Ethiopia gets Microsoft software in Amharic

ADDIS ABABA — US software giant Microsoft has launched Windows Vista in Amharic, the first operating system in the national language of Ethiopia, the official news agency said Saturday.

"Launching the Amharic version software is a major step forward for Amharic to be a language of technology," Director of the Ethiopian ICT Development Agency, Debretsion Gebremichael was quoted as saying by the Ethiopian News Agency (ENA).

He said 40 scholars from the Addis Ababa University had taken part in the translation of the software and added that plans were being drafted for translation into some of the nation's other languages.

"Ethiopia as a country of over 80 million people, has its own language and alphabet, and it is Microsoft?s desire to let this huge country use its Amharic service pack," ENA quoted Microsoft's Africa boss Cheick Modibo Diarra as saying.

Guid should contain 32 digits with 4 dashes (xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx).Runners to cross Ethiopia for a purpose
Higher Grounds sponsors event to raise money for education
BY LISA PERKINS
lperkins@record-eagle.com

 

TRAVERSE CITY — The challenge of running 250 miles across Ethiopia seems small compared to the challenge of growing up there without an adequate education.

A team of 10 athletes will take on both challenges when they travel to Ethiopia to run from the capital city of Addis Ababa to Yirgacheffe in an effort to raise funds to build three schools.

Run Across Ethiopia, sponsored by On the Ground, the nonprofit arm of the fair-trade coffee company Higher Grounds, will offer the opportunity for a better education to the communities that raise and harvest the beans sold by the Traverse City-based company.

"We have committed to building two schools already, with a goal to raise $175,000 and be able to build three," said Bill Palladino, executive director of On the Ground, the group that oversees and administers development projects in coffee growing communities.

A school for girls is planned on the outskirts of Addis Ababa while two schools will be built in the coffee-growing region of Yirgacheffe .Read More.....

Educating Ethiopia: Quality or political control?
By Uduak Amimo/BBC News, Addis Ababa

Private educators in Ethiopia have welcomed a grace period that allows them to demonstrate how they intend to comply with the government's new education policy to increase student enrolment in science and technology courses. 

Ethiopia's Education Minister Demeke Mekonnen says it will make students more employable and service the country's development aspirations: Improving the quality of education in the country is one of the goals of the country's new five-year growth and transformation plan.

Ethiopia, one of the world's poorest countries but also one of Africa's fastest-growing economies, hopes to become a middle-income country by the year 2020.

But there has been a lot of confusion surrounding the ministry's directive.

Local media reported in August that the education ministry had banned distance education.

It was reported that no new institutions, branches or courses could be started, they had also been instructed not to carry any advertisements for enrolment in private institutions.

The directive also stopped private institutions from offering teaching and law courses. In both instances, the reason given by the ministry of education was poor quality. more...

From Woolloomooloo to Ethiopia with love
Sister Bridget Harley, 1919-2010.

When Sister Bridget Harley left Australia for Ethiopia in 1967, she had already had a long career in the Daughters of Charity order and thought she was going to Africa for only four years. It was 38 years before she came home, leaving behind a mighty legacy of education in the poverty-stricken country.

  Delia Harley was born on July 24, 1919, in Broxburn, near Edinburgh, the third of seven children of Owen Harley and his wife, Mary O'Donnell.

In mid-1926 economic conditions in Scotland led the Harleys to emigrate to Australia and make a better life for their then five children (aged four months to 10 years). They were not ''£10 Poms'' but financially unassisted and proud to offer energy, character and courage to their new country.

The family settled initially in Lithgow, where Owen worked with the state mines. With one breadwinner and an increasing number of young mouths to feed, life was hard.

Then, in October 1931, things became worse when Mary died of cancer, aged 38, leaving Owen and seven children, aged 18 months to 15 years. When Mary and Owen knew that she was dying they agreed that come what may he would keep the children together. He did, with the help of daughters Josephine, 13½/ and Delia, 12.

Delia's schooling began with the Sisters of St Joseph in Lithgow. Later she went (on a bursary) to Our Lady of Mercy College, Parramatta, and then to teachers' college at Sydney University on a scholarship. She served her bonded period at government schools in NSW before entering in 1943 the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, an order dedicated to helping ''the poorest of the poor'', taking the name Bridget.

Her first 24 years with the order were spent teaching disabled children in Melbourne, serving as directress of novices at Eastwood and, finally, teaching and providing pastoral care in the Woolloomooloo/East Sydney area from 1956 to 1966. Woolloomooloo was considered an area of poverty and prostitution but what Sister Bridget saw was deprived families and disadvantaged children needing help.

She started a new adventure when she left Woolloomooloo for Ethiopia. Initially, she taught at a quite well-established convent school in the capital, Addis Ababa.

She quickly realised that the country had great educational needs and set up a tin shed school for the shunned children of lepers living among the tombstones of a nearby cemetery.

She also saw a huge need in early childhood development. Starting from scratch and over the next 35 years, Sister Bridget adapted the methods of the pioneer Italian childhood educator Maria Montessori to the African context.

