Poor Farmer

I'm back ... after making a swift detour through the treacherous and brutal roads of Ethiopian politics to deliver a message to the government of Ethiopia and our donors. At a time when the majority of Ethiopians are struggling for sheer survival, a few well-connected rascals are bleeding the country by misusing their powers and engaging in corrupt and fraudulent activities. As the Prime Minister himself told the public during his most recent appearance at the parliament, his government is infested by corrupt individuals ("thieves," to use his own words). Whereas, the general public - the millions who are languishing under the systemic oppression and exploitation - feel in despair that they have been let down by everyone, including the Prime Minister, who touts "economic development" and seriously doubt the sincerity of the Prime Minister's tough talk about fighting corruption. Corruption is not a new phenomenon in the country. The only difference ...

The article posted below is taken from an essay that was published in the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) publication titled " A Market for Abdu: Creating a Commodity Exchange in Ethiopia " on March 23, 2012. The author, Dr. Eleni Gabre-Madhin, CEO of Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX), recounts the challenges that ECX faced when coffee was first introduced on the exchange and how Dr. Eleni "overcame" the terrifying situation. Although this story is not new to the coffee community or anyone else who followed this blog at the time, the frankness with which the article was written may come as a surprise to some since it stands in stark contrast with ECX's past assertions. As a background, here is a brief reminder of how contentious this very topic was back in 2009. In this commentary that I published on August 2, 2009, I wrote: "As it has now become apparent, ECX was not ready to accommodate trading operations of a complex g...

By Wondwossen Mezlekia March 27, 2012 The statement by Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX) in response to the recent article titled “ Is the government serious about fighting corruption? The case of alleged fraud and corruption at the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange , " is commendable in many ways. To start with, the statement was issued by the company's External Relations Manager on behalf of ECX, effectively delineating the roles of company communications from the CEO's interactions with persons and entities outside of the company. This etiquette and separation of duties is a step in the right direction. In addition, and most importantly, the civility and courage in which ECX came out to publicly defend itself on an obviously painful subject is a manifestation of ECX's emerging maturity as an institution. I tip my hat to ECX for its participation in nurturing a culture of engaging in dialogue by breaking away from the age-old political culture of ours, where emo...

This is not a joke, the government's mouthpiece, Ethiopia News Agency, has in fact published the following news on April 17, 2012. It does not make sense to me, but here is a caption for your musing: While responding to questions posed by parliamentarians during the 25th regular session of the House of Peoples' Representatives here on Tuesday April 17, 2012, PM Meles called on the public to rally behind the government in the efforts to expose individuals engaged in corruption. Meles said lack of transparency, efficiency and accountability in the civil service sector resulted in dissatisfaction on part of the public. H e said measures are being taken to address problems in the civil service sector. Full story here . --- UPDATE July 21, 2012 It has come to my attention that visitors see an error message when trying to access the news article: Server Error 404 - File or directory not found. The resource you are looking for might have been remove...

Note : This email statement was issued by Ali Suleiman, External Relations Manager for Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX) in response to the recent article titled " Is the government serious about fighting corruption? The case of alleged fraud and corruption at ECX ". The statement which characterizes the article as one that "has overstepped the boundaries of factual and honest commentary," does not deny the allegation or condemn corruption but it correctly points out that I had an open and frank telephone conversation with Dr. Eleni Gabre-Madhin , CEO of ECX in which we had raised and discussed a wide range of topics, including the complaint pertaining to the alleged fraud and corruption. This conversation was not included in my article because: 1) as mentioned in the statement, Dr. Eleni was not at liberty to comment directly on the investigations being conducted by other organizations; and 2) our call was off the record and I had promised to keep it that way. ...

The case of alleged fraud and corruption at Ethiopia Commodity Exchange By Wondwossen Mezlekia March 19, 2012 The Ethiopian Federal Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission’s annual report presented to the Parliament in May 2011 added Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX) to the list of institutions whose practices are open for corruption, without disclosing what impelled the Commission to review ECX's working procedures and practices. [1]  Curiously, what the Commission avoided mentioning is the purported scandal involving an international procurement worth 4,855,800 USD or 84,102,456 Ethiopian Birr, which led the World Bank to cancel the loan it had previously granted. In so doing, the Commission is apparently giving ECX a slap on the wrist for a serious allegation that warrants nothing short of a full and in depth investigation. In 2009, the International Development Association (IDA) approved the government's request to funnel part of the money it borrowed for th...