Paper short abstract:

This paper explores Ethiopia-China engagement in the financing and development of Adama wind farms in Ethiopia and questions explicitly the role of Ethiopians in conditioning the financing and project implementation decision making patterns.

Paper long abstract:

Despite the long-standing tradition in the mainstream media, policy and academic scholarship on China's role in investing and providing with development finance in Africa, the majority of these narratives assume China dominates the decision making processes around the investments. We challenge these assertions with contextual reference to Ethiopia-China cooperation in wind energy infrastructure financing where Ethiopia is seen to be more active in conditioning the investment decision making patterns. Located in the 'developmental state', 'authoritarian approaches to development' and African agency—implying the ability of African (Ethiopian) governments and their people to meaningfully and purposefully engage with the external (Chinese) stakeholders to their benefit, we firstly investigate the drivers and motivations for Ethiopia to outstandingly attract development finance from China for its wind energy infrastructure. Secondly, we interrogate agency on deal brokering and project management processes as they are definitive stages regarding possible outcomes of the financing. By focusing on these issues, it allows us to develop a new reading on politics of attracting development finance by African (Ethiopia) countries precisely in this era of dwindled hard infrastructure financing by traditional donors and western development partners.