial and economic changes

it wrought outpaced legal and ethical adaptation. Particularly consequential, innovative financial instruments were used with abandon, subject to only loose supervision and weak regulation. As a result, finance eventually became the master of the world economy, rather than its servant.

Given all of this, when the crisis struck, it was deep and far-reaching, and today’s strengthening economic recovery has not overcome the understandable but devastating loss of trust in the financial system that followed. This has been made apparent by political developments in the US and Europe. US President Donald Trump’s administration continues to tout an “America First” policy approach, reflected, most recently, in the imposition of large tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. The United Kingdom’s vote for Brexit reflects a similar backlash. Meanwhile, state-led capitalism offers China’s economy its own protections.

But polarizing new models of competition and resistance to trade are not the way to restore trust. Instead, we need to reassert control over the financial sector, to ensure that it is serving the economy, not vice versa, by advancing a set of goals upon which the world agrees – beginning with those established at three momentous conferences in 2015.

At the Third International Conference on Financing for Development, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, participants set economic, social, and environmental priorities with which financing flows and policies for sustainable development should be aligned. At the United Nations

Sustainable Development Summit in New York, UN member countries formally adopted an ambitious new global agenda. And at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 21) in Paris, countries agreed to hold global warming well below 2° Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Articulating these goals was an important first step. But if the world is serious about achieving these shared goals, an effective mechanism for financing them must be established, supported by well-designed regulations that create the right incentives. And, so far, the world has not made nearly enough progress on this front, as the continued misallocation of capital shows.

Stakeholders must take a longer-term view of business operations and investment strategies. Finance must be made genuinely useful, balancing progress toward agreed goals – guided by existing global targets – with the need to generate sufficient financial returns to ensure that progress is sustainable. We must keep saying it, and keep doing it. There is no other option.

In some quarters, commitment to global goals has so far been too weak. In the case of the US and the Paris climate agreement, that commitment has been rescinded outright. But, to succeed, everyone must be on board. This includes multilateral lenders, which need to revise old tools and rapidly develop new ones, in order to mobilize private-sector

Today’s strengthening economic recovery has not overcome the understandable but devastating loss of trust

followed the crisis a decade ago. Restoring trust will require reasserting control

ensure that it is serving the economy, not the other way around, writes Bertrand Badré.

Donald Trump’s first year as US president has been, if nothing else, a bounteous source of surprises.

One of the big ones in the circles I frequent is dollar weakness. Between January 2017 and January 2018, the broad effective exchange rate of the dollar fell by eight percent, wrong-footing many of the pundits. I include myself among the wrong-footed (others can decide whether I qualify as a pundit).

Tax cuts and interest-rate normalization, I expected, would shift the mix toward looser fiscal and tighter monetary policies, the combination that drove up the dollar in the Reagan-Volcker years. Tax changes encouraging US corporations to repatriate their profits would unleash a wave of capital inflows, pushing up the dollar still further. New tariffs that made imports more costly and that shifted demand toward domestic goods would require offsetting effects in a near-full-employment economy in order to shift demand back to foreign sources. The most plausible such offset was, of course, appreciation of the real exchange rate, which could occur only through inflation or, more plausibly, a stronger dollar.

The markets, in their wisdom, rejected this logic for more than a year. It is thus incumbent upon those who of us made such predictions to “mark our views to market,” as my Berkeley colleague Brad DeLong likes to say.

Economic commentators are better at rationalizing past exchange-rate movements than at forecasting future trends. So, when it comes to explanations for the dollar’s decline over the past year, we are confronted by an embarrassment of riches.

The most popular explanation for dollar weakness is that Trump, through incompetence or misdirection, failed to deliver what he promised. There was no across-the-board import tariff. There was no abrogation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. There was no one trillion dollars infrastructure package.

But there were, in fact, deep tax cuts. There were, in fact, interest-rate hikes by the Federal Reserve. And there were, in fact, tax changes creating incentives for the repatriation of profits. Other things equal, these developments should have propped up the dollar. So there must be more to its weakening than just Trump’s failure to deliver.

Another popular explanation is that investors expected the real exchange rate to rise through inflation rather than currency appreciation. The dollar weakened, in this view, because the Fed fell behind the curve and risked losing control of the inflation process.

Conceivably, this interpretation could prove correct. But it is not correct yet. There was no surge in inflation

between January 2017 and January 2018. Currently, the fear in the markets is not that the Fed is behind the inflation curve but that it will raise interest rates even faster than expected in order to preempt overheating. And if higher interest rates are good for one thing, they’re good for the dollar.

Beyond this, there are at least 17 other narratives to explain dollar weakness. Some are insightful. Others are entertaining. Most, however, overlook the most plausible explanation, which is Trump-related uncertainty.

Investors have no way to forecast the impact of policies, because policies thought to be headed one way suddenly veer in the opposite direction. A big infrastructure bill turns out to be small. Withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement turns into a possible decision to re-enter TPP. Steve Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, seemingly abandons the United States’ strong-dollar policy but then re-embraces it. Uncertainty is the order of the day, every day.

And there’s nothing investors like less than uncertainty. This is especially true of investors in a currency whose strongest attraction is its safe-haven status. Investors traditionally flock to the dollar not simply because it is

Economic commentators are better at rationalizing past exchange-rate movements than at forecasting future trends. So, when it comes to explanations for the dollar’s decline over the past year, we are confronted by an embarrassment of riches, writes Barry Eichengreen.

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Vaccinating against.... page 28

A new deal for... page 28

OPINION

OPINION +

A month has passed since Cyril Ramaphosa, the head of the African National Congress (ANC), replaced Jacob Zuma as South Africa’s president. Ramaphosa, a former protégé of Nelson Mandela, has reinvigorated the country with his competence and commitment to transparency. For this reason alone, South Africans have cause for optimism.

But while South Africa has taken the road less traveled – bucking the global trend toward populism and authoritarianism – the country remains at a crossroads. Zuma’s departure did nothing to address the imbalances that are undermining the economy. If South Africa is truly to turn a corner, inequality must be addressed; the majority of the country’s citizens must believe that they can achieve a brighter future.

In South Africa, poverty, inequality, and ethnicity overlap, to the disadvantage of a majority of the country’s 57 million people. With a per capita income of USD 13,000 last year (measured by purchasing power parity), South Africa is a middle-income country similar to Brazil, Mexico, and Thailand. But the headline figure masks a level of inequality that is particularly acute.

For example, in 2010, South Africa’s richest 10 percent accounted for 53 percent of total consumer spending. Compare this to Brazil in 2000, when the richest 10 percent of Brazilians accounted for 47 percent of total household spending. At the time, that made Brazil one of the world’s most unequal middle-income states. While Brazil’s income gap has closed slightly since then – as has Mexico’s and Thailand’s – South Africa’s

has not.

In the absence of a strong middle class, most South Africans during Zuma’s tenure were either rich or poor. In 2010, the country’s poorest 40 percent accounted for just 6.9 percent of the country’s total expenditures. In 2016, 17 million people needed government assistance to make ends meet. And while South Africans earn, on average, four times more than low-income Kenyans, that is only one-fifth of what the average American earns.

Inequality has had a corrosive effect on South Africa’s public and private institutions, negatively affecting how wealth is generated. Immediately after apartheid ended, the removal of discriminatory hiring practices opened new routes to prosperity for many black South Africans. Some ANC leaders took corporate jobs, while other South Africans benefited from laws meant to encourage black economic empowerment.

