Ethiopia Faces a Fight Bigger Than Tigray - and Must Win

Rivaling Ethiopia's conflict with Tigray rebels is the fight the country has waged for a generation to rise from grinding poverty. This is the one enemy that unites all Ethiopians, because what is at stake is everything that Ethiopia has worked so hard to achieve. Africa's essential country - symbolized by its global air hub at Addis Ababa and the headquarters of the African Union - can resume its rise as one of the world's most promising economies. Yet peace is essential, to refocus the country on the unfinished war on poverty. At least one in every four Ethiopians, more than 25 million people in a country of 110 million, still live in dire poverty. Often their lives depend on rainfall for the crops that sustain their families and communities. As a former development strategist in Ethiopia, I saw the profound changes across that country as pro-poor investments from the United States and other countries changed lives. While Ethiopia has made massive strides in food production since the famine of the 1980s, drought still stalks the land. In northern Ethiopia, war has created a great need for food and medicine and prompted international demands for the free flow of humanitarian aid. The African Union's vision of a productive and integrated Africa depends in part on keeping Ethiopia on the journey out of poverty. Also at stake is the ambitious agenda of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to transform Ethiopia into an Internet economy. That too, is a priority of the African Union as Africa attempts to catch up to developed economies in data, apps and e-commerce. #Ethiopia #Tigray #digitaleconomy