Atrocities in Ethiopia?
No problem! Just close your eyes and send more money!
December 7, 2011
In July 2011, two Swedish journalists entered the Ethiopian province Ogaden embedded with the ONLF guerrilla movement. The trial against the journalists and other abuses seem to surprise donor agencies, politicians and others outside of Ethiopia. But in fact, it is nothing new. On the contrary, abuses and crimes against human rights have been ongoing for many years in Ethiopia. Even so, Sweden and other countries have continued to fill the coffers in Addis Ababa with millions and millions of dollars in development aid.
Ethiopia is perhaps one of the most perverse examples of how a country continues to receive development money year after year, without any improvement in democracy and respect for human rights. But there are other countries that continue to receive development money from Sweden, without any questions asked. In fact, more than a half of the ten most important Swedish ’partner countries’ remain the same, year after year, without any having to justify their conduct. In spite of all the talk about human rights, efficiency and transparency, there are other, much more vague factors that determine the selection of a partner country.
Ethiopia has been one of the major recipients of international aid in recent times. Despite many years of human rights abuse, Sweden and other donors continue pumping aid into Ethiopia. Addis Ababa’s pleasant climate and the fact that we have an entwined history outweigh the murdered demonstrators and detained journalists.
In July 2011, two Swedish journalists entered the Ethiopian province Ogaden embedded with the ONLF guerrilla movement.
The photographer Johan Persson and writer Martin Schibbye wanted to report on the activities there of the company Lundin Petroleum, which had ties to Sweden’s foreign minister, Carl Bildt. Their approach was not unusual for journalists, as seen in Libya during the uprising against the Kaddafi regime.
These journalists are now on trial for supporting a terrorist group and for illegal entry into the country, facing jail sentences of up to 20 years. The Ethiopian regime has not only declared the organisation “terrorist”, but also labelled any contact with it as a “terrorist act”. The journalists have pleaded guilty to entering the country without a visa but deny the terror charges.
That undemocratic regimes label their opponents “terrorists” is nothing new. ANC of South Africa was during many years labelled a terrorist organisation by the apartheid regime (and by some foreign governments as well).
The trial against the journalists and other abuses seem to surprise donor agencies, politicians and others outside of Ethiopia. But in fact, it is nothing new. On the contrary, abuses and crimes against human rights have been ongoing for many years in Ethiopia. Even so, Sweden and other countries have continued to fill the coffers in Addis Ababa with millions and millions of dollars in development aid.
The Swedish minister for development cooperation, Gunilla Carlsson, and development ministers from other countries like to cuddle up to the idea of integrating democracy and human rights in development cooperation. But the fact is that there is no correlation between stronger democracy and more development assistance. On the contrary, once a regime receives aid money, they can usually sit back and relax. When money starts pouring in, it almost takes genocide for donors to withdraw their support. And for countries that become more democratic, the amount of aid might actually decrease.
Let’s go back to 1995. We are a group of journalists visiting Ethiopia. Our trip has been paid for by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the programme includes visits to various agricultural and industrial projects. Now it’s only a few days left of our visit and we’ve got an exclusive interview with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
Apart from the projects that Sweden would like to show us, there is also another reality in Ethiopia. Journalists and dissidents are being imprisoned. The day before our interview, the U.S. released an unusually strong report on human rights abuses in Ethiopia. I read aloud from the report and asked the Prime Minister for his comment. He was not amused.
Afterwards, Swedish expats and the Ambassador expressed their disappointment: “We arranged the interview with Zenawi for you, and you behave like that. You must show more understanding … “
Understanding was, and still remains, a key word. In 1995, Ethiopia was one of the largest recipients of Swedish aid. Since then, Ethiopia has fought wars, imprisoned and killed opponents and suppressed the civil society. But the underlying notion that we should show “understanding” remains the same. Ethiopia remains one of Sweden’s most important ‘cooperation partners’. In 2010, Ethiopia received approximately 42 million USD (283 million SEK) in bilateral support from Sweden (Sida annual report)―thus it was Sweden’s ninth biggest recipient country. In 2009 the amounth was even higher, 50 million USD (DAC). On an average of five years (2005-2009) Sweden is the number nine among all donors to Ethiopia with Norway as number ten (DAC).
In spite of the harsh criticism in the Swedish MFA’s reports about the abuse of human rights, Sweden continues to finance the Ethiopian state apparatus. Research cooperation and private sector development are among those sectors that benefit from our tax money (human rights programmes are also an important part of the budget). And Sweden is not alone. Important donors such as Great Britain and the United States of America keep pouring money into Ethiopia. However, the other major Nordic countries seem to be reassessing Ethiopia. For Denmark, Ethiopia was only the 26th and for Norway the 14th largest receiver in 2010. Maybe human rights are more important for our Nordic neighbours.
And yes, of course, Meles Zenawi is still in power.
Ethiopia is perhaps one of the most perverse examples of how a country continues to receive development money year after year, without any improvement in democracy and respect for human rights. But there are other countries that continue to receive development money from Sweden, without any questions asked. In fact, more than a half of the ten most important Swedish ’partner countries’ remain the same, year after year, without any having to justify their conduct. In spite of all the talk about human rights, efficiency and transparency, there are other, much more vague factors that determine the selection of a partner country.
A recent University of Oxford study2 examined the bilateral aid allocations of the five largest donors 1980-2004, divided into three periods: the Cold War, post Cold War and the war on terror. One conclusion is that improvements in democracy, human rights, anti-corruption, etc. only play a marginal role in the selection of a recipient country. In the words of the researchers: “Recipient merit, measured by growth, democracy and human rights, accounts for only two percent of predicted aid”.
“What surprised us most was that the donors cared so little about the change in the countries. From an aid perspective, the world’s poor countries have no incentive to strengthen their democracy and human rights,” says researcher Anke Hoeffler.
In spite of all the pretty talk about democracy, press freedom and human rights, there are thus quite different factors that govern Sweden’s development aid. The case of Ethiopia is even more complicated due to Carl Bildt’s ties to Lundin Petroleum (now operating under the name Africa Oil) and its operations in Ogaden. What interests are in fact dominating? One does not have to lean towards the major conspiracy theories. The reality is often more trivial: The countries that consultants, foreign ministry officials, Sida staff and NGO volunteers think are nice, or that they have fond memories of, have good prospects to continue receiving development aid, even long after reality has surpassed the expiry date.
