A new e-commerce platform that was established by the Ethiopian diaspora hopes to promote Ethiopian smallscale business and expand hard currency generation.
The platform, ‘PurposeBlack’ that already commenced online trade has stated that the Ethiopian operation will be introduced in the near future.
Mekey Ibrahim, Corporate Communication Director at the e-commerce platform said that the scheme is formed by the Ethiopian diaspora business community and scholars at Silver Spring, USA as an international business module.
So far the company has created a transaction network via its platform for goods and services for international buyers and sellers.
Via email from his base in Gavle, Sweden, the Corporate Communication Director told Capital that the company wing in Ethiopia will start soon.
“As we haven’t gone operational in Ethiopia, so far we have not registered any vendors from Ethiopia, but we already have vendor companies owned by Ethiopians in the US,” the Corporate Communication Director elaborated.
“We will start operation in Ethiopia soon when the local agent finalizes preparation,” he says and added that the company will operate in the country as the law of the land, “It means we will have an agent who will register under Ethiopian law and help vendors to register at the platform. It is free of charge. Those who are legally registered producers and sellers are eligible to be registered as vendors.”
Mekey explained that the local licensee operator (LLO) will take all the responsibility in payment and delivery activities.
The investment in setting up the Ethiopian office (Office, warehouse, staff, and others) is covered by the LLO.
He said that the scheme will create an opportunity for Ethiopian products to simply promote worldwide and get customers besides scaling up innovative small businesses and existed small scale businesses.
“We aimed to help Ethiopian products get international market. Those who produce in small scale will have the access to export their products. So it will create jobs to our vendors as well as direct employment in the LLO services,” he added.
He said in terms of hard currency earnings, it will contribute much, since companies are selling their products in foreign currency, “It will absolutely generate foreign currency.”
However, he did not mention a given day when the Ethiopian centre will commence operation although he expects it to be very soon.
PurposeBlack was established as a share company in the US with the initial idea by Fisseha Eshetu, founder of Black Economy Excellence and former founder and owner of Unity University, about eight months ago.
Black Economy Excellence has launched the first of its kind unique global virtual marketplace which has dedicated 100 percent of its proceeds to social programs.
PurposeBlack came up with a brand-new model known as Profit Sharing Membership Program (PSMP) for its lifetime subscription members. PSMP is an out of the box model where PurposeBlack included its lifetime customers in a profit-sharing program or venture.
Since the coming in of the reformist government, there has been significant change and attention given to technology based economic activity that is projected to produce massive job creation as well as generate revenue including hard currency for the country.
To boost the sector, several new laws and rules have come to effect for the past couple of years.
The E-Commerce platform with a purpose
About the Food Systems Summit
In September this year, the United Nations Secretary-General will convene the Food Systems Summit (FSS). The venue will be the UN Headquarters in New York, in conjunction with the next UN General Assembly. The summit will be a one-off event that sees transformed food systems as a way to advance the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 agenda. It aims to work on the following linked goals:
The reduction of hunger and malnutrition in all its forms
Improved food safety
Enhanced biodiversity
Reduced Green House Gas Emissions
Greater equity
Reversing environmental degradation
Reducing food loss and waste
Stronger livelihoods
Improved resilience & reduced vulnerability
But what exactly is meant by the term Food Systems? Food Systems encompass food supply chains, food environments and feedbacks with systemic drivers such as economics, culture, technology, and demography. Food Systems are the places and spaces where people and food meet, where food choices, food attitudes and food habits are shaped by a combination of personal and other factors.
Sounds complicated? Think of production, storage, distribution, processing, packaging, wholesale, retail, and markets in supply chains. Consider availability, marketing, food quality, food safety, convenience, etc. in the food environments. Find out how consumers choose what to buy and eat. What can they afford, what do they like? How much, how diverse, how safe, and how nutritious is the food they buy for themselves and their families?
And how do the environment, technology, infrastructure culture, demography, and politics influence what we can buy and eat? Finally, to what extend are policies and programs supportive?
