Analytical Review “Agrarian and Food Systems of the Global South” dedicated to Zimbabwe and Ethiopia (October 2024) In 2023, the average share of agriculture in GDP for 152 countries of the world was 10.25%. The highest rate is in Sierra Leone (64.35%), the lowest in Singapore (0.03%). The two African countries presented in this review are members of the global Top 10 in terms of the share of the agricultural sector in GDP: Ethiopia is in 5th place - 35.8%, and Zimbabwe is in 10th place with 27%. This circumstance - a significant share of agriculture in the country's GDP, as well as the lack of access to the sea - forces both Harare and Addis Ababa to make non-trivial decisions to support agribusiness, expand markets and ensure national food security. After the economic crisis and record inflation in 2008, Zimbabwe became the third largest agricultural exporter to the UAE ($105 million). Ethiopia has completed the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, but disputes with Egypt and Sudan over the shortage of water resources on the Nile River continue. Ethiopia leases a port from Djibouti for $1.5 billion a year, while Zimbabwe is resolving the issue of supplies to the UAE via South Africa and Mozambique. International relations once again demonstrate that a selfish approach leads to even greater expenditures of time and money without any foreseeable profit, in contrast to a long-term consensus between both direct stakeholders and transit counterparties or neighboring states. Read more about the UAE’s interest in the potential of Zimbabwe’s food market and the role of national infrastructural projects of Ethiopia in the provision of food security in the document.

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