That Addis Ababa is a safe city to live in, that the climate is good and that we have a long shared history which is an excellent topic for conversation at a cocktail party, outweigh murdered demonstrators and detained journalists. In comparison with our glorious common history, – manifested in Gustaf von Rosen, the man who built the Ethiopian Air Force on behalf of Haile Selassie – free speech remains utterly trivial in the cosy life of the well paid-expats, the experts on development.
Still, the waves of democracy will sooner or later reach Ethiopia as it has been reaching country after country in the Middle East. And when that day comes, who will stand up and explain how we, year after year, supported brutal regimes as the one in Ethiopia?
Welcome Gunilla Carlsson, Carin Jämtin and all of your present and previous colleagues. Please take the floor!
1 This is a revised extract from my contribution (in Swedish) to the anthology Bistånd är politik (“Aid is Politics”). The book was published in collaboration between SILC publishers and the magazine OmVärlden. It can be purchased in online bookstores. See http://silc.se/book/bistand-ar-politik/.
2 Hoeffler, A. and V. Outram, Centre for the Study of African Economies: “Need, Merit, or Self-Interest – What Determines the Allocation of Aid?”, Review of Development Economics (May 2011).
There are other people also in Ethiopia apart from journalists. Millions of people that are poor, extremely poor, who can’t eat democracy and human rights. What they worry about is where they should find there next meal. Looking at the present govenment and their record on development, people are actually seeing the country developing rapidly and poverty reduction is taking place. Much could be discussed about the details of that progress, but the country is acually making headway (not driven by oil) and whether the external aid contributes to that growth is also difficult to give a straight answer to and a discussion in itself. But to regard aid and development cooperation as justified only when a country meets standards that journalists perceive as criteria for cooperation with other counties is a bit naive. And if that is just naive, the implied assumption that no one says anything to the Ethiopian government about the situation for human rights and democracy is quite ignorant and arrogant. I don’t think any of the countries you mention that provide aid to Ethiopia approve of the human rights situation or all aspects of its democracy, and they do try to influnce the government.
The question is: how do you influence a goverment on these issue? By reducing aid? Should we stop trading with China or any other state we have development cooperation with because of their human rights record? Or stop travelling to USA, because the country have states that still have the death penalty? You are right that there is no positive automatic correlation bewteen democracy and development. It is actually so that democray and human rights follow development, rather than the other way around. That’s experience around the world. There are plenty of examples of that process in Africa. It does not mean that one should not try to work to improve human rights and democracy, but the means to do that needs to be more fine tuned than just stop giving aid because there are incidents of transgressions of human rights. Why don’t you come with some suggestions of how Sweden could support press freedom in Ethiopia?
Our glorious history when Gustaf von Rosen was in Ethiopia? I was there when he died, in not so gloriuos circumstances. He was flying for the Ethiopian govenment of Mengistu, a worse dictator that Ethiopia has ever seen, as well as relief aid. The world is not black and white!
Anders I wanted to understand your comments and I had to talk to my 3 year old kid for help. Read first before you tain a dedicated person like Gustaf von Rosen by claiming he worked for a dictator. Check the biography of this great pilot and see how he always stood up to protect the unjustly attacked Ethiopia, Finland and Netherlands during the second world war. How do you influence a government? Good that you ask to learn other people’s comments tough. How you do that is first identifying if the people have other alternative leaders who are striving to ensure democracy and assist them in their struggle, mobilize European support not to make Europe a safe heaven to store corrupted money of African rulers. If development and democracy isnt related why is that North Korean or Mynamar (Burma) are not getting any assistant from Sweden. The matter of fact is that as stated by the author the European Ambassadors in Ethiopia seem to agree with the ideas by Washington that they are there to highlight washington interest and the rest of the time are enjoying the cool weather and the benefits coming with the aid money.
David Isaksson´s article on Ethiopia and Swedish politics makes me uncomfortable. True, relations between Sweden and Ethiopia go a long way back, starting with missionaries who certainly did not seek out a pleasant life but died by the numbers from diseases. To relate Swedish development cooperation with Ethiopia to comfortable living conditions and nice conversations in cocktail parties is in line with all those ”internet haters” who pop up and go on aggressively about aid industrial complex or aid mafia as soon as development cooperation is mentioned. I did not think Global Reporting belonged to that crowd. When I look at your web site I get an ambiguous impression of your roles – working both as journalists and commissioned by Sida and other Swedish authorities. Does this mean that Global Reporting is part of ”filling coffers, pouring in money, chatting at cocktails and enjoying nice weather conditions”? – your own description of Swedish development work.
I lived in Addis Abeba in the eighties, when Mengistu Haile Mariam ruled the country with means even more authoritarian than the emperor before him. It was a brutal regime with limited freedom, and certainly no freedom of information. There was a devastating war with Eritrea but in Addis we knew very little about it, apart from rumours.
In that perspective the present government is a step forward from any previous. Ethiopia today is a country where many people have passed from hunger to a relatively decent life. The dead hand over all kinds of enterprise and initiative is no longer there. There is a middle class who see to it that they are informed, they will work for change. There are courts with a certain degree of autonomy. Ethiopia, in the eighties the very image of a starving African child, have installed reasonably efficient food security systems. Had it not been for the influx of refugees from Somalia we would probably not have heard about Ethiopia in connection with the present hunger crisis on the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is respected in the region.
All those are no small things for the 80 million people in Ethiopia, as also pointed out by Anders Östman.
Meles Zenawi has become more dictatorial, not less, since the opposition really dared oppose him in 2005. But there is an opposition, although repressed.
Sweden protested the repression and relations with Ethiopia cooled. I think that Sweden should continue to support the fast socio economic developments in Ethiopia – and utilize contacts with the Ethiopian authorities to push for democratic change.
Cecilia Bäcklander, journalist, tv-producer, was last in Ethiopia in April this year.
