Ethnic Recognition Under Minority Rule in Ethiopia

This chapter examines the adoption and effects on peace of past non-recognition and contemporary ethnic recognition under minority rule in Ethiopia. On the question of adopting ethnic federalism, it shows that the ruling Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) had a keen understanding of its minority position and appreciated the assuring benefits of recognition. While the TPLF acknowledged the mobilization risks of recognition, the nature of Ethiopia’s war-to-peace transition made it such that the new minority leadership needed to recognize ethnic groups in order to win power. On the question of effects on peace, the chapter assesses the assuring effects of ethnic federalism, the authoritarian strategies that the minority-led regime used to compensate against the mobilization risks, and the mixed implications for peace. The chapter concludes by considering future prospects after the 2018 change in leadership to a plurality Oromo leader for the first time in Ethiopian history.

Forging Germans under Germany

Chapter 3 is dedicated to the German occupation of the Western Banat during World War II. Employing archival and press sources from Germany and Serbia, as well as original oral history interviews, it explores the interplay between Reich-German and local Donauschwaben authorities in shaping institutions that would profoundly affect ethnic German children and young people’s wartime experience and conceptualizations of “Germanness”: the National Socialist Volksgruppenführung (minority leadership), the German-language school, and the Church. As the chapter shows, experiences of violence, the Nazi takeover of virtually all local ethnic German organizations, and the disappearance of any official religious alternatives caused an at least public equation of “German” with “National Socialist”—a definition which would be promoted, ignored, and resisted by individual youth.

Progress on the introduction of supervisory ward manager roles since the Francis report recommendations

Recommendation 195 of the Francis report suggested that the introduction of supervisory ward managers into clinical practice could improve the quality of patient care in England. The Department of Health and NHS Commissioning Board's vision and strategy Compassion in Practice in 2012 restated the recommendation in action area four, with trusts required to publish progress. With the aim of identifying whether the lessons of the Francis report had been learned, a review of the published literature since 2012 retrieved only five articles on the subject, with many anecdotal accounts of its implementation in local trusts. The three subsequent update reports of Compassion in Practice stopped backing recommendation 195 and promoted black and ethnic minority leadership, a laudable initiative, but not a recommendation of the Francis report. The authors suggest recommendation 195 and Compassion in Practice's original action area four should be promoted again to ensure public safety and address the notion that lessons learned are less likely to be repeated.

Two decades in the making : reflecting on an approach to increase the participation and success of Pacific students at the Otago Medical School in New Zealand.

Introduction: Health professional institutions are required to train a health workforce to meet the needs of their increasingly diverse communities. One approach is to increase the diversity of their student cohorts. This article provides some reflections on the approach from one institution to increase the participation and success of Pacific students, an under-represented group in its medical programme. Methods: A review of the University’s strategic documents and initiatives to improve the participation and success of Pacific students in the medical programme was conducted. The total number of Pacific students enrolled in medicine and their completion rates from 1996 to 2016 was requested from central university administration. The academic performance of Pacific students for the same period was requested from the medical school administration. The two extracts were merged and the annual performance for all Pacific students was analysed using Microsoft Excel. Interpretation of the results and perspectives discussed are shaped by the authors’ institutional knowledge. Results: The earliest recorded efforts to increase the participation of Pacific students in the medical programme was through an affirmative action approach in 1951. Pacific student numbers, however, did not increase over subsequent years, until a more strategic approach was taken through the establishment of a Pacific Strategic Framework in 2011. The Framework coordinated a University-wide approach, engaged senior University leaders in the process, empowered Pacific staff, enabled targeted support for students and meaningful engagements with Pacific communities. These coordinated efforts coincided with positive outcomes for Pacific students’ in the medical programme. Conclusions: The building of capacity and capability for under-represented groups require patience, persistence, advocacy, diplomacy and risk-taking. Having a university-wide strategic approach that is endorsed at the highest levels, supported well through appropriate resourcing, including the empowerment of minority leadership within the institution is required. It is important also for senior institutional leadership to be consciously aware of institutional racism and the historical, economic and social forces that lie behind it. Last by not least, building genuine and meaningful engagements with these minority communities is vital, and will support institutional efforts to meet the needs of their diverse communities.