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Rural Poverty, Food Insecurity And Environmental Degradation In Ethiopia: A Case Study From South Central Ethiopia, Sisay Asefa, Tesfaye Zegeye

International Conference on African Development Archives

This paper addresses the challenge of reducing poverty, food insecurity, and natural resource degradation, and abolishing recurrent famines in Ethiopia. With a population of about 65 million, Ethiopia is one of the largest and most populated countries in Africa. Ethiopia can be regarded as a microcosm of Africa due to its vast and diverse agro-ecology and population. Physically, it ranges from 200 meters to over 4000 meters above sea level. It has about 18 agro-ecological, zones and diverse population of some 85 ethnic or linguistic groups. The paper begins by addressing the conceptual relationship among food insecurity, poverty and natural …

Status And Prospects Of Farm Forestry Practices In Central Ethiopia, A Case Of Western Guraghe Highlands, Negussie Achalu, Holm Uibrig, Guido Weisshahn

International Conference on African Development Archives

The objective of the present study is to assess farm forestry decision-making strategies of smallholder farmers and to identify major choice constraints. It attempts to determine the potential of integrating multipurpose tree and shrub species into the existing land use units and its contribution to the objective of guaranteeing food self-sufficiency and sustainable livelihood. It also sheds some light on the deficiencies of current extension packages in helping farmers exploit the potentials of agroforestry innovations.

Farmers in the study area mainly employ eucalypt as major on-farm tree species both for meeting household wood demands and generating cash revenues. Farmers’ decisions …

Determinants Of Access To Credit And Loan Amount: Household-Level Evidence From Urban Ethiopia, Abi Kedir

International Conference on African Development Archives

Household level analysis of credit rationing is restricted to rural data sets collected mainly from South East Asia. In Africa, credit constraints are often investigated using firm level data. Empirical evidence on determinants of credit constraints and amount borrowed by urban households is almost non-existent from Sub-Saharan Africa. Using an extended direct approach, we analyzed the Fourth Round Ethiopian Urban Household Survey (2000) to separate households that do not have access to credit from those who do. We find a high percentage (i.e. 26.6%) of credit-constrained households, the majority of which constitute discouraged borrowers. A probit model and a tobit …

Pastoral Livelihoods In Urban And Peri-Urban Spaces Of Ethiopia: The Case Of Yabello, Borana Zone, Edlam Aberra

International Conference on African Development Archives

This paper outlines the emergence of pastoral settlements in urban and peri-urban spaces of Ethiopia focusing on Yabello, the present capital of Borana zone. By doing so, the paper seeks to contribute to ongoing debates on the manner in which pastoral livelihoods are changing in Ethiopia, and elsewhere in Africa. More specifically, a livelihoods approach is adopted to examine the wellbeing of Borana pastoralists in peri-urban spaces of Yabello in terms of their asset status and use of those assets to pursue various livelihood strategies. The conceptualization of assets goes beyond economic assets to incorporate social and human assets which …

Household’S Consumption Pattern And Demand For Energy In Urban Ethiopia, Samuel Faye Gamtessa

International Conference on African Development Archives

This study looks into the energy demand and consumption pattern of households in selected urban areas. The analysis indicates that the use of traditional fuels dominates households' consumption pattern. However, the extent of the dominance varies across cities/towns and across income groups. A multivariate analysis of the consumption pattern reveals that the probability of consuming traditional fuels in general declines with increase in income and prices of the traditional fuels where as it increases with the increase in the prices of the modern fuels. The probability of consuming modern fuels increases with increase in income and prices of the traditional …

The Role Of Esrdf In Empowering Communities: The Case Of Addis Ababa Regional Office, Alemayehu Semunigus

International Conference on African Development Archives

The ESRDF, one of the biggest projects funded by the World Bank in Ethiopia, was established on 13 February 1996. It was designed to provide financial and technical support to poor, mainly rural and women communities and community groups, to construct or rehabilitate and maintain basic economic and social infrastructure and services, as well as environmental conservation actions that they prioritized and in which they are willing to invest. In its technical support ESRDF was envisaged to give greater emphasis on strengthening community capacity in project identification, implementation and maintenance. ESRDF is a semi autonomous office and was organized on …

Educating The Community, Meskerem Shiferaw

International Conference on African Development Archives

This paper explores the current situation of the country, the present policy of the Education sector and its current situation, the extent of enrollment at all levels, gender disparity in enrollment, quality, efficiency and equity in education. The contribution of Non-Governmental Organizations and private investment in the sector's development is also discussed. Owing to the persistent problems of the sector, the presenter's recommends a model educational center based on Non-Formal Education for parents of poor children. Finally conclusion and recommendations are presented.

