Panel discussion -- Ethiopia 2020: In Plight or Prosperity?
Status: This talk is in preparation - details may change
Status: This talk has been cancelled
Since the rise of Abiy Ahmed to the apex of Ethiopia’s government, Ethiopia has been engulfed in a whirlwind of changes. This panel intends to assess the political landscape, the economic trajectory and the regional dynamics in the lead up to the national elections slated for August of this year. This will be a competitively contested election with the registration of multiple new parties and the the disintegration of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), the ruling coalition that led Ethiopian between 1991 and 2019. As ethnic tensions continue to surge and political actors continue to instrumentals their ethnic constituencies, occasional clashes along regional borders and deaths on university campuses have become a regular sight. At the same time, the new Prosperity Party (PP) has embarked on a privatisation-driven, IMF-backed economic reform programme, which raises questions about the future of Ethiopia’s developmental state project. In addition to these domestic issues, Ethiopia’s relations to its neighbours has been recalibrated, bringing Eritrea into the fold, shifting alliances in Somalia, while at the same time having to navigate complex and intricate relations to the West, China and the Gulf. At this time of economic and political liberalisation, Ethiopia is at crossroads. What can we expect? What are the known unknowns? And where do the biggest risks lie?
Date: 9 March 2020, 17:00 (Monday, 8th week, Hilary 2020)
Venue: 13 Bevington Road, 13 Bevington Road OX2 6NB
Venue Details: Seminar room
Speaker: Various Speakers
Organising department: Centre for African Studies
Organisers: Biruk Terrefe (University of Oxford), Jason Mosley (University of Oxford)
Part of: Northeast Africa Forum seminar series
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Public
Editor: Jason Mosley