East Africa and the Eastern Nile research
All FutureDAMS journal articles, working papers, pre-prints and briefings specific to the East Africa and Nile basin case study are available below. All other papers can be found on the publications page.
Wherever possible, we make our research open access, but if you’re unable to download a paper, please contact us.
East African and the Eastern Nile research
Title/download | Summary | ||
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01/2021 | Working paper | Powering development: the political economy of electricity generation in the EPRDF’s Ethiopia | This paper examines the political economy of electricity generation planning in Ethiopia during the EPRDF era (1991–2019), highlighting the importance of power relations between politicians and the bureaucracy, the political interests of the ruling party and the dominant ideas shaping politics and the electricity sector. |
01/2021 | Journal article / webinar | Performance of large-scale irrigation projects in sub-Saharan Africa | FutureDAMS researchers quantified the performance of 79 African irrigation schemes. |
10/2020 | Journal article | Understanding and managing new risks on the Nile with the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam | This new research uses historical data from Nile measurements over extended wet, average and dry periods to understand the risks of filling and operating the dam, and the potential impacts of a long-term drought. |
10/2020 | Working paper / webinar | Resettlement of Gumuz communities around Ethiopia's Blue Nile dam | This working paper explores the programme of resettlement of Gumuz farmers and others living at low altitude along the Nile and Beles rivers, whose home areas are expected to be flooded on completion of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) and filling of a new reservoir. |
09/2020 | Journal article | Filling Africa’s Largest Hydropower Dam Should Consider Engineering Realities | This research points out that some negotiated strategies for filling Ethiopia’s new GERD dam could be infeasible in critical river flow conditions due to the limited ability of the dam to release water at low water levels. |
08/2020 | Working paper | The contradictions of an aspiring developmental state: energy boom and bureaucratic independence in Rwanda | What factors drive countries’ economic development? Is it still possible for Africa to follow the trajectory of the Asian states that saw rapid industrialisation in the latter half of the 20th century? This working paper analyses these issues in Rwanda. They focus on debates about the role of the state in development. |
03/2020 | Journal article | Ideology matters: Political machinations, modernism, and myopia in Rwanda's electricity boom | A detailed case study of new hydropower and fossil fuel plants in Rwanda to understand the boom in constructing electricity infrastructure. |
08/2019 | Journal article | Continuity or Change in the Infrastructure Turn? Reform of the Technicians’ Realm in a World Bank Dam | How are new projects planned and constructed? Are we seeing the underestimation of economic, environmental and social costs? Have past critiques changed infrastructure building in the twenty-first century? A case study of Rusumo Falls on the Rwanda-Tanzania border. |
06/2019 | Working paper | What holds back dam building? The role of Brazil in the stagnation of dams in Tanzania | This paper examines this puzzle of resurrected projects being actively planned but not built by looking at two dams in Tanzania between 2009-2017 the Stiegler’s Gorge and Mnyera dams. |
05/2019 | Working paper | Dam building by the illiberal modernisers: ideology and changing rationales in Rwanda and Tanzania | This paper presents research on the ideological drivers for the return of dam building. The paper focuses particularly on Rwanda and Tanzania, but situates this against a broader continental trend that includes Ethiopia, Sudan, Angola, Uganda and Ghana. |
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