Talking Reform
Sean Jones assumed leadership of USAID Ethiopia in July of 2019. USAID Ethiopia is one of the largest USAID missions in Africa and is a focus country for presidential initiatives covering HIV and AIDS, malaria, child survival, agricultural growth, food security and nutrition, climate change and energy. The mission’s portfolio also has a robust basic education program and activities that promote good governance and prevent conflicts.
Prior to this, Sean served as the Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator in USAID’s Bureau for Food Security, which leads the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future initiative.
He talked to Capital about his future plan and how the mission supports the country’s fight against poverty. Excerpts;
Capital: What are your plans during your stay?
Sean Jones: I believe USAID is here because we have things to offer. America wants friends and partners like Ethiopia. The best ideas, resources and some of our capacity to help Ethiopia through this historic period of time that Ethiopia needs right now.
Right now there are many reforms underway that are more focused on democratic values and systems, so our support will be helping Ethiopia in the upcoming election by supporting the election board, we also want to support substantially and the economic reform agenda of the government in line with American values we also need to support the people who need food assistance and humanitarian assistance and crisis response.
Capital: What are your plans in the healthcare sector?
Sean Jones: There is a commitment to stop the spread of HIV. We also want to help alleviate tuberculosis and malaria, we want to continue that, we are not dramatically changing, our level of investment to maintain the gains that Ethiopia has made with HIV in particular, the cases have dropped substantially thanks to the tremendous support and commitment of the Ethiopian government to ensure that the case load is down and identifying new cases very quickly by working with the targeted populations.
Capital: What is the status of tuberculosis in the country currently?
Sean Jones: We signed a MOU to continue working with the Ministry of Health. The health system is sufficiently strong now so we are working with civil society organizations.
Capital: Can you tell us about the justice reform program called FITIH?
Sean Jones: This program helps protect the rights of citizens and updates the justice system. We are working with the Attorney General and the Ministry of Peace to strengthen the way that it engages with the public to review laws that may need updating and provide additional capacity for Ethiopia’s lawyers, judges and prosecutors. It has some focus on capacity building and how to technically implement Ethiopia’s vision.
Capital: How are you helping the electoral board?
Sean Jones: Outside of the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE), we are helping civil society organizations and citizens to engage with NEBE to provide advice, on how to conduct free and fair elections.
Capital: Do you think the election will be conducted on the scheduled time?
Sean Jones: It is the government’s decision but we want to ensure NEBE is as strong as possible for the election. It is a lot of organization, a lot of people, a lot of things have to happen. NEBE is one part of that. The other is the government ensuring security.
Capital: You work with private sector. Can you tell us about the meat processing plant in Jigjiga.
Sean Jones: I just have had the opportunity to talk with the general manager, owner and founder of the factory, he closed it temporarily and wants to have another project in that area to grow food for the livestock. Actually he is increasing investment in that area so that he can have a long consistent supply for the factory, that is a tremendous support for the country and I am proud of the investors working in that region investing substantial money. More broadly our investment in the private sector is very important like now, we have had private sector involvement for a long time but it hasn’t been strong necessarily as it could be. A robust private sector will do wonders for economic growth.
Capital: How are you actually helping the private sector?
Sean Jones: In policy we are working with government officials on reforms to help the private sector. We are working to help businesspeople and farmers to access finance, we are also working with financial institutions so business can access land and resources.
Capital: How are you involved in the Agricultural sector?
Sean Jones: We want to help Ethiopia have less reliance on external factors to grow, produce and sell food while making sure that the crops are healthy.
Capital: What is your take on hybrid seeds?
Sean Jones: The US government basis this on the needs of the country, not every country desires hybrid seeds, not every country needs genetically modified seeds. Our programs works in this manner, especially in Ethiopia to try and understand what Ethiopia really needs and provide that assistance, experience across the world. We are mobilizing that experience.
As related to hybrid or other types of seed technology we do believe that every country should make their own decisions regarding what types of seeds and technologies and approaches they want to bring to their local market.
Capital: So how are you helping the farmers boost their products?
Sean Jones: One is seed varieties. This could be local seeds, weather controlling pests and other pests’ like fungus, or it could be the introduction of hybrid seeds that are outside of Ethiopia we work with as well, and when Ethiopia’s ready, in a position to have genetically produced seeds or other types of seed technologies we support that, we are not pushing to do that right now we want to have Ethiopian farmers help to have access to seed varieties.
Capital: You help set up some seed shops, and these shops are selling only your own products that came from you directly. Does USAID fund them?
Sean Jones: So that is not accurate. I appreciate that because I can help correct it, we went into partnership with a company called Dow DuPont which changed their name to Corteva, what we did is we introduced tens of thousands of farmers to new products that were legally brought by this company and also other companies. We didn’t fund them, this is done by the private sector, we encouraged them to use better products. 
Capital: Isn’t it possible they will become dependent on certain fertilizers?
Sean Jones: That is true in general not specific to Corteva, if seed technology has patent rights, and a lot of seed technology doesn’t germinate every year, that is true. I think that is farmers’ decision whether they can continue or use local seeds even hybrid varieties where they do germinate every year. They can see higher production yield and a higher rate of protection in their farming.
Capital: What are you doing to help Ethiopia with its economic reform?
