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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Managing Famine Disaster: Popular Participation in Tigray
Author:Hendrie, BarbaraISNI
Year:1997
Periodical:Eritrean Studies Review (ISSN 1086-9174)
Volume:2
Issue:1
Period:Spring
Pages:111-127
Language:English
Notes:biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:Ethiopia
Northeast Africa
Subjects:rebellions
Tigray People's Liberation Front
famine
Politics and Government
Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment
politics
famine
Disaster management
Emergency relief
political participation
Tigray Region (Ethiopia)
Abstract:The author examines popular participation in Tigray during the years of armed struggle (1975 to 1989), with particular emphasis on the management of famine disaster. Following an overview of the armed struggle and the 'bayto' (people's councils) system of local government in liberated Tigray, she provides details of the way peasant communities were mobilized as active partners in a large-scale relief operation during the 1980s. During the war liberated areas of Tigray were almost entirely isolated from direct support by major donors in the international community. As a result, Tigrayans created their own infrastructure and administration for the distribution of emergency and rehabilitation aid to combat famine. The Tigray relief operation, which was one of the most effective ever, relied for its success on two main factors: firstly, the willingness of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) to place the survival and rehabilitation of the peasant economy at the centre of its political agenda and to grant the indigenous Relief Society of Tigray (REST) a significant operational autonomy in the liberated areas to carry out this goal, and secondly, the devolution of responsibility for implementation of the relief operation onto local structures of popular government, the 'baytos' or people's councils. Bibliogr., notes.
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