Urban Development - Improving public and private urban governance for investment and growth.

1. Financing Development
in war torn Shalodia
By Girma Beyene
girmabs@gmail.com

2. This presentation had been prepared for:
. Government officials
. Ethnic group elders
.Ethnic group leaders
and representatives of various groups
within each ethnic group who will be
directly affected and whose awareness
and willful participation has a meaningful
impact on the expected outcome.

3. Shalodia, a region within Lordokia, recently
came out of Ethnic conflict that disrupted
internal peace and aggravated internal
displacement of people fleeing the fight
between factions. Lordokia has five regional
administrations and it took strong
commitment on the part of the Central
Government and cooperation of elders of the
two ethnic groups to bring about peace.

4. The peace so achieved will not last
long unless concerted actions are
taken by the Government,
international community and the
private sector to bring about
economic growth that shall improve
the livelihood of the people.

5. The valley in which the two
ethnic groups live is fertile and
probably has sufficient natural
resource that can be
developed. Due lack peace in
the area thorough study to
identify the potentials
available has not been done.
Now that the elders, community
members and the Government are
committed to bring about fast
development the essential study
can be conducted.

6. Currently available data about the valley has the
following features.
. The road to cross the valley is
expected to be 250 kms and
construction will take five years
. Total land mass 75,000
square km……..
. There are 10 settlements in
the valley
. There are 3 perennial
rivers……………..
. Power requirement is
estimated to be 100MW
. Development potentials
available are cattle rearing,
horticultural production,
cotton growing, Sugar
manufacturing, honey and
many more to be identified
professionally in the future

7. Rough estimate of Current land use:
.15% forest
.10% hills and rocky
. 10% settlement
. 30% farms under private holding
. 35% plain suitable for mechanized farming with
no settlement. It was the cause of ethnic conflict.
. Mining potential unknown
. Land use planning taking into consideration the
interest of valley dwellers is imperative.

8. Initially the entities that have the capacity to bring about
change should come together to discuss the role each
group shall paly.
The primary action shall
be to avail infrastructure
in the form of all
weather roads, power,
water and sanitation, ICT
and possibly rail road in
the future.
With these in place the private sector and FDI(Foreign direct
investment) will crowd in gradually. SME’s will flourish.

9. Road construction apart from
giving access to the valley it will
give job for the people and initiate
SME’s to flourish, especially those
who can manage stone crushers
and other input for the road
construction other than their
labor.

10. The construction of access road motivates
growing of cash crops and improvement of
livelihood of the people of the valley.
Resettlements of displaced people and their
engagement in worthwhile activities will also be
enhanced. Though systematic study and
determination of actual potential remains to be
done, there is huge cattle and bovine animals
potential, cotton growing and feeding into future
textile industries are, horticultural crops growing
and marketing are some of the potentials already
identified.

11. Providing technical and
vocational education and
establishing institutions of
higher learning are issues to
be addressed at latter stage.
Healthcare has to be acted
up on immediately as the
valley is low land where
various types of disease that
can be prevented with
primary healthcare and
vaccination thrive.

12. The economic development of Shalodia, which
is expected and agreed upon by main
stakeholders depends on the contributions of
many international bodies and domestic
resources to be mobilized.
The stakeholders that are expected to participate are:
. MDB’s
.The public sector
. Philanthropic Organizations
. Private sector

13. The role these stakeholders are expected to play are:
. MDB’s shall provide soft loan to the Government to develop
infrastructure, technical advice, offer training and engage in
capacity building activities. Financial support to Government
budget to cover losses due to incentives given to motivate the
private sector and probably policy measures (monitory and
fiscal)

14. Contd…
• Government mobilizes domestic finance form domestic banks,
pension funds, insurance companies to blend with donor funds
or private capital in development activities.
• Establishing funds like road fund to be financed by vehicle
owners along with their annual fees during technical test to
ascertain road worthiness and license renewals would help to
raise funds for road construction, at least partially.

15. Tax holiday for investors, making land
available, promulgating laws that
encourage unions formation
(producers, credit and savings ets.)
availing soft bank loans for those who
are willing to work in low income
markets and awarding good
performers are some of the gestures
expected from the Government.

16. . Philanthropic organizations and
individuals shall engage in
healthcare specially immunization
and control of diseases such as
malaria, HIV/AIDS and water born
diseases, provision of clean
potable water, supporting
low cost houses,
establishment of vocational and
technical training center by NGO’s
to avail trained manpower for
industries to come etc. The
training shall be free or with
minimum contribution from
trainees or sponsoring
organizations.

17. . Private sector in
development projects that
have multiple impact in
employment generation,
efficiency and productivity
economic growth or in
general economically
profitable activities in
cooperation with
government sources,
domestic private sources
and foreign capital.

18. Expected outcomes are:
• Overall economic growth and
equitable wealth distribution
among citizens
• Self-sufficiency regional peace
• Political stabilization
• Creation of conducive investment
environment that attracts FDI to
bring about accelerated
development.