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Lessons from the past, agendas for the future

Eritrea and Ethiopia surprised the world by going to war in May 1998 over the position of their common border, ending seven years of peace. A peace agreement signed in December 2000 brought hopes of a new era of reconciliation and rehabilitation. What challenges now face the two nations and their peoples, the region and the international community? Is peace sustainable?

Research by the University of Leeds, the Inter-Africa Group in Addis Ababa and local partners in Eritrea explored the nature of conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia over the last four decades. What has the impact of war been on people’s livelihoods, especially when combined with drought? What has been the role of humanitarian assistance? What difference have the policies of the Ethiopian Dergue regime, the Eritrean Peoples’ Liberation Front (EPLF) and the Tigray Peoples’ Liberation Front (TPLF) made in terms of rehabilitation and reconstruction?

In the search for a new post-war agenda for sustainable peace and development, analysis of both the 1961-1991 and the 1998-2000 conflicts reveals that:

The roots and dynamics of the conflicts lie in massive failures in conflict management at national and international levels.
In 1980s the EPLF, TPLF and relief organisations, supported by the Diaspora and donors, implemented a range of programmes beyond emergency relief to support livelihoods and development, with some success.
There has been a general impoverishment of large sections of both populations. Sources of livelihood are still substantially depleted by complex interactions between conflict and drought and many still rely on humanitarian assistance.
The border war, despite success in peace-making efforts, has politicised economic relations between the two countries, complicating rehabilitation, reconstruction and the search for sustainable peace.
Long-standing practices of mutual destabilisation in East Africa have weakened the new peace and security role of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) whilst strengthening the regime in Khartoum.

Implications for what must be done to promote post-war recovery include:

Food assistance can play a vital role in providing people with an opportunity to rebuild their depleted asset base, especially livestock, at times when an emergency is assumed to be over. The risk of disincentive or dependency-creating effects is often overstated.
Women-headed households are among the most vulnerable. Many are chronically short of family labour and unable to engage in public works schemes. Rehabilitation must take account of their specific constraints.
Demobilised fighters and returnees need security of land tenure if they are to rebuild their livelihoods.
Pastoralist and agro-pastoralist production systems deserve support for movement rather than immobility. Help for restocking after drought and war is equally essential.
Present post-war priorities include the return of displaced people, restoring production, and settling the border issue. Longer term economic recovery will depend on resolving issues of currency, citizenship, trade and compensation.
Improved political relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea are linked to the wider challenge of generating a new security regime in East Africa based on principles rather than the reactive tactics of mutual intervention. IGAD has an important role to play in this.

Source(s):
‘Eritrea: relief and rehabilitation during the liberation struggle and post-conflict recovery and reconstruction’, COPE Working Paper #30, Centre for Development Studies, University of Leeds, by June Rock, April 2000
‘After the Ethiopia-Eritrea war: setting the agenda for rehabilitation, sustainable peace & regional co-operation’, COPE Working Paper #42, Centre for Development Studies, University of Leeds, by Lionel Cliffe, February 2001
‘The political economy of complex emergency and recovery in northern Ethiopia’ in Disasters, #24 (4) by Seifulaziz Milas and Jalal Abdel Latif, 2000

Funded by: UK Department for International Development (1997-2000)

id21 Research Highlight: 2 October 2001

Further Information:
June Rock
Deptartment of Economics
University of Sheffield
Sheffield S1 4DT
UK

Tel: +44 (0)114 222 3409
Contact the contributor: J.Rock@sheffield.ac.uk

Department of Economics, University of Sheffield, UK

Jalal Abdel Latif / Seifulaziz Milas
Inter-Africa Group
PO Box 1631
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia

Tel: +251 1 518790
Fax: +251 1 517554
Contact the contributor: iag@telecom.net.et

Inter-Africa Group, Ethiopia

Christian Sorensen
Ministry of Agriculture
Asmara
Eritrea

Contact the contributor: chris@eol.com.er

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