Justin Williams

‘Above the Government’: The political legacy of a development project in rural Ethiopia

Supervisors: Dr Jonathan Fisher and Dr Claire McLoughlin

Justin’s research explores the long-term legacies of international development projects on authoritarian regimes. His thesis – a case study of a rural development project by the NGO Menschen für Menschen (MfM) in Merhabete district, Amhara region, Ethiopia – argues that development projects can undermine regimes’ political dominance even when they collaborate closely and align their work with such regimes.

Although MfM worked on service delivery, not advocacy, and developed very good relations with the incumbent EPRDF regime (1991-2019), ten years after the project ended it had significantly undermined EPRDF political dominance. It did this by creating a group of people (former staff and beneficiaries) who were financially independent from the regime, and by moulding ideas of what the regime could have done to deliver development, but failed to do. The research has implications for recent literatures on Ethiopian politics, aid and NGOs in authoritarian regimes, and aid and government legitimacy.

Research interests: international interventions, development aid, state-society relations, infrastructure, legitimacy, anthropology and history of development.

Profile

Justin has worked since 2003 at the UK Department for International Development (DFID), now integrated into the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). Since 2014 he has focused on governance work, including roles working on anti-corruption and media development. He has spent time living and working in Syria, Tanzania and Ethiopia, and currently lives in Brussels, Belgium.

Qualifications

MSc Development Studies (London School of Economics)

BA English Language and Literature (Oxford University)

Publications

    • Williams, Justin (2025), ‘Building an idea of the state? Regime dominance and the material legacy of a development project in Ethiopia,’ African Affairs, first view.
    • Williams, Justin (2020), ‘The "Ethnographic Turn" in Peacebuilding: Emancipation, Emotion, and Ethics,' Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 14(3), pp 459-463.

Conference Papers

  • European Conference on African Studies 2023 (Cologne): ‘Strong state, crumbling buildings: infrastructure and state-society relations in a rural development intervention in Ethiopia’
  • Development Studies Association 2021 (online): ‘“Our Government is Karl”: The Micropolitics of a Rural Development Intervention in Ethiopia, 1988-2009’
  • Africa Studies Association 2020 (Washington DC/ online): ‘Entrenching the State or a Rival Source of Power? Power Relations in a Rural Development Project in Ethiopia, 1988-2009’
  • European Conference on African Studies 2019 (Edinburgh): ‘Studying a rural development project in Ethiopia in the 1990s and early 2000s: the value of historical methods’

Contact details:

Email: jxw1023@student.bham.ac.uk