Constitutional design options for Ethiopia: managing ethnic divisions

Proposals for managing diversity are analysed along with options and lessons from other parts of the world.

Ethiopia’s contending political forces have suggested diverse and contradictory policies to manage ethnic division in the country. Reconciling these interests requires understanding the various debates and examining all possible options to manage diversity as recommended and practised elsewhere in the world. These options also need to be innovatively combined so that the core needs and interests of the various political forces and ethnic communities can be incorporated into the new institutional design.

About the author

Semir Yusuf has a PhD from the University of Toronto and is a senior researcher in the Horn of Africa Security Analysis Programme at the Institute for Security Studies, Addis Ababa. His research focuses on conflict and peace studies, transition politics, authoritarian politics and Ethiopian studies.

Image: Composite by Amelia Broodryk/ISS