See her blog (in Swedish)@ http://www.ostafrikabloggen.com
Cecilia Bäcklander wrote, “But there is an opposition, although repressed.” Did you mean those opposition leaders that are in exile or in prison? Do you know that the Zenawi government forced close the few independent newspapers in the country and imprisoned journalists?
Dear Backlander, please join us as we celebrate the 2003 Anuak Massacre by the Meles Zenawi government- http://www.abugidainfo.com/index.php/19399/
What we have in Ethiopia is an apartheid government.
Cecilia,
Don’t compare Meles’ regime with Mengistu’s. Compare this regime with other progressvie regimes in the world. it seesm that you don’t understand the reality prevailing in Ethiopia today. You told us that you were in Addis Ababa in the eighties but you wrongly speak of the present day realities. In Addis Ababa, urban poverty is growing. elementary school students are collapsing in front of their teachers due to starvation; journalists, activitists, and opposition politicians are being thrown into jails day after day; independent media are being jammed and blocked; and many more. Stop writign superficial/shallow comments.
Cecilia,
Don’t compare Meles’ regime with Mengistu’s. Compare this regime with other progressvie regimes in the world. it seesm that you don’t understand the reality prevailing in Ethiopia today. You told us that you were in Addis Ababa in the eighties but you wrongly speak of the present day realities. In Addis Ababa, urban poverty is growing. elementary school students are collapsing in front of their teachers due to starvation; journalists, activitists, and opposition politicians are being thrown into jails day after day; independent media are being jammed and blocked; and many more. Stop writign superficial/shallow comments.
This is one of the one most absurd article I’ve read. It’s amazing to see NAI stands behind this analysis. Yes there is problem in Ethiopia, it’s a tough neighborhood and Ethiopia has to be on its watch. Internally the political sphere is being dominated by one party, EPRDF. Human Rights issues have to improve. But these are part of the problems. But what happened on keeping the balance while reporting/analyzing. The political party in power has also delivered more than its predecessor!! See the UN report on health and Education to understand the extent. The infrastructure has grown beyond expectations. There is change not only in Addis Abeba but outspread to other parts of the country. The middle class is visible. If the growth pace is maintained there will be real change in our age time. There is so much happening in other sectors that the question regarding democracy and human rights will take another course and that’s to the best when people live continues improving and the demands for an open society increases. What the article is stating is close all the doors and let’s throw this country to where it belongs, poverty. Isn’t this a very racist and cynical perspective.
Just because 2 Swedish journalists are imprisoned doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world. I sincerely hope and pray they return back to Sweden peacefully.
Regards
Tazabeo
NAI does not necessarily “stand behind” the analysis or the views expressed in articles, or comments, on NAI Forum. As stated under the tab “About NAI Forum”, the law puts the responsibility for the contents of inputs to NAI Forum on the author. NAI will as a matter of editorial policy publish relevant articles that contribute to the debate on Nordic development policies with a bearing on Africa, while reserving the right to remove any contribution that is deemed by the editor as irrelevant, inadequate or otherwise unsuitable for the purposes of the Forum.
And in this case NAI presumes this article as being adequate? Please. Africa/Ethiopia deserves a more balanced analysis than what has been published here.
Regards
Tazabeo
The purpose of NAI Forum is to promote a debate on Nordic Africa policies. The author of the article is an influential actor in forming public opinion on global development policies in Sweden. His views on aid to Ethiopia cannot be deemed inadequate, even if NAI may not share them. Your contribution and those of others here together provide a balanced analysis of the issue, even if each input to the debate may not be balanced in itself.
What do we call this writing, ‘observation’ ‘article’ ‘suggestion’ ‘improvement’ or ‘history telling’. I think the author is very biased. He uses so many general terms and conclusion without even showing the chain of the cause. I do believe there are wrongs out there but not such writing. Why are you calling this important and on what ground? does it mean you will post if I simply tell a story and my personal feeling?
Professor Hans Rosling, Karolinska Institute and Gapminder.org has commented on Twitter about the lack of statistical correlation between a democracy index and child mortality (a common proxy for socio-economic development). The general data show no correlation whatsoever. In the case of Ethiopia, there has been no improvement in the democracy score since 1995, but a rapid fall in child mortality. See http://www.bit.ly/tImIFx
To the extent that aid for social and economic development in Ethiopia has the intended impact, cutting it would reduce the impressive progress towards the Millennium Development Goals achieved by the ‘Developmental State’ in this large and still very poor country. So the issue is: would this enhance democracy and human rights in the country? And if it would not, is it more important to demonstrate objection to its human rights abuses and democratic flaws than to help it reduce poverty?
David quotes a researcher at the Centre for the Study of African Economies in Oxford. The head of that Centre, professor Paul Collier, co-authored a study entitled “Can the World Cut Poverty in Half? How Policy Reform and Effective Aid Can Meet International Development Goals,” published in World Development, November 2001. They studied the optimal country allocation of aid in order to maximise poverty reduction in the world, considering population size, the extent of poverty, and the effectiveness of development policies. With caps for aid to China and India due to their enormous populations, they found that the two countries that deserved the largest increase in aid were Ethiopia and Uganda. Yes, this was 10 years ago, but as recent development indicators show, social and economic development policies in Ethiopia have continued to yield rapid poverty reduction. Meanwhile, Swedish aid to the implementation of these policies has almost completely ceased.
Dear,David Isaksson,you are a courageous journalist that I can assure you you are talking on behalf of millions of Ethiopians who are voiceless because of the the Meles Zenawi’s dictatorial regime.And let me take this opportunity that what Cecilia Bäcklander says really hearts as an Ethiopian who wants to live in free and democratic environment.But i will tell you this,the Ethiopian people will be free soon.Your attitude is really painful,Cecilia.
