Forum for Social Studies (FSS)        A New Initiative in Ethiopia  

From    Mulat  

Sent     Thursday, April 14, 2005 9:47 am

Subject Yes, we can talk Serkaddis

Let us focus on the way out 

Yes, we can talk Serkaddis. You are making the debate very lively in so many different ways. Thanks to you more people, including those who claim to have limited time like myself, will find themselves talking. My response will be limited to explaining some basic points behind my arguments.  Obviously, good governance is the key and I completely agree with you as far as the principle is concerned. My problem is how to get to a system of good governance.

I start from the position that it is not charity that can be handed out from above. I do not see any short-cuts to good governance other than through legally granted property rights and organized rural communities standing for their own economic interests and political rights. This would mean empowering our farmers both at individual and community level.  

Breaking the Land Policy Impasse Daniel

Land and the challenge of feeding the Ethiopian people Siegfried  Pausewang

Disowning the idea of privatizing land ownership Bulcha Demeksa

My personal reflections Abu Moges

Yes, we can talk Belay

Let’s focus on the central issue Bulcha Demeksa

Yes, we can talk Mulat

Can We Talk2 :  To Mulat Serkaddis Motbaynor

Can We Talk: To Contributors Serkaddis Motbaynor

Weha Mewket Endayhon Mulat Demeke

Contribution from Indian Rob

Rural Land Policy and Administration in Ethiopia: Recent Patterns and Problems Belay

Balageru Part Two Serkaddis Motbaynor

Balageru  Serkaddis Motbaynor

PRIVATIZE OR PUBLIC OWNERSHIP OF LAND ? TD

Commentary on Development TD

Suggestions  Sisay Assefa

Security at individual level  

Any rational person should feel more comfortable and secure the more asset he/she owns. For the urbanites, for instance, buying a property such as house is an important means of ensuring security (economic freedom) for themselves, including their family members, especially in the absence of an insurance coverage. In the event of any unforeseen disaster, the house is there to bail them out for it can be rented or sold any time. Therefore, the insecurity or the risk associated with being fired from a government office or the breadwinner of the house dying is covered or managed for a family owning a house. By contrast, a property-less family is leading a highly insecure life and losing a job (with no social security and very limited chance of getting another employment) could mean breakdown of the family and misery. I think we all know who survived and why when the soldiers of the former Government were demobilized a few years ago.  Ethiopian farmers know that (most of them from their own experience) the government can take the land they cultivate with no or nominal compensation at any time. With no other source of income, the extent of their insecurity cannot be overemphasized as long as the government retains the right to redistribute land as and when it finds it necessary. This is precisely why they are so fearful of government officials as well as peasant association leaders. Losing even a part of their small plot (the average holding size is only about 1 ha nowadays) can spell a major livelihood crisis as observed during the recent land redistribution of the Amhara region. It just does not click to my mind if someone tells me that farmers living under such conditions are empowered and capable of calling government authorities to account for their actions (I mean in the context of good governance).     

But property ownership has more benefits than the security or use-value it provides. It is has a major role in stimulating growth and development. The owner of a house (our example above) has a very strong incentive to maintain and improve his/her house. The value appreciates with any improvement that he/she makes (barring of course any recession or economic collapse). This, in turn, creates the incentive to save and work more. The urbanite could also think of investing in a small family enterprise to earn more income. Investment in education could also be considered for the same reason. In fact, the investment can be financed through loans obtained using the house or any other asset as collateral. There are a number of investment opportunities as well as financial services in the urban areas despite some of the limitations.  There is also the opportunity of selling the family property to finance the cost of migration to Europe or America or relocating from a smaller to a bigger city within the country. Imagine of a situation where such opportunities are denied or restricted. Is there any incentive for working hard? What is the purpose of saving and investment? In my view, the real rift between urban and rural areas lies in the right to own property (i.e. two different property right systems). A farmer cannot sees any significant value in using his family labor or savings (if any) for investment in terraces, irrigation infrastructure, controlling gullies, leveling the land, planting trees, etc. There is no way a farmer can access long-term loans for investment in irrigation or land improvement in Ethiopia. That is why I am arguing that we should not expect real growth under the current policy and institutional environment. The link with the urban population came to an end when it was declared (in 1975) that non-residents cannot own or inherit even use rights over land. We do not see any rift in Kenya or Uganda because the system allows urban folks to build their home in their home villages and undertake any other investment if they so wish.  

