Should the African lion learn from the Asian tigers? A comparative-historical study of FDI-oriented industrial policy in Ethiopia,South Korea and Taiwan

Ethiopia’s economy has been growing at breakneck speed for well over a decade now, earning the nickname as Africa’s lion. In recent years, the development literature on Ethiopia has paid particular attention to the role of industrial policy, especially the ways in which the Ethiopian experience compares to that of the Asian tigers. But through this comparative-historical perspective, little attention has been devoted to an important aspect of industrial policy in Ethiopia – foreign direct investment (FDI) in the manufacturing sector. This paper compares FDI-oriented industrial policy in Ethiopia in the current era (particularly focusing on light manufacturing) to that of South Korea and Taiwan between 1960 and 1990, arguably the two most generalisable cases among the Asian tigers. The paper argues that FDI-oriented industrial policy in Ethiopia seems to be bringing about short-term economic benefits, and is showing promise for further industrialisation. At the same time, it could benefit from taking more lessons from the long-term economic development perspective that characterised South Korea’s and Taiwan’s approach to FDI. Such a long-term perspective most importantly includes pro-active strategies to transfer technology from foreign firms to the domestic economy and the creation of backward linkages from foreign to domestic firms.     

Group identity—a neglected asset: Determinants of social and political participation among female ex-fighters in Guatemala

Many of the armed conflicts after World War II have had female fighters, such as El Salvador, Eritrea, Guatemala, Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka. In the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) process that followed the signing of the Guatemalan peace accord in 1996, altogether 766 women were demobilised. This article seeks to explain why some of these women became politically and socially active in the post-conflict peacebuilding phase, whereas others did not. Contrary to the negative experiences of female ex-fighters from Sierra Leone and West Africa, the article points out that the Guatemalan female ex-fighters preserved a positive group identity developed during the war. In particular, the war experiences represented an asset for social and political participation to those of the female ex-fighters that reintegrated collectively—together with their male ex-combatants. The article concludes that future DDR programming should take into account the importance of group identity and the needs and the own wishes of female ex-fighters from different war contexts.