Applying the concept of resilience to Ethiopia

2.2 Applying the concept of resilience to Ethiopia

Agriculture is the foundation of the Ethiopian economy; employing about 85 percent of the country’s more than 81 million people. Drought‐induced famine has threatened the lives and livelihoods of millions of these people over the last several decades. For instance, the 1958 and 1973 famines are reported to have claimed over 100,000 and 300,000 lives, respectively. During the 1984/85 famine, approximately 10 million people suffered from starvation and approximately one million are reported to have died Alex, 1991 . Millions were also affected by the 1999/00, 2002/03 and 2009/10 droughts. At present, the Southern and Eastern parts of the country are affected by a severe drought which is ravaging much of the horn of Africa. Moreover, the country has persistently failed to produce sufficient food even under ideal weather condition for its rapidly growing population and has been heavily reliant on food aid/assistant in recent years. About 8 million chronically food insecure people have been supported each year through food assistance and safety net programme known as Productive safety Net Program PSNP since 2005. The government and development partners are actively looking for strategies that would strengthen the resilience of households to manage and cope with shocks with little or no external assistance.

In view of the chronic problem of food security in Ethiopia, we have developed a simplified resilience framework basis on our own experience that elucidates the role of productive assets natural, human and financial capital and risk‐sharing arrangement Fig.1 .

103 Fig.1. Food access, liquid assets and child education and risk sharing based resilience framework

The framework is drawn from the fact that subsistence‐oriented farming households rely on their assets and investment portfolios in managing shocks. It integrates social resilience with asset based approaches to social risk management presented by Siegel and Alwang 1999 with the theoretical underpinnings of Sen’s 1981 ‘entitlement approach’ and the sustainable livelihoods framework e.g. Scoones, 1998; Devereux, 2003 . It also draws from traditional risk management strategies: operate ex‐ante by diversifying their livelihoods, reducing the magnitude of the shocks themselves, accumulate assets as buffer‐stock, and share risk with others. The approach complements the traditional consumption‐based vulnerability analysis but shifts the focus to building resilience on a sustainable basis. It is, thus, consistent with

Investmen For buffer stock/resilie

Investment in children education

Grain stock (food stock, seed, feed

stock) Buffer stock

(small-stock, non-working animals, jewellery etc,)

Resilience to food insecurity

Production/Income (Crop, Livestock,

Non-farm, Wages)

Savings

Productive Assets (Natural, human and financial

capital) Institutions

Access to Basic Services

such as education, credit and health services Policies Civic Society Organization Extension

Agents Infrastructure

R&D Prices

Investment in risk sharing

104 multidimensional nature of food security as defined by the World Food Summit 1996 : food security exists ‘when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life’.

For mixed farming system in Ethiopia, productive assets such as land, livestock^41F38, human and social capital play a crucial role in farm production, income generation and food supply. Gross income is the sum of revenue obtained from crop and livestock production, non‐farm activities, wage employment and transfers. Income is mainly used for consumption; any surplus in kind or cash above immediate consumption needs is saved and invested in various forms to meet two critical objectives: i augment productive assets in order to expand productive capacity, and/or ii build resilience capacity self‐insurance Fig.1 .

Household resilience is developed through savings invested in: a grain stock, b precautionary savings or buffer stock, and c education of school‐aged children and d social risk‐sharing arrangement. Grain stock is made up of own production less sales , food transfers/aid and purchases. In Ethiopia, rural households often smooth their consumption using a strategy of stocking food grains to last them at least until the next harvest season i.e., short term strategy . For subsistent producers, with underdeveloped and inefficient markets, buying food from market can be costlier than retaining and consuming own production.

38Livestock is categorized into major productive assets; oxen, cow and transport animals and precautionary saving; small stocks and cattle other than oxen and cow. In order to be resilient household should protect major productive assets as losing these stock will results in everlasting poverty trap.

105 Resilient families often hold sufficient quantity of grain stock but poor storage facilities and insect attacks do not favor keeping a large volume of stock over a longer period of time. Accordingly, they need precautionary assets/savings livestock that can be easily liquidated^42F39 to protect them against adversity in the short‐ and medium‐term.

Livestock that can serve as precautionary stock may take the form of small stocks sheep and goats and cattle other than oxen and cows. These assets are sold as and when necessary to smooth consumption and/or protect major livestock assets e.g.

oxen, milking cows and transport animals . Protecting major productive assets such as oxen is very crucial since households with no oxen are often forced into poverty traps with limited chance of recovery see, for instance, Carter et al. 2005 . Families lacking oxen may lease out their land for very low return because rental markets are underdeveloped and the situation often involves distress rent or enter into labor‐oxen sharing arrangements which are extremely unfavourable^43F40. Hence, households make a distinction between livestock that can be liquidated and livestock that need to be protected at all costs.

In the long term, investment in human and social development is crucial to be resilient.

Education fosters innovative ideas for transforming farming practices, improving consumption and general wellbeing, and/or promotes diversification into non‐farm activities. Educated children assist in better managing health risk, improving nutrition‐

related decisions and enhancing efficient management of family assets. In a traditional rural setting, investment in child education not only helps parents to benefit from

39The role of durable assets and jeweler in consumption or production smoothing is very limited in rural Ethiopia. Cash holdings are also limited, with less than 1% of the sample household reporting to have bank accounts.

40Labor‐oxen sharing arrangement involves working two days for the owner of oxen in return for using the pair for a single day Bevan and Pankhurst, 2007 . Devoting two‐third of their time on tilling for oxen owner is not a preferred option.

106 remittances in the long‐term but also ensures the next generation is able to make a transition to a better livelihood in non‐farm sector. It has also been reported that rural households invest in their children’s education because they do not want them to depend on agriculture which is failing to provide decent livelihood Rigg, 2006 . While better‐off and more resilient households invest in their children, poorer families may be forced to withdraw their children from school.

Investment in social network serves to manage risks and ensure resilience both in the short, medium and long terms. Traditional social organizations such as idir are a form of indigenous social insurance systems whose main function is to help members undergoing bereavement or suffering from loss of major assets. Households invest in idir through regular monthly or weekly contributions in return for reciprocal payments e.g., cash and in kind assistance in time of needs.

Institutional environment in the form of government policies, programs and civil society organizations enhance resilience through improving productive capacity e.g.

investment in research & extension , augmenting income e.g. income transfer , improving market access e.g. building infrastructure and improving basic services which contribute towards the betterment of living standards and income Fig. 1 . Favourable government policies ensure resilience through increasing opportunities to gain and maintain secure access to production assets, especially land and other natural resources, and improving access to health care and education that would assist households to generate more income and savings.

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