Systemic barriers to scaling private sector driven climate-smart agricultural innovations in East Africa’s potato, sesame and common bean value chains

The CRAFT project (2018-2023) promotes a bottom-up market-driven scaling agenda that supports inclusive business models to enhance climate-resilient farming systems through sustainable intensification along selected oilseed, pulse and potato agricultural value chains. The selection criteria for these crops includes sufficient private sector interest and capacity for coinvestment; adequate domestic consumption to drive market development opportunities; and ample evidence of climate change risks projected to face the value chains. Across East Africa, unfavorable climate change patterns involving rising temperatures, increased variability of seasonal rainfall and a higher frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as droughts and floods are aggravating food insecurity and pose further challenges for rural development (Government of Kenya 2018)

ICT Integration Efforts in Higher Education in Developing Economies: The Case of Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia

A situational modified version of Tearle’s model (2004) is utilized in this study to understand the integration of ICTs in the educational process. The study evaluated self efficacy beliefs, institutional support and policy in the context of developing economies where challenges of inadequate resources and insufficient skills persist. We assess the state of affairs, and the challenges faced by teachers and management at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. The results show that educators are generally appreciative of ICTs role in the teaching/learning process

Guide to Developing Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land-Use (AFOLU) Carbon Market Projects under Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP)

This report outlines the general steps required for development of a carbon project intended for sale of carbon credits via a carbon offset program, whether compliance or voluntary. While there are differences among the numerous offset programs, the major components are generally the same and any carbon project originating in the agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) sector will follow these steps. This report was written as a guide to development of carbon projects for Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP), but the same process outlined here is equally applicable to any AFOLU carbon project.This work was supported by the PSNP Climate Smart Initiative. The PSNP is implemented by the Government of Ethiopia with support from the following development partners: Canadian International Development Agency, Irish Aid, European Commission, Royal Netherlands Embassy, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, UK Department for International Development, United States Agency for International Development, World Food Program and World Bank

Climate change, agriculture and international migration: An African youth perspective

Existing evidence indicates that Africa is already being affected by climate change resulting in substantial challenges for both human and natural systems. Eastern Africa is among the regions in Africa with disproportionately higher risk of adverse consequences of global warming and climate change. Climate change and variability are having significant direct and indirect impacts on agricultural production, agricultural value chains, food and nutrition security as well as the overall sustainable growth of the sector in the region. Over time, it is expected that climate change will exacerbate the prevalence of spatio-temporal climate variability in Eastern Africa, and these variabilities will manifest in the increased frequency and severity of extreme climate events and the increasing irregularity and unpredictability of weather patterns. To the region’s farmers, these emerging changes represent an additional source of risks and uncertainty

Gender assessment for women’s economic empowerment in Doyogena climate-smart landscape in Southern Ethiopia

Agricultural production systems in Ethiopia depend on seasonal rains, which are increasingly becoming variable, affecting the livelihoods of many farmers. Women in rural areas are more vulnerable to climate change and climaterelated risks due to existing social norms and gender inequalities (limited ownership and control over productive assets/resources, decision-making power, access to information, extension services, market etc.) and multidimensional social factors. These gender inequalities affect the ability of women to adapt to climate change. On the other hand, women have unique knowledge and skills that can help create effective and sustainable responses to climate change (Habtezion 2013)

AICCRA Scaling Vision: Ethiopia - Scaling and Scalability: Concepts, Frameworks, and Impact Pathways

Effective scaling up is a key measure of success for these innovations. Too often, however, the decision to scale up is made with incomplete information. Given the high costs involved, decision-makers (governments, development partners, NGOs, and the private sector) must carefully decide which innovations are ready for investment. A good understanding of the scaling-up process and a conceptual framework that informs the scaling vision, analysis of the scaling readiness of innovations, and impact pathways to achieve that vision are critical for informed decision-making. AICCRA Ethiopia is promoting the broader adoption of Climate information systems (CIS) and climate-smart agriculture (CSA) technologies through a series of pilot projects across a minimum of five major work streams

Leveraging Climate Finance for Agribusiness SMEs to Scale Up Climate Resilient Agriculture in East Africa: Recommendations for Policy and Practice