Two relevant news items illustrate the issue under debate here:
ETHIOPIA: ILLICIT OUTFLOWS DOUBLED IN 2009, NEW REPORT SAYS
Ethiopia lost $11.7 billion to outflows of ill-gotten gains between 2000 and 2009, according to a coming report by Global Financial Integrity. According to GFI economist Sarah Freitas, who co-authored the report, corruption, kickbacks and bribery accounted for the vast majority of the increase in illicit outflows. ‘The scope of Ethiopia’s capital flight is so severe that our conservative US$3.26 billion estimate greatly exceeds the US$2 billion value of Ethiopia’s total exports in 2009,’ Freitas wrote in a blog post on the website of the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development. http://on.wsj.com/uIbxls
ETHIOPIA: AWRAMBA TIMES IS LATEST ETHIOPIAN PAPER TO VANISH
A couple of weeks ago, newspaper editor Dawit Kebede, an International Press Freedom award winner, fled Ethiopia. Sadly, Dawit’s Awramba Times is the latest in a long list of Amharic-language private publications to vanish from the market following the incarceration or flight into exile of their editors. Awramba Times was a breeding ground of young Ethiopian columnists. Apart from the usual news and sports reporters, the weekly had correspondents specialising in parliamentary affairs, health issues, women’s issues, satire, and folklore. There were also featured guest columnists such as university professors and opposition party members.
http://bit.ly/vu3FZY
Quote “The journalists have pleaded guilty to entering the country without a visa” that’s why the criminal charge is taking place because entering to a country without visa & necessary preconditions is unlawful whether u r a Swedish,British or American. By the way currently Sweden is smoking hot by the self appointed pro democracy pages in exile like Addis Neger since shedding crocodile tears in the name of the two journalists will result in breathing sigh of relief for the pending case in the Swedish court to grant political asylum and work permit for the managing editor of Addis Neger, Mesfin Negash who is currently restricted his movement in Sweden.Good luck !
Which human rights do the commentators (Östlund, Ehrenpreis, Bäcklander) think should be cancelled in the name of development? With which other dictators would they like to see further cooperation? Shall Sweden also invest in the development programmes of Esais Afewerki, Kim Jong Il and Raul castro?
Martin Ängeby should note that the Universal Declaration on Human Rights includes not only civil rights but also social and economic rights. According to Article 25
“Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.”
The available statistical evidence from the UN and other international organisations indicate that Ethiopia has performed extremely well in making progress towards fulfillment of these rights in the last 10-15 years with support of international aid and investments. At the same time it is obvious that the regime has violated the civil and democratic rights of many of its citizens.
Arguing that such a country should not get any aid implies (A) that all one should care about is civil and political rights, and (B) that those rights would be enhanced by withdrawing aid.
(A) is clearly not compatible with Sweden’s Policy for Global Development with a strong focus on poverty reduction and enhanced fulfillment of the Millennium Development Goals. (B) is highly unlikely and the burden of proof is on those who argue thus. It would seem more likely that civil rights would be gradually strengthened over time with economic and social progress, and with extensive diplomatic, commercial and political contacts with more democratic countries such as the Nordics.
There is no contradiction between political rights and social and economic rights. There is a difference in that some political rights are very easy to allow, such as the freedom om speech. Giving people all the entitlements that are written into the social rights charters is more difficult. Nonetheless, they are indeed rights as well. But it still seems to me that Ehrenpreis thinks political rights can wait, in the name of development. This is completely unaccepatable.
There is no way for Ehrenpreis to know if the Ethiopians are satisfied with the Swedish aid programmes, since Ethiopians dont have the right to express themselves.
‘Everything immediately’ is what we all want, but most people realise that this is not realistic. No country in the world has managed to fulfill all the aspirations expressed in the UN Declaration, not even the Nordics. The key point made here about aid to Ethiopia is that economic and human development is more likely to be a pre-requisite for democracy and human rights than the reverse. An illiterate, sick and hungry population never have been, and never will be, able to organise the popular movements with support from an emerging midde class that historically produce a democratic breakthrough. Stopping aid is likely to slow, not promote, the socio-economic development that eventually can produce democracy.
Those who say it is unacceptable to support development in a country with a regime that does not respect human rights effectively argue against all foreign aid, since ‘nobody is perfect’, and how will that help democracy? Alternatively, if aid can be given to imperfect regimes if they are not too bad (Botswana? Ghana? Tanzania? Zambia?), most are likely to not really need our aid. This is a real dilemma, and compromises have to be made. I guess that is what you SILC lot call ‘cultural relativism’.
I do not pretend to know whether “Ethiopians are satisfied with the Swedish aid programmes”. Some do, some don’t, depending on political leanings or affiliationsas the debate here clearly shows. But I have reasons to believe that Swedish aid has contributed positively over many years to the positive socio-economic developments recorded over the last 10-15 years.
Thank you Issakson for this interesting article. I must however express my qualms about withdrawing aid as a solution. While it is disgusting to even imagine that aid is being used as an instrument of suppression, it is also worrying to withdraw aid on which millions rely.
@Tazabeo, are you one of the government employed ‘automatic’ reactors? Yes the economy is growing. Have you ever asked yourself if the economy can grow at all had it not been for the roads, dams etc that is being built almost exclusively based on the aid and leans? Have you every considered if the economy will grow at all if the aid and loan is withdrawn? In any case, how on earth can you link the economic growth with the suppression? Can’t the government achieve what it is achieving without having to throw everyone that speaks against to jail? or forcing them to flee?
Thanks the author for underlining the most important question: Why donors keep feeding tyrant regimes and making them stronger to kill the helpless and poor people in Ethiopia? No significant improvement on the people during the last 20 years and agony and worsen human right and living standards. Meles Zenawi and a few cadres became millionaires and taking the people’s capital away to developed world.
Even the rational for humanitarian assistance is strong, the aid money is still serving against the very interest most donors would hope..the money keeps feeding tyrannic Meles, complicating the sociopolitical and economic lives of the majority of Ethiopians.
Hi All,
Thanks for the writer.
How certain are we that aid given through Ethiopian government reach to the people who are really in need of it? Ethiopia has been receiving aids for long period of time and after all those years we are still dependent on aid. Anyone with human heart (not politics) can state it clearly! I think Ethiopian poverty is poor governance and leadership. Unless Ethiopia has a good governance I doubt if the country get out of poverty. I appreciated the writer for clearly writing what is going on in Ethiopia. There are many poor in Ethiopia still after so many years and we don’t know when this will end.