The Food System is thus a complex maze of drivers, factors, and actions, that all need to be considered and worked on if we are to improve our nutrition status and health, globally and locally.
In their preparations for the Food Systems Summit, the Minister of Agriculture, Oumer Hussein, as Chair, and the Minister of Health, Dr Lia Tadesse, as Co-chair, called for a high-level meeting last Tuesday evening, 9th February 2021, to reflect on presentations and how to transform the food systems to deliver sustainable and healthy diets for all in Ethiopia. The meeting was moderated by the State Minister of Agriculture, Mandefro Negussie, and attended by representatives of Government and development partners. The meeting was virtually enriched with key notes and recommendations by amongst others, Sir John Beddington, Chair of the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition and David Nabarro, Special Envoy WHO.
The outcome of the meeting will be used to further develop the Ethiopia Food Systems position paper and roadmap towards the Food Systems Summit. To do this effectively it is important to align efforts and take a holistic view to transforming the Ethiopian Food System. For this reason, a nutrient-dense diet centred approach is taken, informed by the need to deliver better nutrition and health for all of us in Ethiopia, who face serious challenges when it comes to our diet, health, and the environment we live in. I quote from the background paper presented during the high-level meeting: “While much progress has been made on increasing staple cereal production, productivity levels are still very low, and diversification to provide more nutrients dense foods like fruits and vegetables has been very limited. Ethiopia Demographic and Health Surveys show that some progress has been made to reduce undernutrition. However, Ethiopia’s burden of undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies are still among the highest in Sub Saharan Africa. In addition, Ethiopia faces increasing overweight, obesity and diet related non-communicable diseases (diabetes and cardiovascular diseases) as emerging challenges particularly among the urban population. Poor diets, with low diet diversity and inadequate consumption of animal source foods, fruits and vegetables are in part to blame for this situation of multiple forms of malnutrition. In contrast, salt consumption is above the WHO threshold of 5 g/day in every region of Ethiopia and the national average salt intake is 8.2 g/day (Challa et al., 2017). The low diversity of the diet, food safety concerns, and the unhealthy trends of salt and sugar intake, could explain the increasing trend in non-communicable diseases, on top of the already high prevalence of communicable diseases, that are stretching the health system. Ethiopia’s food systems also face considerable challenges to assure the safety of food products. Unaffordability of nutrient-dense foods is a barrier to improving diet quality and is likely to continue favouring a predominantly starchy diet, but also could encourage increased consumption of sugar and oils, moving Ethiopia further away from the needed healthy diet. “
The challenge we then face is to identify what needs to be done to transform the Ethiopia Food System to deliver sustainable, people centred, environmentally friendly and healthy diets.
Ton Haverkort
Ethiopia’s reservation on the New York Convention
By Yehualashet Tamiru
Ethiopia has recently ratified the New York Convention on Recognition and Enforcement of foreign arbitral awards (commonly known as the New York Convention). Ethiopia has formally acceded to the Convention and as of November 22, 2020, the Convention becomes fully implemented. In the ratification Proclamation, Proclamation No. 1184/2020, Ethiopia has made two declarations and one reservation.
The ratification proclamation made two reservations: reciprocity and commercial reservations.
Reciprocity is one of the reservations recognized under the New York Convention. According to Article 1(3) of the Convention, Contracting States may declare that they will apply the Convention to the recognition and enforcement of awards made only in the territory of another Contracting State. This principle of reciprocity can protect the nationals of the Contracting State where the enforcement of a foreign judgment is sought, against the bias of Contracting State where a foreign judgment or award was made. It also reaffirms the principle of state equality and mutuality in international relationships. The reciprocity reservation has been used by approximately two-third of the Contracting States.
Various courts have held that when a Contracting State makes the reciprocity reservation, it will apply the New York Convention only to the awards rendered in the territory of a state which is a party to the Convention.
