Mediating unity and diversity through Federalism in Ethiopia - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Mediating unity and diversity through Federalism in Ethiopia

Project implimentor: Colin Rowe Promoter: Prof. Dr. Helder De Schutter

Outline

• The project
• Finance
• Impact strategy and goals
• Success
• Difficulties
• Reactions
• Lessons learned and tips

What is normative federal theory?

• The basis of this project is the normative political philosophy of

federalism.

• Normative theory is the research into how things ‘should’ or ‘ought’ to

be.

• Federations, like Belgium and Ethiopia, are states where powers are

distributed between different levels of government such that subgroups have a certain level of autonomy over certain affairs.

• Federalism has been theorized in political philosophy to have the

capacity to realize ethnocultural justice, by providing self-government rights to various national-linguistic groups

• In this way, federalism can be theorized as a fair way to provide

recognition to both sub-state national identities and state-wide national identities – this conception of federalism has been labelled ‘federalism as fairness’ (De Schutter 2011)

• The project
• Finance
• Impact strategy

and goals

• Success
• Difficulties
• Reactions
• Lessons learned

and tips

What was the project about?

• Ethiopia is a highly diverse multiethnic federal state where normative

federal theory has not been considered.

• There are 105 million people in Ethiopia and over 80 nationalities and

languages.

• This provided a great opportunity to:

1. To introduce normative federalism to the Ethiopian context. 2. Broaden input into federal theory by including Ethiopia and Ethiopian researchers and thereby extend normative theories focus beyond North America and Europe

• From a more practical point of view Ethiopia, has faced and still faces

intense and violent tensions between demands for national unity and

• secession. Introducing normative federalism into the discourse

surrounding federalism could:

• Further Ethiopia’s federal self-understanding.
• Allow Ethiopian scholars to thematize the moral challenges

intrinsic to federalism.

• Help local groups understand whether federalism can be an

attractive and fair alternative to secession or a unitary state.

• The project
• Finance
• Impact strategy

and goals

• Success
• Difficulties
• Reactions
• Lessons learned

and tips

How was the project supported?

• The project was supported through a Global Minds grant.
• Global Minds grants are given by VLIR-UOS, which:

“Supports partnerships between universities and university colleges in Flanders (Belgium) and the South (hemisphere) looking for innovative responses to global and local challenges.”

• 6 month project ending December 2018.
• 20 000 Euros.
• The project
• Finance
• Impact strategy

and goals

• Success
• Difficulties
• Reactions
• Lessons learned

and tips

Difficulties in financing the project

• The project first applied for funding through a VLIR-

UOS ‘South Initiative’. This was unsuccessful.

• Challenges in getting a project like this funded include:
• 1. Within philosophy, there is little in the way of

experience or past projects to rely on.

• 2. Output or outcome based project requirements are

harder to quantify in philosophy projects.

• They want a research proposal that shows a clear outcome

goal of a 25% increase in potato yields.

• In political theory, the best output is to provide a political-

philosophical moral toolbox, an enriched discourse.

• Doing so is possible, but it is a challenge.
• The project
• Finance
• Impact strategy

and goals

• Success
• Difficulties
• Reactions
• Lessons learned

and tips

Project impact goals

The project had both academic and social goals: Academic strategy: ‘Bringing Ethiopia into the federal family’ To introduce and integrate Ethiopian research, context and researchers into current discussions about federalism, not as a novelty or interesting case but on an equal footing. Social strategy: To add the normative dimension of federal theory into the discussions surrounding federalism in Ethiopia.

• The project
• Finance
• Impact strategy

and goals

• Success
• Difficulties
• Reactions
• Lessons learned

and tips

Concrete project impact goals

• A one month research stay for the Ethiopian promoter of

the project at KU Leuven, including talks and a seminar.

• A one week research stay in Mekelle, Ethiopia (and

Addis Ababa) including:

• teaching modules with masters students
• a multiday workshop with researchers from Ethiopia,

KU Leuven, Oslo and Paris

• a roundtable
• meeting with political actors
• discussions about ways forward with Ethiopian

colleagues.

• The project
• Finance
• Impact strategy

and goals

• Success
• Difficulties
• Reactions
• Lessons learned

and tips

Project successes: Defining success

What is successful outreach in a philosophy project?

• Because the goal is not to drive home a particular

solution, traditional impact stories need to be adapted.

• We did not want to achieve particular policy changes or

argue for a particular government or social structure.

• Instead we wanted to provide a normative toolbox to

enhance local academic and societal discussion.

• The project
• Finance
• Impact strategy

and goals

• Success
• Difficulties
• Reactions
• Lessons learned

and tips

Project successes

• On the academic side this project was a success.
• This being a new project without pre-existing

conncetions, we created ties with researchers and students at Mekelle University on federalism

• Had a fruitful workshop
• Have a special issue in the works to disseminate the

project further.

• Within Ethiopia we had fruitful discussions with some

political figures.

• Local dissemination of the project in Tigray through TV

interviews done by our Ethiopian colleagues.

• The project
• Finance
• Impact strategy

and goals

• Success
• Difficulties
• Reactions
• Lessons learned

and tips

What could have gone better?

• There was minimal diversity in terms of gender

and cultural groups within Ethiopia.

• Reasons: different academic culture? lack of local

capacity in organizing conferences? Controversial nature of the project? Threat of violence?

• The meeting with public officials was fruitful

but the roundtable could not be organized in time.

• The length of the project limited its sustained

impact.

• The project
• Finance
• Impact strategy

and goals

• Success
• Difficulties
• Reactions
• Lessons learned

and tips

How did our colleagues react?

• Colleagues in our discipline were intrigued by

the project, its impact and that it was carried

• ut in the first place.
• The project
• Finance
• Impact strategy

and goals

• Success
• Difficulties
• Reactions
• Lessons learned

and tips

What can be learned from this project?

• Diversity of inclusion: This means include as diverse a group
• f people within the project as well as contacting as diverse a

group.

• Don’t undersell the social impact.
• The importance of thinking creatively about discipline-specific

criteria of success, e.g. from “25% potato yield increase” to “giving Ethiopian experts of federalism access to the normative political philosophy of federalism field” or “make local political groups aware of the moral challenges involved in federalism, unitarianism and secession”.

• Genuine, positive and clear outcomes can come out of our

research and should be emphasized, it is important to write in the jargon needed to get the funding but I think pretending to be the sciences sells our impact short.

• The project
• Finance
• Impact strategy

and goals

• Success
• Difficulties
• Reactions
• Lessons learned

and tips