We had a very interesting dinner talk with Dr. Dambala Gelo Kutela, a visiting scholar at Cornell, on Thursday of September 7th. He is an economist focusing on the income inequality and the child education opportunity in Ethiopia. We started the talk with he introducing his academic background. I was really impressed to know that despite he started his school at 12 years-old, but he finished primary school in 3 years and middle and high school in 4 years. I can feel his strong learning ability and motivation in his educational background. Then, he talked about his family, his children and his wife, to let us know him better, and we as students also talked about what each of us learns at school, our majors, and our interest.

The most interesting part of this dinner talk is when Dr. Kutela, talked about his research and his insight on the Inequal education opportunity and how it related to the politics and economic systems. He analysed the root cause of this issue and pointed out that the reason of many children unable to receive education, is not that they don’t want to go to school, but the incomplete social educational system that put the burden on each family. Since the predominant producing drive in Ethiopia is agriculture, which is highly versatile to the natural climate changes and seasonal situation. Once the climate is not preferable for agriculture, there will be a huge pressure on the families in the country, due to the lack of social security system. The way he connected the education issues with the economic system really is novel to me, and help me to understand the econ knowledge better as well as knowing what is the problems that are facing in another country, let me reflect upon what I can do, using my knowledge, in the future to change it and make a difference.

I found dinner with Dr. Dambala Gelo Kutela, a visiting Cornell STAAR Fellow from Ethiopia, particularly interesting as he brought a refreshing perspective to the table as a non-American. At least two other students and Dr. Kutela shared the cultural norms and practices of their home countries which deepened my understanding of global issues including the dependence of diverse communities on weather and environmental patterns. On a less serious note, I enjoyed hearing about the aspects of general American culture which come as cultural shock to international students and the visiting scholar.

As my first activity as Rose Scholar this Fall, I participated on a very interesting conversation dinner with Dr. Dambala Gelo Kutela, who is a native of Ethiopia, where he studied forestry prior to obtaining his MS in Economics and Resource Management in Norway, and his PhD in Economics from the University of Pretoria in South Africa in 2015 where he continues to work as a postdoctoral. In 2017, Dr. Kutela came to Cornell as a STAARS Fellow, a program that stands for Structural Transformation of African Agriculture and Rural Spaces, supported by the African Development Bank, the World Bank, and USAID among others. At Cornell, Dr. Kutela works with Professor Christopher Barrett at the Dyson School of Economics on economic development and transformation in sub-Saharan Africa. The topic of his research is improving our understanding of the drivers of poverty and food insecurity, and how private and public policy can facilitate desirable structural transformation in low-income societies. During dinner, Dr. Kutela described how parental income is very uncertain for farmers in Ethiopia due to severe draught exacerbated by climate change, and how children can only attend school when the crops grow well, while they are taken out of school if bad weather affects their crops as they have to help their families generate their income.   Dr. Kutela’s father was also a farmer in Ethiopia, and as a child he had no choice but to stop studying to help his father. It is the uncertainty of the income for farming families that is at the center of the lack of continuity in child education that becomes a major driver for poverty in Ethiopia, with more than half of its population being illiterate. Dr. Kutela’s very personal story was very enlightening to me as we many times take for granted education, food, running water when others cannot.

Ethiopia’s economy relies heavily in farming, with its main export being coffee. Ethiopia’s main sources of income come from services and its agricultural economy but unfortunately drought is still a major factor affecting directly farming families and threatening food security. In recent years, Ethiopia has attracted roughly $8.5 billion in foreign direct investment, mostly from China. However, Dr. Kutela’s expressed apprehension of political corruption that does not lead to investment in development for the Ethiopian needs. In my view, a very challenging future for a country with such rich cultural heritage, and cradle of the first modern humans. Hopefully, Dr. Kutela’s training and that of others with true interest in economic development will help Africa and particularly Ethiopia implement innovative approaches to prevent extreme poverty for the well-being of their population. Certainly, continuous child education and increased literacy are essential foundation for sustainable development.

Dinner with Dr. Dambala Kutela was an enlightening introduction to not only Dr. Kutela’s specific research or Ethiopian socioeconomic issues, but those faced by many agrarian countries that have been left behind in the tide of globalization. Dr. Kutela explained how seemingly irrelevant phenomenons, specifically climate change, are influencing who gets educated.

Even education, the great equalizer, is not immune to the effects of the butterfly effect.

It was inspiring to hear how at the age of 14 Dr. Kutela first began his education- from the first grade. It’s humbling to know that what is offered to me on a silver spoon is something the rest of the world attains like its a luxury. It’s a luxury for some people my exact age in the world to know what place they occupy in this world and of what is actually out there physically and/or metaphysically.

Living in the U.S. it can be easy to forget how convenient many aspects of life are here when compared to another country. Even with its current multitude of issues, there are basic rights and opportunities everyone in the U.S. has that isn’t as accessible elsewhere in the world, especially when concerning early education. That’s why Dr. Kutela’s talk was so insightful and intriguing.  Even through various news outlets and social media, it’s very hard to accurately portray the exact nature and cause of a large issue. However, having someone who has lived through, and studies, the current problems of the African economy makes it clear that this is a large cause of the lack of education in Africa. Even if parents want to send their kids to school, that not only means having to pay for school and everything that goes along with that, but also losing extra money in lost labor. Add in the factor that a bad season could be fatal, it makes much more sense why getting an education can be so hard and the inherent frustration in the problem.

As a US native I hear a to about the state of African political and economic affairs from an outsider’s perspective. This is why it was so refreshing and interesting to hear from Dr. Kutela who researches the how a national economy can effect a child’s education. The root lies in stabilizing the income of the children’s parents year-to-year so that they don’t need to have their kids work in the field for them to make a livable income. But it was also heartening to hear Dr. Kutela’s own life story from being one of those impoverished children working on a farm to beginning 1^st grade at the age of twelve to earning a PhD in economics. I knew I was lucky to be a student at Cornell, but now even more so now that it really has been put into perspective.