|
An American company, is to venture into petroleum exploration project in the
Afar Regional
State.
The Afar basin is one of the five sedimentary basins in Ethiopia. Unlike Ogaden and Gambella the afar basin is not yet explored. Ten years ago two American companies, Hunt and Maxus, commenced a geophysical survey in the Ogaden basin. But after a short stay the companies left the country for various reasons. Hunt, which discovered oil reserves in Yemen, drilled one exploration well in El-Kuran locality in the Ogaden basin. The company, based in Houston, Texas, left. It was compelled to close the project in Ethiopia because of budget constraints. Maxus cancelled the project due to the compelling security problem encountered in the exploration area some years ago.
By Kaleyesus Bekele Ethiopian reporter,
Posted on Saturday, October 22 @ 00:19:32 MST by
staff |
Pastoral Development Policies & Strategies in
Ethiopia.
Population & climate.
Pastoralists constitute 12-15% of the population of Ethiopia and occupy about 60% of the total land mass of the country. They highly depend on livestock for their living. They live in arid and semi arid, peripheral areas of the country.
The previous states' perceptions of pastoralists
It is believed that, prior to the 19th century; there was actually no state structure in most of the pastoral areas. It was in early 19th century that the pastoral areas come under state control. Since then, the pastoral areas were considered by the state as no -man's land.
This was given legal forces in the 1955' revised constitution of Ethiopia. In that constitution it was stated, 'all property not held & possessed in the name of any person, including all abandoned properties and all grazing lands, are state domain''. This laid the ground for the establishment of large commercial farms and giant agro-industrial complexes in the pastoral areas, with the consequent eviction of the pastoralists from their land. Such a law absolutely rendered the pastoralists landless.
The centralization of the state structure, as well as the establishment and expansion of commercial farms and agro-industrial complexes and game parks increased, resulting in encroachment upon pastoral areas and the marginalization of the pastoralist population. This was the situation until the downfall of the Dergue Regime.
The present government's policies and strategies
Following the down fall Dergue Regime and the coming into power of Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front [EPRDF], two major events occurred. These were; the establishment of the transitional government charter, which introduced administrative decenteralization, and the adoption of the federal democratic republic of Ethiopia [FDRE] constitution.
Some important issues provided for under the present constitution are;
The preamble; the commitment of 'the nation, nationalities and peoples Ethiopia [including pastoralists]...to building a political community founded on the rule of law";
Article 8: The vesting of sovereignty 'the nation, nationalities and peoples Ethiopia," of which the constitution ...is the expression "and which "shall be expressed through there elected representatives and direct participation";
Article 40: The right of "Ethiopian pastoralists...to free land for grazing "and not to be displaced from their own lands";
Article 41: The right of pastoralists "to receive fair prices for their products, which would lead to improvement in their conditions of life";
Article 50: the granting of "adequate power...to the lowest units of the government to enable the people to participate directly in the administration of such units."
On the basis of this constitution, while the government has, in the past few years, issued different strategies, plans and programs, the majority of them, however didn't dwell on pastoral issues with any depth.
Following are some of the remarks forwarded with regard to those strategies and plan:
§ The 1993 agricultural extension program does not say anything about pastoral development.
§ The 1996 and the revised 2002 food security strategy [PSS] has given only two paragraphs regarding the pastoral issues.
§ The rural development policies and strategies [RDPS] focused on crop production. In a sub-section dedicated to pastoral issues mention is made only of short-and medium-term strategy focusing on traditional system based on mobility and long term strategy aimed at sedentarization based on development of irrigation.
Some of the policies which have dealt in-depth on pastoralist issues are the following:
§ The Five-Year (2000-2005) Development Plan [FYDP],which acknowledge gap regarding pastoral areas and recommends sustainable settlement with the introduction of irrigation.
§ Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper [PRSP]. The interim poverty reduction program [IPRSP] was cited as an example of the persistent knowledge gap regarding pastoral areas.
Apart from the above, there are also other policies and strategies that can be linked to pastoral issues. Some of these are the Strategy for Democratization [SD] and capacity building strategy [CBS]. Strategy for democratization stress that, in the absence of democracy and good governance, there can be no development.
In summary, the policies, strategies and plans issued by the government appear to be contradictory, confusing and inconsistent. Following are some points illustrating the said contradiction, confusion and inconsistency.
The government has acknowledged, in all its policy documents, the existence of a persistent knowledge gap on the development of pastoral areas while, on the other hand, it appears to be sure that settlement is the only lasting solution to the problems of the pastoralists.
Look at the following statements taken from the RDPS.
§ Since the livelihood of the people is based on pastoralism, our development endeavor must be based on pastoralism.
§ In these areas, accelerated and sustainable development can be achieved only when the people are made to settled.
The question, then, is how these two opposite positions could be reconciled. Most probably, "good governance" is the only key element mentioned as a solution to eradicate poverty and promote development. To ensure good governance, the FDRE constitution provides the following principles as a starting point:
§ Sovereignty is vested in the people;
§ This sovereignty is exercised through elected representatives and direct democratic participation;
§ Government must be transparent;
§ Officials must be accountable to the people;
§ Active participation of the people;
§ The devolvement of power to the lowest level of administration.
In pastoral areas, lack of good governance is one of the major chronic problems:
§ Top-down approach in government institutional structure;
§ No actual power devolvement all the way down to the woreda and kebele levels;
§ Transparency and accountability are in their rudimentary stage;
§ Frequent structural changes involving the removal and replacement of personnel.
The effects are:
§ Duplication of efforts and creation of confusion;
§ Instability among the experts;
§ Misuse of the meager and scare resource;
§ Loss of valuable data; and
§ Absence of enabling working environment for skilled manpower.
The NGO approach:
They are generally involved in both emergency and development activities, but majority of theme are engaged in water development. Problems:-
§ Lack of holistic approaches;
§ Not appropriate pursuit of sustainability principle, as they emphasize short-term results;
§ Absence of phase-out strategies in their development effort;
§ Some development aspects are almost totally neglected.
Important remarks
Positive element of policy and strategy approach
§ Constitutional recognition;
§ Policy and strategy reform;
§ Institution of pastoral affairs standing committee in federal parliament;
§ Establishment of Inter-Ministerial Board comprising nine ministries.
Comments:
§ Some commitment have been made towards the development of pastoral areas, but not until only recently (since 2000) when the plight of the pastoralists reached a stage threatening the collapse of the whole community.
§ Emphasis has to given to sedentarization.
§ The chronic capacity limitation, absence of good governance, and protected conflicts made sustainable development the next to impossible.
§ The government has yet to show its commitment to the full to resolve problems in pastoral areas.
Recommendations
§ Make sure that the issues provided for in the FDRE constitution are adequately addressed.
§ Re-thinking the increasing fire-brigade approach to emergency intervention and the policy defects;
§ Coordination and collaboration between government , traditional institution, and NGOs with decentralized decision making ;
§ Establishing an autonomous office at the federal level that is solely devoted to pastoral affairs;
§ Formulating and implementing a national policy on conflict prevention and resolution.
Contributed by: jemal N. M
September,2005. All rights reserved.©
Jemal Nur Murele
+91-9886-220517