Ignoring Abuse in Ethiopia: DFID and USAID in the Lower Omo Valley

Southern Ethiopia’s Lower Omo Valley is one of the most culturally and biologically diverse areas in the world, yet the Ethiopian government is transforming more than 375,000 hectares (1450 sq. miles) of the region into industrial-scale plantations for sugar and other monocrops. A vast resettlement scheme for the local ethnic groups is accompanying these plans, as 260,000 local people from 17 ethnic groups who live in the Lower Omo and around Lake Turkana—whose waters will be taken for plantation irrigation—are being evicted from their farmland and restricted from using the natural resources they have been relying on for their livelihoods.

                

The plantations are being installed and ethnic and pastoral communities are being forcibly resettled with the help of the Ethiopian military, which has become a central player in the implementation of the Ethiopian government’s development plans. Forced evictions, denial of access to subsistence land, beatings, killings, rapes, imprisonment, intimidation, political coercion, and the denial of government assistance are all being used as tools of forced resettlement. Meanwhile, international donors have been accused of supporting the programs connected with the resettlement sites.

          

               In response to these criticisms, a group from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) conducted a joint field investigation in the Lower Omo in January 2012. Although this group heard many credible accounts of abuses connected to the resettlement or “villagisation” program, the official stance of the United Kingdom government has since been to repeatedly insist that the “the Department for International Development was not able to substantiate the allegations of human rights violation it received during its visit to South Omo in January 2012.” Similarly, the US State Department’s Ethiopia 2012 Human Rights Report released in April 2013 indicates that donors’ visits “did not find evidence to support this claim [of human right violations] during visits.” DFID and USAID also reported this unsubstantiation of allegations of human rights abuses to the Development Assistance Group (DAG), which is made up of 26 of the major aid agencies that donate to Ethiopia including the UNDP, IMF, and the World Bank.

                 

             This report provides unique insight into the investigation conducted by the donor agencies in January 2012. In stark contrast with the official discourse, testimony from the affected communities shows that egregious human rights violations have taken place. The author accompanied the assessment team as its translator and has audio recordings of the interviews conducted in several Lower Omo communities. Transcripts of these recordings, made public with this report, leave no room for doubt that the donor agencies were given highly credible first-hand accounts of serious human rights violations during their field investigation and they have chosen to steadfastly ignore these accounts.   

Download full report here : brief ignoring abuse ethiopia

Senate should not confirm Gayle Smith

By Alemayehu G. Mariam

President Obama visited Ghana in 2009 and told Parliament, “History is on the side of brave Africans.”  He warned Africa’s strongmen, “History is not with those who use coups or change Constitutions to stay in power.” He declared to the world, “Africa doesn’t need strongmen, it needs strong institutions.”

Obama has tapped Gayle Smith to run the U.S. Agency for International Development. African strongmen will be very pleased by the news; but she is the wrong choice for the job.  

Smith’s history in Africa shows that she has been on the wrong side of history, on the side of Africa’s strongmen. She supported the late Ethiopian strongman Meles Zenawi for decades. Zenawi left a legacy of repression and persecution. Ethiopia today is ranked “the 4th most censored country in the world.”

Just a few days ago, Smith, along with Susan Rice, met Ugandan strongman Yoweri Museveni at the Waldorf Astoria. Museveni has been in power since 1986. Last year, Human Rights Watch reported, "Museveni’s government increasingly suppresses freedom of assembly, expression, and association while escalating threats to civil society.”

Smith’s outlook on Africa and its relationship to America is disturbing. Smith believes “aid promotes development.” Smith promotes a welfare foreign policy of aid handouts and alms-giving to Africa generously supported by American taxpayers. In 2014, USAID spent over $5 billion in Africa on various health and development programs.  

No African country has developed hooked to the life-support system of U.S. aid. Dambissa Moyo has convincingly argued that the “insidious aid culture has left African countries more debt-laden, more inflation-prone, more vulnerable to the vagaries of the currency markets and more unattractive to higher-quality investment.” 

What the USAID needs today is a steady hand on the tiller. USAID development programs have been plagued by allegations of fraud, waste, abuse and corruption. A Wall Street Journalinvestigation revealed that  a significant amount of the nearly $10 billion spent by the U.S. in Africa between 2002 and 2012  on various health projects, including malaria and HIV control, “has been partly hijacked by organized networks that steal large quantities of donated malaria drugs and ship them from East to West Africa, where they end up for sale at street markets.”

The Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction in 2013 found  that USAID’s of lack of effective oversight and monitoring placed hundreds of millions of U.S. tax dollars “at risk of waste, fraud and abuse.”

Another report by the Inspector General in 2010 concluded that “because of weaknesses in the mission’s performance management and reporting system,” auditors “could not determine whether the results reported in USAID/Ethiopia’s performance plan and report were valid.” 

USAID does not need a polarizing figure at the helm. It needs a strong consensus builder with the proven ability to resolve serious internal administrative issues. It also needs a visionary leader who could envision Africa holding a plough and sickle, not a stretched out arm holding a begging bowl for American aid. USAID needs a leader who can clean house, not sweep the dirt under the rug; it does not need an administrator of welfare programs for African strongmen.

In July and September of this year, heads of state and ministers will meet to map out financial plans to implement their global development programs. Smith’s record suggests that her contribution to that effort will be a dogmatic reaffirmation of the dubious principle that development and U.S. national security are synonymous.

Smith will oversee the administration of billions of dollars in U.S. aid to Africa if confirmed. Her long and chummy relationship with Africa’s strongmen will make her a weak advocate of human rights, the rule of law and good governance on the continent.

In Accra, Obama told Africans, “You have the power to hold your leaders accountable, and to build institutions that serve the people. Because in this moment, history is on the move.”

The people of Africa cannot hold their leaders accountable when Africa’s strongmen rule from thrones cushioned with billions of U.S. aid dollars.

Obama is requesting the Senate’s advice and consent.  The Senate should withhold consent and advise the president to send a nominee who is on the right side of history, the rule of law and democracy. For Africa, Senate confirmation of Smith at this moment will be the equivalent of moving the clock of history backwards.

Mariam is professor of political science at California State University, San Bernardino and a constitutional lawyer.

Source:http://thehill.com