People usually raise runners and the national flag as the top things foreigners know Ethiopia for. Our status as the origin of mankind, our exquisite cuisine, our own calendar, our own alphabet, the fact that we defeated our aspiring colonizers and stayed independent, or our recognition as the birth place of coffee are usually cited as surprising facts about Ethiopia. That means foreigners do not know these incredible gifts and feats by Ethiopians.
Sadly, the most notable thing they know about us is famine. The fact that an English dictionary used Ethiopia to explain famine comes up rather very often in discussions about the impressions of foreigners about the country. Although it has been over three decades since the most infamous famine in Ethiopia, the dark colour it left on the image of the country still lingers.
Ethiopians and their government should keep in mind that it would take a long and demanding journey of success to take that impression off the minds of foreigners. A dozen years of double digit growth is not going to cut it.
Such hard facts leave us wondering about the viability of our foreign policy. Economic diplomacy has been at the centre of Ethiopian foreign policy over the past couple of decades. The country’s diplomatic endeavours still circle around drawing Foreign Direct Investment. Even after Abiy Ahmed’s (Ph.D.) rise to power and the subsequent tingling the policy has been subjected to, the amount of money brought into the country is raised as the parameter of successful diplomatic engagement. Therefore, economic diplomacy is still a corner stone of Ethiopian foreign policy.
Ethiopian embassies and government officials are absorbed with the quest for FDI. They meet the business communities of various countries, probe leaders into motivating their businessmen to come invest in Ethiopia. These efforts have noticeably drawn some investors but the level of investment in the country is way too small for the intended transformation from an agrarian society to an industrial one.
The problem is that the rich do not generally invest in the poorest corners of the world. World Investment Report 2019 states that Africa takes up a meagre $46 billion in FDI inflows out of the total of 1.3 trillion worldwide. The sad reality is that this figure has an 11% increase over last year’s. Considering the lump sum is divided over 54 countries, we can understand why almost every investment coming into the country gets coverage in the daily news bulletin.
The return on investment is considered to be very small as the poor people of Africa do not have enough disposable income to buy the products investors have to offer. The safety of investment also usually falls under question as there is a general understanding that Africa is politically volatile. The international perception about Ethiopia also falls within that realm as it is one of the poorest countries in Africa.
To change the level of FDI coming into Ethiopia, in my opinion, the international community needs to have a better perception of the country. They need to think of us as a progressive and fast developing country with huge potential in the near future.
However, that does not happen overnight. We need to make sure that the curiosity people around the world have about Ethiopia grows significantly. By improving their perception about us, we stand a better chance of doing business with them. Otherwise, our aid-recipient status is always going to become an obstacle to investment.
One thing to note here is that our perception is the reality for us until proven otherwise in due course. Therefore, the perception among some people of the developed nations that we Africans live on trees is the reality for them. That reality is not going to change until we engage, connect and interact with them and show them the truth at hand.
The double standards in international politics, the sense of superiority of the developed, and their sense of entitlement to our resources and other forms of injustice all emanate from the perception that actors have about themselves and others.
It was their perception of their capabilities and ours that led the colonial powers to invade us. It was, on the other hand, our action that proved them wrong and forced them into accepting us as a sovereign country. Nowadays, the challenge is different but the remedy once again involves strong action from our side to change their perception once again and treat us as viable business partners.
Therefore, I call for cultural and public diplomacy to come to the forefront of our foreign diplomacy efforts. Economic diplomacy might be important to bring in the foreign currency that our economy seems to urgently need. Therefore, maintaining our effort along that line could be a way to go. However, a broad based and lasting change in the way the international community engages us calls for strong cultural and public diplomacy.
The impacts of such a revamped cultural and public diplomacy go beyond drawing FDI in, to encompass all other forms of diplomacy. Favourable perceptions about Ethiopia would make it easy for us to garner international support in tackling internal economic and social problems. Our propensity to draw in grants, budgetary support, soft loans and have some of our debt cancelled would increase considerably allowing us to access more financial resources to alleviate poverty. Better perceptions about us would also be vital in our international engagements as we can relatively easily muster the support of states.
The international acceptance and status of progressive leader accorded to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (Ph.D.) has already heralded an opportune moment for the country to strongly engage itself in cultural and public diplomacy.
His personal traits and his liberal economic reform propositions, besides the wide support he has received from his people, have won him the respect of the international community. He has already been nominated for numerous prestigious awards for his swift reforms. His likeability as a leader, nowadays a rare virtue among leaders, also might have something to do with those.
Ethiopia should grab the current window of opportunity to pursue cultural and public diplomacy intensively and firmly establish a favourable image in the international community. A persistent engagement with the world along that line has the potential to change our current image as famine stricken and aid mongering people.
With ancient civilization, philosophy, ancient astronomy, medicine, models of social administration (such as the Gada system), religious and cultural values to offer besides the numerous factors raised at the beginning, the international community would definitely be pleasantly surprised by the things Ethiopia has to offer.
Finally, it is important to note that cultural and public diplomacy are relatively young disciplines. Therefore, the level of awareness about them is not up to par internationally. Therefore, the ministry of foreign affairs probably needs to strengthen its cultural and public diplomacy departments if it ever wishes to push forth with such a project.
The Ethiopian Herald August 21, 2019
BY TEWEDAGE SINTAYEHU
