DSpace Collection: Thesis - Rural Livelihoods & Development

The Challenges and Prospects of

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 09:49:37 GMT

Title: The Challenges and Prospects of

Authors: Aynalem, Kassa Debay

Abstract: The provision of improved water supply service is a basic need, human right and a prerequisite for development. However, millions of people are still unable to obtain adequate potable water particularly in rural areas that deserve special attention. In order to meet the demand, a distant piped water supplies to rural areas is emerging as an option where local water sources are scarce, contaminated or high level of service demand due to change of the life style and population pressure. Hence, to benefit from the economies-of-scale, a distant piped water supply system is expected to serve multi-village. The performance of multi-village water supply system, however, becomes challenging and it rarely provide the planned level of services due to limited involvement of the community, low level of cost recovery, lack of adequate technical capacity, inappropriate institutional arrangements and environmental factors. On this thematic area, little work has been done so far about the current efforts, practices and challenges of multi-village water supply system at national level. To this end, this research tries to assess and analyze practices, challenges and prospects of multi-village rural water supply system. This study is conducted in Hitosa Multi-village Rural Water Supply system of Oromia Regional State. It employed multistage techniques: purposive, stratified and simple random sampling to select the WS system, the beneficiary kebleles and the HH survey respondents. The system serves 19 rural kebeles and three towns. All rural kebeles are involved in the sampling frame. The beneficiary kebeles are stratified based on agro-ecology, of which, 6 kebeles(32%) were purposively determined as sample kebeles and proportionally distributed. A total of 222households were studied. Household survey, Key Informant Interviews, Field Observations, and Focused Group Discussions are the main research instruments. Mixed types of data collection techniques are adopted to gather sufficient and relevant information for this study. Descriptive statistics were employed to generate frequency tables, averages, standard deviations and graphs. The study revealed that the performance of Hitosa community managed MV RWS system is substantial in terms of addressing the local acute water shortage. It was found out that the practices of large scale gravity water supply system have good lessons that could be replicated to other areas provided that a comprehensive study of the specific local condition is carried out. However, currently, there is suppressed supply that considerably influences the satisfaction of the community. This is due to dysfunctional and partial functional of public taps, availability of water for short period of time and low pressure, lack of quality spare parts and sustainable supply chain and failure of implementing different manuals and guidelines, weak financial management, lack of institutional legal entity, inadequacy of trainings and incentives for voluntaries members and lower salary scale for the recruited staff, and lack of finance for major replacement and new source development to meet the growing demand. Therefore, the study call for: establishing sustainable spare parts supply chain through private sector, implementing the existing rural water supply guidelines and manuals, ensure institutional legal entity, select the water committee in terms of capacity and commitment, provide adequate trainings and attractive incentives to the water committees, the water management board members and the recruited staff, review the Water Administration Office staff salary scale and maintain appropriate benefits, mobilize funds for major replacements and new source development, installing master water meter at the head of the water source, conducting a detail study on the water source status and due attention must be also given to protect the water source and develop appropriate monitoring and evaluation mechanism for short and long term plans so as to ensure the sustainability and the prospect of maintaining a service delivery of the system.

The Role of Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 06:39:17 GMT

Title: The Role of Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in

Authors: Fekadu, Sisay H/Mariam

Abstract: Like in other countries, non-governmental and civil society actors are visible on the overall institutional landscape of Ethiopian society. Currently there are more than 2000 NGO/CSO operating in Ethiopia. Specifically in Addis Ababa city more than 200 NGO/CSO engaged in different developmental activities among which 24 NGO have been implementing Urban Agriculture (UA) in different levels. The objective of the research was to assess NGOs efforts for promoting the development of UA in Addis Ababa. The research focused on two NGOs engaged in UA, namely ENDA Ethiopia (Environmental Developmental Action) and Progress Integrated Community Development Organization (PICDO) International and Local NGOs respectively. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected; Quantitative data were collected using a structured questionnaire, designed specifically for the study. For structured survey 69(41 from ENDA) & (25from PICDO) project participants who were engaged in UA activity were selected from a sample frame created by stratified random sample. The sample should be broadly representative of project participants from the two NGOs. Qualitative data were collected from primary source through, interview, observation and case study. UA program being undertaken by the NGOs target the most vulnerable groups in the society including, PLWHA, OVCs, OVCs and women- headed households. These socially marginalized households engage in food production relaying on very small plots of land, marginal and vacant open places and using different kits. The sponsorship of urban gardening projects by these NGOs create employment for 36.7% sample respondents and improve household food supply for the entire project participants. The research revealed that gardening be done with virtually no economic resources, using locally available planting materials, green manures, 97% of the project participant used compost for their soil fertility, by composting biodegradable household wastes. 100% of the sample respondents used integrated pest management (IPM) for controlling pest and diseases using biological means. Another important result of the study was the fact that13.6% of the respondents their major water source was ‘used water’ and 15.2 % of house hold mainly using barrel, sacks and tire for producing vegetables.

