Worancha ወራንቻ

Photo: www.bloomberg.com Two decades ago, then American president Bill Clinton helped popularize the term "new breed of African leaders" whom he believed to be different from iron-fisted totalitarian rulers that had entrenched "big man politics." Unlike the later, new breed leaders were thought to espouse democratic governance and socioeconomic transformation. The core members of the new breed was a quartet comprising Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of Uganda, Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, Isaias Afewerki of Eritrea, and Paul Kagame of Rwanda -- men who came to power in mid-1980s and early 1990s. How might Clinton rate the new breed's political and economic delivery 20 years on? Clinton would find Ethiopia to be the most surprising in the realm of economics -- Ethiopia stands above the rest. Two unrelated announcements about Ethiopia speak volumes about how much the country has changed. New World Wealth revealed in September 2013 that the number of dollar millionaire

The civil work of the project is to be financed by the Ethiopian Government and four other financiers namely the African Development Bank, World Bank, the Korean and the Chinese Export Import (EXIM) Banks. The reasons such as high traffic in the area … Read more on  Addis Fortune

The United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea will visit Djibouti and Ethiopia between February 16 and 27, to hold meetings and collect testimonies and accounts of the human rights situation in Eritrea. The Commission of Inquiry said in Geneva that it would continue to seek the cooperation of the Government of Eritrea but it had so far received no response to its request to visit the country. Mike Smith, the Chairperson of the three-member panel said: "While we are still waiting for direct access to Eritrea, we are proceeding - as per the international standards of commissions of inquiry - to investigate alleged human rights violations by collecting information from relevant sources outside the country." He said the visits to Djibouti and Ethiopia would provide the panel with the opportunity to hear first-hand accounts of violations of human rights from those who have recently fled Eritrea. He noted that the decision of victims and witnesses of a

The Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research said five development corridors said to be favorable for horticulture development in the country have been identified. Addis Ababa- Oromia, Hawassa- Arba Minch, Awash- Dire Dawa and Harrar, Bahir Dar- Nile Gorge and South Gondar, as well as Mekele- Raya and Alamata are the corridors. Some 50,000 hectares land has allocated in these areas for flowers, vegetables and fruits as well as coffee production, the Director-General, Dr. Fantahun Mengistu told ENA. The horticulture development corridors need to be identified so as to further boost horticulture development thereby improve its contribution to the nation's development, he said. Favorable ecosystem and nearness to various transport systems including air transport are the criteria used to select these areas, he added. - See more at: http://www.ena.gov.et/en/index.php/economy/item/404-nation-identifies-5-corridors-for-horticulture-development#sthash.sWoasxzB.dpuf

African Union's (AU) high level panel on illicit financial flows (IFF) from Africa ranked Ethiopia ninth from the top 10 African countries with high illicit financial flows from 1970 to 2008 next to Côte d'Ivoire and Sudan. The panel, which was chaired by Thabo Mbeki, former South African president and comprised nine other members, released its report at Hilton Hotel on February 1, 2015. The high level panel is the first African initiative mandated to be established after the fourth joint annual meeting of the AU/ECA conference of ministers of finance, planning and economic development adopted a resolution to establish the level of IFF from the continent, to asses its long term impacts and to propose policies in reversing the illegal outflows. The Report of the High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa, used estimates by various researches on illicit financial flows from Africa, adding that a significant amount was from sources such as bribing and traffi