Resource Quality And Agricultural Productivity: Evidence From Sub-Saharan Africa And Implications For Ethiopia, Abebayehu Tegene, Keith D. Wiebe

International Conference on African Development Archives

Over the next several decades, trends in population, income, and urbanization are projected to raise world demand for cereals, roots, and tubers by about 40%, and for meat by about 60% (Pinstrup-Andersen, Pandya-Lorch, and Rosegrant, 1999). Population and demand for agricultural products are projected to grow nearly twice as fast in sub- Saharan Africa, at 2-3% per year, as they are in the world as a whole (FAO, 2000). Given land constraints in some areas and environmental concerns about agricultural land expansion in others, most of the increased production necessary to meet this demand will have to come from increased …

Agroforestry And Community Forestry For Rehabilitation Of Degraded Watersheds On The Ethiopian Highlands, Badege Bishaw, Abdu Abdelkadir

International Conference on African Development Archives

Despite the efforts made to develop Ethiopian agriculture over the years, the problems of hunger, famine, and malnutrition and land degradation still linger and present the greatest threat to the survival of the nation. With the new thrust to produce more food using high input and single crop farming, today’s farmers grow only one or two crops in monoculture systems. The traditional diversification of farmlands, which arguably has been the source of sustenance in rural Ethiopia since time immemorial, has largely been abandoned. Furthermore, deforestation, accelerated soil erosion, and land degradation are now serious problems in Ethiopia. As a result …

Holistic Integrated Youth-Centered Development: Need For Change Of Focus, Yared Mammo

International Conference on African Development Archives

Today, the world knows Ethiopia for its abject poverty, war, drought and severe HIV/AIDS prevalence. For these problems, many causes can be mentioned. Some of these are poor or underutilization of the available resources, Lack of good governance, lack of vision, lack of determination and commitment, absence of transparency and accountability. Equally, the inability to use the youth as a key development tool is the formidable cause for remaining in abject poverty. Due to these various reasons, we could not actualize this potential (youth) in to reality (for fighting poverty and achieving sustainable development). In developing countries like Ethiopia, the …

Perspectives On Food Crop Production For Combating Famine In Ethiopia, Brhane Gebrekidan

International Conference on African Development Archives

Feeding the ever-growing Ethiopian population with the continuously shrinking land holdings and nutrient depleted soils is going to be very difficult to say the least. The realistic option under the current Ethiopian scenario is to increase the food productivity per unit of land. The science and the technological options available to realize higher productivity than what the average Ethiopian farmer gets are widely available both locally and internationally. Assuming that all of the non-technical institutional and policy issues bearing on solving the famine problem in Ethiopia are addressed adequately, my perspective focuses on the technological options to curtail famine and …

Conceptualising Famine In Ethiopia, Getnet Alemu

International Conference on African Development Archives

This paper attempts to explain the nature of recurrent famine, not just as a result of a series of adventitious effects, but more importantly as the unintended outcome of an exclusionary growth model. This adventitious effects matter a great deal, but their impact can only be understood in the light of the inherent weakness of the growth model, which impoverished the peasantry and hence generated their vulnerability to famine.

An Economic Analysis Of Fiscal Federalism In Ethiopia, Abu Girma Moges

International Conference on African Development Archives

Fiscal federalism is a process of redistribution of fiscal decision-making power in an effort to improve the performance of the public sector in resource mobilization, efficient resource allocation and in the process enabling the economy achieve fast and sustainable economic growth. This paper addresses the economic rationale, implications and concerns of pursuing fiscal federalism in a poor country and in a political environment of ethnic federalism. The main findings suggest that when fiscal decentralization is exercised with high horizontal and vertical imbalances, it fails to diversify public output in line with the preferences and priorities of local population and to …

