Ethiopia

We’re producing a new special about hunger, airing next fall on public television — and for the past week, I’ve been scouting in Ethiopia, one of Africa’s development success stories. We’ll use the information I learn on this trip to write a better script and, ultimately, produce a better program when I return in April with our TV crew.

One big takeaway has been that education is a government priority — and a fundamental part of Ethiopia’s success. The number of K-8 schools here has tripled in the last 20 years, and almost all Ethiopian children now go to primary school. Here’s a fun look at the art that decorates the playground at one of them.

—

Join our traveling community — connect with me on Facebook and Twitter.

Traveling this week through Ethiopia, my favorite moments were far from the cities and far from the main roads. (If you simply assess things from what you experience on the paved main roads, your judgment is skewed by “road bias.”) We’d drive in rugged SUVs almost cross-country to reach communities of people who aspire to earn $2 a day. Of course, with little language in common and economic realities that are so vastly different, there is a big gap between them and me. But the big smiles, the lack of any angry edge, and the adorable children have left me tuned in to our common humanity. These memories are the Ethiopian souvenirs I’ll be taking home.

—

Join our traveling community — connect with me on Facebook and Twitter.

Here in Ethiopia, I’ve seen the value of foreign aid in the faces of its recipients — and you can see it too, in this little clip that shows the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) in action.

Foreign aid dollars are some of the best dollars America can spend on stability — and in an ever-smaller world, stability makes America more secure. Rather than old-fashioned charity, this is an investment in people. It’s smart development in action, funded by rich countries…and making a difference. I believe that if every American could stand where I’ve stood in Ethiopia, the vast majority would see that funding this work is simply a good investment. And they’d be proud — because the USA is a big funder of the WFP.

—

Join our traveling community — connect with me on Facebook and Twitter.

Visiting an orphanage in southern Ethiopia, I enjoyed a tangible look at grassroots development. I saw how caring people in the high-income world empower caring people in the low-income world to invest smartly, within parameters set by the national government, in “human capital” — one of the catchphrases that I’ve picked up as I learn about development issues. In this case, orphans are rescued from the street and nurtured. And at a simple vocational school, young people with an 8th-grade education then learn job skills (metalworking, solar tech, and so on). Upon graduation, they are employed at the nearby Hawassa Industrial Park or are given a microloan by the government to start their own business.

Please join me for a minute to experience a joyful example of smart development.

I’m in Ethiopia, scouting locations for an upcoming public television special about hunger. And traveling here, I feel like I’m witnessing a country that has been famously poor evolving into a developed nation.

In order to develop, Ethiopia wants investment, not charity. Ethiopia earns little from exports — its biggest export, coffee, only generates about $700 million a year. But it has a huge untapped natural resource of young people who are ready to work for wages that are much lower than those in the developed world. With more labor than physical resources, big corporations use a poor country like Ethiopia as a base to “re-export”— a place to import a product (like cloth), process it affordably, and re-export it (as clothing).

Globally, development seems to come in waves: China…India…and now, perhaps, sub-Saharan Africa. Ethiopia’s leaders wouldn’t mind following “the China model” of development, which depends on cheap labor, as a way to compete with countries like China and India, where wages have risen.

Here’s a quick peek at Ethiopia’s massive Hawassa Industrial Park — and what could be the future of an Africa that is more profitably integrated into the global economy.

Join our traveling community — connect with me on Facebook and Twitter.