I also find it hypocritical when we say government-owned system is good for farmers but not for us the urban dwellers. I should also add that European, Asian and Latin American countries changed their tenure system (private or more secure system) in response to population pressure and to make way for investment-based commercial production. Again I cannot understand why we cannot learn from this general trend in development and assist the transition from subsistence to commercial farming. The fact that 85% is the population is rural is not something we can be proud of. The system of property right never allowed interested families to sell or rent their land and move to urban areas with some start up capital. The consequences of the policy of keeping the population in rural areas are clear: population pressure beyond the carrying capacity of the land, underdeveloped urban areas and structure of population distribution (urban versus rural) that is unfavorable to growth and development.  

Serkaddis you have mentioned that the priority for farmers is health, education etc. True, they definitely need improved social services. But we should also have a production system that can finance the provision of adequate social services. Some NGOs have been providing social services with the hope that communities will sustain the operation long after they are gone. In reality, this never happens for the most: communities lack the financial resources to run the services.  We need to remind them (as well as ourselves) that the system must deliver food and other basic necessities, besides the badly needed finance, while expanding education, health and other services. Again we cannot escape the basic economic reality- we need to address both the supply and the demand side.  We should not also doubt about farmers’ response to DV card offers since they too should have preference for life without insecurity and poverty.  

Community empowerment and good governance 

Here I have to be brief since there is no basic disagreement. As you have rightly indicated, the political and economic system has discouraged farmers. What we need is real decentralization and devolution of power to communities headed by elected councilors. But the transfer of power to communities can materialize only if independent farmer associations and unions and other civil society organizations exist to monitor the process or serve as a watchdog.  Otherwise, who will mobilize resistance when the decentralized power is grabbed by a party official at the local level? A nation-wide union of farmers is also critical to influence policies. You have mentioned subsidies to farmers – a very typical case.  The reason why industrialized countries continue to subsidize their rich farmers is mainly because their politicians cannot say no to the demands of the powerful farmer unions and lobby groups. In Ethiopia, the World Bank recommended and the Government readily agreed to remove fertilizer subsidy because they know there were unions (still there is none). Yes, our social system has not degenerated into anarchy but it has not helped to bring good governance or end poverty either. Our traditional values are useful social capital but we need to build upon them – after all the rest of the world is in the 21^st century. Serkaddis I still feel you need to address my question of how best to assist the creation of independent peasant organizations as the sole means of resolving not only the land question but also all of our development challenges.   

Thank you

From      Serkaddis Motbaynor 

Sent       Tuesday, April 12, 2005 11:03 am

Subject  Can We Talk2 :  To Mulat.

GOOD GOVERNANCE  BAD GOVERNANCE UGLY GOVERNANCE. 

Mulat, I believe, that what Belay said is true. The farmers don’t in fact just pray and say Ye Base Atamtta. They have ideas and plans and dreams but not the time or freedom to try them out, to fail, learn and then succeed etc. I do not think that its encouragement they need, nor confidence but, as you said a sense of security. I do not believe that sense of security is gained by giving them freehold titles to land. I think this confidence and security comes from a GOOD GOVERNMENT one that they genuinely feel is representing their interests.

