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Ethiopia Resettlement and Villagization
The policy of encouraging voluntary resettlement went back
to 1958, when the government established the first known
planned resettlement in Sidamo. Shortly after the 1974
revolution, it became Derg policy to accelerate
resettlement. Article l8 of the l975 Land Reform
Proclamation stated that "the government shall have the
responsibility to settle peasants or to establish cottage
industries to accommodate those who, as a result of
distribution of land . . . remain with little or no land."
Accordingly, in l975/76 there were eighty-eight settlement
centers accommodating 38,8l8 households. The government
conducted most of these resettlement programs under the
auspices of the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC)
and the Ministry of Agriculture. By l982 there were ll2
planned settlements populated by more than l20,000 people.
The settlements were concentrated mainly in the south and
southwest. In l984 Addis Ababa announced its intention to
resettle l.5 million people from the drought-affected
northern regions to the south and southwest, where arable
land was plentiful. By l986 the government had resettled
more than 600,000 people to three settlement areas. More
than 250,000 went to Welega; about l50,000 settled in the
Gambela area of Ilubabor; and just over l00,000 went to
Pawe, the largest planned resettlement in Gojam and largely
sustained by Italian financial support. In addition, another
78,000 went to Kefa, Shewa, and western Gonder.
In mid-l986 the government halted the resettlement program,
largely to fend off the negative reaction from the
international community. But in November l987 the program
resumed, and in March l988 Mengistu spoke of the need to
move at least 7 million people. He claimed resettlement
would resolve the country's recurring drought problem and
would ease population pressure from northern areas where the
land had been badly overused. Western donors and
governments, whom Addis Ababa expected to help with the
program, remained apprehensive of the government's
intentions, however. Some believed that the plan to resettle
l.5 million people by l994 was unrealistic, given the
country's strained finances. Others argued that resettlement
was a ploy to depopulate areas of resistance, weaken the
guerrillas' support base, and deny them access to recruits,
particularly in Eritrea and Tigray. Additional arguments
against resettlement included charges of human rights
violations, forced separations of families, and lack of
medical attention in resettlement centers, which resulted in
thousands of deaths from malaria and sleeping sickness.
Although many of these charges were valid, some criticisms
may have been unfounded. For instance, the claim that the
resettlement was a ploy to depopulate the rebel areas may
not have been valid, given that by 1986 only l5 percent of
the 600,000 resettled peasants were from Tigray and none
were from Eritrea. More than 80 percent of those resettled
were from Welo and Shewa.
In l985 the government initiated a new relocation program
known as villagization. The objectives of the program, which
grouped scattered farming communities throughout the country
into small village clusters, were to promote rational land
use; conserve resources; provide access to clean water and
to health and education services; and strengthen security.
Government guidelines stipulated that villages were to house
200 to 300 households, with l00-square-meter compounds for
each family.
In 1985 Addis Ababa established a national coordinating
committee to oversee the villagization plan's
implementation. By March l986, about 4.6 million people in
Shewa, Arsi, and Harerge had been relocated into more than
4,500 villages. Although the government had villagized about
l3 million people by l989, international criticism,
deteriorating security conditions, and lack of resources
doomed the plan to failure. Nevertheless, Mengistu remained
committed to the villagization concept.
Opponents of villagization argued that the scheme was
disruptive to agricultural production because the government
moved many farmers during the planting and harvesting
seasons. There also was concern that villagization could
have a negative impact on fragile local resources,
particularly on water and grazing land; accelerate the
spread of communicable diseases; and increase problems with
plant pests and diseases. In early 1990, the government
essentially abandoned villagization when it announced new
economic policies that called for free-market reforms and a
relaxation of centralized planning.
Data as of 1991
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