Papers Of The Second International Conference On Development Studies In Ethiopia, Sisay Asefa

International Conference on African Development Archives

Introductory remarks of the Second International Conference on Development Studies in Ethiopia, July 11-12, 2003, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

An Alternative View To The “Africa Dummy”, Paulos Gutema

International Conference on African Development Archives

For the last four decades the pace of economic growth in African countries remained too slow or stagnant. This problem is analyzed by first developing a framework that focus on growth process of indigent economy, where deferring current consumption is hardly possible, and by relaxing the usual assumption of unfailing market condition. The analytic result suggests that the degree and direction of effects of factors of market failure make a difference in nations' level of income per capita as well as its rate of growth. On this ground, the poor economic performance observed in the region can be well attributed …

Market Incentives, Farmers’ Response And A Policy Dilemma: A Case Study On Expansion Of Chat Production As A Cash Crop In The Eastern Ethiopian Highlands.\, Tesfaye Lemma Tefera, Johann Kirsten, Sylvain Perret

International Conference on African Development Archives

This paper discusses the reasons for and effects of the dramatic expansion of chat production as a cash crop in the Hararghe Highlands of Ethiopia. Despite the Ministry of Agriculture’s deliberate attempt to marginalize and openly discourage chat production, farmers continue shifting their scarce resources to chat production. Using data generated by a rural livelihood survey from 197 randomly selected households, economic and non-economic factors contributing to the expansion of chat production are identified and its food and nutritional security impact was analyzed. The case study confirms once more again the power of market incentives in encouraging agricultural activity of …

Environment Stress And Increased Vulnerability To Impoverishment And Survival In Ethiopia: A Synthesis, Tesfaye Teklu

International Conference on African Development Archives

At the core of this short paper is explaining the persistence of environment-induced famine conditions in rural Ethiopia. To start with, there are important empirical findings that set the context. First, poverty is Ethiopia is widespread and deep (MEDaC, 1999; MFDE, 2002). Officially reported poverty head-count measure based on the 1995 nationally representative consumption survey, for example, shows that 45.5 percent of the Ethiopian population could not afford costs of privately provisioned basic needs (MEDaC, 1999). The high-order poverty estimates also point poverty is deep and unequal among the poor.

Macroeconomic Development And Private Sector Performance In Ethiopia: The 1990’S Experience, Melesse Minale

International Conference on African Development Archives

After the downfall of the military government in 1991, the transitional government of Ethiopia committed itself to implement the stabilization and structural adjustment program with the help of the IMF and the World Bank. The objective of the program was to remove cost-price distortions, improve market related incentives, promote private enterprises and exports, and liberalize the economy and to reduce the role of the public sector in the economy. The a private led competitive economy operating under a free market and prudent fiscal and monetary policy environments was optimistically expected to emerge from this. The practical experience of the last …

Contagious Currency Crises, Fasika Damte Haile

Dissertations

Currency crises, prior to the 1990s, were thought to be the result of inconsistencies between domestic macroeconomic policies and the exchange rate commitment. But the collapse of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992, the 1997 Asian crisis and the most recent crisis in Latin America have shifted the focus to models based on self-fulfilling expectations and on contagion. This has resulted in the development of different theoretical models suggesting different mechanisms by which contagion works. But there is still relatively little empirical consensus on how crises spread across countries. My dissertation is intended to fill in the void by …

An Analysis Of The Level Of Union Membership In The United States Since The Implementation Of Nafta, David D. Westcot

Dissertations

Union membership in the United States has been in a state of decline over the last two decades and international trade has been cited as one of the reasons. As such, U.S. labor unions perceived the 1994 implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as an assault on organized labor. This perspective is based on the belief U.S. capital and jobs would move jobs south in an effort to take advantage of Mexico's low-wage differentials. With this in mind, the objective of this research was to determine if the percentage of union membership in any of the 22 …

Review Of Japan's Economic Dilemma: The Institutional Origins Of Prosperity And Stagnation, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001. $ 54.95 Hardcover, $ 19.95 Papercover. Bai Gao. Reviewed By Christian Aspalter., Christian Aspalter

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Bai Gao, Japan's Economic Dilemma: The Institutional Origins of Prosperity and Stagnation, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001. $54.95 hardcover, $19.95 papercover.

