A LINEAR PROGRAMMING METHOD TO ENHANCE RESOURCE UTILIZATION CASE OF ETHIOPIAN APPAREL SECTOR

The Ethiopian industrial development strategy is characterized by export-led and labor intensive industrialization. The country is emerging as the most important investment destination in its apparel sector. Thought this sector is expected to generate more income from the export market, its export earnings remain trivial mainly due to the inefficient organizational resource utilization. One of the competent techniques that help companies to efficiently improve the use of their resources to increase their profit is linear programming. In apparel manufacturing firms, efficient use of materials such as fabrics and sewing threads and processing time at different stages of production as well as minimization of labor and materials cost are necessary to enhance their profitability. Cutting, sewing, and finishing operations deserve more attention for apparel process optimization. However, the issue of proper resource allocation remains an unsolved problem within the Ethiopian apparel industry. The aim of this research is to devise efficient resource utilization mechanism for Ethiopian apparel sector to improve their resource utilization and profitability, taking one of the garment factories engaged in the export market as a case study. Five types of products the company is currently producing, the amount of resources employed to produce each unit of the products, and the value of profit per unit from the sale of each products have been collected from the case company. The monthly availability of resources utilized and the monthly production volume of the five products have also been collected from the company. The data gathered was mathematically modeled using a linear programming technique, and solved using MS-Excel solver. The findings of the study depicts that all of the organizational resources are severely underutilized. This research proved that the resource utilization of the case company can be improved from 46.41% of the current resource utilization to 98.57%. This indicates that the new solution provides very significantly improvement in organizational resource utilization. At the same time, with the new solution, the total profit per month of the case company can be increased from 365,699 birr per month to 897,844 birr per month (i.e., with an increment of 145.5%). Finally, it is concluded that this remarkable profit increment of the company can certainly enhance its global competitiveness

Contribution of Dry Forests and Forest Products to Climate Change Adaptation in Tigray Region, Ethiopia

Despite their ecological importance, dry forests’ contribution to climate change adaptation is often neglected. Hence, this study was initiated to assess the socioeconomic contribution of dry forests to climate change adaptation in Tigray Region, Ethiopia. A mixed quantitative and qualitative research design was used to examine the role of dry forests in climate change adaptation. Household questionnaire survey, key informants, and a focus group discussion were used to collect data. The results indicated that 94% of all households visited a dry forest at least once a month to access the forest and forest products. While the dry forest income level varied significantly (p < 0.05), the overall dry forest income level contributed to 16.8% of the total household income. Dry forest income enabled the reduction of the area between the line of equality and the Lorenz curve by 21% in dry evergreen Afromontane Forest users, by 3.02% in Combretum–Terminalia woodland users, and by 3% in Acacia–Commiphora woodland users. Gender, occupation, wealth status, and distance from the forest to their homes are all factors that significantly affected Combretum–Terminalia woodland users’ income level. Among Acacia–Commiphora woodland users, the respondents’ age influenced the dry forest income level, whereas, among dry evergreen Afromontane Forest users, the family size of the household influenced the dry forest income level. The findings of this study could help policy makers understand the crucial role of dry forest income in the livelihood of the community and in climate change adaptation. Policymakers could reduce the pressure on dry forests by introducing policies that recognize the role of dry forest income in reducing poverty and income inequality and by establishing farmer cooperation in commercializing the non-timber forest products which support the long-term coping and adaptation strategy. Further research is needed to understand the increasing role of dry forest products in climate change adaptation over time and its contribution to the national economy at large

One-year discontinuation among users of the contraceptive pill and injection in South East Tigray region, Ethiopia.

ObjectivesThe aim of this study is to determine the 12 months' discontinuation rate and associated factors among family planning clients using pills and injection.MethodsA follow-up study was initiated to collect data from 845 family planning users between November 2017 and December 2018. An interviewer administered questionnaire was used to collect data from participants. Data were entered into EpiData version 3.1 and analyzed using SPSS version 20, where both are open-source systems. A Cox proportional-hazards model was used to estimate the hazard ratios (HR) for the rate of discontinuation among participants.ResultAt 12 months, 63.5% of women discontinued the use of their baseline method. For the individual methods, 84% of women that chose the pill discontinued its use and for those using the injectable, 60.7% of women discontinued its use. Using the adjusted Cox proportional-hazards model, pills users (HR = 1.77; 95%CI = [1.4-2.3]), users receiving family planning services in the same room as other maternal health clinic services (HR 1.58; 95%CI = [1.16-2.2]), users served by health officers (HR = 3.7; 95%CI = [1.66-8.2]), and users not intending to use the baseline method continuously (HR = 1.6; 95%CI = [1.16-2.24]) were significantly more likely to discontinue using the baseline method. The main reason cited for discontinuation was side effects of contraception.ConclusionsThe discontinuation rate of the baseline contraceptive method after 12 months was very high. To increase the continuity of contraceptive use, family planning services should be given in a separate room with effective counseling on potential side effects, provided by midwives or nurses who have good counseling skills