But in the Zuma era, concentrated wealth led to nepotistic hiring practices, political appointments based on clientelism (owing to higher salaries for government employees), and other forms of corruption. An exclusionary labor aristocracy emerged, further deepening patronage networks within the public sector. The capacity of government to provide services weakened. So, while the top one-third of the population continued to do quite well, the sense of possibility that the vast majority of South Africans had felt at the dawn of the country’s post-apartheid democracy was disappearing.

To be sure, states have wrestled with

inequality for as long as wealth has been generated. In 1973, the development economist Albert Hirschman likened Latin America’s struggles with inequality to drivers stuck in a traffic jam. Hirschman argued that when one lane of cars begins moving, people in the other lane “feel much better off,” because they expect to move soon, too. Similarly, poor people in a growing economy tolerate inequality for a while, because they believe “that eventually the disparities will narrow again.” As long as people are confident that the gridlock will eventually clear – that a better future awaits – they can put up with temporary immobility. If the traffic never moves, “there is bound to be trouble and, perhaps, disaster.”

The ANC’s promise of a “better life for all” after the end of apartheid was the economic equivalent of an ostensible easing of the traffic jam. Eventually, South Africans lost faith in the repeated promise that more opportunities were coming. Zuma’s corrupt administration and economic mismanagement only deepened the public’s disillusionment.

For Ramaphosa, then, recapturing the economic narrative is the only way to return hope to the majority of South Africans. South Africa needs an inclusive “new deal” for the twenty-first century. To reinvigorate social mobility, South Africa also needs a dose of economic dynamism, buttressed by a strong social-safety net.

Executing such an agenda will not be

At a time when populism and authoritarianism are globally ascendant, South Africa, with the ouster of President Jacob Zuma, has an opportunity to move in a more democratic direction. But to seize it, Zuma’s successor, Cyril Ramaphosa, must root out corruption and deliver economic dynamism, writes Brian Levy.

For most people, the choice between a life-threatening disease and a lifetime of crippling debt is no choice at all. Yet every year, hundreds of millions of people around the world are forced to make it, owing to the prohibitive cost of medical treatment. And, paradoxically, the hardest-hit people are not those with the largest medical bills, but rather those living in the poorest parts of the world.

Although countries like the United States have notoriously high treatment costs, with medical debt being one of the leading causes of personal bankruptcy, people living in poor countries actually spend more on health care costs relative to their income. And, because medical insurance is unavailable or too expensive, and because bankruptcy protection is not usually an option, too often they and their families end up being pushed into poverty.

But this tragedy – befalling some of the world’s most vulnerable people – could in many cases be entirely avoided. A new study, published in February in the journal Health Affairs, suggests that there is another option: in many cases, the medical bills can be preempted by prevention, through the widespread and affordable use of vaccines.

We already know that vaccines are one of the most cost-effective ways to prevent disease and death, and the new study provides additional supporting evidence. By modeling the health and economic impact of childhood vaccines for ten

diseases in 41 of the poorest countries, the researchers estimate that from 2016 to 2030, these vaccines will prevent 36 million deaths. But their analysis found something else: during the same period, vaccination will also prevent 24 million people from falling into poverty because of the cost of medical treatment.

The World Bank defines “poverty” as household income of less than US$ 1.90 a day. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), health-care costs push as many as 100 million people below this line every year, with 150 million others facing “catastrophic health-care costs,” defined as healthcare spending that consumes 40% of the household budget after basic needs have been met.

All of this highlights the important role vaccination has to play in helping to reduce poverty. The fact that the study found that the greatest benefits of vaccination were among the poorest suggests not only that poorer people are more vulnerable and have a higher risk of developing preventable diseases, but also that the impact on their lives is potentially greater.

For the governments of low-income countries, this is an opportunity, because it shows what they could achieve in terms of improving health equity and reducing poverty by targeting higher vaccination rates in poorer and more marginalized communities. Moreover, by making affordable, quality health care available to everyone, regardless of

their income, governments can take an important step toward universal health-care coverage (UHC).

That is because national immunization programs can act as a platform upon which to build a primary-care system. With childhood immunization come supply chains, cold storage, trained health-care staff, medical record keeping, data monitoring, disease surveillance, and much more. So, when a community gets access to childhood immunization, it is often not long before it also gets access to other services, such as neonatal and maternal care, nutritional supplements, malaria prevention measures, and sexual and reproductive health and education.

In addition to this, immunization programs provide immense reach. Thanks to global health organizations like the WHO, UNICEF and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, vaccination is already one of the most widely available health interventions ever. With 80% of the world’s poorest children now getting access to routine immunization – meaning three shots of a diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis-containing vaccine – we already have a health platform upon which to build UHC, even in the most challenging of countries.

And now, as this new study implies, immunization has an additional, indirect role to play. In the absence of

A new study shows that developing countries could reduce poverty by targeting higher vaccination rates in poorer and more marginalized communities. Moreover, by making affordable, quality health care available to everyone, regardless of their income, immunization programs are an important step toward universal health-care coverage, writes Seth Berkley.


28| The Reporter, March 17, 2018 Vol. XXII No. 1123Diaspora CORNER

Ed.’s Note: Samuel Alemu is a partner at the ILBSG, LLP. His partner at the ILBSG, LLP, Praveen C. Medikundam, contributed to this article. They are both admitted to

the bar associations of New York State, United States Tax Court, and the United States Court of International Trade. Samuel can be reached at [email protected].

CONT`D FROM PAGE 26

CONT`D FROM PAGE 27

CONT`D FROM PAGE 27

stable, but also because it tends to strengthen in a crisis, given that its issuer has impregnable defenses and possesses the deepest and most liquid financial markets in the world.

But now that issuer also has a president who is casting doubt on his country’s defense alliances and who is, consciously or not, encouraging his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to build, or at least boast of, new offensive weaponry. It has a president who has encouraged the idea of a government shutdown, fueling doubts about the liquidity of the market in US Treasury bonds.

More chaos in the White House would only depress the dollar further. Working in the other direction is the fact that some of the dollar-supportive measures that observers expected Trump to adopt, such as tariffs on steel imports, are now coming, like it or not. It may be indicative that on

March 1, when Trump announced his steel and aluminum tariffs and the stock market tanked, the dollar strengthened. Uncertainty may continue to dominate, but it may also be that the dollar’s rise on March 1 was a harbinger of what is to come on foreign-exchange markets.

Ed.’s Note: Barry Eichengreen is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. His latest book is Hall of Mirrors: The Great Depression, the Great Recession, and the Uses – and Misuses – of History. The article was provided to The Reporter by Project Syndicate: the world’s pre-eminent source of original op-ed commentaries. Project Syndicate provides incisive perspectives on our changing world by those who are shaping its politics, economics, science, and culture. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of The Reporter.

easy. But South Africa’s institutions are up to the task of overcoming resistance by established elites. As Patrick Gaspard, the former United States ambassador to South Africa, recently noted, the country has a strong system of checks and balances that, if steered properly, can trump corruption and deliver needed reforms. With a strong civil society, a free media, robust political opposition, and an independent judiciary, South Africa is well positioned for a turnaround.

The challenges that Ramaphosa has inherited – rising inequality, a growing wage gap, and jobless growth – are not unique, even if they are extreme. But South Africa’s new leader does have an advantage: the country is eager for change. If economic stagnation continues, and if the challenges of expanding economic inclusion are not addressed, Hirschman’s theory of political ruin may become prescient. But

if Ramaphosa succeeds in creating a new narrative that all South Africans can embrace, the road ahead can clear before voters seek a riskier alternative route.

