Village Projects Observed in Eritrea: Post-Conflict Pathways towards Democratic Rural Development

Eritrea’s rural development trajectory has fallen short of fully meeting the basic needs of its peasants and pastoralists, let alone national food security objectives. This article builds on earlier research on rural development projects in a select number of villages. These projects were primarily...

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Main Author: Gregory Cameron
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Hradec Králové 2022-08-01
Series:Modern Africa
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.uhk.cz/modernafrica/article/view/225
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author Gregory Cameron
author_facet Gregory Cameron
author_sort Gregory Cameron
collection DOAJ
description Eritrea’s rural development trajectory has fallen short of fully meeting the basic needs of its peasants and pastoralists, let alone national food security objectives. This article builds on earlier research on rural development projects in a select number of villages. These projects were primarily characterised by a state-centric technocratic logic that did, to some degree, embed “hard” infrastructure in the villages, but which paid less attention to building village-level capacity or organisational autonomy. Looking beyond these impasses, the present article suggests an inward-oriented national development model centred on the home market, rural co-operatives, and food sovereignty. As yet ‒ at the time of writing ‒ another major war afflicts Eritrea and Ethiopia, the presence of the political will for such a transition is by no means guaranteed.
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spelling doaj-art-35dd00804ba24abe9cb8e885be7abbcb2025-08-20T03:40:41ZengUniversity of Hradec KrálovéModern Africa2336-32742570-75582022-08-0110110.26806/modafr.v10i1.416Village Projects Observed in Eritrea: Post-Conflict Pathways towards Democratic Rural DevelopmentGregory Cameron0Dalhousie University, Canada Eritrea’s rural development trajectory has fallen short of fully meeting the basic needs of its peasants and pastoralists, let alone national food security objectives. This article builds on earlier research on rural development projects in a select number of villages. These projects were primarily characterised by a state-centric technocratic logic that did, to some degree, embed “hard” infrastructure in the villages, but which paid less attention to building village-level capacity or organisational autonomy. Looking beyond these impasses, the present article suggests an inward-oriented national development model centred on the home market, rural co-operatives, and food sovereignty. As yet ‒ at the time of writing ‒ another major war afflicts Eritrea and Ethiopia, the presence of the political will for such a transition is by no means guaranteed. https://journals.uhk.cz/modernafrica/article/view/225technocratic fixco-operativesirrigation associationspastoralismconvergence strategyfood sovereignty
spellingShingle Gregory Cameron
Village Projects Observed in Eritrea: Post-Conflict Pathways towards Democratic Rural Development
Modern Africa
technocratic fix
co-operatives
irrigation associations
pastoralism
convergence strategy
food sovereignty
title Village Projects Observed in Eritrea: Post-Conflict Pathways towards Democratic Rural Development
title_full Village Projects Observed in Eritrea: Post-Conflict Pathways towards Democratic Rural Development
title_fullStr Village Projects Observed in Eritrea: Post-Conflict Pathways towards Democratic Rural Development
title_full_unstemmed Village Projects Observed in Eritrea: Post-Conflict Pathways towards Democratic Rural Development
title_short Village Projects Observed in Eritrea: Post-Conflict Pathways towards Democratic Rural Development
title_sort village projects observed in eritrea post conflict pathways towards democratic rural development
topic technocratic fix
co-operatives
irrigation associations
pastoralism
convergence strategy
food sovereignty
url https://journals.uhk.cz/modernafrica/article/view/225
work_keys_str_mv AT gregorycameron villageprojectsobservedineritreapostconflictpathwaystowardsdemocraticruraldevelopment