Woldemariam Publishes Research on COVID-19 in the Horn of Africa
Michael Woldemariam, Associate Professor of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, published a new report with Hateta Policy Research, an Ethiopia-based research organization, on the effects of COVID-19 in the Horn of Africa.
In the research report, titled “COVID-19 in the Horn of Africa: Political and Economic Impact,” Woldemariam and co-authors Goitom Gebreluel and Jostein Hauge explore how the social, economic, and humanitarian consequences of COVID-19 may evolve during the pandemic and in its aftermath. The authors state that, while some states in the Horn of Africa have been resilient to some of the societal effects of COVID-19, the specter of an increased gap in inequality combined with the elite-level rivalry might fuel political violence.
Woldemariam, Gebreluel, and Haughe’s report is meant to serve as a resource for policy practitioners, government officials, scholars, and students as they aim to tackle the effects of the pandemic in the region.
An excerpt:
The Horn of Africa has been confronted with COVID-19 at a time when its societies have been grappling with a combination of extreme humanitarian, security, and economic challenges, including insurgencies, ethnic conflict, food insecurity, external debt burdens and a locust swarm. While many of the political and economic consequences of the pandemic in the region have been in line with global patterns, it has also reinforced existing national pathologies. The question of how best to manage the pandemic and its broader effects has created acute conflicts and exacerbated major domestic political rifts.
The full report can be read here.
Michael Woldemariam is an associate professor of International Relations at Boston University’s Pardee School of Global Studies whose teaching and research interests are in African security studies, with a particular focus on armed conflict in the Horn of Africa. Woldemariam’s scholarly work has been published in the journals Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Terrorism and Political Violence, Journal of Strategic Studies, and the Journal of Eastern African Studies. Read more here.