Breaking the Land Policy Impasse Daniel

Land and the challenge of feeding the Ethiopian people Siegfried  Pausewang

Disowning the idea of privatizing land ownership Bulcha Demeksa

My personal reflections Abu Moges

Yes, we can talk Belay

Let’s focus on the central issue Bulcha Demeksa

Yes, we can talk Mulat

Can We Talk2 :  To Mulat Serkaddis Motbaynor

Can We Talk: To Contributors Serkaddis Motbaynor

Weha Mewket Endayhon Mulat Demeke

Contribution from Indian Rob

Rural Land Policy and Administration in Ethiopia: Recent Patterns and Problems Belay

Balageru Part Two Serkaddis Motbaynor

Balageru  Serkaddis Motbaynor

PRIVATIZE OR PUBLIC OWNERSHIP OF LAND ? TD

Commentary on Development TD

Suggestions  Sisay Assefa

How far should a government go in trying to rebuild the confidence of its rural citizens so abused for so long? I would go as far as suggesting they be given the right to bear arms as a good starting point in order to RESTORE that confidence. But none of this is recommended in the present situation where everyone is ALWAYS enflamed by talk of ethnicity and self determination. This can only be done AFTER there is a central authority promoting UNITY and after the wounds daily opened up and kept festering by this regime have been healed.  We should not be afraid of the concept of the farmer with a gun. Our farmers have a long history of being both farmers and soldiers.  

I am not afraid of a farmer with a gun or a farmer with political power. The Pastoralists in Somali, not the politicians have shown that NO GOVERNMENT is better for a pastoralist than a bad government. We ourselves have functioned without a government for several weeks without killing each other when Mengistu Left. There were no revenge killings or genocide. The killing started/resumed after a government was installed by Herman Cohen. As Belay said, they know how to act and when to act. Our social system HAS NOT broken down despite valiant attempts by this and the past two government introducing alien ideas into our societies, and even despite severe erosion by poverty and HIV Aids and tribalism it has survived. Rather than making him not act, I am putting forward the idea that it is these same weak but surviving social norms and faith that has sustained the farmer and stiffened his sinews to overcome his terrible plight. It has empowered him to act when it was clear that acting is pointless. It is the POLITICAL and ECONOMIC systems in place that discourage farmers from taking action. In short Bad Governance.  

Protestant Missionaries seeking to discredit the Orthodox Religion often say that it is the farmer’s faith in God that makes him ignorant and fatalistic. But I say this fatalism comes about as a DIRECT result of BAD GOVERNANCE. When there is a government that has ideas other than war and telling them what to do when they know better, when there is a government that has some POLICY that works and doesn’t abuse them talk at them or moves them around when they are at their most vulnerable when there is a government that listens instead of talks, then I think their hope will be restored and they will move beyond preparing for the worst, asking God to just get them through the day. Can we blame God or the farmer if the farmer feels that only God sees him? Even now, here it is  election time and I have not seen or heard of ANY presidential hopeful having a high profile well publicized visit to a farming area or pastoral market place glad handing the electorate and listening to their views.  

IS LAND REALLY THE ISSUE? WHO SAYS? THE FARMER?  

My bet is that if farmers came to a Conference they would not say that Land is really the issue. I suspect for them the issue is health (HIV Aids and even, in this century, Polio!!)and access to water, education for their children. We must ask ourselves why Health is not a rallying point for without it the farmer cannot farm. I think the second issue is water for whoever owns the land without proper use of our rivers farming will remain a time consuming unprofitable endeavor).  Even in a supposed best case scenario Land was indeed given to the farmer as freehold, I do not think the political and Economic Policy pre requisites are in place to manage the chaos that is the present and the changes that would take place as we move towards progress. There is, as Rob said, no transportation system, no viable economy to absorb bumper harvests, there is no capacity. This Government talks about capacity building but I suspect the only capacity being built is their own bank accounts... for what is capacity building but firing all the zonal officers and sending them to places where they sit 3 to a desk in an office with no electricity or facilities or sometimes, no office, and SOMETIMES NO WEREDA because its just been invented!!  This, along with the concept of shifting people around in the name of resettlement is ALDI, a policy and institutional disaster upon which any change as radical as privatizing land would simply lead to complete management melt down.  

One may argue that we are in meltdown already. I say, the farmer loves his land but poverty forces him to make suicidal decisions. Given information and education and economic and employment alternatives he may not farm at all or he may farm more carefully and protect his environment. In truth, we do not know what he thinks or, given the choices he has never had for 3000 years, we do not know what he will do. There are some who are certain that if we handed out DV cards in the rural areas everyone would start packing. I do not know. 

