๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐!
๐๐ง ๐๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐๐, ๐๐๐๐, ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐จ๐ฉ๐ข๐๐ง ๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐๐ฅ ๐๐ข๐๐ฅ๐จ๐ ๐ฎ๐ ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ข๐จ๐ง (๐๐๐๐) ๐ฐ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐๐ฎ๐ง๐๐ก ๐ข๐ญ๐ฌ ๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐๐ฅ ๐๐ข๐๐ฅ๐จ๐ ๐ฎ๐ ๐๐จ๐ง๐๐๐ซ๐๐ง๐๐ ๐๐๐ญ๐๐ซ ๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ฒ๐๐๐ซ๐ฌ ๐จ๐ ๐ฅ๐๐๐จ๐ซ ๐จ๐ ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฏ๐.
Over the past four years, the ENDC has focused on nationwide agenda collection, broad stakeholder consultations and civic engagement, and laying the institutional groundwork for a consensus-based national dialogue. It conducted preparatory dialogues across the country covering 1,234 woredasโabout 93% of the countryโto collect citizensโ and groupsโ priority issues for dialogue. Due to security issues, certain areas could not be accessed.
The ENDC held consultations with political parties, elders, religious institutions, civil society organizations, women and youth representatives, and other segments of society, and also reached out to diaspora communities and international partners to broaden participation.
The ENDC collected inputs and feedback on a wide range of issues and consolidated them into thematic areas such as nation-building (identity, history, language, culture), and state structure/ governance/ political system, among others, to structure the national conversation.
The ENDC ran agenda validation workshops with academia, research institutions, and civil society groups; trained national dialogue facilitators; and launched social media and radio/TV awareness campaigns to prepare for the national dialogue conference.
Due to security and operational constraints in the northern Tigray region, the Commission organized agenda collection sessions in Addis Ababa with Tigrayan stakeholders and communities from other regions and planned expanded consultations in Tigray as conditions allowed.
Cicero, the Roman statesman, lawyer and orator wrote, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.โ He believed gratitude is a civic obligation and personal sentiment and the foundation of good character because it cultivates essential traits like kindness, patience, humility, and generosity.
In the spirit of Cicero’s counsel, I wish to publicly express my gratitude to the Ethiopian National Dialogue Commission for its 4-year labor of love searching far and wide, high and low, from north to south and from east to west to find out the problems and issues that have trapped Ethiopia in a bottomless quagmire of warfare, conflict, strife, enmity and grievances.
With deep gratitude, I write to honor the ENDC Commissioners, staff, experts and research teams, dialogue facilitators and documentarians, communication and media staff, administrative, HR, finance, logistics, and IT support and others for four years of steadfast service, a true labor of love for our nation.
Across regions and cities, in countless woredas and communities, the ENDC listened, gathered, and uplifted the voices of ordinary Ethiopians. ENDC walked with political parties, elders, religious leaders, civil society, women, youth, and diaspora communities to ensure that our diverse hopes and grievances found a place at the table. Even where access was difficult, ENDC found ways to include those voices, holding sessions in Addis Ababa for stakeholders from Tigray and beyond.
ENDC, your work has not been easy. You faced real constraints and challenges, yet you persisted, conducting thousands of consultations, validating agendas, training facilitators, and preparing the ground for a national conversation that seeks consensus and win-win solutions. In doing so, you helped lay a foundation for a more inclusive political culture, dialogue as a modality for conflict resolution and charted a course for shared progress, prosperity and destiny.
Thank you ENDC for your courage, your patience, your dedication and your unwavering belief in resolving discord. May the Dialogue Conference be a turning point in Ethiopia’s march out of poverty into the promised land of prosperity. May the recommendations that emerge from the Conference be implemented with integrity, hope and love of country and people.
On a personal note, I am thrilled and humbled by the opportunity to join 3,999 Ethiopians at the Dialogue Conference.
For more than one-half century, I dreamt of the day when I shall join my fellow Ethiopians and gather with them under the green, yellow and red umbrella and talk about our problems and map out and chart a course from a land racked by war, strife and poverty to the promised land of prosperity. It is a supremely poignant moment for me to join the National Dialogue Conference: If I canโt go visit people in every part of Ethiopia, now I have an opportunity to visit with people from every part of Ethiopia at the Dialogue Conference.
With respect and appreciation,
แฅแแแฐแแแแ Galatoomaa แจแแแจแแ; Mahadsanidiin; Galataysi Gadda ge; Gษaaษ Yรฏn aca leec; Gaza yagabzal yushen๐๐พ๐๐พ
