ETHIOPIA - Swimming against the tide of an ethnicised HE system [University World News, July 2022]

Title:

Swimming against the tide of an ethnicised HE system 

 

Authors:

Wondwosen Tamrat 

Associate professor and founder-president of St Mary’s University, Ethiopia

& 

Damtew Teferra

Professor of higher education at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa 

 

Published:

University World News, 28 July 2022

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20220727070501186

 

From the article:

Ethiopia is a country with more than 80 ethnic groups. The formation of its ethnically based federation system post-1991 has led to the restructuring of the country into 10 regional state and two city administrations.  

 

Despite the benefits protagonists ascribed to such a system, Ethiopia has been facing unprecedented challenges in its socio-political sphere as a result of its ethnocentric federalism.  

 

Not surprisingly, these challenges come to the fore in every sector, including in its 70-year-old higher education system and the 50 public universities currently operating across the country.

Optimizing renewable-based energy supply options for power generation in Ethiopia [PLOS ONE, January 2022]

Title:

Optimizing renewable-based energy supply options for power generation in Ethiopia

 

Authors:

Megersa Tesfaye Boke, Semu Ayalew Moges & Zeleke Agide Dejen

 

Published:

PLOS ONE, 14 January 2022

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0262595

 

Abstract:

Ethiopia unveiled homegrown economic reform agenda aimed to achieve a lower-middle status by 2030 and sustain its economic growth to achieve medium-middle and higher-middle status by 2040 and 2050 respectively. In this study, we evaluated the optimal renewable energy mix for power generation and associated investment costs for the country to progressively achieve upper-middle-income countries by 2050. Two economic scenarios: business as usual and Ethiopia’s homegrown reform agenda scenario were considered. The study used an Open Source energy Modeling System. The model results suggest: if projected power demand increases as anticipated in the homegrown reform agenda scenario, Ethiopia requires to expand the installed power capacity to 31.22GW, 112.45GW and 334.27GW to cover the current unmet and achieve lower, medium and higher middle-income status by 2030, 2040 and 2050 respectively. The Ethiopian energy mix continues to be dominated by hydropower and starts gradually shifting to solar and wind energy development towards 2050 as a least-cost energy supply option. The results also indicate Ethiopia needs to invest about 70 billion US$ on power plant investments for the period 2021–2030 to achieve the lower-middle-income electricity per capita consumption target by 2030 and staggering cumulative investment in the order of 750 billion US$ from 2031 to 2050 inclusive to achieve upper-middle-income electricity consumption rates by 2050. Ethiopia has enough renewable energy potential to achieve its economic target. Investment and financial sourcing remain a priority challenge. The findings could be useful in supporting decision-making concerning socio-economic development and investment pathways in the country.

ETHIOPIA - Ethiopia’s blockchain deal is a watershed moment – for the technology, and for Africa [The Conversation, May 2021]

Title:

Ethiopia's blockchain deal is a watershed moment - for the technology, and for Africa

 

Author:

Iwa Salami

Senior Lecturer in Financial Law and Regulation, University of East London

 

Published:

The Conversation, 20 May 2021

https://theconversation.com/ethiopias-blockchain-deal-is-a-watershed-moment-for-the-technology-and-for-africa-160719

 

From the article:

A few companies have begun showcasing blockchain capabilities to various African countries. Unlike most other cryptocurrency blockchains which focus on private sector use in developed regions like Europe and North America, their approach has been to target the governments and public institutions in the developing world.  

 

In April the Ethiopian government confirmed that it had signed a deal to create a national database of student and teacher IDs using a decentralised digital identity solution. The deal involves providing IDs for 5 million students across 3,500 schools which will be used to store educational records.

Dynamics of inflation and its impact on economic growth in selected East African Countries: Ethiopia, Sudan and Kenya [Scholarly Article - Journal of African Studies and Development, 2021]

Title:

Dynamics of inflation and its impact on economic growth in selected East African Countries: Ethiopia, Sudan and Kenya

 

Authors:

Abdelkreem Youse

St Mary's University, Ethiopia

&

Sisay Debebe

Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia

 

Published:

Journal of African Studies and Development, 31 January 2021

https://academicjournals.org/journal/JASD/article-abstract/C7A813C66032

 

Abstract:

