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…hands women 50 per cent of cabinet positions!
By Nsikan Ikpe
Ethiopia’s reformist Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed has launched yet another set of ambitious initiatives designed to completely overhaul the state of relations in one of Africa’s oldest nations.
This time, he is among other things, appointing women to half of his government’s ministerial positions, including the critical role of defence minister.
Since coming into office in April, Abiy has unleashed reform after reform in yhe Horn of Africa state. He has released hundreds of political prisoners, struck historic peace deals with about all of the nation’s neighbours and even commenced work on establishing a naval force for the landlocked nation!
Explaining his recent move to level the gender gap in top government positions in the country, Abiy told Parliament that the step would help in the restoration of peace and stability to the nation.
The Ethiopian move now brings to two the number of reformist African states that have significantly moved to promote equal gender representation in the national polity, the other being Rwanda. On their part, South Africa and Botswana lead a second set of fairly impressive gender reformist states in the continent while nations like Nigeria have lately regressed even further on the gender parity scale.
Among other introduced reforms is the shrinking of the national cabinet with the gross number of ministerial jobs that are available being cut from 28 to 20.
Also underscoring his deep passion for bridge-building and the cultivation and deepening of national and regional harmony, the 42-year leader has also created a new ministry to directly oversee these initiatives and named a substantive Minister of Peace.
Analysts say that the string of reforms being implemented in the country is even more striking given that Ahmed has only been in office for a mere six months.
Ethiopia is one of the fastest growing economies in Africa.
Ethiopia’s prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed
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