Landets omstridte kooperativer er styrets duks i Addis Ababa – og bevægelsen stammer endda tilbage fra kejsertiden i 1950erne – men successen indenfor kaffeindustrien i kaffens hjemland gør kooperativer udviklings-interessante.
ADDIS ABABA, 7 November 2012 (IRIN):- As Ethiopia imposes (indfører) increasing restrictions on foreign-backed NGOs, cooperatives – which have boosted the country’s coffee industry – are being championed as a preferred model for economic development.
NGOs have been active in Ethiopia for roughly 40 years, yet the country still ranks in the world’s seventh percentile (nederste regioner) in terms of health, education and living standards, according to the UN Development Programme’s human development index.
This has led to questions about the effectiveness of NGOs – especially those that are foreign-backed – in creating tangible (håndgribelig), long-term progress.
By contrast, say development observers and government advisers, the cooperative model gives ownership of development issues to those affected by them, creating incentives for lasting change.
“Cooperatives are businesses owned and run by and for their members… They have an equal say in what the business does and a share in the profits,” according to the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA).
Ethiopia’s coffee industry has recently seen significant growth, thanks in part to indigenous coffee cooperatives – demonstrating, advocates say, cooperatives’ superiority to NGO assistance.
But others argue that cooperatives model on its own is not capable of achieving long-term sustainability, and that many cooperatives remain reliant on NGOs for support.
Success, they say, will depend on the combined efforts of cooperatives, NGOs and the Ethiopian government, and even foreign government assistance, where appropriate (passende).
Fraught (belastet) political history
Both cooperatives and NGOs have had fraught relationships with Ethiopia’s political establishment, with cooperatives once perceived as an arm of the government and NGOs now seen as agents of foreign influence.
The cooperative movement in Ethiopia emerged in 1950s, during an effort to transition from subsistence farming to commercial agriculture.
In the 1970s, under Mengistu Haile Mariam’s socialist-inspired Derg regime, cooperatives were used to implement a series of radical policies, such as the March 1975 Land Reform Bill, which outlawed private land ownership.
Farmers were forced to join cooperatives and give up land for collective use; as a result, cooperatives became very unpopular.
The 1991 rebellion that ousted Mengistu paved the way for more democratic, member-constituted cooperatives, even as the government itself came under criticism over its commitment to democracy.
General assembly members were elected to determine cooperatives’ policies, and cooperatives began to adhere to the principles of the ICA.
Tough years under Meles – at first
Over a decade later, NGOs became targets of government ire (vrede).
Several were perceived as assisting Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s political opponents during the 2005 election, which nearly saw Meles’s defeat, according to Stephan Klingelhofer, senior vice president at Washington-based the International Centre for Not-for-Profit Law.
In the following years, members of organizations such as the Ethiopian Human Rights Council and the Swiss branch of Médecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) faced arrests and detentions.
The International Committee of the Red Cross and MSF Belgium were expelled by the government in August and September 2007.
In February 2009, the government adopted the Proclamation to Provide for the Registration and Regulation of Charities and Societies, which restricted the activities of NGOs receiving more than 10 percent of their financing from foreign sources.
Over the past six months, the restrictions have expanded, Klingelhofer said.
Concerns about dependency
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