wadiehobson's blog

At the recent conference of African finance ministers, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, said that Africa needs a new development plan in which the state replaces the private sector as the main engine of growth.

I am helping an Ethiopian friend set up a wedding dress hire business in Addis Ababa by importing dresses from China, and I have to say I have been really impressed by the small Chinese firms we are dealing with.

This is a question that always comes up in the design phase of an LED intervention to be run by local governments in Africa. The answer is still unclear to me and that is why I would love to hear your views on this issue?

When I was recently informed by a Municipal official that the Municipality was engaging in Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) for LED, I did not expect the type of project he was referring to. The Municipality was starting up economic production enterprises to be run jointly with the private sector.

Before making a decision to invest in LED, surely we need information proving that it works. From the perspective of a Mayor, Governor or indeed any institution investing financial resources into LED, one would need to know that:

While I of course believe that LED has a lot to offer developing countries in general and African countries in particular. I don't, however, share the enthusiasm of some practitioners and donors that LED could be implemented pretty much everywhere.

Dear LEDNA members,

I am currently working with the World Bank in Ethiopia and the Addis Ababa City Government on a benchmarking exercise for the city towards improving its competitiveness and economic growth prospects.

I would be very interested to hear from any of you who have conducted similar excercises for your cities and have any documents / experiences to share.

If anyone can share other African city benchmarking exercises or city specific sources of data in Africa that would be great.

Dear Gwen,

In response to your query on Youth Enterpreneurship programmes and practitioners, it might be good to contact the Youth Employment Unit of the ILO Regional Office for Africa based in Addis Ababa. They have various activities and a coordinatory role regarding youth enterpreneurship initiatives in Africa.

See the website of the ILO Regional Office for Africa here