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State, Governance and the Creation of Small Towns in Ethiopia

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  • 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
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    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.
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    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.
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    Cited by:

    1. 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).
    2. 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.

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