We do not know what they know. Why? Why don’t we know what they know and always focus on what WE THINK they don’t know and what WE THINK they want. Who said MERET LARASHOO? Was it the farmer? Or someone thinking on behalf of the farmer? Why was the slogan not Fabrika le arashoo? Timhirt Bet Le arashoo Ttenninet Le arashoo?  Why is health not a rallying point, why has land ‘consistently and easily topped the list of all development and political issues debated in Ethiopia?’  

In conclusion I want to say that it is not the lack of a tenure system that makes the farmer insecure and uncaring for his environment, NO, it is the lack of Good Governance and Information and education. As I said in my previous contribution it is said that land and land holding is NOT the main issue that should underpin Ethiopia's development plans.  I agree with this position. I don’t think LAND is our most valuable resource, OUR PEOPLE are our most valuable resource and we should start from that premise and focus first on their welfare, with Government providing basic health care and education and organizing TEMPORARY safety nets for their livelihoods or letting others provide jobs without hindrance. Freedom to private businessmen (not EFFORT MEGA OR REST or TPLF INC.) and freedom for farmers so they themselves define alternative directions for their sustenance.  

RURAL URBAN BIFURCATION- REPAIRING THE RIFT

I want to reply briefly to your comments about the need for change in the attitudes of the educated urban dweller towards the rural dweller. This gap, filled with disdain has trickled down to even the uneducated urban dweller considers himself above the so called FARA GEBERAY...TTEFRAM and so on. This is a sad development, which probably started under HaileSilassies time when he was busy promoting modernization and encouraging the urban folks to indulge in all things Western. Indeed there is a book that says the day Haile Silassie took off his Hager Libss and Kaba for official occasions and started wearing his tailor made suits is the day our downfall began.  

Although their remains a steadfast romanticism by the urbanites towards BALAGERU. As I said in my last posting singers like Semahegn Belew, Abonesh Adnew and writers Abraham Wolde continue to refuse to let the picture of the farmer fade away. But we do not have, like in other African countries a tie that goes beyond musical memories. African countries have strong ties between the countryside and the city. Once we are settled in Addis Abeba, our Balager relatives come to us, we do not go to them. When schools close we take our children to Sodere, Awassa, Langano to Western Hotels and even if coming from a very poor slum area in Addis, under no circumstance do we send them back to their roots to visit relatives in the countryside like most African families do. In such an atmosphere then we should not be surprised that our nation is NOT producing the likes of Dr.Wangaari Matthai! We have only one hero going shoulder to shoulder with people, Gash Aberra Molla and he is in the city. The rest of our brilliant academicians with brilliant ideas on how to solve the problems of our rural poor are removed and isolated and caught in a terrible twilight zone of trying to research learn find and teach the solutions and make their findings widely available. I am not suggesting agricultural experts go and farm everyday at all. This is not their failure. We are all responsible for not networking across our professions and outside our immediate work areas to ensure that ideas and opinions findings and feasible options are widely known to people. We simply don’t talk. Bearing in mind the high level of illiteracy it must be talk so, I ask you again Mulat.. Can we talk?    

The answer, in my opinion is, unfortunately, tied again to good governance. The answer is NO we cannot talk. In Mengistu’s time whether forced as in the case or zemecha or messerete timhirt or subsidized as in the case of OTC’s which were cheap and allowed urban people to travel around there was much more leisurely contact. But the children who grew up and got educated at that time have, for the most part left the country, either during Mengistu’s time scared of Keffitenga Irmijja or Now charged with being a Timkitegna Neftegna.  Now, those left over from the brain drain are divided by tribal DNA with there is little or no prospect of improvement in the situation. As long as we have this tribal structure in place, with the iskemegenttel clause hanging over our heads like an atom bomb we remain separated. Separated by IHADIG Killils AND IHADIG kellas with a widening gap between the rural poor and urban rich, the future for a united NATIONAL dialogue on development looks bleak. Soon we may not even be able to look at each other as our award winning mayor is working overtime to make sure that no one even LOOKING like a country bumpkin will be seen on the gleaming new streets of Addis Ababa.  

