Policy books on specific issues with specific cases tend to have a shorter shelf life of relevance. Keeley and Scoones wrote "Understanding Environmental Policy Processes: Cases from Africa" in 2003, and it largely falls in this category. The book has three cases as chapters (Ethiopia, Mali, Zimbabwe) and some general chapters on knowledge, power and politics; environmental policy processes; international policy processes; and a concluding chapter on engagement spaces. The Ethiopia case study brought out the naive and idealistic views, such as those pitched by Sasakawa Global 2000, suggesting that the addition of fertilizer would triple yields and "off the shelf" packages would increase maize yields tenfold. SG2000 was integrated in, and was the primary driver of, the expanded agricultural extension program of the then new Zenawi government. The influence was exerted by foreign consultants, often with World Bank and CG ties, to put SG2000 in this unique position of influencing power. The book offers some interesting historical notes of Zenawi visiting farms with Jimmy Carter and Norman Borlaug (in 1994). The authors suggest - in 2003 - a lot of money wasted and little progress. This book is interesting in that is looks at the role of networks in influencing or setting policy. One lengthy note in the Conclusion of the Ethiopia case:

"... the policy process - linked to agriculture, natural resources and environment in Ethiopia - is undoubtedly complex. Policy conflicts are not resolved, it seems, as a result of simple technical and rational choices between different alternatives. Policy is the stuff of politics and people, and of knowledge and power. The rise or fall of different policy emphases depends upon the successful (or otherwise) enrolment of actors - scientists, donors, politicians, NGO staff, farmers and others - and the creation of networks that are able to make use of a policy space, emerging as a result of particular contexts, circumstances and timings. Policies can be seen to be embedded in local settings - in the political histories of different regions, in the cultures of regional bureaucracies and administrations, and dependent upon the histories of educational advantage and disadvantage, as well as rooted in ideologies and practices of governance and participation. Policies, it seems, often have a certain inertia: particular ideas and practices stick, despite concerted challenges to basic concepts and ways of working. If actor networks are tightly formed and impenetrable, and contexts and circumstances are not conducive to change, no amount of rational argument will budge a policy from its pedestal. However, as we have noted, things do change once distinct and well-guarded policy positions begin to fall apart, and other arguments become incorporated, softening the stance and, through this process, enlarging the associated actor network. Key events may allow this to happen, creating new policy spaces and new opportunities for challenge and open debate. The result is often the partial unravelling of old actor networks and the creation of new ones around alternative policy discourses, which, previously, featured only on the fringes of mainstream policy discussion." (p. 97) 

Part of the Reading Ethiopia series

This book was written by Lovise Aalen in 2011 and it is unfortunate that I had not read this book until now, given the geography and topics covered (apologies Dr Aalen if you are out there). The author says this book explores a unique experiment in institutionalizing the politics of ethnicity: the implementation of ethnic based federalism in Ethiopia from 1991 onward" (p. vii). The data in the book comes from the mid-2000s for a doctoral study (supervised by Tronvoll). Two in-depth case studies cover Wolaita and Sidama, which have become critical cases for the topic of politics and ethnicity (the author correctly identifies the future fracture points of ethnofederalism). Still well worth a read. A few notes:

"There is no doubt that the TPLF as a guerrilla movement was inspired by the Stalinist theory of nationalities. After taking power, the front continued to believe that ethnicity was a natural and efficient principle on which to organize and mobilize the people as long as this mobilisation was led by a strong party. A clear indication that the TPLF continued to be inspired by the Soviet system and that the Soviet understanding of the 'nationality question' is that the Ethiopian Constitution of 1995 gives 'nations, nationalities, and peoples' the right to succession in Article 39. No other current constitution incorporates the right." (p. 35)

"Both the Wolayta and the Sidama initially welcomed the Italian occupation of Ethiopia, which began in 1936. The colonizers abolished the hated landlord system and did not expropriate the land, and they thus appeared as liberators from the Amhara oppressors. In Sidama, people rose up against their lords and collaborated with the Italians when they realised that the Amhara lords could not stand against the foreign invasion. When the colonizers left in 1941, the Sidama tried to organize Military to prevent the return of the Amhara rulers. This led to retaliation from the Amhara: people who had taken the Italian side were imprisoned, their cattle were confiscated, their land was seized. The Sidama today talk about this period as the second terror (hulettegna sherber) and recall that it renewed the suffering of what they call the first terror, which occurred when the Amhara came to Sidama for the first time during the reign of Menelik." (p. 75)

"The constructivist approach to ethnicity, however, underlines that we should not take for granted that ethnic groups are cohesive and that members of subgroups of the ethnic group always act in the same way. Every ethnic group is a collection of different subgroups with different opinions and alliances. Moreover, identities other than ethnic, notably by class or gender, and generation, shape the political mobilisation in a given community." (p. 127)

"I will argue, however, that in the Ethiopian context it is not actors within the ethnic groups alone who have revived the discriminatory practices. Rather, the EPRDF's promotion of ethnicity as the major organizing principle of society has combined with its pragmatic power politics in local communities to reproduce rather than challenge the traditional hierarchies." (p. 144)

"At the end of the 1990's the Sidama Development Programme, with support from Irish Aid, built a road on the Sidama side, along with a bridge, a health center and a school. This was done in order to give the Sidama population in the area, including those of the eight mender, a better supply of the services. The Sidama on the eastern side of the river started sending their children to the newly built school, but this was disrupted when the school was destroyed by parties to the conflict in 2002. These Improvements in Infrastructure on the Sidama Sid have been interpreted in ethnic terms: the Wolayta have argued that the developments were personally initiated by the regional president at that time, Abate Kisho from Sidama, as a part of campaign to disfavour the Wolayta." (p. 167)