Ed.’s Note: Brian Levy is Academic Director of the Graduate School of Development Policy and Practice at the University of Cape Town, and a professor of international development at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. The article was provided to The Reporter by Project Syndicate: the world’s pre-eminent source of original op-ed commentaries. Project Syndicate provides incisive perspectives on our changing world by those who are shaping its politics, economics, science, and culture. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of The Reporter.

a government-backed national health service or affordable health insurance, routine immunization has a profound financial impact, by saving millions of people from needing health care in the first place, through disease prevention.

This study builds on a growing body of evidence that vaccines not only save lives, but also build economies. Previous studies have estimated that every dollar invested in vaccines saves $16 in terms of health-care costs, lost wages, and lost productivity due to illness, or $44 if the broader benefits of people living longer, healthier lives are taken into account.

What this new study now shows, however, is the tangible impact this has

on people’s lives. Over the next decade and a half, vaccines will save millions of families from the grinding misery of extreme poverty. We now have yet another reason to work hard to realize the enormous potential of immunization.

Ed.’s Note: Seth Berkley is CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. The article was provided to The Reporter by Project Syndicate: the world’s pre-eminent source of original op-ed commentaries. Project Syndicate provides incisive perspectives on our changing world by those who are shaping its politics, economics, science, and culture. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of The Reporter.

Ethnic diversity and

By Samuel Alemu

Ethnic and cultural diversity is an ideal discussed among many experts, economists, and analysts because of its potential to aid the stability and socio-economic development of nations. In the common public perception, ethnic and cultural diversity means the various ethnic and cultural backgrounds of people living within the same territory and their experiences that define the history and evolution of ethnic groups within that territory. To economists and financial analysts, it could mean how the inclusion of different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds could help develop new ideas and establish new business relationships to foster the growth of their respective nations. However, regardless of the different characterizations of the term, what remains obscured is how members of diverse ethnic and cultural communities manage to peacefully interact in day-to-day exchanges. Co-existence, or more specifically, “peaceful co-existence,” is a term that is no less important than diversity. It is not enough to have representatives of different ethnicity or cultures in one room; what matters is how they handle their differences to establish a peaceful co-existence.

Despite the growing global recognition that ethnic and cultural diversity plays an indispensable role in the interconnected world, the concept is still underdeveloped in many countries. Rapidly developing economies find themselves in a particularly vulnerable position. Ethiopia is emerging as one of East Africa’s fastest growing economies and the country has the potential for even greater economic growth through stability and true inclusion. However, like many other emerging economies, it faces resistance from the powerful institutions that have historically held much of the social and cultural power needed to make changes, according to Girma Z. in an article published in The Ethiopian Herald in 2017.

India alternatively is country ripe with ethnic diversity and its diversity has served as a model of peaceful co-existence for the last 60 years. According to India’s Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee, a civilization as multicultural and complex as India would have never survived without granting its nations and groups equal cultural and religious opportunities (Mukherjee, P., 2006). The result of cultural connections and interactions provides a vast space for the exchange of goods and services, communication and learning, and other activities needed for to enter into a higher level of development for a country’s economy. As shown in India, what anchors the term of ethnic and cultural diversity is the power of institutions coupled with the critical role of the government placing these ideals into place within the communal mindset of its people to promote peaceful co-existence along ethnic, religious and cultural lines.

Ethiopia should utilize India’s methods of institutional governance and peaceful co-existence between ethnicities. Applying India’s mindset towards ethnic and cultural diversity to fit Ethiopia’s unique political, social, economic, and cultural approaches could help provide the impetus the country needs to promote the country to the next level. Shared governance activities have been proven to be particularly effective in bringing diverse ethnicities together to work toward common goals. Inclusive governance is the key that Ethiopia currently needs to

set and implement a new peaceful agenda – something that is usually attained once a country reaches the highest echelon of social and economic development. A truly inclusive governance has the potential to replace the legacy of mistrust and suspicion among different ethnic groups in countries with less-than-positive histories.

The institutions and agents in place within these countries with checkered histories are in a position to unify polycentric ideologies empowering diverse ethnic groups to voice and address their concerns while taking into account the needs and concerns of everyone. By being polycentric, Ethiopian institutions can develop a new multicultural mindset which as history shows, trickle down into the public forum creating a more unified and stronger Ethiopia. The issue that remains is implementation because by adopting a unified philosophy, there will be actors from different ethnicities, cultural traditions and interests interlocked for their own personal gains and reasons.

The solution is to implement inclusiveness in a manner requiring all representatives of the country’s governance (both federal and regional states) to operate according to the same principles and to espouse identical values. Ethiopia’s civil servants come from a diversity of cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds. By mobilizing their resources to promote peaceful co-existence, they can influence the decisions and behaviors of their incumbents toward cultural awareness, cultural competence, tolerance, and recognition of ethnic and cultural diversity as the powerful driver behind economic growth.

Education is likely to become a priority area for Ethiopia, as the country begins to facilitate the path of peaceful co-existence and this is where India’s governance lessons play valuable roles. In the process of developing into its own global power, India implemented an education policy aimed to promote inclusiveness, equality of culture and religion, and cultural competence. Implementation of the education policy challenges countries as it did with India at the grassroots level, but was successfully done. This level of success that India attained in respect to their development shows other developing countries such as Ethiopia that peaceful co-existence can become a reality through grassroots movements. It is not enough to have a formal policy; the citizens of a country need to play roles to implement these ideas because the effects these changes affect the behaviors and decisions of Ethiopian citizens.

Peaceful co-existence requires strong institutions, comprehensive policies, and a national effort. It does not happen overnight. Peaceful co-existence requires strong institutions and comprehensive policies to govern the complex relationships among diverse ethnic groups.

Proof of India’s inclusive policies and economic growth show that peaceful co-existence is possible and can help nations grow. India’s own successes and achievements can provide a framework for building a polycentric society in Ethiopia as a foundation for continuous economic growth. However, without changes in mindsets, good governance and the cooperation of the institutions in place to help push the agenda into reality, peaceful co-existence and the resultant economic prosperity will not be realized.



Ahmed Abdi, 26-year-old member of xHub Addis is working on an education program that focuses on reading and comprehension, communication training and memory art. His project is now in the pilot phase with the Norwegian Refugee Council training urban refugees from Somalia and South Sudan to understand Amharic and English. He has been at xHub for 3 months and has been able to collaborate with another education entrepreneur working in higher education to perfect their ideas and collaborate on this project. He ascribes the success of his project model to the international environment and efficiency of working at xHub.

Another unique property of these hubs is co-working space. There has been an international increase in the number of freelancers and people working from home or internet cafes. blueMoon, iceaddis and Bake and Brew offer office or desk space and internet access to these types of workers on daily, monthly or yearly rates. Estifanos Samuel is such a worker. He works from blueMoon when he’s in Addis. He doesn’t need a permanent office space since he travels to Germany regularly launching a German-Ethiopian Business Forum. “All you need is a laptop and internet .You can work from any remote area.”

Markos agrees with this assessment. “The digital nomad is slowly coming to Ethiopia.” The future office, like that of Google or Facebook may not require employees to come in to work. Workspaces will not be restricted to cubicles or enclosed offices. Office floor plans are increasingly open spaced

and ensuring worker productivity by providing stimulating activities will surely define the future office.

Having various types of people in one office space engaged in different sectors can produce meaningful interactions and opportunities for collaboration. This is the type of interaction Gerar counts on. Gerar, Creative Hub was established in 2017 with the aim of encouraging young people engaged in the creative industry and offering tools to be successful business owners. Gerar achieves this through business skill trainings, mentorship and experience sharing programs, upgrading talent/skills of members and endless consultancy. Members are in the Gerar program for 18 months, by which point they will have opened their own agency. Unlike the other incubators and hubs, Gerar does not have a permanent office space. Members float between the offices of other businesses in the Gerar network, receiving access to a desk and free internet connection. This induces members to frequently interact with each other and come up with initiatives together.