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in supporting sustainable development and increasingly towards building adaptation and resilience in Africa's food and agriculture sectors. However, most agribusiness SMEs operating in small-scale agriculture are in dire need of business finance to help them flourish and climate-proof their value chains as variable weather increasingly threatens their supply sources of raw materials, disrupts their operations, and increases costs of maintenance and materials. Climate-related risk hazards not only increase the risk and unpredictability of SMEs' revenue streams but also reduce private sector investments into the sector even further. Financial institutions such as banks may avoid the risk by not financing agribusiness SMEs or increasing the cost of financing, such as enforcing more stringent collateral requirements or higher interest rates (Csaky et al., 2017)

Pattern of surgical admissions to Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: A five-year retrospective study

Background: Tikur Anbessa specialized hospital (TASH) is Ethiopia’s largest tertiary teaching and referral hospital admitting and treating surgical patients under various specialties. This study aims to analyze the magnitude and pattern of surgical admissions to this facility. Methods: A five-year Cross sectional retrospective analysis was done on all adult surgical admissions to TASH from Sept. 2010 to Sept. 2015. Results: There were a total of 8,698 surgical admissions of which, 4471 (51.4%) were male and 4227 (48.5%) were female with male to female ratio of 1.06:1. Their age ranged from 13 to 95, with mean age being 38.8 ± 16.2 years. Three thousand two hundred twenty two (46.5%) patients were from Addis Ababa. Of all admissions, 4706 (54.1%) were elective ones of which obstructive uropathy, 997(21.1%), esophageal diseases, 716(15.2%) and Urolithiasis, 573(12.2%) respectively are the top three. The rest, 3992 (44.9%), were emergency admissions, the top three ones being trauma, 1435(35.9%), appendicitis 281(7%) and Intestinal obstruction, 190(4.7%) respectively. General surgical (gastrointestinal, endocrine and vascular) cases account for 3414 (39.25%) of all admissions followed by urosurgical cases, 2114 (25.31%), cardiothoracic surgical cases, 1942 (22.33%), and neurosurgical cases, 1139 (13.1%). There were a total of 280 deaths with an overall mortality rate of 4% of which, 3.2% were from elective admissions and 5.2% from emergency ones. Mortality rate was the highest among neurosurgical patients being 6.3% followed by 4.3%, 3.8% and 3.5% in cardiothoracic, general surgical and urosurgical cases respectively. Conclusions: The admission pattern indicates quite a big number and diversity of cases though the bed capacity is limited. There are significant number of cases that could be treated at other secondary level hospitals. Trauma is the leading cause of emergency admissions and significant cause of mortality. We recommend increasing the number of beds, organizing separate trauma center and admitting only cases requiring tertiary level care. Keywords: pattern of surgical diseases; surgical admissions; Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital

Assessment of agricultural emissions, climate change mitigation and adaptation practices in Ethiopia

Acknowledgements The CCAFS Mitigation Options Tool (MOT) was developed by the University of Aberdeen and the CGIAR Research Programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) with support from CCAFS, Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the United States Development of Agriculture (USDA). The Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) Programme is carried out with support from CGIAR Trust Fund Donors and through bilateral funding agreements. For details please visit https://ccafs.cgiar.org/donors. The views expressed in this document cannot be taken to reflect the official opinions of these organisations.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Epidemiologic survey of respiratory symptoms among workers of small grain mills and others

Abstract: The prevalence of respiratory symptoms was compared in a grain dust exposed group of 57 grain mill workers and grain traders and an unexposed group of 181 civic, shop, snack bar and municipal labor workers in Kola Diba town using standard medical and occupational questionnaire. The two groups were comparable by age, sex and prevalence of smoking. Symptoms of expectoration and dyspnoea, cough, wheeze, chest tightness, sneezing and rhinnorhoea occurred significantly higher in the exposed than in the unexposed group. Recognizing Ethiopia’s predominant agricultural economy and an unavoidable expansion of small grain grinding mills in rural cooperatives and townships, the paper attempts to indicate the need for documenting the level of grain dust pollution and investigating its occupational health hazard. [Ethiop. J. Health Dev. 1998;12(3):213-215