Issues of gender equity have also been addressed at the relationship level. Fairly specific local proposals which encourage gender equity are more likely to be implemented than broad systemic reforms, which often conflict with local traditions. Ethiopian social institutions have traditionally viewed conflict management as a matter of mending broken relationships. Subsystemic and systemic factors contribute to conflict in Ethiopia. Poverty, especially in the form of food insecurity, contributes to conflict in the region.
Resources generally are scarce in Ethiopia.
The Ethiopian government has implemented a Green Revolution approach to increasing farm yields and reducing poverty, with mixed results. The government is attempting to decentralize along a model of ethnic federalism. This has contained what would once have been national conflicts at the local level. However, the process of drawing regional boundaries has been very contentious, and has occasionally prompted violence.