According to Seminas Hadera, founder of Gerar Creative hub, the largest assets startups have is ample time and specific skill. Incubation spaces offer entrepreneurs resources they can use as springboard to success. Having the opportunity to test out ideas before going to the marketplace is a great learning experience for startups in early stages. The biggest problem for startups anywhere, Seminas adds, is lack of information. Keeping creative individuals in touch and with access to

necessary knowledge that can increase their skill is critical in entrepreneurship.

While local entrepreneurs are receiving increasing support from both the private sector and government bodies the question then becomes one of sustainability. The sustainability of these hubs largely depends on the success and scalability of these startups. Can these hubs continue to operate and will the incubated startups become successful businesses? blueMoon has proven itself. 4 out of the 6 startups they hosted last year have received external investment. “We have an unmatched network, especially with the advent Eleni, we’re able to link startups with investors and introduce them to international networks and competitions.” Biruk says. He maintains the importance of understanding the psychology of the young people and ensuring they recognize what it takes to turn ideas into businesses. “There’s a difference between inventors and innovators.”

Creating a community that welcomes innovation goes a long way to ensuring the success of these startups. The founder of iHub, a tech hub found in Nairobi, Kenya, Erik Hersman in a recent interview with Techcrunch names location as a major factor in the success of these hubs. Access to universities, tech companies, media, entrepreneurs and financial sources makes for a great innovation hub environment. According to Disrupt Africa’s 2017 Funding Report, funding for African tech startups was close to 200 Million USD in 2017 with South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria top investment destination.

Building such hubs in secondary cities becomes more complex. That, however, is the aim of xHub, Gerar and blueMoon in the near future. Cities like Bahirdar and Hawassa have high potential youth eager to begin their own businesses. This will also open the door for increased international investment. Markos hopes the startups in incubation will become mega companies, demonstrating Ethiopian innovators coming up with local solutions and directly contributing to the economy. iceaddis now has branches in Egypt, South Sudan and Somalia. Biruk is certain the next job opportunities will come from the startups currently incubating in the blueMoon system.

The tech and innovation hubs not only offer space and services but also create a large community of stakeholders highly invested in the success of these ventures. These disruptive ideas need support from investors and consumers in the early stages. We are now seeing the snowballing of the co-working and incubation trend in Africa. With the newly launched Gobeze, programs by Reach 4 Change and Gebeya as well as collaboration between all these hubs the modern workplace is evolving. The rise of these innovation centers and business incubators in Ethiopia not only promises a brighter future for local entrepreneurs and the economy at large but also signals Ethiopia’s growing capability to compete in Africa and globally.

CONT`D FROM PAGE 25

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e. f.

g.

abandonment.h.

for administration costs.i.

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a. Email:[email protected]

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Economics. She is a graduate of Wageningen university from which she obtained her Masters and PhD degrees. Her passions include reading

passion. She can be reached for comments at [email protected].

30|

By Tsion Taye

CONT`D FROM PAGE 18

CONT`D FROM PAGE 18

CONT`D FROM PAGE 26

and have committed to expanding their agricultural sectors.

According to the Harvard Business Review, Africa also has the potential to become “the world’s next great manufacturing center.” China is expected to lose from 85-100 million low-cost, labor-intensive manufacturing jobs by 2030, and Africa stands to capture many of them.

This helps to explain why manufacturing will be the second-largest sector in terms of business-to-business spending. Another reason is that many of the manufacturing opportunities in Africa happen to be in globally competitive sectors such as automobiles and transport equipment, refined petroleum, computers, and office and industrial machinery. South Africa, Egypt, and Nigeria are already becoming promising places to invest in these areas. And investors will also be able to find high returns and favorable business environments in Ethiopia, Morocco, and Rwanda.

Africa is the world’s last frontier market, and Western businesses need to

start taking advantage of its tremendous potential, as Chinese firms already are. Doing business in Africa will also create sustainable jobs and advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to eliminate poverty and hunger. And that, too, will be good for the bottom line. As the Business and Sustainable Development Commission has shown, pursuing the SDGs “could raise trillions in new market opportunities in ways that extend prosperity to all.”

Ed.’s Note: Landry Signé is a David M. Rubenstein Fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program and Africa Growth Initiative at the Brookings Institution, and a Distinguished Fellow at Stanford University’s Center for African Studies. The article was provided to The Reporter by Project Syndicate: the world’s pre-eminent source of original op-ed commentaries. Project Syndicate provides incisive perspectives on our changing world by those who are shaping its politics, economics, science, and culture. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of The Reporter.

spaces where they can hone these skills, build networks, and obtain support.

Moreover, recognition of young women’s talent and potential is needed to nurture their confidence and self-esteem, and to raise their profile beyond their immediate community. Mentors and role models – especially female ones – are also extremely valuable.

This is a job not only for African governments or local NGOs. All global policy discussions concerning education, the environment, science, and health must explicitly address how to develop woman leaders.

Africa’s aspiring young women are often motivated by the desire to give back to their communities. We should empower them to do just that.

If we provide young women with the right support, they will transform their communities, their continent,

and the world. They will provide ethical leadership inspired by shared values, passion for community, and a commitment to a brighter future. For those of us who believe in their potential, it is a privilege to accompany them on this journey.

Ed.’s Note: Shona Bezanson is Senior Manager of Education and Learning at the Mastercard Foundation. Peter Materu is Director, Education and Learning and Youth Livelihoods at the Mastercard Foundation. The article was provided to The Reporter by Project Syndicate: the world’s pre-eminent source of original op-ed commentaries. Project Syndicate provides incisive perspectives on our changing world by those who are shaping its politics, economics, science, and culture. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of The Reporter.

capital. The private sector, for its part, must be open to an updated approach to public-private partnerships. Simply paying lip service to change, while clinging to outdated modes of working, is not an option.

More broadly, we need to work to ensure that the benefits of technology are shared by all. To that end, we should follow the advice of David Lipton, the IMF’s first deputy managing director, and move beyond the fashionable “OHIO” approach, focused on getting one’s “own house in order,” to the more demanding California – or “CA” – strategy of “collective action.”

The path ahead will not be easy. But this is no excuse for apathy. As investors, consumers, voters, and citizens, we must make our voices heard, in order to

ensure that finance is used to promote shared values and the common good. Only then can we go beyond merely avoiding another devastating crisis and build a better future.

Ed.’s Note: Bertrand Badré, a former managing director of the World Bank, is CEO and Founder of Blue like an Orange Sustainable Capital and author of Can Finance Save the World? The article was provided to The Reporter by Project Syndicate: the world’s pre-eminent source of original op-ed commentaries. Project Syndicate provides incisive perspectives on our changing world by those who are shaping its politics, economics, science, and culture. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of The Reporter.

I once read a book called ‘The lords of poverty’ written by Graham Hancock on the lucrativeness of the aid industry. The book, which was written in 1989, provides a quite detailed picture of how aid money can be used to enrich the rich in the name of the poor. The author’s argument was basically that the tax money raised from the rich countries for the purpose of aiding the development and relief of the poor countries is actually money transferred from one pocket of the rich to the other pocket of the rich. Money spent on overheads such as extravagant salaries and allowances, expensive international travels and accommodations and gourmet meals at international conferences are among the cited wastages of development and relief intended money. The author also describes in great detail how many huge, very expensive and not well thought out development projects were found to be completely useless and even harmful to the poor people they were intended to. But in the process, “experts” and big businesses contracting these big development projects enrich themselves with aid money. And in developing nations, corrupt government officials take a large chunk of the money leaving only a tiny portion for direct assistances to the poor.