In this regard, one of the controversial issues is whether the nationality of the litigant parties is relevant. Unlike the Geneva Convention on the Execution of foreign arbitral awards, New York Convention considers the nationality or citizenship of the parties irrelevant. Courts have consistently held that the nationality of the parties is irrelevant for the purpose of establishing reciprocity. What matters the most is that reciprocity exists between the State where the award was rendered and the State where recognition and enforcement were sought.
The second reservation is that the New York Convention only applies to disputes arising out of legal relationships considered as commercial under the national law of the State making such declaration. There are no clear criteria as to what constitutes commercial transactions.
As a matter of practice, courts have interpreted the scope of this phase to be broad. For instance, a court in India has construed the phrase as being one of the “largest import” encompassing “all the business and trade transactions are any of their forms.” A United States court has similarly held that the notion of “commercial relationship” is broad, noting that its purpose is only “excluding matrimonial and other domestic relations awards, political awards, and the like.
As a matter of practice in the area, the following legal relationship has been deemed to be commercial transactions: a cereal purchase contract, a charter-party, a contract for the provision of consulting service, a contract for the shipment of goods, an agreement for the division of property and businesses, a joint venture agreement to establish and operate a chain of stores, a seamen’s employment contract, a contract for the reorganization of a company and buyout of shareholders, a contract for the reorganization of a company and buyout of shareholders, a contract for the construction of a nitro phosphate plant, and dispute between corporate shareholders regarding the proceeds of a stock transaction.
However, in some cases, the courts have indicated non-commercial matters. For instance, an Indian court held that a contract for the supply of technical know-how in return for a fee was not a commercial contract. In another case, the United States court held that a dispute arising out of proceedings to disqualify counsel was non-commercial.
Ethiopia made a declaration that is not part of New York Convention. Article 3 of Proclamation No. 1184/ 2020 made a declaration as to the time of application. Accordingly, the Convention only applies in the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia with respect to Arbitration Agreements concluded and Arbitral Awards rendered after the date of its accession to the Convention.
Normally, under Ethiopian law enforcement of foreign judgments and arbitral awards are executed as per the conditions laid down under the Civil Procedure Code. As per Article 468 of the Civil Procedure Code, foreign awards may not be enforced in Ethiopia unless the following conditions are met: Reciprocity, the award has been made following a regular arbitration agreement or other legal act in the country where it was made, the parties have had equal rights in appointing the arbitrators and they have been summoned to attend the proceedings, the arbitration tribunal regularly constituted, the award does not relate to matters which under the provisions of Ethiopian laws could not be submitted to arbitration or is not contrary to public order or morals, and the award is of such nature as to be enforceable on the condition laid down in Ethiopian laws.
Out of the above six conditions, the first requirement of reciprocity has practically made enforcement of foreign arbitral awards in Ethiopia impossible. For reciprocity to exist the parties must prove that the state where the award was made would, reciprocally, recognize and enforce arbitral awards made in Ethiopia.
The Federal Supreme Court has further interpreted the principle of reciprocity in the Paulos Papassinus case, stating that the only way to prove that another state allows execution of Ethiopian judgments is by producing a judicial assistance treaty signed between Ethiopia and the other State. Without such a treaty, the Court ruled that reciprocity is not considered to have been met. This meant that even if the party seeking enforcement could produce proof of recognition and enforcement of an Ethiopian award by the other state party, Ethiopian courts would not entertain it short of a judicial assistance treaty. There is only one such treaty with the Republic of China which was concluded in 2017.
However, this stance has been reversed by the Federal Higher Court decision in a case between Goh-Tsibah Menkresellassie v. Dr. Bereket Habte Sellasi, indicated that the absence of the treaty of judicial assistance should not limit the rights of private citizens: and that in the absence of an agreement to the contrary between the two states, it would be inappropriate to refuse the enforcement of a foreign judgment simply because there exists no treaty of judicial assistance.
Yehualashet Tamiru is Associate at MTA, Adjunct Lecturer at AAU and can be reached via yehuala5779@gmail.com
