The town square lies empty, as does the school, while sheep and cows graze peacefully in the overgrown grass. Buranest is a model town, a "real life experiment" that a team of Ethiopian and European urban planners hope can provide crucial lessons for the country's future. Its model homes are still unoccupied, and local farmers remain suspicious. This threshold will soon be lowered to 500 people to help jumpstart the urbanisation process, according to Zegeye Cherenet, an Ethiopian urban planner at the EiABC. In Buranest, local farmers believed communal grazing land would be used for one of the many horticulture businesses that have sprung up across Ethiopia over the past decade.

Source: Ethiopian News November 22, 2017 14:03 UTC