All the odds were against her work. Some very early support won from the ageing Emperor Hailie Selassie evaporated when he was deposed shortly after her Montessori work began.

The hardline communist dictatorship of Colonel Mengistu had to be handled with care and the drought of the mid-1980s necessarily diverted her to famine relief.

In the 1980s, on leave in Australia, she was interviewed on television about her work and, although she did not ask for donations, thousands of dollars poured in. She was very grateful to have it to achieve ''the impossible''.

Civil war posed another threat to her work. At one point, she had to save a childcare centre in Wolaita Sodo in southern Ethiopia from armed troops. She was only a small woman but she went and stood at the gate and successfully pleaded with the men to spare her staff and children.

By the time Sister Bridget left Ethiopia in 2005, aged 86, she had set up more than 150 early childhood development centres in various parts of the country. She had also trained many of her former pupils to carry on the work without her.

Sister Bridget had her full measure of down-to-earth humanity along with her strong work ethic.

Ethiopian Birr Devaluation! Devaluation! Chicken Prices are going through the roof!
By Daniel Tadesse

Recently, I was enjoying a doppio espress at Starbucks and overheard a conversation happening at the next table. Ethiopians were discussing the devaluation of Ethiopia’s birr. Unlike most conversations amongst Ethiopians, this was calm and civilized. No one was pounding on the tables or saying “my point is better than yours!” It was more about the cost of chicken is about 100 birr, bebere cost 30 birr per kilo and beef costs 50 birr per kilo etc. I couldn’t help but join the conversation at this point, and ask them how the price of chicken, bebere, and bread has a direct relationship with the currency devaluation? When I didn’t receive a specific answer, I resorted back to my knowledge of economics 101 and explained that the devaluation only affects luxury goods but not basic necessity items and services other than: imported items like fertilizer (agriculture), fuel, gas (transportation), medicine, etc. 

I also mentioned that some unethical business people might take advantage of price hiking as the result of devaluation. 
They all looked at me, speechless. I felt like what I said hit a nerve.
The next day, I read an article written by two research professors on the subject matter of the pros and cons of Ethiopia’s currency devaluation.
I want to share these articles with you all to further explain my idea and clarify the difference between Needs VS Wants during a developmental and transformation period.
Advertis

Pros:
Ethiopia’s Experiment
By  Arvind Subramanian, Senior Research Professor at Johns Hopkins University.
 
The ever-vigilant Chris Blattman drew attention yesterday to Ethiopia’s currency devaluation. What was surprising and interesting about this move is that the devaluation was not undertaken under the usual duress of “macroeconomic adjustment.” Typically, in Africa, macroeconomic and foreign exchange crises have been the trigger for devaluation. Devaluation helps because it increases exports and reduces imports, thereby increasing the foreign exchange position of a country; and it also reduces domestic spending and brings it more in line with a country’s production.
In this instance, however, the devaluation seems to target structural change, to boost the tradable sector so that it can provide the basis for long run growth. Chris thinks that the devaluation—especially since it was unexpected—might create investor uncertainty. So, he sees it as a trade-off between promoting structural change and engendering a climate of uncertainty.
I see it differently. Tradable sectors and exports can indeed be key for development. And  Saharan Africa’s tradable sectors are handicapped by aid and natural resource revenues, which tend to promote non-tradable sectors and encourage consumption over production (see the evidence in my paper with Raghu Rajan on this). Moreover, countries in the past that have grown sustainedly have had vibrant exports sectors and have had competitive exchange rates (see the evidence in my paper with Simon Johnson and Jonathan Ostry and also in this paper by Dani Rodrik).
So, three slightly different takes on this Ethiopian move would be the following. First, this devaluation can be seen—not as actively favoring or even subsidizing some sectors as it would be in the case of China, for example—but as offsetting a previous distortion (aid and resource revenues). Second, instead of viewing this as creating investor uncertainty, it can perhaps be seen as a credible and durable pre-commitment to promoting structural change (provided of course future actions are consistent with this move). The private sector can be assured that there would be durable advantage in investing in the tradable sector. Finally, the devaluation is heartening if it reflects a realization on the part of African policy-makers that the key to development is structural change but one that is brought about in a market-friendly manner rather than in the dirigiste manner of the past. Watch out for more such moves by other countries.

Cons:
Why you should pay attention to the Ethiopian devaluation
Chris Blattman, Assistant Professor of Political Science & Economics at Yale

Yesterday Ethiopians received a September surprise when the central bank devalued the currency by 20 percent.

