Review Article Open Access

Development under the Transformational Motto of 'Grow or Die', the Lake Tana Region of Ethiopia in Focus

Abstract

In post 2005 election Ethiopia, development has been taken as utmost priority issue to be achieved at any cost. For the Ethiopian People’s Democratic Revolutionary Party (EPRDF) the leading party, achieving development was a matter of survival or death, which is related to the transformation principle of ‘grow or die’. Normally there is no state that chooses to die by leaving development issues aside and for two decades the developmental state of Ethiopia achieved growth that proceeded at the rate of two digit growth. This paper addressed two basic questions. The first one, is the development broad based and participatory? Second, is development achieved at the cost of destroying the ecosystem of a given growth corridor accepted as healthy and sustainable? In addressing these issues information is collected from primary and secondary sources. Policy documents such as proclamations related to environmental protection and heritage protection including the constitution of Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE constitution) are used as sources of first-hand information to understand the ideological position of the state and to identify if there is conformity between idea and practice. Second hand information is collected through intensive reading from the literature. A normative approach is used for analyzing the issues on the basis of Environmental Analysis and the Millennium ecosystem Assessment framework (M.A) is used to check if the ecosystem degraded and affected the wellness of the local community or not. The research, finally, concludes that development which is not broad based and environmental friendly cannot be sustainable.

Binayew Tamrat Getahun*

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