Limits to Donor Influence: Ethiopia, Aid and Conditionality

This article examines the relations between Ethiopia and its donors since 1990, with a focus on how donors have attempted to influence Ethiopian policies. Four different periods are delimited: the early EPRDF years (1990–1998); the war with Eritrea (1998–2000); the post-war years (2000–2005); and after the 2005 elections (2005–2007). While donors have applied very different policies towards Ethiopia over this period, it seems that none of them have had much impact in terms of influencing Ethiopian policies. This is explained both by Ethiopian strategies for resisting imposition, as well as by donors' inability to consistently follow coherent and coordinated strategies.