IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/eurjdr/v31y2019i1d10.1057_s41287-018-0180-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

State, Governance and the Creation of Small Towns in Ethiopia

Author

Listed:
  • Jonathan Baker

    (Universitetet i Agder/University of Agder)

Abstract

This paper is based on data collected from fieldwork in 2003 and 2013 in and around the small town of Bora in the Oromiya Zone of the Amhara Region in north-eastern Ethiopia. When Bora was first visited in 2003 it was an isolated place with a population of less than 1000. There was a police station, a health centre dependent upon a diesel generator, and a small weekly market. The town lacked electricity and the town’s water-supply pump did not work. By 2013, following wider changes at the national level introduced by Ethiopia’s developmental state model, the fortunes of Bora had changed dramatically as a result of its administrative upgrading to a politically-powerful woreda (district) capital town and greatly improved connectivity. Finally, the paper demonstrates how livelihoods in the new Dewa Harewa woreda, of which Bora is the capital, have been transformed by the rapid adoption of khat, (catha edulis), a mild narcotic plant, which has now become the dominant cash crop, positively impacting both rural and urban livelihoods.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan Baker, 2019. "State, Governance and the Creation of Small Towns in Ethiopia," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 31(1), pages 34-52, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:eurjdr:v:31:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1057_s41287-018-0180-1
    DOI: 10.1057/s41287-018-0180-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41287-018-0180-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41287-018-0180-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dercon, Stefan & De Weerdt, Joachim & Bold, Tessa & Pankhurst, Alula, 2006. "Group-based funeral insurance in Ethiopia and Tanzania," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 685-703, April.
    2. Mariam, Damen Haile, 2003. "Indigenous social insurance as an alternative financing mechanism for health care in Ethiopia (the case of eders)," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 56(8), pages 1719-1726, April.
    3. Abate, Gashaw Tadesse & Rashid, Shahidur & Borzaga, Carlo & Getnet, Kindie, 2016. "Rural Finance and Agricultural Technology Adoption in Ethiopia: Does the Institutional Design of Lending Organizations Matter?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 235-253.
    4. Fana Gebresenbet, 2014. "Securitisation of development in Ethiopia: the discourse and politics of developmentalism," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(sup1), pages 64-74, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jytte Agergaard & Susanne Kirkegaard & Torben Birch-Thomsen, 2021. "Between Village and Town: Small-Town Urbanism in Sub-Saharan Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-21, January.
    2. Sakketa, Tekalign Gutu, 2022. "Urbanisation and rural development in developing countries: A review of pathways and impacts," IDOS Discussion Papers 5/2022, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kibrom A. Abay & Goytom A. Kahsay & Guush Berhane, 2018. "Social Networks and Factor Markets: Panel Data Evidence from Ethiopia," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(1), pages 174-190, January.
    2. Stefan Dercon (QEH), Joachim De Weerdt, Tessa Bold, Alula Pankhurst, "undated". "Membership Based Indigenous Insurance Associationsin Ethiopia and Tanzania," QEH Working Papers qehwps126, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    3. Dercon, Stefan & De Weerdt, Joachim & Bold, Tessa & Pankhurst, Alula, 2006. "Group-based funeral insurance in Ethiopia and Tanzania," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 685-703, April.
    4. Anderberg, Dan & Morsink, Karlijn, 2020. "The introduction of formal insurance and its effect on redistribution," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 22-45.
    5. Mequaninte, Teferi & Birner, Regina & Mueller, Ulrike, 2015. "Adoption of Land Management Practices in Ethiopia: Which Network Types," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 212631, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    6. Nshakira-Rukundo, Emmanuel & Mussa, Essa Chanie & Gerber, Nicolas & von Braun, Joachim, 2020. "Impact of voluntary community-based health insurance on child stunting: Evidence from rural Uganda," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).
    7. Andrew McNee, 2012. "Illuminating the local: can non-formal institutions be complementary to health system development in Papua New Guinea?," Development Policy Centre Discussion Papers 1215, Development Policy Centre, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    8. Musa Hasen Ahmed & Kassahun Mamo Geleta & Aemro Tazeze & Hiwot Mekonnen Mesfin & Eden Andualem Tilahun, 2017. "Cropping systems diversification, improved seed, manure and inorganic fertilizer adoption by maize producers of eastern Ethiopia," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 6(1), pages 1-16, December.
    9. Ward, Patrick S. & Spielman, David J. & Ortega, David L. & Kumar, Neha & Minocha, Sumedha, 2015. "Demand for Complementary Financial and Technological Tools for Managing Drought Risk: Evidence from Rice Farmers in Bangladesh," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 204882, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    10. Bet Caeyers & Stefan Dercon, 2012. "Political Connections and Social Networks in Targeted Transfer Programs: Evidence from Rural Ethiopia," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 60(4), pages 639-675.
    11. Israel Fekade, 2015. "Demand for Health Insurance: study on the Feasibility of Health Insurance Schemes Community Based Groups in Addis Ababa City," Ethiopian Journal of Economics, Ethiopian Economics Association, vol. 23(1), September.
    12. Marcel Fafchamps & Eliana La Ferrara, 2012. "Self-Help Groups and Mutual Assistance: Evidence from Urban Kenya," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 60(4), pages 707-733.
    13. Orazio Attanasio & Abigail Barr & Juan Camilo Cardenas & Garance Genicot & Costas Meghir, 2012. "Risk Pooling, Risk Preferences, and Social Networks," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 4(2), pages 134-167, April.
    14. Aoyagi, Keitaro & Sawada, Yasuyuki & Shoji, Masahiro, 2022. "Irrigation infrastructure and trust: Evidence from natural and lab-in-the-field experiments in rural communities," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    15. Haddis Solomon & Yoko Kijima, 2022. "Does Land Certification Mitigate the Negative Impact of Weather Shocks? Evidence from Rural Ethiopia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-17, October.
    16. Zhanqiang Zhou & Yuehua Zhang & Zhongbao Yan, 2022. "Will Digital Financial Inclusion Increase Chinese Farmers’ Willingness to Adopt Agricultural Technology?," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-21, September.
    17. Chowdhury, Shyamal & Smits, Joeri & Sun, Qigang, 2020. "Contract structure, time preference, and technology adoption," GLO Discussion Paper Series 633, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    18. Cirera,Xavier & Comin,Diego Adolfo & Vargas Da Cruz,Marcio Jose & Lee,Kyungmin & Soares Martins Neto,Antonio, 2021. "Firm-Level Technology Adoption in the State of Ceara in Brazil," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9568, The World Bank.
    19. Gallegati Mauro & Greenwald Bruce & Richiardi Matteo G & Stiglitz Joseph E., 2008. "The Asymmetric Effect of Diffusion Processes: Risk Sharing and Contagion," Global Economy Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 8(3), pages 1-22, September.
    20. Gulesci,Selim, 2020. "Poverty Alleviation and Interhousehold Transfers : Evidence from BRAC's Graduation Program in Bangladesh," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9467, The World Bank.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:eurjdr:v:31:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1057_s41287-018-0180-1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.