I remember, standing in an airport book shop in South Africa, looking at their Development section where the works of Ethiopian Authors were given pride of place.  Industrializing Africa Mekonnen Alemayew (dedicated to EPRDF) Fantu Cheru The Silent Revolution in Africa. These are our African Renaissance Men but their paintings are not seen by the vast majority. And the impact of such outstanding research and knowledge, for the mot part outside Ethiopia is...well... frankly NIL!!  

Who is responsible Mulat, who is failing who? Why can’t we talk? Where can we talk? How can we talk?  Maybe the answer is in not in academia but in private enterprise. Maybe, the likes of Noah Samara and his Worldspace project is the MISSING LINK. I think it is. Also, a communication policy that prioritizes the flow of information to and from the farmers and pastoralists of Ethiopia and encourages focus and debate on development would also help greatly. Our current government is inclined to let the radio entertain people in Addis with FM stations playing imported music and that ridiculous 2:00 show every weekday afternoon called IRIE which influences and encourages unemployed youth to chew chat and seek out chebsee!! We have 4 choices under Bad Governance, no message or mixed messages or gossip or disinformation. The truth is never publicly available or discussed. This forum is a pioneering step in starting us off on the road back from hell.  Further work needs to be done translating complex ideas in English into Amharic in simplified form. This can be easily achieved by providing training to our brilliant and self sacrificing journalists in rural development concepts aims and objectives. 

GLOBALIZATION.

Our experience as Ethiopians is unique in the world, independence, imperial rule, revolution and this IskeMegenttel diress experiment, I believe this is why you find that our experience turns out to be inconsistent with experience elsewhere. However like all third world farmers I think, ultimately, at the global level, the possibilities are limited. I think the ONLY countries with prosperous agricultural sectors owe their success to GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES. No matter how much we adore them, respect them and work hard hard to make sure they are respected, no matter how many singers sing wistfully about their development and hopes for a bright future for BALAGERU, there is, unfortunately, no such thing as a rich third world farmer.  

A GLIMMER OF HOPE IN THE COUNTRYSIDE.

Finally, you spoke of peasants association and, as they are called in the rest of Africa FARMERS Clubs which I think is a great idea although to the Ethiopian farmer it may bring back negative memories of Mengistu's forced collectives, make him suspect he may be an easier target for tax and conscription or resettlement. Who knows? We must ask them. But I agree with Rob that CUSTOMARY INSTITUTIONS DESTROYED BY THREE CONSECUTIVE GOVERMENTS IN THE LIFETIME OF THE FARMER should be researched and ways found to restore them. In the meantime, experience is showing that just leaving farmers in nameless shapeless informal forums called ‘Community Conversations’  is yielding SHOCKINGLY positive results, and I wish to share with  you all a rare example of success with participatory methods in rural Ethiopia in the area which I believe to be the MOST IMPORTANT to the farmer and us all ..HEALTH http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/ip-health/2004-June/006511.html 

Mulat, with apologies for the length of my message, and in the hopes of a reply to some of the issues raised I leave you with something to add to your views on civil servants and politicians. It is a joke by our late great comedian Tesfaye Kassa, from his cassette entitled DELALAW.  He mimics the arrogant voice of a civil servant, talking DOWN to some peasant women in GOORAMAYLAY about a newly established credit fund that would lend them money.  

Civil Servant: ‘MMMMMM ehhh.. (kibrrir iyale) FUNDOO, inanten leeredaa new yetemeseretew, FUNDOO, ackchooalee,. tekameenetoon teredten ye FENDOON agelgilot.this and lewedefeet FUNDOO that etc 

Finally, tired of his posturing and arrogant attitude a peasant woman interrupted by putting up her hand to speak and asking indignantly 

‘INDAY? KALFENEDAN ATREDOONIM MALET NEW??