Dust in the Wind

Dire Dawa, my assignment location, was situated approximately 500 km east of the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. In that city where the dry winds carried swirling sand, I was assigned to the Dire Dawa Job Creation and Food Security Agency at the City Office. The primary objective of the agency was to expand job creation in the city through support for Micro and Small-scale enterprises and reduce the unemployment rate. My daily activities involved engaging with various individuals in the city primarily the women entrepreneurs who sold homemade barley pasta, or were the sole proprietors of kiosks.

Known for its significant Muslim population, Dire Dawa stood out as a rarity in Ethiopia, where the Ethiopian Orthodox Church has deep roots. Unlike other areas where the prevalent cuisine revolves around injera (a type of flat bread eaten with various types of stews), my days were filled with the enjoyment of moderately spiced Somali dishes with rice, pasta, chicken, and goat meat. The city’s unique location as a midpoint between the Port of Djibouti and Addis Ababa has added to its distinctiveness. During the early 20th century, Dire Dawa attracted a considerable number of French individuals who led the construction of the railroads and hosted British military forces after World War II, resulting in a constant influx of foreigners. Thanks to this historical and cultural background, the people of Dire Dawa are very diverse, cheerful and sociable.

In Dire Dawa, entrepreneurs face challenges in trying new things away from traditional business practices and collaborating with other businesses, resulting in a lack of new ideas, improvement strategies, and cooperation. To overcome these challenges, we organized workshops to address relationship-building and develop new solutions through cooperation. Interactive sessions and trial-and-error approaches were employed to explore exchange programs, seeking the most suitable approach for the city. We also reached out to students in schools to nurture an entrepreneurial mindset through role-playing games as pseudo-entrepreneurship. The goal was to foster cooperation, generate fresh ideas, and overcome the barriers to collaboration, particularly considering the limited capital of micro and small-scale businesses.

Overall, being in Dire Dawa provided me with the opportunity to deeply contemplate things I had previously taken for granted or had not considered. It gave me ample time for self-reflection and to ponder how to act upon my ideas. This assignment prompted me to reflect on personal growth and the implementation of ideas. I am grateful for this opportunity, and I am eager to continue utilizing it to make a positive impact on myself wherever my journey continues.

Kosuke Kudo conducting a workshop on building business relationships and developing new solutions.