Change is within
In my article I write the following lines: “Ethiopia is perhaps one of the most perverse examples of how a country continues to receive development money year after year, without any improvement in democracy and respect for human rights.”
I did not write about a possible social development, reduction of poverty or that Ethiopia today has a happy middle class enjoying a good life. No, the article is about democracy, human rights and the fact that donors year after year pour money into un-democratic regimes. In this, Ethiopia stands out as a very clear – and worrying – example.
So my point is that Swedish aid (and that from other countries) is not allocated by merits, but by a number of non-disclosed and non-tangible factors, most of which are kept classified by the Swedish government. For a full understanding of this part of my argument, I would encourage you to read Hoeffler as well as my original text (Swedish only) in the anthology “Bistånd är politik (“Development is politics”).
My other point is that Ethiopia is one of the most perverse examples of this practise. The reactions from those supporting the Ethiopian regime did not surprise me. I’ve seen several examples of this already. The underlying notion that Africa is not ready for democracy is what I would call racist. At the same time, I’m happy that Ethiopians fighting for democracy and human rights have read and commented on the article.
What really troubles me is that well-known and influential Swedes justify crimes against democracy and human rights with social development. It will be interesting to see how the “progress” of Ethiopia will stand up to a closer look, the day people could express themselves freely. Those cherishing the Ethiopia “wonder” should take a look at Newsnight by BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/9556288.stm) or read what Human Rights Watch writes on how political opponents are left to starve. Amartya Sens famous essay on Poverty and famine from 1981 is still highly relevant when it comes to the Ogaden province in Ethiopia.
Ethiopia does indeed have a special place in many Swedes heart, so special I would say that it amounts to a double standard. I doubt that Cecilia Bäcklander or Anders Östman would have defended the right to food over freedom of Expression in Belarus or Zimbabwe, but in Ethiopia the world is happily turned upside down.
“Much could be discussed about the details of that progress, but the country is actually making headway”, writes Anders Östman. Calling human rights “a detail” and saying that poor people “can’t eat democracy and human rights” is a direct insult against those risking their lives, often with support from Sweden, in the struggle for human rights, gender equality and democracy. If Nelson Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi have lived according the principles of Anders Östman the world would have been much more like Ethiopia. Luckily they did not follow his advise.
Cecilia Bäcklander writes that my article makes her uncomfortable. And that is good! We should all be very uncomfortable with how we, year after year cuddle up to un-democratic regimes. Bäcklander has not stopped this practice. In a recent article, published in the Swedish daily Sydsvenskan http://www.sydsvenskan.se/opinion/aktuellafragor/article1517456/Svalt-handlar-om-politik.html at about the same time as the Swedish journalists are captured, Bäcklander and former Sida director Bo Göransson hails the democratic development in Ethiopia.
They write (my translation from Swedish): “The gradual opening and democratisation of the Ethiopian society makes it impossible to hide drought and famine from the international community or the own population”.
I don’t know where Bäcklander found this gradual opening. According to Freedom House the democratic situation in Ethiopia is not improving but deteriorating. Freedom house writes for 2011: “Ethiopia’s political rights rating declined from 5 to 6, its civil liberties rating from 5 to 6, and its status from Partly Free to Not Free due to national elections that were thoroughly tainted by intimidation of opposition supporters and candidates as well as a clampdown on independent media and nongovernmental organizations.”
The situation is according to Freedom house the same as in Zimbabwe or Iran, but I did not see Bäcklander applaud democracy in Iran? Or maybe she will, in her next article.
The way Bäcklander tries to slander me I will not even comment on. What Global Reporting does stands out for itself. We are transparent as on whom we work with and what we do.
The democratic relativism or human rights relativism will not help the people of Ethiopia. When The Arabic spring finally reaches Ethiopia, what will Bäcklander and other “Ethiopian friends” have left of their credibility? Maybe they should move on to Singapore. A country with high living standard, food for all, health for all, shopping malls for all. And very little democracy and respect for human rights.
Yes David,
I understand that people who want to defend Meles’s undemocratic regime by taking your argument away from its central point, .., what a shame these groups are…always deceiving the west using their irrational revolutionary democracy that is against fundamental human rights.
It is totally ridiculous to compare Meles Dictatorship with Mugabe. In Zimbabwe Mugabe share power with opposition which is unthinkable in Ethiopia. Meles should be compare with Isais of Eritrea, Al beshir of Sudan or North Korea. the poverty reduction story also ridiculous, b/c how come famine become endemic year after year in country that address poverty? Its record is poor even compare 2 the previous regime, that didn’t receive massive foreign aid. famine had occured in the Derg era in decade not year after year. The economy growth is a myth. Read this http://addisvoice.com/2011/12/a-climate-of-corruption-ethiopian-edition/
I wonder who is the racist? The political implications of the West’s pursuance of human rights in Africa, which fundamentally is a Eurocentric indvidualistic concept based on values that goes back the to Enlightment, are far from straightforward, not generally very effective and sometimes very ignorant of the fact that most African societies, as well as most of the countries belonging to “Arab spring”, are not indvidualististic. In that perspective what you are doing is to portray the country, Ethiopia, as a land of savages, where the people are helpless victims of a heartless regime that needs to be saved by us, the saviours, be they missionaries, development workers and zealous journalist from the West.
The result of the Arab spring is not what the West and its journalists had hoped for and what Africans really should worry about; non-secular, male dominated, women suppressing , rather authoritarian forces winning democratic elections.
Democracy is not just about elections and human rights are not only about press freedom.
There is a congenial assumption that all good things go together, as Isaksson’s article suggests. Isaksson and many with him asssume that the solution to chronic development problems (which is Africa’s main issue) is more political democracy and greater citizen participation so that governments are more often held accountable. This is an attractive idea, but it is more ideological than based on evidence.That being said, I don’t see human rights as a detail. On the contrary, I believe they are fundamental and democracy is definitely a desirable goal and an effective way of improving public policies and more development in all societies in the long run. However, its effectiveness depends on social and economic conditions that are not yet enjoyed in most developing countries. Competitive elections, checks and balances, and other elements of the typical liberal democratic constitution have undoubted advantages, if they can be made to work, but it is important to be realistic. Sweden is not Ethiopia and vice versa. The evidence is clear that the formal arrangements of liberal democracy have radically different effects in different kinds of social and economic contexts (Douglass North et al. in Violence and Social Orders, 2009). Ethiopia is making headway in its development, just read any recent magazine or newspaper that are bullish about Africa’s current development prospects, though I am not entirely convinced that the present high growth rates are sustainable in order for Africa to really make a brake with its developmental history. However, without development (which is not happening in some of the other countries mentioned, i.e. Zimbabwe and North Korea) a genuine democratic depeening will stay off the agenda for years to come.
