Fantu Cheru and Christopher Cramer on the Oxford Handbook of the Ethiopian economy

Fantu Cheru and Christopher Cramer will present at the WIDER Seminar Series on 04 December. 

Abstract – The Oxford Handbook of the Ethiopian economy

Ethiopia has recently attracted research interest because of its unique development path and rapid economic growth, particularly since the early 2000s.

Agricultural expansion has been a major source of this growth, and has in turn enabled the government to focus on manufacturing. Huge public investments in roads, railways and dams have facilitated the country's drive towards not only more productive agriculture, but also industrialisation and broad structural transformation.

The Oxford Handbook of the Ethiopian Economy is a high-profile volume which aims to present original and yet accessible state-of-the-art analysis of the past, present, and future of the Ethiopian economy.

Economic transformation is the central theme and focus of the Handbook, covering the history, policies, performance, and structural change of the Ethiopian economy during the twentieth and early twenty-first century. These experiences are located within the wider political economy and structural transformation of the African continent.

The Handbook has 50 chapters (a total of more than 400,000 words) authored by 70 eminent Ethiopian and international scholars. It has six sections which focus on the key areas of the Ethiopian economy: (i) context, concepts, and history; (ii) economic development; (iii) social policy; (iv) agriculture and rural transformation; (v) industrialisation and urbanisation; and (vi) structural transformation in the African context.

The Handbook is expected to serve a wide audience, including researchers, academics, policymakers, and practitioners, and is expected to be a major resource for graduate and undergraduate students.

About the speakers 

Fantu Cheru is Emeritus Professor of International Relations, American University (Washington, DC) and a Senior Researcher at the African Studies Centre, Leiden University (The Netherlands). Between 1998 and 2001, Dr Cheru was the UN Special Rapporteur on Foreign Debt for the Human Rights Commission in Geneva. He was Associate Senior Fellow at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sweden), and the North-South Institute (Ottawa, Canada). From 2007–12, Cheru was Research Director at the Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala, Sweden.

Dr Cheru was a member of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Panel on Mobilizing International Support for the New Partnership for African Development (2005–07) as well as Convener of the Global Economic Agenda Track of the Helsinki Process on Globalization and Democracy (Finland). 

Christopher Cramer is Professor of the Political Economy of Development at SOAS, University of London. He is a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, Vice-Chair of the Royal African Society, and a former Chair of the Centre of African Studies in the University of London. He is Chair of the International Scientific Committee of the African Programme on Rethinking Development Economics.

His publications include the prize-winning Civil War is Not a Stupid Thing: Accounting for Violence in Developing Countries (London: Hurst, 2006), with co-authors the research report ‘Fairtrade, Employment and Poverty Reduction in Ethiopia and Uganda’ (2014), and related journal articles. He has undertaken commissioned work for international organisations. He has research and teaching experience in Ethiopia.

WIDER Seminar Series

The WIDER Seminar Series showcases recent and ongoing work on key topics in development economics. The weekly sessions held in Helsinki are open to local and visiting researchers, policy makers, and others interested in development topics. Click here to learn more.

Seminars will be live streamed on Facebook and recordings and presentations will be available after the event here.

For more information email tomi@wider.unu.edu