Foreign investment in pastoral areas of Ethiopia and the Sudans

In a 2012 Briefing Paper from Chatham House (UK) “Peace, bread and land: agricultural investments in Ethiopia and the Sudans”, foreign investment in land is analysed within the historical political and economic context of the Horn of Africa. The main focus is on Ethiopia, where the paper points to significant foreign investment in land by parties from Africa and further afield. This is primarily geared towards producing for the export market, and is often concentrated in regions with limited political influence, such as where pastoralism and hoe-based flood-retreat cropping are practised (Gambella, Oromia, Afar and Southern Region). The Ethiopian Government appears to be using private capital (most noticeably foreign investment) as a means of generating revenue for the state from peripheral areas. Large-scale land investment is seen as an extension of the historical processes of state-building and consolidation that has been ongoing in the region for over a century.

Posted on 4 January 2013 in Pastoralism & Natural Resources, Pastoralism, Policy & Power