This is not to justify crimes against human rights and devalue democracy, it is something some of us have learnt by experience and empirical case-research.
I’m indeed very surprised that Anders Östman considers human rights a “Eurocentric individualistic concept”. Let me quote Article 19, UN declaration of Human rights from 1948:
“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
The situation in Ethiopia regarding this and other freedoms have deteriorated since the very bad situation in 1995, which is the starting point for my discussion. And it is getting worse and worse. This is not what I call development.
I have not read anywhere in the artile claiming a fact that is incogruent with the realities in Ethiopia unless it still undermines the various forms oppressions in the sense that it came out quite late…And even it prompts me to think of ‘why at this time? Is that because two (swedes) Journalists are having the ill-fate of what it feels and looks like to be a voice for the voiceless Ethiopians…However, no matter how it came late, I still appreciate the writer for letting me understand that actually Sweden, a country that has been totally preffered to support(both financially and and non-financially-such as appreciating, recognizing and rewarding our prime minister Zenawi, one of the worst dictators in the world), does also opt to stand for and on the behalf of the oppressed Ethiopian people.
David Isaksson claims that the assessment of a country’s policy and performance should exclusively be based on its pursuit of democracy. Fair enough, that is his prerogative. But then he postulates that this is the one and only yardstick, internationally accepted. The fact that Ethiopia receives aid despite its track record in this field is thus a violation of this norm In my comment I mentioned other elements of the human rights, the socioeconomic ones, where Ethiopia has fared well. That point is still valid: An assessment of performance cannot be a mechanical test.
Among the things Isaksson says about the Swedish cooperation with Ethiopia is this: “Addis Ababa’s pleasant climate and the fact that we have an entwined history outweigh the murdered demonstrators and detained journalists.” That is a way of describing Swedish aid that will surely give him many supporters, but are they the supporters Global Reporting wants? (Given that GR according to their website are marketing consultants to promote the international image of Sida, paid by aid money. It makes me very confused.)
Instead of taking my words in my answer to his article where I say: “Meles Zenawi has become more dictatorial, not less, since the opposition really dared oppose him in 2005.”, or a column on Ethiopia I made (in Swedish) for the radio programme OBS on October 17th (http://www.ostafrikabloggen.com/2011/10/mitt-obs-inslag-om-etiopien-17-oktober.html) where I talk about human rights violations, the terrorist laws etc, Isaksson goes to the archives to find a sentence in an article I wrote about the famine in Somalia that points to progress in Ethiopian ability to prevent hunger catastrophes as proof that I hail all developments in the country, which is not true.
But knowing a little bit about the history of Ethiopia I still believe that the present regime is a step in the right direction compared to the previous even more dictatorial ones. When repression hardens I also believe it would be a mistake not to use all contacts, old and new, to put the limelight on violations.
You call me an “Ethiopian friend”, belonging to a cotery of Swedes who are blind to negative aspects of the country – well, I made two films in Ethiopia in the eighties about the poorest of the poor (a leper colony, a 10-year old house girl and the people around her). For 25 years I have tried in spite of language difficulties to keep in touch with these people through letters and occasional visits to track them. They are my Ethiopian cotery and my informants about the situation in the country. They have no rosy stories, none of them are winners in the system, but a few survived against all odds, others are now lower-lower middle class meaning that they have a lowly paid job, send the children to school, eat fairly well and even have a television where Al Jazeera reports on the “Arab awakening”.
So what will I say if and when that awakening reaches Ethiopia? As I am not sure anyone will ask my opinion I can take this opportunity – I will be happy if people can speak their minds, journalists can work freely and opposition parties are allowed to oppose, just as I was very happy the day the former dictator was overthrown and people in Ethiopia could start breathing.
Dear Cecilia,
I just can’t understand about which Ethiopia, or may be your Utopia of Ethiopia, you are talking about? I’m an Ethiopian, having lived there for not less than 25 years, which is a little over that of the current age of EPRDF and perhaps your story too, and know very well the realities better than anyone else. As a matter of fact, I’m also from an area called Northern Ethiopia (Wollo), if that is where your story begins, where severely frequent drought and hunger has been part of daily lives, not just because people are born to be poor and meant to live with it but because of the absence of any meaningfully accountable and responsible government (system) that actually takes care and works for their betterment.
I even had the first hand experience of the 1985 famine which claimed lives of generation… Do you know that people on that part, just to mention, are still dependant on aid and/ or many have been losing their lives while they keep on journey with an aspiration to making a dignified life in the Arab world(middle east) in search of better opportunities? I watched a documentary made by a Swedish journalist on that too-may be you need and at least have a glimpse of how it terrible feels to be forced to flee abroad…
Of course, now if you happened to ask every Ethiopian where he or she would like to be in the world, you will undoubtedly learn that Ethiopia will actually be their last option… May be you just have to follow only your own story but then it would be seemingly blunt to argue with that little evidence and pretend that Ethiopia, under the current regime, is way better than any other old days(leaders)? It just makes me feel sick how people think…Very puzzling and rankling:(
Just to add you another story, which is of course very obvious for anyone but for you and people of like you who seem to be less willing and open to learn about the true realities of Ethiopia, by the time I went to my country for a research, which was in last March, as part of my ongoing study, I had been hearing from everyone, with anger and emotions, in the capital (Addis Ababa) that they are nearly despairing in life. Everything consumer good has sky rocketed yet their regular income is still way below what it takes to live and work in Addis. Mind you, people in the capital are more or less fortunate in that they, well I’m still referring to the employed ones, not to mention the hugely unemployed, have more or less a fair salary up on which they can rely on in an effort to sustain their lives…
Cecilia Bäcklander continous to defend one of the worst regimes in Africa with the argument that it was even worse during Megistu. The text I quoted is not something old from the archive, but from 2011. Bäcklander have full access to all HR reports on Ethiopia, still she prefer to talk about social progress, lottery of houses. She is full of understanding, she admires a regime that has a human rights track record as good as the on in Iran! I write this the same day as the two Swedish journalists are sentenced to 15 years of jail. Bäcklander ends her text with (my translation): “You can not tell the Ethiopians how to run their country, that is something many people have come to realize”. What she in fact says to those trying to report from Ethiopia, to those working for democracy and human rights in Ethiopia is: Done mess with the mighty, don’t mess with the regime of Zenawi. For never in history has the people of Ethiopia themselves had the chance to express their opinions in free and fair elections.