Despite Ethiopia's, Sudan's, and Kenya's fastest-growing economies' performance over the last two decades, the overall average inflation rate remains double digits. It subsequently incorporates a detrimental impact to support economic growth in an extended period. This study aims to assess the dynamics of inflation and its impacts on economic growth Ethiopia, Kenya, and Sudan using time-series macroeconomic data collected from the African Development Bank. The research used the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) econometrics model and investigated the presence of cointegration and long-term relationships between macroeconomic factors. The result indicates that the exchange rate and the supply of the long-run economic growth rate influence Ethiopia's money supply. Inflation rates and foreign direct investments have impacted economic growth rates in Kenya and Sudan. The economic growth rate in all counties is generally influenced by both the availability of money and the exchange rate—also, real per capita GDP affecting the economic growth rate of Sudan and Ethiopia. Policies on introducing new technologies, building capacities in public and private sectors, youth and gender parity, mobilizing domestic resources, and public participation are recommended for Ethiopia, Kenya, and Sudan.

COVID-19 in Hospitalized Ethiopian Children: Characteristics and Outcome Profile (medRxiv, 4 november 2020 - a preprint)

Title:

COVID-19 in Hospitalized Ethiopian Children: Characteristics and Outcome Profile

 

Authors:

Tigist W. Leulseged, Ishmael S. Hassen, Endalkachew H. Maru, Wuletaw C. Zewde, Negat W. Chamiso, Mesay G. Edo, Daniel S. Abebe & Muktar Awol Aliy

[All from the Millennium COVID-19 Care Center, St. Paul's Hospital Millennium Medical College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia]

Published:

medRxiv, 4 November 2020

[Keep in mind that this is a preprint and not yet peer reviewed.]

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.30.20223115v1

From the Abstract:

Background: Considering the number of people affected and the burden to the health care system due to the Coronavirus pandemic, there is still a gap in understanding the disease better leaving a space for new evidence to be filled by researchers. This scarcity of evidence is observed especially among children with the virus. Understanding the disease pattern and its effect among children is vital in providing timely and targeted intervention. 

 

Aim: To assess the characteristics and outcome profile of 115 RT-PCR confirmed children with COVID-19, and to determine the presence of significant difference in disease severity and survival distribution between groups among children admitted to Millennium COVID-19 Care Center in Ethiopia. 

Eos, 8 May 2020 - Are We Seeing a New Ocean Starting to Form in Africa?

Title:
Are We Seeing a New Ocean Starting to Form in Africa?

Author:
Erik Klemetti

Published:
Eos, 8 May 2020

From this article:
"Standing next to a lava lake at the summit of a massive volcano, Christopher Moore, a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom, could see the red haze of lava flows a few kilometers away. This might seem like a rare sight, but at Ethiopia’s Erta Ale, it’s business as usual.  

Are such behaviors the first signs of a tectonic transition? This question is part of what Moore has been studying at Erta Ale."

To read more:
https://eos.org/articles/are-we-seeing-a-new-ocean-starting-to-form-in-africa

General News (ETHIOPIA) - Locust invasion wipes out 200 000 hectares of crops in Ethiopia, creating a food crisis - UN

Title:
Locust invasion wipes out 200 000 hectares of crops in Ethiopia, creating a food crisis - UN

Published:
AFP via News24, 13 April 2020

From the article:
"The findings from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which recently concluded a joint assessment with the Ethiopian government, come as the region is bracing for new swarms that could be even more destructive."

To read this article:
https://www.news24.com/Africa/News/locust-invasion-wipes-out-200-000-hectares-of-crops-in-ethiopia-creating-a-food-crisis-un-20200413

ETHIOPIA - Unlocking the potential of ICT in higher education (short article by Wondwosen Tamrat)

Title:
Unlocking the potential of ICT in higher education

Author:
Wondwosen Tamrat

Published:
University World News, 13 February 2020

From the article:
"The Ethiopian government’s recent move towards liberalising the telecommunications market may contribute to an improvement of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and the creation of a digital society – with a range of positive implications for the higher education sector."

To read this article:
https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20200210064903949

Short Article: Internationalisation and 'Ethiopianisation': complementary approaches

Title:
Internationalisation and 'Ethiopianisation': complementary approaches

Author:
Wondwosen Tamrat, St Mary's University, Ethiopia

Published:
EAIE, 22 October 2019

From this article:
"How do we balance global outlooks with local needs? In countries like Ethiopia, the drive towards internationalisation coexists alongside the need to tailor higher education to local cultures and realities. The apparent tension between internationalisation and 'Ethiopianisation' offers some insights as to how institutions in Europe can collaborate with counterparts in Africa and elsewhere to support both internationalisation and local relevance."

To read this short article:
https://www.eaie.org/blog/internationalisation-ethiopianisation-complementary-approaches.html