I do not want to completely deny the positive changes that bilateral and multilateral aid and development assistances bring into the lives of the poor in recipient countries. However, in the context of Ethiopia, I often think that aid money benefits more those that are employed in the aid sector than the projects’ intended beneficiaries. Although a thorough research might be needed to back this up, I believe that NGO employees (and particularly those in the international ones) are the most highly paid employees in the country. Jobs in United Nation agencies are the dream of many (or maybe all?) Ethiopians. At least in my experience, I never heard of an Ethiopian who chooses to be employed in a UN agency, or in any other international or local NGO for that matter, because they support heartedly the motives behind these agencies, which is that of making a positive change in the lives of the needy. High remunerations and other benefits that come with being employed in an NGO are basically their prime justification for seeking employment in the aid sector. I would not blame them of course for thinking so, as I myself, would make the same justification for my choice of employment in a UN agency. But this doesn’t keep me from having an internal battle with my conscience about the moral grounds of such a justification.

Theoretically speaking, aid money should not benefit the donor except in the form of a moral satisfaction for doing well to others. In its pure form, the aid sector should replicate the selfless deeds of NGOs like Mekedonia shelter of elderlies or the adoption agencies of Abebech Gobena and Mary Joy. The aid sector should, theoretically speaking, be the least lucrative sector for employment opportunities. Working in an international (or local) NGO should theoretically be a humbling endeavor and not something to be arrogant about. Graham wrote the ‘lords of poverty’ more than 25 years ago. I do not believe that the aid sector has become a less lucrative sector since then. But his book makes people question and be more critical about the aid business. I may not achieve much by writing this article, but I invite to ask yourself if it is fair to the poor to be a lord of poverty in the name of the poor.



Bits PiecesBy Leyou Tameru

@anchihoye

&

Ed.’s Note: Leyou Tameru is a graduate of Georgetown and Addis Ababa University Law schools, specializing in International Legal Studies. Born and raised in Addis Ababa, she seeks to understand

the impact of economic, political and social issues on everyday lives. She can be reached at @anchihoye

By Hiwot Abebe

Organized by Goethe Institute and curated by Katarina Hedren from the Goethe Institute in Johannesburg African Film Week featured 5 films by African filmmakers. The week opened with Hermon Hailay’s Price of Love (2015), a 99-minute long well-made drama about a young taxi driver Teddy’s happenstance meeting with sex-worker Fere leading to the loss of his cab and the adventure to retrieve it. The film was previously screened at FESPACO, Burkina Faso, Zanzibar International Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival and Stockholm Film Festival.

It was followed the next day by the Namibian Perivi Katjavivi The Unseen (2016) on Tuesday, a genre-bending film in three marvelously shot vignettes, half-improvised, half-scripted. The story follows Sara, Anu and Marcus as they attempt to be successful in their chosen careers and become better humans.

The Boda Boda Thieves (Uganda, 2015) by Director Dondald Mugisha aired on Thursday, features the increasingly common means of transportation in African cities the ‘boda boda’ locally known as bajaj.

Director Anisia Uzeyman’s Afro-Punk Dreamstates (Rwanda, 2016) was shown on Friday and follows the story of two artists falling in love. The Director Uzeyman stars in the lead role Indigo and her husband Saul Williams plays the role of Spoonie. The film was shot using two iPhones over 42 days.

The Algerian Director’s Rayhana’s I still Hide to Smoke (Algeria, 2016) confronts gender issues in 1995 Algeria amid civil war and fear of terrorist attacks. Fatima creates a safe haven for all women in a hammam (Turkish bath) in a time of escalating control over women’s lives and international pressures. Rayhana won the award for Best Debut Feature at Raindance Film Festival in 2017 and the audience award at Thessaloniki Film Festival the year before.

According to Tenagne Tadesse, Program Assistant at the Institute, the films were selected on the basis of having been released less than 3 years ago, their coverage of social issues and documenting African realities, as well as the awards they had won and acclaim they had gained thus far.

The aim of the film week is to showcase successful African films and encourage local filmmakers. This is the second installment of African Film Week, the first launched in 2016 with the African Union Culture Department. The Film Week hopes to bring African countries closer by showcasing each other’s

works, forming a shared experience and creating opportunities for storytellers.

Leul Shoaferaw, local filmmaker and founder of Eerie Productions Inc., states the week is a tremendous platform to introduce the best of African films to the Ethiopian audience and filmmakers. “I believe this festival will expand my regional and international professional outlooks, nurture my creative capacity and inspire to contribute to the African cinema portfolio.”

ENTERTAINMENT

It’s that time of the year again where we celebrate the female gender and highlight their achievement. I always struggle to get a full understanding of how things change, just for one day. Friends, acquaintances or colleagues who are knowingly or unknowingly sexist on a regular day, would either wear some sort of pin, ribbon or share some quote about the importance of women on some sort of social media account or something. And then the next day, we all go back to the status quo. It absolutely confuses me. On the bright side, at least we get that day, right?

All sarcasm aside though, let me say that I certainly do enjoy learning new things about women around the world. From inventors to entrepreneurs to authors, the most interesting stories about women breaking boundaries seem to make it out that day. Two of my favorites are as follows:

The first beautiful story relates to the film director who has been receiving a lot of attention for making amazing films in the past few years. Her name is Ava Duvernay; she is an American woman who is known for her very scenic camera shots. Speaking about her career, Ava said that she picked up a camera for the first time at the age of 32. I think this is a great lesson in remembering that it is never too late to star pursuing your dreams.

The second story relates to a Ghanaian-American woman who has taken Silicon Valley by storm. Her name is Bozomo Saint-John and she is the Chief Brand Officer at Uber, and previously was an executive at Apple. Coming from immigrant parents who were adamant of her becoming a doctor, Bozoma has went on to surprising them by choosing her own path and excelling at it. Her inspirational story offers a glimmer of hope that although it is very hard to penetrate the glass ceiling in the tech world for black women, it is not impossible.

On a government level, France’s president announced that his government will shame companies who pay women less than men by publicly naming them and shaming them. The president argued that this would be a very effective way of decreasing the payment-gap, as no company would like to be publicly known as an institution that pays their female employees far less than their mail equivalent. While Iceland passed a law requiring companies to pay men and women fairly in 2017, just as in France, it is illegal to discriminate between men and women. What makes the Iceland law unique is that it does not rely on an employee to prove she was discriminated against. Instead, the burden is on companies to prove that their pay practices are fair.

But I feel like we keep forgetting something, we seem to focus our celebration to woman who are excelling at their work. But that need not be the case, she does not have to be the best at what she does nor does she have to be half as good as the others. A lot of us are simply living life and “doing our best” A woman should not be required to be above average to get any type or recognition. We should simply get recognized because we exist. So here’s to being able to be mediocre, yet receiving all the praise for simply being a woman!

The aim of the

to showcase successful African


32| The Reporter, March 17, 2018 Vol. XXII No. 1123SNAPSHOTS

More than 9,000 women were out on the road for the UN 2018 Women First 5K race on March 11, 2018. Organized by the Great Ethiopian Run, the race attracted 110 club and individual athletes to win a slice of the 70,000 birr award. The winner of the race from the athletes was Tsehaye Gemechu while Amleset Muchie, an actress and the wife of the pop star Tewodros Kassahun a.k.a. Teddy Afro, won the icon women race.