To David,
Would you please cut this in on your facebook, I heard you put your own comment there and for some reason I can´t see it on my computer.
I don´t defend Meles Zenawi´s undemocratic regime. I have been describing the economic progress in Ethiopia, as in other African countries. In your references to my texts, you omitted for example this:
( translation of my text) “In the election 2010 the government party EPRDF got a huge victory with 499 of 547 seats in parliament. The government had learnt the lesson from five years earlier when the opposition had successes that were met by mass arresting and killings. In 2010 they stopped the opponents already before election day. Human rights have been restricted through an anti-terrorist law, motivated by the strategic position of Ethiopia as a buffer against terrorism in the region but the law is also convenient to use to strangle the opposition. The war against terror will also here as in other parts have consequences for democracy.”
I also say that Ethiopia has been hard to influence from the outside. Knowing that is not the same as defending it, as you state.
You wrote a bad article with strange accusations on i. a how aid was allocated (cocktail parties, nice climate). I criticized it. Obviously you can not accept that and have responded by quoting incorrectly and by absurd allegations.
A commentary about the commodity price in Ethiopia on local News Paper:
”Targeting inflation rate to a single digit will be next to impossible unless policy makers come up with a monetary policy to tame the rise in price and send a message that they are serious about controlling it. The excessive material display of the few should not be misconstrued as prosperity; the visible deprivation of the many is an unavoidable fact.
Absence of effective political opposition is part of the problem. The dominant party has become unaccountable to anyone including the general public. It is apparently clear by now that a system based on neo-patrimonialism will never let political pluralism flourish to challenge the status quo either in politics or economics.” (http://www.addisfortune.com/Vol_12_No_602_Archive/ecconomic_commentary.htm)
Anyone who read Swedish can judge Cecilia Bäcklanders articles on Ethiopia for him/herself. I do welcome the debate and I do not see any “setback” of the Ethiopian democracy as Bäcklander writes, simply because there had not been any democracy. I see a totalitarian regime which has been totalitarian from the very beginning. The fact that it replaced an even more totalitarian regime does not excuse anything from my point of view. I would definitely welcome Cecilia Bäcklander to be more clear about a regime with a HR track record at par with the one in Iran.
I would, once again, encourage Bäcklander to read Hoeffler as well as my original text in the book Bistånd är politik.
I would encourage you all to read the following article (Swedish only but use google translate) by the exiled Ethiopian journalist Mesfin Negash. http://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/debatt-essa/dags-att-vanda-blicken-mot-etiopien
“Africa rising, but not necessarily in democracies”:
“But are recent patterns of economic growth in any way predicted by prior patterns of democratic politics? It doesn’t look that way… there’s no real pattern in the data….in sum, there is no clear pattern at the country-level. African successes and failures are emerging in a wide range of manifestations.”
http://evanlieberman.org/2011/12/05/africa-rising-but-not-necessarily-in-democracies/
As the Economist writes in the original article: “Some countries praised for their breakneck economic growth, such as Angola and Equatorial Guinea, are oil-sodden kleptocracies. Some that have begun to get economic development right, such as Rwanda and Ethiopia, have become politically noxious.”
Why do development experts suddenly praise this kind of growth when sustainability otherwise is the required prefix? The trickle down model didn’t work in Latin America and now we should expect it to work in cruel one-party states such as Ethiopia? The two most interesting countries in the mapping are, as I see it, Cap Verde and Ghana. From them there is a lot to learn.
What is important is not whether a “trickle down model” is at work in Ethiopia, but the fact that unprecedented, rapid economic growth has taken place over the last 10-15 years while at the same time poverty has fallen and key social indicators improved significantly (e.g. child mortality down by over 40 % since 1990, and primary school attendance up 88% since 2000). This correlation is partly due to the ‘trickle up’ effect of improved health and education in the population enhancing productivity and hence growth.
It is interesting to compare the performance of the countries mentioned in the comment above by David Isaksson as measured by the UNDP Human Development Index (HDI). For the period 2000-2011, the annual rates of improvement of the HDI were: for Ethiopia 2.57%, Rwanda 2.92%, Angola 2.18%, Ghana 1.66%, Eq.Guinea 0.88% and Cape Verde 0.75%.
For reference also the average rates for three statistical groups to which Ethiopia belongs: Low HDI countries 1.59%, Least Developed Countries 1.73%, Sub-Saharan Africa 1.31%.
So why do (some) journalists suddenly ignore the impressive development progress of certain countries and declare them unworthy of aid which is largely intended for economic and social development?
Apparently because of their undemocratic and repressive regimes in general (and hopefully not because of specific legal cases involving Swedish journalists).
The key issue then is how foreign donors best can contribute to improving democracy and human rights in e.g. Ethiopia: by continuing to support pro-poor growth, or to wash our hands and cut aid and perhaps other relations with undemocratic regimes? How would stopping aid improve human rights and democracy? More likely, it would slow socio-economic development that eventually may lead to democratic reforms, as was the case in Sweden and most developed countries. Development cooperation and diplomatic relations provide numerous occasions for dialogue and is more likely to have a positive influence towards democracy than cutting and running away.
First of all, I wrote about sustainable growth in my previous comment. Sustainability includes includes environmental, economic, and social dimensions. The “development” in Ethiopia is not sustainable.
