Illicit Economies and Social Strife in East Africa
At a recent event, Open Society Fellow Vanda Felbab-Brown discussed her work in Kenya, Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Somalia, where she researched illicit economies including logging, mining, poaching, human trafficking, the drug trade, and maritime piracy.
Her work focuses on how these illicit economies intersect with violent conflict, social strife, terrorism, and with urban gangs, with a particular interest in comparative policy effectiveness and the tradeoffs made by policy-makers in considering the human dimensions of illicit economies. The Ethiopian government, for example, turned young pickpockets and hustlers into tourist guides as an alternative to organized crime, which had the unintended consequence of distorting local community structures.
In this discussion, Felbab-Brown also made observations on similarities and differences with other regions including Afghanistan and South Asia, and Latin America. Listen above.
