If that piques your interest, download a free copy, with contributions from Fana Gebresenbet
Biruk Terrefe Emanuele Fantini Luca Puddu & Edegilign Hailu fdslive.oup.com/www.oup.com/...

This reflects a general process since the mid-2000s whereby the political leadership pressed for ever larger dams and electricity generation capacity in line with growing developmental ambitions and industrial plans, but in doing so bypassed technical input into decision making

The NBI updated old US studies of the Nile Basin and proposed a three-dam cascade aimed at 'benefit sharing': dams in Ethiopia would provide water regulation downstream in Egypt and Sudan, eliminate flooding in Sudan and provide cheap electricity to all three countries

C3/4 shows that the main early focus of the EPRDF dams boom was the Gibe-Omo basin in southern Ethiopia. During the construction of three hydropower projects the government addressed many of the constraints on past Ethiopian regimes' dam building ambitions

C2 shows how in 20C Ethiopia's dependence on external powers and Egyptian influence prevented Ethiopian Nile dams. But Haile Selassie did get support for a major US Blue Nile study, identifying many possible projects, including the eventual GERD site (albeit a v.different design)

New open access (free!) book on the politics of Ethiopian dam building, 'Dams, Power and the Politics of Ethiopia's Renaissance', out now global.oup.com/academic/pro...
@terrefebiruk.bsky.social @globaldevinst.bsky.social @oupacademic.bsky.social

Chapter 7 focuses on urban expansion in Adama and Addis Ababa and the exploitative process of expropriation to make way for new industrial parks, roads, railways and housing

Despite some successes in attracting lead firms, poor planning delayed several parks and by this point the distributive problems had reached a crisis point: widespread unemployment and underemployment, particularly for young adults

However, this was largely a failure – domestic firms lacked the capabilities required for export markets and struggled to break into global value chains. By the 2010s with high unemployment, the government tried a different strategy

However, rapid population growth and the end of regular land redistribution resulted in widespread land shortages and a generational divide between older landholders and young landless adults

Chapter 5 turns to the key issue of land tenure and the agrarian question. The EPRDF initially sought to maintain political control over the peasantry by retaining state land ownership and distribution of improved inputs through party-state structures, with some success

The book takes a long-run, multi-sector and multi-scalar approach, examining the history of Ethiopian state formation, and the EPRDF’s efforts to consolidate power through distribution of land, agricultural development, industrial policy, urban development and social protection