The Reporter, March 17, 2018 Vol. XXII No. 1123 |33SNAPSHOTS



US officeBox

C r o s s w o r d

(astrology-online.com)

Ku

nch

o K

om

men

ts

ACROSS1. Stogie6. Flaccid body fat10. Website addresses14. Pee15. Curse16. Ark builder17. Possessions19. Docile20. What’s left behind21. Slice22. Largest continent23. Metal25. Communion table26. High fidelity30. A citrus fruit32. Leave35. An arc of colored light39. Arctic moss40. Ingestion41. Demesnes43. Math44. Grant46. Twofold47. Step50. King

53. Buttocks54. Not thin55. Abhor60. Former Italian currency61. Unacquainted63. Computer symbol64. Auspices65. Quietens66. Canvas dwelling67. Permits68. Refine metalDOWN1. Square block2. Angers3. Aureate4. Dwarf buffalo5. Leases6. A law enforcement agency7. Cavalry member8. Sharp-cornered9. Finest10. Not gifted11. Cut of beef12. Female demon13. Trim 18. Obtain24. Many millennia

25. Senescent26. Fit27. Nile bird28. Proven information29. Denizen31. Found on a finger33. Discourage34. 1 1 1 136. Hindu Mr.37. Gumbo38. Welt42. Weird 43. Hole-making tool45. Equip47. Divided48. A very short time49. Moses’ brother51. Shade tree52. Churns54. Gas or petrol56. Astringent57. Scrabble piece58. Corridor59. At one time (archaic)62. Donkey

SP

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Can you spot the 12 differences between the two pictures? SOLUTION

1 Black Panther

2 A Wrinkle in Time

3 The Strangers: Prey at Night

4 Red Sparrow

5 Game Night

6 Peter Rabbit

7 Death Wish

8 Annihilation

9 The Hurricane Heist

10 Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

Aries

This week is the right time to actively seek joy. Allow yourself the best that there is. Avoid passing judgment on others too quickly. Beware of feeling that you must prove yourself. Ease up a bit on the expectations you place on others. You have pushed hard and have dealt with a lot this week. Try to be

Taurus

with breaking the rules forever- sooner or later the reckoning

movements and slow to burn. Believe in yourself and so will those who count on you. Be careful while traveling.

Gemini

Learn to work with faith. It is neither your enemy nor your

your heart to accept. Tilting at windmills is not all there is to life. Learn to enjoy yourself and then pass that gift to others.

Cancer

be yourself. You should beware of the tendency to be bossy

Each change brings a new lesson.

Leo

This week is the perfect time to follow your own path and develop the talents you have been given to the fullest. Avoid

community spirit have you riding high for the next few days.

Virgo

You should better watch your temper. Hotheadedness can throw you off balance and aid your opponent. This week is the right time to compromise and diplomacy is a virtue to be

demanding. The straps and buckles of your emotional baggage can be caught in the wheels of a smoothly running machine. Unseen obstacles are the worst kind. Talk to loved ones

Libra

You should try to tone down a bit your demanding and commanding side. Hold the mirror up to yourself as well - examine your motivations carefully. Battle to keep the combatant in you more peaceful. Try to take some distance

be a sign of strength. Your moment in the sun may be obscured

right now.

you hide yourself away. Try to be more transparent- let the people see what you are really like. This week is not the right

share in both your joys and sorrows. Just say no to those who

aggressive behavior.

Try to soften your stance a bit- take things as they go and let them go as they will. You should keep your work and home life

regarding work and colleagues are apparent.

Capricorn

Make an attempt to be more sympathetic to the feelings of

and focused as you. Avoid getting bottled up in your head;

essential to the grounding of your energies. Limitations at work might set you back. You will do best to entertain those you wish to close deals with.

Aquarius

Try not to be overly concerned with appearances. Keep alive

or compulsive. You should beware of neglecting spiritual goals or falling prey to excessive materialism. It is also very important to keep your nervous system under control during

Pisces

being too aggressive in your criticism. Be consistent in your

expectations. Remember that mistakes are just part of the game. Complete those hobbies you started a long time ago. You need to do more things that you enjoy.

My teacher asked me a simple

question and I gave her a

simple answer.

She said I had 5 bottles in one hand and 4 in the other and I asked what do I have? I said a

drinking problem…What was the question and your answer?

Why are you home so early

Kuncho?

I got suspended from school.

WHAT!?!?

LEISURE


The Reporter, March 17, 2018 Vol. XXII No. 1123 |35 CONT`D FROM PAGE 1

CONT`D FROM PAGE 7

CONT`D FROM PAGE 8

CONT`D FROM PAGE 1

high profile visitors including the President of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov, the erstwhile US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, and the Foreign Affairs Minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

He also cleared himself from announcing the state of emergency to the public which was decreed on the next day of his resignation.

Declaring the final stages of the meeting of the executive committee, which evaluated the depth of the inner criticism each member party conducted, Shiferaw Shigutie, the chair of the Southern Ethiopian Peoples’ Democratic Movement (SEPDM) and the head of the council of the EPRDF, said that the Council of the EPRDF will meet in the coming week to “fill the leadership gap.”

In saying so, Shiferaw disclosed that the country, which has been anticipating seeing the new person to sit at the helm of the executive branch,

is set to know who will replace Hailemariam.

When the 180-member Council of the EPRDF meets next week, 45 from each member party, the main task will be electing a new chair to the coalition who eventually will become the prime minister of the country.

According to the statute of the EPRDF, the Council is enshrined with the power of electing the chair and deputy chair of the Front who will also be presented for the parliament to approve as prime minister.

“The speaker of the House shall give opportunity to speak to a person represented by the political party or political parties that have majority seat to appoint the Prime Minister” and the “House shall endorse by acclamation the appointment of the Prime Minister presented”, states Article 67 of the parliament’s working procedure and code of conduct.

Accordingly, the Council will appoint its chair and will get him appointed as prime minster by the parliament, without the House questioning

the fitness of the person for the position.

Four people are now hopefuls for the position of Prime Minister. One of them is the new chair of the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO), Abiy Ahmed (PhD), who took the baton of the chairmanship from Lemma Megerssa, the president of the Oromia Regional State.

Abiy is expected to clinch on the chairmanship given the move by his party to bring him to the fore as he is the one who can represent the party for the coalition’s chairmanship because of his membership in the House of People’s Representatives.

The other is the Deputy Prime Minister, Demeke Mekonnen, who hails from the Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM). Demeke has recently been reelected to chair his home party with Gedu Andargachew, president of the Amhara Regional State retaining the deputy chairmanship position.

As it was the case during the time of Hailemariam’s ascent to the premiership following the death of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, the deputy Prime Minister Demeke is another hopeful to be appointed as prime minister.

Shiferaw is the outer person to take the position given his recent appointment as chair of his home party the SEPDM, which many took as a strategic

move to present him fit for the premiership.

Debretsion Gebremichael (PhD), the former minister of Communication and Information Technology and coordinator of the economic cluster with the rank of deputy prime minister, is the other hopeful. Debretsion, who became the chair of the regional party Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF), is also the member of the parliament which makes him fit for the position of the PM if appointed by the Council.

However, commentators say that the Council can pick any member to be its chair. Hence, there is no need to focus only on the chairs of respective member parties. Despite this, there are other contenders that say the position will go to no other than one of the chairs of each member party. They base their argument on the fact that the chairs are elected by the members of their party’s Council from which the 45 representatives come to make the 180 Council members of the EPRDF. Hence, so long as they are appointed to chair their respective parties among the pack of members, it is possible for them to represent their respective parties to run to chair the Front, thus, becoming the prime minister.

Though, the final call will be for the ballots which will be voted in secret and the coming week might show Ethiopians who will be the next prime minister.

