The Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Association (AACCSA) has called on the business community to help strengthen peaceful coexistence and support reform.
At a press conference the city chamber leaders said that unemployment, income and lack of development are sources of instability but that they can be solved by a major private sector intervention.
“Businesses can create jobs, expand revenue and incomes and contribute to national development,” the chamber president Mesenbet Shenkute said.
“Job creation and a stable economy are some of the pillars for peaceful coexistence,” the chamber leader added.
The leaders vowed to continue working on development and called on business owners to work towards peace.
They announced plans to work cooperatively for peace and prosperity.
“The chamber called on the business community to work on reform taking place in Ethiopia,” the chamber leader said.
Recently, instability was observed in west Wellega, Afar region, Dire Dawa and Somali region.
The chamber said that business is one of the major victims when instability occurs and that this hinders them from creating jobs.
Chamber calls for businesses to work for peace
Changing educational narratives
Lebawi International Academy announced last week that it has decided to run a commercial school while maintaining many scholarships. After five successful years of full scholarships, Lebawi will admit competent students for the coming academic year. The school was established in 2013 with a goal of developing an Ethio-centric curriculum.
“It all began with a dialogue with my friend Haddis Tadesse, 15 years ago,” said Panos Hatziandreas, head of the school, and Country Representative. “He and I talked in Seattle while I was a university professor and we talked about how we had achieved what we had there just because we had the chance. He and I wanted to create that opportunity for smart Ethiopians.”
The school began with five teachers and 25 students. The school has graduated two batches and 50 percent of the students have been admitted in continents all over the world and in universities like Stanford and Yale. The other 50 percent are also doing well.
The school has researched and is incorporating indigenous knowledge and traditional learning instead of teaching only history and culture. Students must get the chance to learn Ge’ez and every student has to be able to translate a Ge’ez book to graduate from senior high school.
Teachers are said to be gathered from all over the world and have met high standards.
Lebawi allows students to mobilize resources from individual networks, the founders and board members.
“Haddis, who is the representative of the Gates Foundation in Africa, has mobilized various individuals and both of us have convinced them that there are very brilliant minds in Ethiopia so we want to help that be fully expressed,” said Panos.”It is easy if you ask donors to tell them that there are various children in Ethiopia which can’t access education, we don’t want that to be the scenario.”
We want to tell the truth that we have brilliant minds which can transform the world not only their country.
The scholarship is said to be continuing with the paying students on board since the coming year.
Most of the competent schools in Ethiopia are owned and run by foreign missions, like France, Britain or India, according to Panos. “We need to change the narrative that we are able to have an education system that can contribute to the rest of the world.”
The word Lebawi is derived from a Ge’ez word “Lebewe” which represents the act of strong desire truth and wisdom, from the bottom of the heart.
“We believe that wisdom is delivered from the heart, not a mind,” he said. “So, the Lebawi is represented by the Ethiopian narration of the source of wisdom to be one with the espousal.”
The opening of the school for the general public to get access is expected to raise the number of scholarship students and to cover the expenses of the school independently.
During the launching of the new format of the school students performed a play focusing on the popular argument in Ethiopia of the introduction of modern education.
The play depicted the popular argument around 1917 between those who want modern education and Ethiopian civilization to be based on the indigenous knowledge and those who argue in the contrary.
“We hope to see this school among the best schools on the continent and we are asking for everyone’s effort to bring up that change together.”
Nutrition-sensitive agricultural service becomes accessible
The Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) and Save the Children in Ethiopia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to use the 8028 Farmers’ Hotline in order to deliver nutrition-sensitive agricultural messages.
The duo has agreed to utilize the Interactive Voice Response/Short Message Service (IVR/SMS) to farmers for advice on nutrition-sensitive agriculture.
“Even if nutrition is a clear human health issue it also has a direct relationship with the farmers and the agriculture directly,” said Kalidbomba. “The success of the hotline in this short period of time is derived by the high demand of the farmers to access helpful information.”
“It is a smart and timely information dissemination tool which is enabled by this partnership with ATA,” said Ekin Ogutogullari, Country Director of Save the Children in Ethiopia. “It helps us avoid duplication of efforts and wisely use available resources and it will contribute to the dietary consumption behavior improvement of farmers.”
The USAID funded Growth through Nutrition (GTN) program is implemented by Save the Children in Ethiopia and works to strengthen Ethiopia’s institutions, systems, and human capacity to improve nutrition and significantly reduce stunting.
Private sector event stresses new hope
The government is looking at the private sector as instrument for the continuation of economic growth by public financing projects.
The private sector’s role in the public private partnership was assessed at an event held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel organized by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s private arm, and partners.
The discussion, two panels and experience sharing from Lily Begiashvili, former senior official at the government of Georgia and now lead IFC Investment Climate Reform Project in Moldova, focused on the issue of boosting investment and the private sector’s role in the country’s economic growth.
Mamo E. Mihretu, Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister, this is the great time for the private sector in Ethiopia. There is the fundamental shift in mind set within the government and there is increased and renewed effort in terms of trying to not only enable the private sector but genuinely consider the private sector the center of the country’s growth, the PM advisor said and added that the government is working besides lip service to change the economy’s drive.
He added that the key issue is sustaining the economic growth and to do that enhancing the private sector not only going the way of public financing projects that the country had been run.
“The platform is really timely and vital to initiate a discussion points about the potential roles of the private sector with the ongoing swift political and economic reforms. I am very optimistic by the current turn of events happening in the country,” Kassahun Mamo, an economist who attended the event said.
The event is called Multi Donor Initiative (MDI) Knowledge management platform. The title is ‘enhancing private sector engagement at times of reform: lessons learnt so far and the way forward’.
He hinted that the government is working to strengthen and engage the private sector. “There is a different mechanism engaging the private sector further than the previous time,” he said. He added that the government is working to establish regular meetings with top officials including the Prime Minister.
Abebe Abebayehu, Commissioner of the Ethiopian Investment Commission (EIC), told Capital that the event has crucial role in expanding discussions between the government and the private sector. Abebe, a few years ago who led Public Private Dialogue Forum that was formed to narrow the gap between the government and private sector said that the current event focused on how to solve problems based on discussions. He recalled that the Public Private Dialogue Forum was trying to solve problems based on study and discussions, while the government is expected to expand the private sector.
He explained that the government under the PM office has formed a steering committee to improve business.
“The political reform should be supported by economic reform and expanding employment and that the government is working strongly,” he said.
“However, reforms will not come at an easy cost and without thinking out of the box as long as high looming unemployment and instability exists. Unemployment will be a major challenge which impedes the current reforms,” Kassahun said. “According to my view the role of the Ethiopian private sector on the ongoing nationwide reform should be immense and at the forefront. The private sector should play a role in building peace across the nation,” he added.
“It has to think about its civic duty too at times of reform. In sum the private sector should tap the opportunity to engage in policy formulation like privatization, readiness to openness, reconciliation and security, because businesses are the first victims of any conflict. Business and Peace are highly interlinked,” Kassahun added.
At the event Zafu, who led the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Association when the public private forum started, talked about future plans in light of past experiences.