PERFORMANCES AND CHALLENGES OF COOPERATIVES IN ETHIOPIA:

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 08:47:52 GMT

Title: PERFORMANCES AND CHALLENGES OF COOPERATIVES IN ETHIOPIA:

Authors: YEMANE, TEWELDEMEDHIN

Abstract: This study is concerned with assessing the performance and challenges of Werie Multipurpose Cooperative Union (WMCU) which is found in werie –Leke woreda of Tigray Regional State of Ethiopia. The objective of the study is to assess the performances and challenges of the union in its course of development. For this purpose, the data requirements for the study were collected from different sources. The primary data were collected from 126 member respondents of two sample primary member cooperative societies of the union and 5o randomly selected non-members from the residents of the town of Edaga-Arbi. Moreover, the study made use of documents of the Union, like financial statements and audit reports as source of secondary data. In addition to this, FGD and Key informant interviews were also important sources of secondary data. The data collected were analyzed using simple statistical analysis like frequencies, percentages, tables, financial ratio analysis and t-test with the help of a statistical package called SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). The findings from the study revealed that trend of membership of the Union was increasing over the study period but the financial performance was inconsistent in the periods under study. Affiliation to a cooperative was found to increase the income of members and thereby contributes to the well-being of member household that was manifested in the betterment of oxen ownership, food, housing, and clothing and in terms of ability to send children to school and use modern health services. In addition, WMCU has some benefits to the community (non-members) in stabilizing the local market and cost saving. On average, a person was able to save Birr 8.17 per month given that s/he purchases the sampled items from the union instead of the private traders in the town of Edaga-Arbi. Regarding the challenges constraining the performance of the Union, the study has pointed out that embezzlement, limitations in the capacity of Management Committee or BoDs, lack of capital, unhealthy competition from private traders, absence of education and training and lack of physical resources are the main ones.

Integrated Watershed Development from Sustainable Livelihood

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 08:42:48 GMT

Title: Integrated Watershed Development from Sustainable Livelihood

Authors: Yalew, Adane

Abstract: Watersheds, especially in the developing world, are increasingly being managed for poverty alleviation as well as for environmental conservation objectives for rain fed agricultural system. The major challenges of rural development in Ethiopia including Delanta Woreda are land degradation, low agricultural productivity and rural poverty, which are interconnected. In order to break these intertwined problems, community based integrated watershed development is practiced. Of course, this practice brought opportunities for livelihood improvement of rural poor but its sustainability is a challenging one. Past watershed studies failed to consider key success factors of watershed development [Such as environmental, economic, technological, technical, social, institutional and physical]. Therefore, the overall objective of this study is to investigate the main challenges and opportunities of integrated watershed development with the eye of sustainable rural livelihood perspective. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were employed to gather and analyze data. Specifically, questionnaire survey, focus group discussion, key informant interview, field observation and review of pertinent secondary data sources were utilized to generate the data. The key findings of the study reveal that the majority of natural resources have been improved in the watershed because of the physical SWC and its technologies practiced in the area. Economically, the household benefited from food- for- work; however, there were also challenges. Because of the investments on activities of income generating were low and not concurrently performed with SWC, the investment on physical SWC structures had not immediate economic return. Institutionalization of watershed development and social network were not given adequate attention in practice and challenging the sustainability of the community-based watershed development. On the other hand, agricultural activities became an opportunities for viable option of the households, if there were adequate access to irrigation, agricultural inputs & technologies. Therefore, access of the communities to capacity building and input technologies with socializing and institutionalizing the watershed development should be done not an option, but imperative for sustainable livelihoods.