Sean Jones: This is a new area in our assistance program in Ethiopia, again we are really proud to be invited to provide assistance to the Ministry of Finance, the Prime Minster and the Central Bank. We have brought in a very famous economist and signed a three-year contract and his team from Harvard University to provide advice to the very capable people here the Ethiopian people are leading this reform effort they came and provide assessment, and diagnostics. Particularly it is a critical period for Ethiopia and Ethiopia’s economy.
Capital: How can we be sure about their advice?
Sean Jones: They didn’t come and start offering advice for them; there are also a bunch of Ethiopian teams that travel here and back to Harvard University in the US. They give advice considering global perspectives, and bring some of the best ideas. It is a conversation between really brilliant people there in Addis Ababa leading reforms and people from Harvard.
Capital: Is there anything you want to add?
Sean Jones: We have a lot of projects focused on helping the Ethiopian people one thing about USAID is that we are invited here and we are proud to be a partner of the people and government.
COPYRIGHT COUP FOR KENYAN ARTISTS
“Africa’s problem lies in the lack of infrastructure…we need more of a market structure in order to support… careers.”
Sotheby’s, Hannah O’Leary
I’ve been sharing snapshots of exhibitions setting off the city’s 2012 social and cultural calendar; showcasing new, emerging and established Ethiopian artists. In viewing the range of art from exceptional to expected and in listening to the talk around town from who I call the WAWA’s (Watchers of Art Waters in Africa), curiosity continues to peak as to the destiny of African artists and their art in the context of advancing the African fine art industry. Well next door in Kenya, one of the cutting edge continental countries in art and tech, moves are being made to protect artists’ rights. Having managed world class performing and visual artists over 35 years, I strongly believe that protection of the artists is the foundation of the budding industry. That in mind, President Uhuru Kenyatta last week signed the Kenya Copyright (amendment) Act, 2019 permitting “visual artists to form a Collective Management Organization (CMO) in order to manage the resale royalty rights. This right provides visual artists with an opportunity to benefit from the increase in value of their artwork over time by granting the artists a percentage of the proceeds from the resale of their original artwork” according to Kenya Copyright Board (KCB) Face book post. The KCB explains, “The amendment defines an original work of art to include batiks, carvings, ceramics, collages, drawings, engravings, fine art, jewelry, lithographs, fashion design, paintings, photographs, prints, sculptures, graphics… or any other works as may be included by regulation. One of the most progressive changes in the amendment as far as visual artists are concerned is that it grants visual artists a resale royalty right…providing visual artists with an opportunity to benefit from the increase in value of their artwork over time by granting the artists a percentage of the proceeds from the resale of their original artwork.” The KCB further states, “The right will not be available when the work falls into public domain or copyright in the work ceases to exist… The artist resale right will be inalienable and will be incapable of being waived under any circumstances… the right cannot be sold, or transferred, or surrendered, neither can the artist relinquish, or renounce, or abandon the right. It is therefore a personal and non-transferable right…the CMO (will) manage the resale royalty right. The resale royalty will be payable at the rate of five percent of the net sale price on the commercial resale of an artwork. The seller, the art professional (including auctioneer, owner or operator of a gallery, museum, an art dealer or any other person involved in the business of dealing in artworks, the seller’s agent and the buyer) will be jointly and severally liable to pay the resale royalty.” WOW! Remember, I wrote about this months ago? Well, Kenya has put a mechanism in place and just in time, to protect artists more from what is on the horizon.
This is a perfect segue to the recently released 2019 ARTNET Intelligence Report, specifically the section entitled, “There Is No Such Thing As The African Market – Yet” penned by Rebecca Ann Proctor who quotes Modern and Contemporary African Art at Sotheby’s, Hannah O’Leary, “Africa’s problem lies in the lack of infrastructure… there is a real lack of public support. We are seeing lots of raw talent, but we need more of a market structure in order to support their careers.” Let’s see how they feel about paying artists 5% on re-sale as deemed by Kenya public sector. Anyway, Addis Fine Art’s Rakeb Sile, also quoted, shares her vision of a successful industry as one that depends on decentralization, “…there will be and should be different hubs in several regions of Africa.” Proctor goes on to note, “Today, Africa’s art market has plenty of room to grow. Fewer than 1,000 works were sold at auction on the continent in the first six months of 2019, according to the artnet Price Database. We have assembled a guide to six of these dynamic emerging art capitals: Accra, Addis Ababa, Cape Town, Dakar, Lagos, and Marrakech.” Cool, Addis Abeba made the cut. She continues with info I shared in my column several months ago, which hopefully encourages more African buyers, “And while the continent’s local collector base is growing steadily—Sotheby’s fourth dedicated auction of Modern and contemporary African art in April was dominated by African buyers and generated a total of $3 million, above its presale high estimate of $2.7 million.” You can access the full report at artnet.com/artnet-intelligence-report/.
In closing, the value of African art will continue to rise and like Kenya, continental counterparts including Ethiopia, Ghana and Nigeria should begin reviewing and realizing new laws that protect the provenance and posterity of art out of Africa, avoiding some of the plethora of intellectual property pitfalls looming. The time is now to be proactive and with a vehicle like the African Union, all 55 nations can create cohesive cross cutting policies, ensuring Africans are the main beneficiaries of the Africa art industry, unlike the past precedents.
Dr. Desta Meghoo is a Jamaican born
Creative Consultant, Curator and cultural promoter based in Ethiopia since 2005. She also serves as Liaison to the AU for the Ghana based, Diaspora African Forum.
