Funding for the educational materials was provided by The Overbrook Foundation.
These brief video segments can be used alone or in combination, to introduce a topic or to spark discussion among your students. The video segments can be adapted for any grade level. Stream the video segments from the players below. These videos are also used in the lesson plan Trading Up: Bringing Ethiopia’s Economy Into The 21st Century (Grades 9-12).
Why Trade Matters
An introduction to the challenges faced by the developing Ethiopian economy and the tragic consequences of its collapse in 1984.
The Moving Parts of a Market
A look at market reformers’ successful efforts to bring a modern commodity exchange to the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, and the obstacles they still face in gaining wider acceptance throughout the country.
The Coffee Crisis
In an effort to mitigate the impact of the 2008 global economic collapse, the Ethiopian government calls upon the fledgling Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) to start trading coffee—the nation’s primary cash crop—before it is prepared to do so.
Winning the Farmers’ Trust
With the coffee crisis under control, the ECX reformers return to their original mission of winning farmers’ trust and getting them to deposit their crops in the exchange’s warehouse.
While the ECX reformers celebrate the success of their new sesame market, they acknowledge the massive challenges they still face in bringing the ECX to millions of Ethiopia’s poor subsistence farmers.