Ethiopia to Centralize Indigenous Knowledge to Drive National Policy

Addis Ababa, December 22, 2025 (ENA) — The Ministry of Education has announced the establishment of a national framework designed to consolidate Ethiopia’s vast indigenous knowledge into a central repository for developmental and policy input.

 

 

Recognizing the multifaceted value of local wisdom for national prosperity and identity building, the government is prioritizing the preservation of these heritage assets to ensure they serve as vital inputs for modern development.

Despite Ethiopia’s wealth of generational knowledge, much of it has remained untapped due to a lack of organized, national-level documentation.

To bridge this gap, the Ministry of Education is currently conducting specialized training for higher education institutions.

The program focuses on methodologies for identifying and documenting traditional wisdom unique to their respective regions.

During the opening of the training, State Minister of Education Kora Tushne stated that the newly established system will integrate scattered indigenous insights into the education system, academic research, and policy formulation.

He noted that this initiative will significantly bolster the nation's capacity to address local challenges with home-grown solutions.

Selam Alemu, head of the Community Engagement and Indigenous Knowledge Desk at the Ministry, added that beyond mere documentation, efforts are underway to incorporate these findings directly into the national curriculum.

 

 

Highlighting the untapped potential across various sectors, Mirgisa Kaba, a researcher at Addis Ababa University’s School of Public Health, emphasized the importance of collaborative efforts to ensure this knowledge informs policy directions and broader development goals.

 

 

University coordinators are already seeing progress on the ground.

Amare Ayalew, coordinator of the Ankober Plant and Indigenous Knowledge Development Center at Debre Berhan University, and Yasmin Mohammed from Haramaya University’s Indigenous Knowledge Center, shared details on ongoing work to gather and digitize local wisdom. They all expressed confidence that organizing these efforts at a national level will ensure more impactful and sustainable results.