"As the current political regime favors ethnic organisation of politics and has drawn administrative boundaries along ethnic lines, political boundaries along ethnic lines, political actors find that it pays to sharpen ethnic divides. Before ethnic-based self-rule can be implemented it has to be made clear which people belong to which group (identity discrimination) and which territories each group should be entitled to govern (territorial demarcation). This process may increase people's awareness of ethnic differences and may also create a potential for territorial disputes between groups. Groups of people that did not previously look upon themselves as ethnic entities may press such claims in order to gain their own administrative units. Thus the launch of ethnic self-administration has led to increased political mobilisation on ethnic grounds." (p. 179-180)

One of the Horn of Africa's long-time scholars, Christopher Clapham, wrote "The Horn of Africa: State Formation and Decay" (2017), with Oxford University Press. A lot of the book, expectedly, focuses on Ethiopia. And, unfortunately for Clapham, the world of Ethiopia and the Horn has changed dramatically since. The book is accessible, which is often a nicer way to say this is not a detailed academic book for experts of the area but for students and/or generalists who might be interested to learn about the region. I am sure experts will read this book / have read this book, but may take away comparatively less (that said, a number of leading academics of the region have cited this book). I collected a few notes on ethnicity and on the Somali state, which are below:

"All ethnicities, nonetheless, are to some extent fluid, and this fluidity is encouraged in the societies of the northern highlands by the principle of bilateral descent. Whereas in most African cultures, to which lineage is characteristically extremely important, descent is traced primarily either through the male (patrilineal) or female (matrilineal) line, in this region each enjoyed a broadly equal status, and hereditary rights in land in particular could be claimed either through one's father or one's mother. This made it relatively easy to blur one's identity, by selectively emphasising the most advantageous line." (p. 13)

"The genie of ethnicity, however, once unleashed, could not be put back in its bottle. The assumption, derived from the TPLF's (and especially Meles Zenawi's) ideological commitment to Marxism, that ethnicity was no more than a superstructural phenomenon derived from economic exploitation, which could in turn be neutralised by representation and development, proved utterly inadequate. Instead, predictably enough, ethnic identities have become increasingly entrenched within a system that had been intended to nullify them. A new politics of identity has emerged, despite (and not least within) a hegemonic party that has become decreasingly able to control the forces of proliferation that it did not create (since these were already implicit in the mismatch between the state and its population), but which it had at least sought to manage." (p. 107)

"Somali societies have operated in the absence of formal government institutions in a way that could scarcely be conceived in the agricultural highlands of the Horn, where the breakdown of hierarchical control has been coterminous with violence. Nowhere is this clearer than in the operation of an economy that has functioned with remarkable efficiency despite the lack of overall political control, and has in the process spared many Somalis the levels of destitution that statelessness might have been expected to bring with it." (p. 149) 

Emerging out of a 2016 workshop organized by the Forum for Social Studies in Addis Ababa (also the publisher of the book), the 2018 publication "Land, Landlessness and Poverty in Ethiopia" presents cases / chapters from four regions in Ethiopia (SNNP, Amhara, Oromia, Tigray). The book is edited by Dessalegn Rahmato, and covers a topic he has been alerting our attention to for several years - landlessness. The full book is available for download here. Notes from the Introduction by Dessalegn:

"Landlessness is an important subject for close examination because it is an overarching problem with implications for poverty, social stability and the environment. Despite this, however, it has not attracted serious investigation and there are not many in-depth analyses of the subject and its ramifications. The problem is in large measure a product of demographic pressure, land scarcity and the insufficiency of access to non-farm employment in the rural areas. Landlessness is now growing to be a significant problem, and, in some of the densely settled communities, it has reached crisis levels, causing serious concern among kebelle and woreda authorities. The problem is an indicator of poverty, and no program of poverty reduction can succeed without addressing it in a meaningful way. There is a generational factor at work here: the tenure regime in place disadvantages young peasants who, by law, should have been provided farm plots by the kebelles concerned but are not because there is no arable land to distribute. This generational divide has the potential to erode social stability and cohesion. As is discussed by all the researchers in their work, the response of the young to landlessness has been varied but of particular significance has been the phenomenon of out-migration from the rural areas. Such migration may be to bigger urban centers in search of employment (this is evident in Addis Ababa), but the migration that has drawn public attention because of the dangers involved is the illegal migration to foreign countries such as the Middle East and South Africa and the victimization of would-be migrants by people smugglers and the human tragedy it has caused." (p. 4)

"Landlessness is a serious and growing problem in all rural areas, and yet it has not been given the attention it deserves by local authorities. For the purposes of the study, the following definition of landlessness was adopted by the research teams: any individual living in a rural community who has no rights to land registered in his or her name is considered landless. Having temporary access to land under a rental arrangement does not disqualify the person in question from being described as landless. In many cases, a landless person has no access to land of any kind, no employment and no income. The first point to bear in mind is that landlessness is at the heart of the generational fault-line facing rural society. Invariably, those suffering from the misfortune of having no rights to land are the young, and young males appear in the picture more prominently than young females. The major factors that were found to be responsible for rising landlessness included demographic change and consequent land shortage; large-scale investments in commercial agriculture, manufacturing and infrastructure; land degradation; and the paucity of non-farm (or off-farm) employment opportunities." (p. 6)