After the defeat of the socialist Derg regime in 1991, the Peasant Associations were dissolving rapidly. However, the government announced the continuation of the land policy of the Derg regime. When Ethiopia in 1995 became the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia the new constitution approved and confirmed the state ownership of land. Even today, “[l]and policy, the real source of power in imperial and contemporary Ethiopia, remains at the center of a controversial political debate.” (Crewett, Bogale, & Korf, 2008) » Read the rest of this entry «
Ethiopia’s history of land registration part 3: 1991 – now: Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
May 18th, 2009 § 2 comments § permalink
Ethiopia’s history of land registration part 2: 1975 – 1991: The Derg regime
May 5th, 2009 § 2 comments § permalink
In my previous post I discussed Ethiopia’s land registration during the Solomonic Dynasty (until 1975).
Emperor’s Selassie’s imperial rule was overthrown by the Derg regime in 1975. This socialist regime nationalized all rural land and redistributed the land to its farmers. In order to abolish the exploitative landlord-tenant relations, the farmers were organized in Peasant Associations (Abebe, 2006; Crewett, Bogale, & Korf, 2008). » Read the rest of this entry «
Ethiopia’s history of land registration part 1: until 1975: the Solomonic Dynasty
May 4th, 2009 § 1 comment § permalink
Crewett et al. summarize that “Ethiopia has a long legacy of intervention in land tenure relations. The Ethiopian state has exerted considerable influence on local land tenure regimes throughout different political regimes.” But what does this long legacy look like? In this post I discuss the period of the Solomonic Dynasty, until 1975. » Read the rest of this entry «
On the electric chair
April 29th, 2009 § 1 comment § permalink
“We’ll clean up,” the manager said. The next day, I returned and saw a pile of broken chairs being loaded on a truck. “Good, now all that mess is gone and we can move around the office more efficiently from now on,” was my first thought.
It already seems like ages ago, but when I was running a project in an Ethiopian government organization last year, I seemed to stumble upon a broken (and very old!) chair around every corner. As I later was told by the same manager, the chairs were not thrown away, but auctioned. » Read the rest of this entry «
Land registration in Ethiopia and possible roles of ICT
April 28th, 2009 § 2 comments § permalink
During a study project in Gondar, Ethiopia, it came to my understanding that the registration of land is a national issue receiving many attention in politics. » Read the rest of this entry «
What is ICT4D?
April 26th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink
While working on a project in Ethiopia as part of my study programme, I discovered the large potentials of ICT4D. I will post more about this topic, but before I continue babbling on… what exactly is it? » Read the rest of this entry «
A new beginning
April 24th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink
Yes, I did try to start blogging before. But no, unfortunately I was not that much inspired to spend my time writing frequently. However, the last period just turned out to be one of huge inspiration.
While finishing my study Information Science at the Radboud University of Nijmegen (that’s the Netherlands), I am coming across very diverse fields of expertise: ICT, management studies, development studies, anthropology. ICT as an enabler for development (ICT4D) seems to be more and more interesting. » Read the rest of this entry «
