Nothing as it Seems

ISS-researcher blogging from Ethiopia

Tags: Eastern Africa , Civil Society Building

What is the role of external donors in local development and local governance in Ethiopia? ISS-student Ephrem Shiferaw is currently blogging from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. His reflections and thoughts give us the feeling that there's so much more lurking under the surface of the muddy development-waters. We're looking forward to finding out more about his discoveries in the coming up weeks.

The power of community-based organizations/CBO’s

It has been three weeks since I started my research on community-based organizations (CBOs), their members and leaders in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. When we speak of CBOs in the Ethiopian context, “Iddirs” are the first that come to peoples mind. Iddirs are community-based organizations, burial associations established on the basis of neighbourhood, ethnicity, sex, and work place with the primary purpose of providing financial, material and moral support in times of death for the bereaved members and/or their families (Dejene, 1993:39).

My research is intended to explore these kind of CBOs in relation to local development and local governance. When I met Iddirs leaders and members in the first week of my fieldwork, they were passionate about the idea of local development and they are very much open to introduce their local development efforts to outsiders like me. My first observation was with the “Dele-Bere” and “Genet Amba” Iddirs in the Gullelie sub-city of Addis Ababa. These are one of the few Iddirs in Addis Ababa that are spending their own financial resources on local development efforts (mostly from membership contribution), without any donor or government support. When I entered the compound, I noticed unusual things. Unlike my experience with Iddirs in the past, I found a proper office, organizational structure, vision and mission of these Iddirs as well as samples of local development initiatives such as building pipelines for water and sewerage, bridges and electricity.

Time is a precious good

In my experience, Iddirs leaders and their members prefer working on their own activities over spending time on interviews and extended discussion with outsiders. Time is a precious good and they give such time when there is a problem to discuss among members or if they have a plan to discuss with members about local development activities. They told me that they do not want to complain to the government or NGOs to accomplish promises at the local level. Instead they themselves have human, financial and material resources in their Iddirs to deal with local development activities which is needed for their members and locality.

Besides the Iddir’s growing involvement in development, equally important is the existing trust, mutual support and respect to each other. A positive attitude among Iddirs to engage in development and to contribute to their local community is part of their norms and values. Democratic election of leaders (every two years as stated in their bylaw, with a majority vote) and engagement to perform better in local development initiatives in their fixed term of office is the rule of the game among the electorate. A classic case in leadership determination and charisma is of one active leader from the past. Beyene Dadi managed to construct a bridge by mobilizing members’ resources in his term of office and the bridge named after his name and called Beyene Bridge in Gullele sub-city of Addis Ababa.

Local development: is external support needed?

Development practitioners tend to think that local communities do not have the knowledge, resources and capacity to contribute to their own development. However this stands in stark contrast with what the Iddirs leaders tell me. During my discussion with Iddirs leaders and their members, I realized that they have a very clear idea about what to do, for whome they’re doing it, how to do it and when to do activities which they think is good for their members and the locality at large. Actually they are the same “WH”-questions that are a headache to development practitioners and governments. They said that they don’t need any assistance from donors or the government for their development. Rather they very much need the strong hands, hearts and minds of their Iddir members.

However, this does not mean that, Iddirs are doing such noble duty without challenges. In my interviews as well as in my observation I note a lack of legal framework to guide their area of intervention and boundaries, adequate space (land) for offices and for construction of buildings for different purposes such as recreation centers, rehabilitation center for elder Iddirs members, girding mills for members etc. Government and NGO interference in their activities are among the series of challenges that they face in day to day activities. Both government and NGOs are interested to work with them as they are a collection of different groups, they have critical masses and represent the majority of the population at the local level.

In the upcoming few weeks, my discussion with NGO and Local government officials might provide me additional insight to further understand the power of community-based organization for the promotion of local development and local governance.

Reference:

Dejene Aredo (1993) “The Informal and Semi-Informal Financial Sectors in Ethiopia: A Case Study of Iqub, Iddir Saving and credit Cooperatives”, Africans Economic Research consortium, Research Paper 21, Nairobi.