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New Generations, Old Challenges: Questioning Grassroots Development in the Horn of Africa
JOURNAL OF YOUTH RESEARCHES
Residents of the target neighborhoods do not have even lower standard rural roads to
connect to Addis Ababa -Hosana main road. The lack of transportation service has re-
sulted in further disadvantages. Investors could not invest in the region as they could not
drive-into villages and potential sites for exploration or implementation reasons. Local
farmers, traders and students cannot promptly reach to where they want. And this dif-
ficulty has delayed the efficiency of their life duties. The people also take extra time for
common trips to Addis Ababa. To reach to the main Addis Ababa - Hosana road, they
had to walk a long way carrying bulks of stuff habitually males on their heads and females
on backs. Additional reflections below from the residents confirms the extent of the chal-
lenges.
The absence of road, in turn, harmed a possible start and acceleration of other sec-
tors such as water and electricity. And as we know, years ago, a water project came
to our kebele. But fearing that large scale machines could not be carried by the
current low quality of road, it has been taken to a neighboring kebele (HOARCM14,
23/04/11).
The road even could not enable to carry the patients properly. When our cattle are
affected by trypanosomiasis, we fail to ride to animal health center. That is mainly
due to the absence of any proper road (HOARCM37, 23/04/11).
Once again, an NGO came to launch water service to the people of Dobba neigh-
borhood. But as the operators could not drive into the intended villages, due to
absence of road, they had to go back to Shumoro neighborhood (HOARCM14,
23/04/11).
Conclusion
In HOA, the rural makes up to 80% of each country in terms of size and population. And
there have been various attempts by national and international organizations to make
these vast rural zones the major center of development projects. However, considering
plans and reports and observing the lives of the people, two things can be identified.
Official development reports have been highly overstated as typically identified by tables,
graphs, quantities, and approximations all narrating the economic growth aspect of de-
velopment. In contrast, qualitative observations and critics reveal prevalence of series
of developmental crisis mainly in relation to human development variants, as commonly
veiled within official reports.
Health and sanitation conditions of remote grassroots communities contradict collective
complaints and related development narratives in the region. Compared with total popu-
lation, there are not even minimum required number of health posts, material facilities and
experts, at least in terms of quantity. The reported accounts pertaining health develop-
ment, considers overall national quantities, commonly in thousands; and thus, they tend
to be misleading narratives. The number of health centers, facilities and experts narrated
