My time in Addis is coming to an end. My replacement – Ahmed – has already started. Employing me was always only a temporary measure, which makes sense. I’ve had a great time. I’ve learned a lot and have been able to make a useful contribution to things (and I wasn’t 100% sure that I would), but Ahmed probably had a better understanding of Ethiopian politics and governance at the age of 12 than I do now, and that might be doing him a dis-service! There is a place for outsiders to share their perspectives and experience in relation to governance in developing countries (for me, for a while at least, that place is going to be the UK), but you can’t beat local knowledge.
Browsing Posts in UK politics
As a PS to my tanzania-related rant, I thought I should big up the Corner House. Their persistence in pursuing British Aerospace and its networks of corruption is inspirational. Great work!
As a follow up to the debate between Owen Barder and Kevin Watkins about development, party politics and the Conservative Party’s Green Paper on international development, readers might be interested in supporting the ONE campaign’s efforts to get the three main UK political parties to go on the record about their policies on tackling global poverty.
Interesting post on Owen Barder’s web-site about “protecting development from party politics“. I’ve stuck my oar in, with appropriate caution!
Owen is a fellow (if longer term) resident of Addis and his blog is well worth a read. More vocal on aid and politics than mine is …. than mine is at the moment.
Actually, here’s my response to his blog, just in case he doesn’t get a chance to approve my comment very soon.