Secondly, there is a myth that aid and development cooperation gives us a certain leverage as dialogue partner etc, something that could be used to influence a country and “help” it choose the right way. Dag Ehrenpreis writes: “Development cooperation and diplomatic relations provide numerous occasions for dialogue and is more likely to have a positive influence towards democracy than cutting and running away.”
However, I don’t even think Dag Ehrenpreis could find empirical proof for this thesis. The examples of Zimbabwe, Uganda, Ethiopia, Vietnam, Laos, Nicaragua, Rwanda (some of Sweden’s major cooperation partners of the last decade) shows that more aid does not lead to accountability, transparency and democracy.
No, in fact, it would be just as easy to argue that aid money give totalitarian regimes the possibility to use their the state coffers for their own good; steeling it, buying weapon for it etc. Zimbabwe, Egypt, Tunisia and Nicaragua are illustrative examples for this argument.
Will then the reduction of aid, for example, cutting budget support programs and reducing other government-to-government programmes, as well as international boycotts programs, help bringing about changes in a country? Well, the cases of South Africa under Apartheid and Burma under the military junta could possibly be examples of this. But, once again, who could prove that the same thing will work in the case of Ethiopia?
No, the conclusion is that there is no relation between development aid and a positive, democratic development. The reality is must more simple – and difficult – than this. Ultimately, development depends on the will of the people, on good leadership, strong independent media and a strong civil society.
This, once again, brings me back to my starting point in the discussion, namely, the findings by Hoeffler. Her conclusion is that aid is not allocated based on merits or performance, but mostly on untangible, non-transparent factors such as language, traditions, lobbying groups, and yes, cosiness at cocktail parties. In the long debate here at NAI Forum no one has challenged these findings. Maybe it is because they make us all unconfortable. And if that is the case then it is in deed very good! We all need to question what we are doing, where and why.
Of the countries mentioned by David, Sweden cut its aid to (the governments of) Laos, Nicaragua and Zimbabwe to the bare minimum when policies changed for the worse, and/or the Swedish government policies changed. Ethiopia and Vietnam are in the same category, wrongly in my view. Egypt was never a significant Swedish aid recipient, nor Tunisia after 1976. Rwanda and Uganda are like Ethiopia star performers towards the Millennium Development Goals. I see no reason to believe their pro-poor growth is unsustainable. What evidence for this does David have?
Comparing the current Ethiopian régime to that of Apartheid South Africa or Burma under the military junta is a bit over the top in my view. The DMR situation is certainly a cause for concern but far from the levels of repression of those régimes, while the progress of human development as defined by the UN is very good in Ethiopia in sharp contrast to the others.
The Hoeffler thesis has some truth in it, but less so for Sweden than most donors who have colonial histories and geopolitical agendas. I already challenged these findings by citing another study co-authored by her boss professor Collier, who found that when applying objective aid allocation criteria based on maximising poverty reduction impact and the quality of development policies, Ethiopia was one of the countries deserving large increases of aid.
And I’m not the only one here objecting to the slur about comfortable life and cocktails parties being significant factors when the Swedish Government allocates its aid across developing countries.
From The Guardian Povertymatters blog today:
“I celebrated New Year’s Day 2011 in Ethiopia, where we lived for three years. Ethiopia is humming with the optimism and energy of a fast-growing country, creating more jobs, sending more children to school, expanding healthcare, and providing electricity, clean water, sanitation and roads.
Ethiopia’s economy grew by 7.5% this year, and it is not the only country in Africa to boast a high growth rate. Africa has been the fastest growing continent of the past decade. The emergence of a new generation of leaders, the end of the continent’s debt crisis, business-friendly policies, new technologies, the spread of peace, and strong demand for natural resources have helped Africa withstand the global downturn.”
Owen Barder, senior fellow & director for Europe at the Centre for Global Development.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/dec/27/africa-economic-growth-less-aid
The role of Owen Barder is an excellent illustration to the informal networks and lobbying that I’m pointing to in my original text. The guy runs a blog that looks more like a travel agency about how wonderful Ethiopia is as a tourist destination! Of course he will not be critical to a country he helps bringing tourists to! If I where the editors at Guardian I would think twice before using him as an “independent expert”. Check it out for yourself.
http://www.owen.org/ethiopia
If you really want to know who Owen Barder is, it would be better to click on the ‘About’ tab than on the ‘Ethiopia’ tab on his blog ‘Owen abroad’. The Ethiopia tab is just a guide to his visitors when he lived and worked in Ethiopia for a few years. Here is why the Guardian is right to call him an “independent expert” and publish his columns on development policy issues:
“Owen Barder is Senior Fellow and Director for Europe at the Center for Global Development which is based in Washington DC. He is also an Associate of the British Institute for Government.
Owen was previously a British civil servant in a career spanning more than 20 years. He worked in H M Treasury, the office of the Prime Minister, and the UK Department for International Development. He has been the private secretary to the Prime Minister and to two Chancellors of the Exchequer. He also took breaks from the civil service to work in the South African Treasury, the Center for Global Development and to be a Visiting Scholar at the University of California at Berkeley. He has been on the board of several NGOs. Owen was also the Director of Aidinfo – a programme of Development Initiatives which aims to make aid more transparent and accountable.”
See also http://www.cgdev.org/content/expert/detail/1423544
A long CV doesn’t give you carte blanche for everything you do. Replace Ethiopia with Iran: if Owen Barder had written about Iran with the same enthusiasm while guiding tourists to the country at at website (with entries from 2008-2010) – would that have been accepted? I doubt it.
Iran is irrelevant for this debate. Neither Owen Barder, nor anyone else here has mentioned Iran, except David Isaksson. Why this sidetracking?
Iran, naturally, is not an aid recipient with real GNI per capita over ten times that of Ethiopia. Iran belongs to UNDP’s High Human Development category, Ethiopia to the lowest category. Iran has failed to raise its Human Development Index by even 1% per year, while Ethiopia ‘s has grown by 2.65% for nearly 20 years, which accumulates to very significant improvements in incomes, education, health and general poverty reduction.
So why would Barder or anyone else write with enthusiasm about that theocratic dictatorship, which in contrast with Ethiopia, does very little to improve the conditions of its people?