How The World Survived The Population Bomb: An Economic Perspective 2003-04, Departmnent Of Economics

Werner Sichel Lecture Series

"The Economics of Sustainable Development" is the 40th annual Public Lecture-Seminar Series organized by the Department of Economics at Western Michigan University. Sustainable development can be broadly defined as a pattern of development that enables future generations to live as least as well as the current generation. The series explores the contribution of economic science of sustainable development from the various dimensions. This year's series also coincides with the University's Centennial. The series is directed by Professor Sisay Asefa of the WMU Economics Department, and is co-sponsored by the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. The public is cordially invited …

Three Essays On Economic Reform: Effects On Human Development, Fertility, And Factor Shares, Khaled Ibrahim Abdel-Kader

Dissertations

This dissertation contains three essays on economic reform programs supported by the IMF and World Bank. Using appropriate theoretical and empirical models, we investigate the impact of reform on three aspects of economic development: (1) human development, (2) fertility, and (3) income shares of factors of production. In the first essay, we examine the long-run impact of reform on different measures o f human development and income. Empirical results show that reform has long-run positive impact on GDP per capita and measures of human development. However, worse initial macroeconomic conditions offset this impact. In the second essay, we examine the …

The Relationship Between Insurance Type And Health Care Costs, Use And Choice Of Outpatient Provider, Dan-Alexandru Balan

Dissertations

The impact of insurance type on health care is a very important topic in health economics. This dissertation examines the relationship between insurance type and health care cost, use and outpatient provider choice using the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data. I examine separately three types of services: emergency, nonemergency hospital care and outpatient because the effect of insurance type on use may depend on the type of health care service provided. The insurance types analyzed are Health Maintenance Organization (HMO), private fee-for-service employer insurance, private fee-for-service non-employer insurance, government insurance and self insurance. For each service, individuals paying for health …

Review Of One Third Of A Nation: Lorena Hickok Reports On The Great Depression. Richard Lowitt And Maurine Beasley (Eds.). Review By John M. Herrick, John M. Herrick

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Richard Lowitt and Maurine Beasley (Eds.), One Third of a Nation: Lorena Hickok Reports on the Great Depression. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2000. $21.95 papercover.

Methodology Of Benefit Cost Analysis 2002-03, Department Of Economics

Werner Sichel Lecture Series

"The Methodology of Benefit Cost Analysis" is the 39th annual Public Lecture-Seminar Series organized by the Department of Economics at Western Michigan University. This year's series focuses on the methodology and use of benefit - cost analysis. Dr. Jon R. Neill of the WMU Economics Department directs the series with the assistance of Kevin Hollenbeck, Senior Economist with the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research and Don Meyer, Associate Professor of Economics. The public is cordially invited to attend the lectures and no admission is charged. In addition to a public lecture, each guest scholar will also present an academic …

The Role Of Social Capital In Reclaiming Human Capital: A Longitudinal Study Of Occupational Mobility Among Displaced Steelworkers, Allison Zippay

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper examines the employment and income effects of job training, education, and social network contacts over a l0-year period among a random sample of steelworkers who lost jobs to plant closings in the early 1980s in a manufacturing community in Western Pennsylvania. First interviewed in 1987, a majority of the 102 respondents were unemployed or underemployed. A second round of interviews was conducted in 1997 with 87 of the original respondents to examine changes in income and employment status, the types of training and education that had been pursued over the course of 10 years, and their use of …

The Poverty Of Hard Work: Multiple Jobs And Low Wages In Family Economies Of Rural Utah Households, Christina E. Gringeri

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The combination of paid work and poverty, or near poverty, is a growing problem in the United States, one of which is often accentuated by residence in rural, low-wage communities where underemployment is more prevalent than in metropolitan areas. This paper examines the experiences of sixty rural families with inadequate employment using data from ethnographic interviews with a particular focus on the strategies they use to meet their family's needs in spite of low-wage work.

International Cooperation In The World Of Sovereign But Interdependent Nation States: Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation As An International Regime, Chien-Hong Lee

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

State Regulations Of Smoking In Public Places: Determinants And Implications On The Demand For Smoking And Consumers' Behavior, Ioana Raluca Mazare

Dissertations

No abstract provided.