‘A Last Resort and Often Not an Option at All’: Farming and Young People in Ethiopia

Development policies in Ethiopia emphasise agriculture as the pathway to industrialisation. Policies allude to the need for a new generation of young, literate and trained farmers to transform the agricultural sector and bring about the required growth in agricultural output. The success of this strategy largely depends on the willingness of the new generation of literate rural youth to take up agriculture as a potentially rewarding livelihood. This article investigates, based on fieldwork conducted in two rural kebeles of Ethiopia, whether young rural people have this willingness to take up agriculture. It examines the factors that contribute to both the desirability (and undesirability) of agriculture as a future livelihood. Findings revealed that very few young people and their parents were considering farming as a possible option for a future livelihood. For others, farming/agriculture might be a last resort

Inequality in Ethiopian higher education: reframing the problem as capability deprivation

The revitalization of Ethiopian higher education (HE) has been underway since the early 2000s. As well as the economic optimism evident in the ‘knowledge-driven poverty reduction’ discourse, social equity goals underscore the reform and expansion of the system. Notwithstanding the widening participation and the equity policy provisions put in place, the problem of inequality has persisted along the lines of ethnicity, gender, rurality and socio-economic background. This paper reviews major equity policy instruments and highlights the enduring inequalities in Ethiopian HE. It argues that this persistence is related in part to the ways in which the problem is represented in policy, and that redressing the problem necessitates framing inequality as capability deprivation rather than as issues of access and disparities in enrolment