APPP Research Report 02. Rethinking business and polictics in Ethiopia: The role of EFFORT, the Endowment Fund for the Rehabilitation of Tigray.
Abstract
This report forms part of a study of the role of private enterprise in Ethiopia’s economic development, focusing specifically on the so-called endowment-owned companies under EFFORT, the Endowment Fund for the Rehabilitation of Tigray. EFFORT was established in the mid-1990s with resources accumulated and donated by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, and its corporate policy is still led by senior members of the TPLF. It now owns 16 companies operating in the industrial, mining, construction, agro-processing, trade and service sectors. Research under the Africa Power and Politics Programme has re-examined the relationships between business and politics that are most likely to foster growth. This research emphasises the importance of stable, effective and long-horizon policy and regulatory environments, and the centralisation and selective promotion of growth-enhancing rents, in achieving what APPP has termed successful ‘developmental patrimonialism’. The paper considers the case of Ethiopia and the EFFORT companies in this light.
Citation
London, UK, Africa Power and Politics Programme (APPP), 68 pp.
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