Ethiopia has shown encouraging economic development in the past years. The swirls of
economic bubbles are impacting the different regions of the country. Unlike the past,
when the borders and lowlands were largely excluded, the margins are now increasingly
becoming part of the development scheme of the state. At the moment, there are
several national and regional development projects being implemented in Gambella
Regional State (GRS), one of Ethiopia’s nine regions, or kililochs (Amharic language),
in the west of the country, on the border with South Sudan. There is steady growth
in construction and infrastructure, growing investment, a flourishing of the private
sector, urbanisation, and an expanding livestock trade and exchange economy in this
region. However, being part of the development scheme of the federal state does not
necessarily guarantee that this peripheral region will be integrated and brought closer
to the political, cultural and economic core.