Promoting Human Security XLI. Despite the establishment of a modicum of safety and security since 1991, Ethiopia currently faces a multitude of security challenges that could yet impede the country’s development progress. The domestic security problem in the form of the low-level insurgency against two secessionist movements – the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) – both allegedly backed by Eritrea - should be urgently addressed. Establishing a clear role for the Private Sector XLII. The formal or organised private sector in Ethiopia has been recovering from its decimation under the Derg regime but remains both weak and in an uneasy or ambivalent relationship with the government. Although the EPRDP government has taken certain steps for economic reform through trade deregulation, liberalisation, privatisation and an ‘agricultural development-led industrialisation’, the private sector remains relatively small, characterised by small companies, low labour productivity and a high degree of corruption Telecommunications XLIII. While Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation is the oldest public telecommunications operator in Africa, it is still a monopoly and this has stifled innovation and retarded expansion. Despite massive investments in recent years into fixed-wireless and mobile network infrastructure, including third generation mobile technology, as well as a national fibre optic backbone, Ethiopia currently has the second lowest telephone penetration rate in Africa. The mobile market penetration is still one of the lowest in the world at little more than 3 percent. Fixedline penetration is even lower, and this has also impacted on the development of the Internet sector. Prices of broadband connections are excessive. In fact, the 2010 ICT Development Index compiled by the International Telecommunications Union ranked Ethiopia 154 out of 159 countries globally. XLIV. The recent signing of a management deal between France Telecom and Ethiopian incumbent ETC is an encouraging development. Ethiopia needs to follow the evolution in the technology and respond to the needs of its business community and the population at large and ensure that it is not left out of information revolution. I. Commendable Practices Ethiopia’s Role in Africa XLV. Ethiopia, no doubt, played and continues to play a formidable role in forging and cementing African unity. As the most significant emblem of African freedom in - 32 -

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