Over the past twenty years, notwithstanding the more tumultuous recent months, observers have witnessed what has been called ‘Ethiopia’s Great Run’ towards development  – and its acceleration in the past decade. Reaching behind national level trends, this seminar explored the dynamics and diversity of long-term change at the level of rural communities, presenting evidence made under a longitudinal research programme conducted in 20 sites up until 2013 (see www.EthiopiaWIDE.net). Focusing on a number of topics that in the course of the research were found of particular relevance for policymakers and practitioners in Ethiopia, the seminar highlighted, through a range of different lenses, the multiple shifts in aspirations, opportunities and surroundings that Ethiopians in rural communities have engineered and experienced in the past two decades; how government policies and programmes have contributed to these shifts; and how this has played out differently for different types of communities, and households and people within them. There was a discussion of implications for policy implementation and the design of interventions, in Ethiopia and more widely.

Chair: Bev Jones

Speakers: 

Catherine Dom

Pip Bevan

Sarah Vaughan

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