TOP . . .

members of the national army in Moyale, 800 kilometers South of Addis Ababa. The incident that occurred on March 10, 2018 has also left more than dozens of civilians injured.

Earlier this week, the Command Post has reported that the killings of civilians were “mistakenly” executed while trying to capture infiltrators of the Oromo Liberation Front. Following the incidents, the members of the army, who participated in the operation, were detained.

Officials from both the federal government and Oromia Regional State were dispatched to the area.

“This tragedy is unacceptable and those who are responsible should be held accountable,” minister of Communication Affairs, Negeri Lencho (PhD), told The Reporter.

The displaced population to Kenya, who are seeking refuge in Moyale, Marsabit County, are now located in five different locations in Kenya. They are now concentrated in locations: Sessi (3,080 people), Sololo (2,792 people), Somare (1,830 people), Cifa/Butiye (890 people), Dambala Fachana (1,075 people), while others have integrated with the host community.

To accommodate the increasing

number of people, a makeshift camp has been established at Dambala Fachana in Sololo to provide shelter for populations that were previously residing at Maeyi, Kukub, Gada Korma and Dambala Fachana in Sololo ward, read the statement from the Society.

“The prevailing situation in the makeshift camps continues to be of concern as the children may be susceptible to infections, especially with the onset of rains, which may lead to a decline in their nutritional status.”

“We really hope for a sustainable solution,” Abbas Gullet (MD), Secretary General of Kenya Red Cross, said.

The Kenya Red Cross Society continues to provide the much-needed humanitarian support especially through food and non-food items, integrated medical outreaches, health education and sanitation.

Currently, Ethiopia has nearly one million internally displaced populations in relation to conflicts that occurred in different parts of the country.

At the same time, Ethiopia hosts around 800,000 refugees from neighboring countries.

Number of . . .

1600 CC vehicles; Lot 2 with 1800CC and Lot 3 with 2000 CC vehicles.

It is to be recalled that four bidders showed interest for 240 vehicles in Lot 1 where Belay Ab Motors gave the least offer of 807,453.7 birr per vehicle with a total of 193.7 million birr for the whole lot. For 110 vehicles in Lot 2, only Belay Ab managed to make the least unit price offer of 930,935.7 birr, with a total offer of 102.4 million birr.

In addition to this, for 50 vehicles in the third lot, the same company gave a better offer of 1.1 million birr per vehicle with a total offer of 55.6 million birr, followed by 1.6 million birr offer made by Abay Technic and Trading S.C. Marathon Motors was another company to offer two million birr per vehicle in the third lot.

The bid which was floated in pursuant to a directive issued by the Council of Ministers barred officials from using high-powered field vehicles while traveling within city vicinities.

The directive particularly aims at bringing the equitable distribution of vehicles used by government officials. It puts a restriction on officials using Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) such as Nissan Pajero as well as Toyota Prado and V8s inside Addis Ababa.

According to the directive, eight-cylinder vehicles would be reserved for ministers, state ministers, speakers and their deputies, presidents and vice presidents of federal courts, commissioners and deputy commissioners whereas six and four-cylinder vehicles would be used by directors for field use.

So far, it was foreign companies which dominated the automobile market in the country, specifically

when it comes to supplying cars for federal offices. In this regard, since 2012, PPPDS purchased only 537 vehicles from local assemblers.This is not the first time where Belay Ab Motors, is supplying for public offices. Just two years ago, Belay Ab won a bid to supply 199 ZNA pickups for government agencies at a total cost of 144 million birr.Established 12 years ago with a registered capital of five million dollars, Belay Ab Motors was first established to import and distribute light, medium, and heavy-duty trucks and industrial equipment, according to its website. The company opened its first assembly plant in 2012.Following this latest contract agreement and upon the supply of the vehicles by Belay Ab, MoFEC is expected to allocate the vehicles to federal public offices. Once the purchase is concluded, high-powered vehicles will only be reserved for field trips.Officials affected by the directive include ministers, state ministers, speakers and their deputies of both the House of People’s Representatives and the House of the Federation, presidents and vice presidents of federal courts, commissioners and deputy commissioners as well as directors.The directive went into effect in August 2017 and it allowed the federal offices to continue using high-powered vehicles in Addis Ababa until they are in possession of the locally-assembled automobiles which are under procurement process. In addition to the procurement of the vehicles from the local market, the directive also instructs government offices to coordinate for the proper utilization of vehicles and to allocate them appropriately.

regions, zonal and woreda administrations, according to the ministry.

Apart from the ailing football, the minister has also highlighted similar developments and critical challenges that his ministry and responsible institutions have been dealing with other major sport sectors over the past eight months.

Among the major ones, the athletics has seen mixed feedbacks. Doping remains to be a grave concern despite positive measures of anti-doping undertaken. Ristu said.

The minister has also explained the types of anti-doping measures that have been taken which include: increasing doping control officers, identifying major sporting activities that are

highly vulnerable for doping, awareness raising and other related activities.

In addition, he told the House that urinary and blood tests from some 604 athletes were taken. Out of the stated number of diagnosed, test results found doping substances in six of them. As a result, one of the six athletes with a positive result has already been barred from participating in any kind of sport for four years while further investigation is underway against the remaining five athletes, according to the minister.

He also pledged the government’s continuous effort with international organizations to curb the vulnerability of the country’s athletes due to this enhancing substance which is highly monitored by the global sporting body.



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and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Simon Coveney, to Ethiopia last November. He met with Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn, Foreign Minister Workneh Gebeyehu (PhD), the African Union Commissioners for Peace and Security and for Political Affairs, with the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and with UN and NGO partners. That visit really gave an impetus to our partnership with Ethiopia, the AU and IGAD. Let us talk about trade, an area the Ethiopian government has put much emphasis on. What are some of the Irish companies operating here in Ethiopia and how is your embassy facilitating this Ethiopian ambition? Probably the best known Irish company in Ethiopia is M-BIRR, the mobile money transfer service. It started with a small amount of funding from Ireland and Finland and now has millions of customers and is also supporting the PSNP program by facilitating cash transfers. We have also seen some interest from Irish companies in the agri-business and manufacturing sectors. We’ll be working with the Government of Ethiopia to share our experience of attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Ireland accounts for less than one percent of the EU population but we attract 4.5 percent of all FDI coming into the EU.

We’ve been named the best country in the world for attracting high-value foreign direct investment. To get to that position, we have focused on investing in education and skills, ensuring a stable regulatory environment, strong rule of law, a transparent and

competitive tax system, a globalized and pro-business environment and a strong research capacity. The capital is an ever metropolitan nation that is becoming culturally diverse. I notice there is now an Irish pub in the country. When you long for home, where do you usually spend your precious time? I go up and walk in the Entoto hills behind my house! One of the things I miss about Dublin is the fresh air and being beside the sea and the mountains. There is no sea in Addis but there are beautiful mountains! Since you came to Ethiopia, you have made various trips in the country. This, as you have made an announcement of funds and the inauguration of completed projects. Share with me the highlights? So far, I have visited Somali, Oromia,

Southern, Gambella, Amhara and Tigray regional states, to visit Irish Aid projects and also to look at trade, investment, cultural and education cooperation opportunities. One highlight was celebrating Meskel in Adigrat, Tigray Regional State at the invitation of the Mayor. My children loved the demera! There is now an European universal concern of illegal migration throughout Europe, including Ireland. How is your nation affected and what are some of the projects Ireland is involved in, in curbing this epidemic? Ireland provides financing for the EU Trust Fund for the Horn of Africa, which provides funding for programs that tackle the root causes of irregular migration and displacement. Ireland’s is probably less affected than some other European countries by irregular migration, due to our geographical position on the north-west edge of Europe. We support EU efforts to resettle some of the migrants who have arrived in southern Europe countries in other countries in the EU and Ireland will resettle 4,000 migrants, mainly from Syria and Yemen, who are currently in Italy and Greece.

