This study examines how global educational technologies interact with local development priorities through the lens of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in Ethiopian higher education teacher training. While digital learning platforms promise to democratize education globally, their effectiveness depends critically on alignment with local institutional contexts and development needs. Using survey data from 164 educators across 15 public universities, we investigate how institutional contexts shape technology integration patterns. Our analysis, integrating development theory with technology acceptance models, reveals three critical dimensions: the gap between awareness and participation reflects broader implementation challenges; previous experiences with development initiatives significantly influence adoption patterns; and state support proves crucial for enabling participation. While MOOCs offer potential for professional development in resource-constrained contexts, their effectiveness depends on complex interactions among infrastructure quality, institutional capacity, and material conditions. These findings contribute to the theoretical understanding of how global technological innovations interact with local institutional contexts to produce varied development outcomes, while offering practical insights for educational technology implementation in the Global South.

Sub-Saharan Africa faces immense challenges in spurring economic development and alleviating poverty, while these countries also should protect the environment amid population growth and industrial development. This study analyses the interrelationships between demographic change, economic growth, and pollution in four East African countries – Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, and Uganda – from 1990-2019. Using panel data and econometric analysis, the paper examines whether declining fertility rates and parallel diminishing of the youth dependency burdens are associated with accelerated growth and rising emissions. The results affirm that falling fertility has opened a window of opportunity through the ‘first demographic dividend’, which can catalyse growth by increased shares of working-age individuals. However, this growth has been accompanied by rising carbon dioxide emissions, underscoring potential trade-offs between environmental and economic objectives. The findings highlight the importance of complementary health, education, governance, and sustainable production investments for countries to leverage their demographic dividends for inclusive and green growth. Successfully doing so will be vital to achieve multiple Sustainable Development Goals simultaneously.

The relationship between financial development and economic growth has been widely debated in the economics literature, but the results have been inconsistent and vary between the short and long run. In this study, we investigate the causal relationship between financial development and economic growth in Ethiopia using annual data from 1980 to 2021. We employ the Toda-Yamamoto causality test and the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) modeling framework to analyze the data. Our results show that none of the variables are stationary at the level, but after applying first differences, all variables become stationary. Using the Toda-Yamamoto causality test, we find no causality running from financial development to economic growth, but there is evidence of reverse causality from economic growth to financial development. Furthermore, the NARDL model results suggest that economic growth drives financial development, and the relationship between financial development and economic growth in Ethiopia is nonlinear and asymmetric. Specifically, neither positive nor negative shocks to economic growth affect financial development in the short run, but both affect it in the long run and in joint short run and long run effects. We conclude from our study that financial development may not guarantee economic growth without building better institutions and following sound and stable fiscal policies. Consequently, constructing an effective economic growth strategy that maintains financial development is crucial. Our findings have significant implications for policymakers, academics, and investors and underscore the importance of informed decision-making based on a thorough understanding of the relationship between financial development and economic growth.

Child stunting affects 38.3% of children under five in Ethiopia as of 2016. Women's empowerment, defined through both fundamental capabilities and household decision-making authority, has emerged as a critical determinant of child nutritional outcomes. Drawing on Sen's capability approach and Kabeer's empowerment framework, we examined the associations between two distinct dimensions of women's empowerment and child stunting across Ethiopia's diverse regions. We analyzed 18,466 mother–child pairs from the 2011 and 2016 Ethiopia Demographic and Health Surveys. Validated empowerment indices were constructed using factor analysis. We employed hierarchical multilevel models as our primary specification to examine the associations between women's empowerment and child stunting across Ethiopia's 11 administrative regions. Between 2011 and 2016, stunting declined from 42.3% to 36.4%. Women's decision-making authority increased (mean score: 0.70–0.78), while capabilities remained stable (0.17– 0.16). Higher capabilities were significantly associated with lower odds of stunting (β = −0.141, aOR = 0.87, 95% CI: 0.83, 0.91), whereas decision-making showed no association (β = 0.013, aOR = 1.01, 95% CI: 0.98, 1.05). A significant interaction between capabilities and decision-making was observed (β = 0.050, aOR = 1.05, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.09). Regional heterogeneity was substantial: Amhara maintained high stunting rates despite empowerment gains, while Somali saw improvements with low capabilities but increased decision-making. The study findings suggest that interventions should prioritize capability development through region-specific strategies reflecting diverse pastoral, agrarian, and urban contexts; promote multi-sectoral programs linking education and nutrition services; and develop monitoring frameworks to track both dimensions of empowerment at the regional level.