Overview

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read on the Oxford Academic platform and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.After more than a decade of construction, Ethiopia is filling the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), a controversial dam with the potential to transform the hydrology and politics of the Nile Basin. The GERD is the culmination of a dam building boom carried out over three decades and a key pillar of the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front's (EPRDF) efforts to bring about an Ethiopian 'Renaissance'. Dams, Power, and the Politics of Ethiopia's Renaissance provides a detailed examination of the domestic and international political dynamics that shaped Ethiopia's dam building, drawing on extensive primary research including more than a hundred interviews with politicians, technocrats, consultants, and donors. The authors reflect on the implications of Ethiopia's dam building for broader debates about the role of the state in late development, the dynamics of twenty-first century dam building, and the political economy of renewable energy transitions. A central argument of the book is that Ethiopia's dam building is symbolic of the successes and failures of the EPRDF's 'developmental state'. On the one hand, this dams' boom enhanced electricity generation capacity, while constituting a key element of the state infrastructure investment that turned Ethiopia into one of the world's fastest growing economies. In contrast, a politically driven decision-making process undermined electricity planning, contributed to an unsustainable debt burden, and, ultimately, failed to provide reliable electricity access to key users. Following the EPRDF's collapse, the subsequent Prosperity Party government has taken steps away from the state-led development model of its predecessor, while labouring towards the final completion of the GERD.Oxford Studies in African Politics and International Relations is a series for scholars and students working on African politics and International Relations and related disciplines. Volumes concentrate on contemporary developments in African political science, political economy, and International Relations, such as electoral politics, democratization, decentralization, gender and political representation, the political impact of natural resources, the dynamics and consequences of conflict, comparative political thought, and the nature of the continent's engagement with the East and West. Comparative and mixed methods work is particularly encouraged. Case studies are welcomed but should demonstrate the broader theoretical and empirical implications of the study and its wider relevance to contemporary debates. The focus of the series is on sub-Saharan Africa, although proposals that explain how the region engages with North Africa and other parts of the world are of interest. Series Editors: Nic Cheeseman (University of Birmingham), Peace Medie (University of Bristol), and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira (University of Oxford)

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9780192871213

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This book offers a fascinating analysis of the internal contradictions and the external entanglements of Ethiopia's dam program in the last two decades. Combining analytical depth and simple language, the book addresses the academic community, as well as policy and media circles interested in understanding Ethiopia's politically ambitious, but technically and economically problematic hydropower projects. * Dr Rawia Tawfik, Associate Professor, Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University * This is a superb book that has a massive amount to offer anyone concerned with Ethiopia in particular and African development more generally, while also being thoroughly relevant to big issues in current global environmental politics. * Professor Christopher Clapham, Emeritus Professor, University of Cambridge * Tom Lavers and his coauthors have produced a remarkable and fascinating book, rich in historical detail, theoretical flair, and pragmatic lessons that should draw rapt attention from anyone in the public sphere concerned with dams and development. * Professor Christopher S. Sneddon, Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies, Dartmouth College * Providing unique detail and multi-layered perspectives on dam building in Ethiopia, this book's significance goes far beyond the Nile Basin and is instructive for students of energy transitions across the developing world. The complexities of political and electric power are interwoven throughout the book and convincingly argued to be inseparable. * Dr Harry Verhoeven, Senior Research Scholar, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University *

Author Information

Tom Lavers is a Reader in Politics and Development at the University of Manchester's Global Development Institute (GDI). He has been researching the politics and political economy of land, industrial policy, infrastructure, and social protection in Ethiopia since 2005. His publications include the 2023 monograph Ethiopia's 'Developmental State': Political Order and Distributive Crisis published by Cambridge University Press, as well as articles in Development and Change, Journal of Agrarian Change, and World Development amongst others.

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