Even if you don’t work on anything Ethiopia-related, you should be interested. Why? Here’s the reaction from a leading bank and investment firm in the country:
Given the apparently little justification for a large devaluation from a short-term macroeconomic perspective, we see more longer-term and structural motives for the authorities’ actions. More specifically, we think there is now a conscious effort to experiment with a deliberately undervalued exchange rate (the “China Model” one might call it) and to pursue a more aggressive strategy of import substitution.
Frankly it’s surprising more African nations have not attempted this path. Exchange rates are thought to be grossly overvalued in most countries, making their exports look expensive and other countries’ goods look cheap by comparison. That is not good news for industrial development. Some blame aid for the overvaluation. (See this bit by Raghuram Rajan and Arvind Subramanian.)
Here’s another policy lesson we can all learn from. (It’s time for unintended consequences again.) This one devaluation might look good (say, for exports), but by making an unexpectedly big and unexpectedly timed change, the government has increased the future policy uncertainty. Investors do not like a wildly unpredictable government. A surprise depreciation of 20% leads to a lot of wealth unexpectedly changing hands.
Savers might like the uncertainty ahead even less. If I were a middle class Ethiopian, right now I would be thinking very seriously about pulling my money out of Ethiopian banks and putting them into foreign ones. If the government lets me.
In case it doesn’t show, I am no macroeconomist. Reader opinions? (Especially if you are better informed than me.)
I bet Ethiopia’s neighbors are watching very closely to see if this is a model worth emulating

Cash on Delivery: A New Approach to Foreign Aid
Comment by Daniel Tadesse

I call this thinking outside the box. The approach to the solution is based on mutual respect and understanding. Define the core problem and establishing a sustainable, scalable and transparent process to achieve the expected measurable result. 

 Rather, than the old traditional approach of (my way or the highway) If the goal is to help global development in the digital world, this is the way to go. Accountability is crucial and important from the donor side as well as the recipient countries. We are witnessing that some of the new young leaders of the emerging countries are making a progress to eradicate poverty and ignorance in their countries by taking ownership of their unfortunate situations. I believe this is a win win solution. Change is painful but good, it is good!  Read the Exploration of Feasibility in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia Cited for Gains in Access to Education



(VOA) The United Nations is singling out Ethiopia for exceptional progress in providing children access to primary education. Ethiopian schools are struggling to cope with a 500 percent increase in enrollment in the past 20 years.

Principal Aklilu Dawit sits in an empty classroom at Addis Ababa's Urael school, wondering how to handle the expected rush of students this week when doors open for the new academic year.

The Ethiopian government's emphasis on primary education for all has been both a blessing and a curse. One the one hand, the increased demand has stretched the system far beyond capacity. On the other hand, Aklilu says simply having children in class is a victory.

"Quality is one question, but the access to education is one big achievement for the society. Other things may improve later," said Aklilu. "Achievement in education is growing, and many students get different kinds of technical skills to lead their lives. They are creating their own jobs, and have their own visions, they are not dependent on other things, so that makes great change through education."

Fifteen years ago, only about 25 percent of Ethiopian boys and 20 percent of girls ever saw the inside of a classroom. Today the figure in most regions of the country is close to 90 percent for both boys and girls. The numbers of children in schools has gone from 3.5 million in 1990 to about 16 million this year.

Three of the keys have been building more schools in rural areas, training more teachers, and giving local communities a freer hand in deciding how to educate their children.

Principal Aklilu Dawit says though levels of learning are basic, he sees a shift in public attitudes about education.

"Most of the parents did not get a chance to go school before. Nowadays this government is trying to get the children to go to school and advising and consulting the parents to send their children to the school," said Aklilu. "Through education they gain many things instead of passing their time on the streets or other places, they learn how to behave, [and] how to live in society."

A study by the U.S. Agency for International Development, concludes Ethiopia's explosive growth in education capacity is in many ways unprecedented in any country. But getting children into classrooms is just the first step. USAID's Allison Wainer says the bigger job ahead for the government and its development partners will be raising achievement levels.

"Due to the nature of enrollment rates going so high, achievement has been suffering. So USAID continues to work with the government on achievement and quality at the student level," she said. "The system is set up, structures in place, and now, how can we best address the quality issue?"

Raising achievement levels is complicated in an impoverished nation where there are few books, millions of people are nomadic pastoralists, and more than 60 languages are spoken. USAID's Wainer says Ethiopia deserves high marks for policies aimed at addressing its unique challenges.

"In certain areas such as language policy Ethiopia is doing better than other countries, so children are allowed to learn in their mother tongue for primary school, which is a big accomplishment," added Wainer. "Many other African countries do not recognize that as a proper way for children to learn, but Ethiopia did recognize that and the benefits are showing."

By secondary school, most Ethiopian classes are taught in English. But the dropout rate is unacceptably high. From 90 percent in first grade, enrollment falls to 25 percent by secondary school.

And books remain scarce. Wainer says Ethiopia, with financial support from international partners, is using an ingenious method of boosting achievement among high schoolers.

"The Ethiopian government has invested in secondary school, though enrollment levels are low and they are trying to use ICT, information communication technology to help bridge some of the gaps of lack of textbooks, so they have developed a very interesting plasma TV curriculum, supplementary curriculum that teachers can use in high schools," she said. "Research has shown that using those technologies in primary education will also pay off."

The United Nations this week is recognizing Ethiopia's great strides in access to education since development goals were set. But these are the first steps on a long road. Experts say a lot of work is needed before countries such as Ethiopia can stop the 'brain drain', the flight abroad of its most educated in search of opportunity not available in their home countries.