But we are also very conscious that it is Africa, not Europe that hosts the largest number of refugees and irregular migrants. Ethiopia alone hosts almost 900,000 refugees. We admire the generosity of the government and people of Ethiopia towards refugees from neighboring countries and provide financial support through UNHCR.

PRIORITIZING . . . CONT`D FROM PAGE 15

We’ll be working with the Government of

Ethiopia to share our experience of attracting

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).





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progression by proper medical follow up.

Clearing up in the misconception of dialysis in the community, Dr Munim stated: “The dialysis service is adding a lot of burden on the sick; and there needs to be increased awareness in transplantation. Transplantation is the definitive cure, not dialysis.

Regarding this year’s concurrence between World Women’s Day and World Kidney Day, Dr Engeda and Sister Haymanot thanked women for being the number one kidney donors both internationally and locally. “Women

donate more than 40 percent of kidneys locally.”

The hospital is planning to start another option of dialysis for its patients—peritoneal dialysis. It is said that the new technique has several advantages compared to haemodialysis. Peritoneal dialysis is cheaper, and its users can use it at the privacy of their home, it is easy to carry around and it reduces the risk of infection (except self-inflicted infections caused by personal hygiene issues). With the help of an undisclosed local pharmaceutical company, the materials needed for peritoneal dialysis are on the

process of production.

Dr Munim also mentioned that the hospital has finished a whole curriculum in renal study. “The aim is to train doctors and nurses of other 10 hospitals in the works of kidney transplant and to decentralize the service so that patients get better access. The hospitals are located in and out of Addis Ababa.”

In addition to stating the need for more community involvement, the briefing was concluded with a golden rule, “Drink more water!”

FIGHTING THE SILENT . . . CONT`D FROM PAGE 17


The Reporter, March 17, 2018 Vol. XXII No. 1123 |39THE REPORTER SPORT

establishment of Senay Football Club was the moment when a man with hearing impairment came to my office and asked me to help him and his friends with some football equipment. After giving them some balls, kits and other necessary equipment, I set an appointment to visit their training ground. Then, I went to their training ground on a Saturday early in the morning. I found out that their performance was great and promising. Since then, I have been working with them for the past four years. What legal and administrative measures are you taking to formalize the club and receive recognition?

Since its establishment, the club has carried out several promising activities in terms of legalizing the team, creating the platforms and building international relationships with similar clubs in other countries. In terms of formalizing it, we have five board member of the club including club president. So far, the club has been succeeding in carrying out various friendly matches with local and international clubs of a similar establishment. Regarding international friendly matches, we played against the Canadian Athletics in Action Football Club and the South Korean Hallelujah Football Club (third division football in Korea). St. George and Ethiopian Coffee have been instrumental in participating in friendly matches representing local leagues. Obviously, that the rule of the game between players hearing with disability and normal once is not the same. What do your players feel about their roles and what have you observed so far?

Through all this time, we have learnt that disabled people can do anything if they are given the chance to. We have proved that people with hearing impairment are capable of playing football without hearing a sound on the pitch. Imagine playing a friendly match against able players U17 clubs of St. George, Ethiopia Coffee and foreign clubs as well. They are very happy and committed what they are doing. They are open-minded about taking everything you give to them and they are very hopeful. So, I am pretty sure that they can make a change in the near future.What is the main objective of Senay Football Club?

Well, our objective is to create a barrier-free platform where the deaf community can get equal opportunity to play in the country football ball clubs and to represent their country in continental and international competitions. We want to be a leading body of football in Ethiopia to create a system to organize and facilitate sporting events within and outside the country. Through all this, we also need to strengthen our relations with the government and similar foreign organizations and donors to enhance the participation of deaf people at all level.How can passionate but hearing-

impaired players join Senay football club? What are your requirements?

In fact, there are no any requirements to join our team. But, it is preferable if they fall U17 and U20 divisions. After recognizing their interest, we discuss with their families about our program and relating issues. We do so along with one the board members which is directly responsible for family issues. We have a two days a week after-class training session. So, things are running up like this so far.Your team was one of the participants in school football tournament which was held last month. How did you find the tournament?

The football tournament was hosted by Lycee Guebre Mariam to celebrate the school’s 70th anniversary. The participants were from five international high schools namely the British International School, Future Talent, One Planet, Lycee Guebre Mariam and Senay Deaf Football Club. We were invitees in the tournament. Then we reached the final match against Lycee Guebre Mariam’s football team. It was historical competition between deaf and hearing football teams in Ethiopia; the match ended in a 2 -2 draw. Following the result, Lycee Guebre Mariam won the tournament with seven points and three goals variance while we sat second with the same point. It was a great opportunity for us to even take part in the competition and it helped us to see our potential.You have been invited to play by a French deaf football club called Montpellier. How did you get a chance?

Well, the Montpellier club is one of the deaf football clubs in France based in the city of Montpellier. Montpellier deaf football team was founded in 1938 and it will be celebrating its 8oth anniversary which will be held from May 18 to 20, 2018. There are 20 deaf football clubs in France. Hence, I told them about Senay mentioning that it is a newly founded deaf football club in Ethiopia and it’s a great opportunity for us if we get a chance to share experience in the Montpellier’s anniversary football tournament. After the conversation, they confirmed for us to take part in the competition by our own financing. In order to participate in this golden opportunity, we are trying to get sponsors to will cover our expenses for the tournament. What are the main challenges your team faced so far?

To be honest, there are a lot of challenges which hinder us from achieving our maximum potential. The first thing is the materials for players like boot, kit, and expense of food after training which helps the players to be physically fit. Actually, there are various individuals who are supporting us in materials such as, Josamb kit provider and a Canadian Right Play NGO. Apart from this, the Canadian Right Play has promised to support us with additional materials in the near future. Generally, let me give you the opportunity to say something on the deaf football?

I really want to say that disabled people can do anything and we have to encourage, motivate and help them to achieve the maximum of their potential. We are now the icebreaker via football and there are so many talented players across the country. Now, Dire Dawa and Adama cities are following in our footsteps to establish deaf football clubs. So, everybody should give attention to disabled members of the community in order to create equal opportunity for them like any other person.

Persons with both physical and intellectual disability participate in different sports activities. But most of the sports played by the disabled are adaptations from

of persons with a disability, which is sometimes referred to as adapted sports. According to various references, there are 25 active deaf football clubs in Great Britain most of which compete in mainstream football leagues around Britain under international criteria which requires deaf players to have an average hearing loss of 55 decibels more in the best. Senay Football Club for the people with hearing impairment was established in 2017

club in Ethiopia for the disabled. Endaleyesus Abate has been instrumental in the establishment of the club and

is the general manager of Senay in which he also serves as a member of the board of directors. He was also the manager of the Addis Ababa FC before establishing Senay. Dawit Tolesa of The Reporter sat down with Endaleeyesus to talk about the establishment of the club and the current status of the club. Excerpts:

NURTURING THE

The Reporter: Tell us about the Senay Football Club. How did it come into existence?

Endaleyesus Abate: The deaf community in Ethiopia is very disadvantaged in many basic service provisions such as in schools, recreational areas, and sports. There hasn’t been any registered

deaf football club until this year. Senay Football Club was established for people who have hearing impairment to mainly give them a chance to play football. It gives a change for youth who are passionate about football but did not get the chance because of their disabilities. The main drive behind the



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