At its April 16, 2016 regular meeting, the Board of Directors of Vision Ethiopia made the second and final assessment of the “Conference on the Future of Ethiopia: Transition, Democracy and National Unity” that was convened on March 26-27, and reaffirmed that the event was successful. It also decided the theme of the third conference to be linked to the key ideas that emerged out of the second conference. Vision Ethiopia, in collaboration with ESAT, is therefore pleased to announce its plan to convene its third two-day long conference in Washington, D.C., October 15 and 16, 2016 under the topic and theme of “Roadmap for Transition and Constitution Making.”
In order to bring about a lasting change and peace in Ethiopia, Vision Ethiopia believes in the necessity of drawing a detailed roadmap for transition and setting the constitutional framework for the multinational, multilingual, and multi-religious state of Ethiopia. Clarity on these two important issues will in turn contribute towards making the transition less complex in addition to regulating political behavior of all stakeholders. Therefore, in order not to repeat the missed opportunities of 1975 and 1991, Vision Ethiopia intends to provide a forum and opportunity for Ethiopian political, legal, and governmental scholars, experts, and practitioners to design a grand strategy that will bring about a fundamental change that will establish a democratic system in Ethiopia that will guarantee national unity, peace and prosperity.
Vision Ethiopia hereby issues this call for papers with the hope of getting considerable number of well thought out contributions. The papers, while outlining possible scenarios of change and change management opportunities to mitigate challenges brought by the transition, are expected to focus on tried and tested policy options and will avoid being ideal and anecdotal. All individuals and groups are invited to contribute. Papers must be written as succinctly as possible and should not be longer than five thousand words. Abstract and preferably the entire paper must be sent on or before July 31, 2016 to visionethiopia2016@gmail.com. Presenters must make their own travel arrangements and arrive at the conference venue on time.