Democratic Assistance to Post-Conflict Ethiopia

by Dessalegn Rahmato, Meheret Ayenew

This is probably the first study examining the role and effectiveness of international assistance lent to Ethiopia to support the democratization process that has been independently authored by non-partisan academics within the country. The initiative thus represents a reversal of the more usual practice of donors examining the performance of recipient government and non-governmental institutions. The work is part of a larger research project sponsored by the Netherlands Institute of International Relations to evaluate donor assistance to eight developing, post-conflict countries from the point of view of the recipient countries themselves. The overall framework of the research was to assess the extent to which donor assistance has contributed to the development of sustainable and effective electoral, media and human rights institutions in post-conflict societies.

This study illustrates that assistance to human rights has been instrumental in the emergence of a voluntary sector in Ethiopia. Humanitarian assistance and socio-economic development have been notable too; however assistance to democratisation has been limited, in part due to the failure of political parties to broaden their power base. In contrast, there have been some notable local achievements in areas such as elections and press freedom.

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