Cash Plus in Practice: Integrating Nutrition and Access to Services in the PSNP in Ethiopia

The fourth phase of the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP4) was launched in 2015, introducing several innovations designed to strengthen the programme and its multiple impacts. The ‘cash plus’ Improved Nutrition through Integrated Basic Social Services with Social Cash Transfer (IN-SCT) pilot is implemented by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MoLSA) under the umbrella of PSNP4 in SNNP and Oromia regions. It tests a model of case management and integrated package of nutrition-sensitive interventions aiming to improve multiple outcomes in the areas of nutrition, health, education and access to complementary social services. The system relies on social workers, who are the driving workforce behind this integrated systems approach. This policy brief presents findings based on the qualitative midline evaluation and additional operational research assessing service providers’ and clients’ perceptions in SNNP region. Research took place in five kebeles2 in accessible and more remote areas in Halaba and Shashego woredas. It included 31 key informant interviews with service providers, 31 focus group discussions with PSNP- and non-clients, 5 discussions with Community Care Coalitions and 22 case studies with PSNP clients. Analysis clearly points towards the importance of a systems-approach for improving multiple outcomes of social cash transfers, the need for building capacity among service providers for making such a systems-approach work and the engagement with other sectors, including agriculture and WASH, to reinforce and sustain positive impacts

Determinants of Trade Credit Use by Private Traders in Ethiopia: Case of Mekelle City, Tigray Regional State

This study aims to investigate the determinants of trade credit use by taking 198 samples of private traders in Mekelle city, Tigray regional state of Ethiopia. Semi-structured questionnaire and interview were used to collect data and binary logistic regression model was used to examine significant factors determining trade credit use. The result highlighted that trade credit was widely practiced among private traders in Mekelle city. It has been found that about 58 percent of sample traders that are found in Mekelle city were trade credit users and about 42 percent of them were non-users. The result of binary logistic regression model shows that from owner factors, gender and education of traders significantly determined trade credit use. Similarly, business specific factors such as age of the business, length of trade relation, frequency and volume of purchase were found significant variables in determining trade credit use. Therefore, private traders and concerned government offices that are concerned with the promotion of trade and private sector development need to take these factors into consideration in order to enhance trade credit use by private traders. Key Words: Binary Logistic Regression, Determinants, Ethiopia, Private Traders, Trade Credi

A life cycle assessment on liquid biofuel use in the transport sector of Ethiopia

Seed-oil based biodiesel production particularly biodiesel production from the nonedible oil seed bearing plant - Jatropha curcas L. - is a key strategic direction outlined in the biofuels strategy of the Government of Ethiopia. The main objective underlying the strategy include substitution of imported diesel oil used in the road transport sector while at the same time contributing to the local and global greenhouse gasses (GHG) reduction efforts. In this study the environmental benefits and costs of production and use of Jatropha biodiesel in the road transport sector of Ethiopia is assessed using a life cycle analysis (LCA) methodology. The analysis focused on determining the potential environmental impacts and net non-renewable energy saving potential of biodiesel from Jatropha oil-seeds using the following metrics: (i) Net Greenhouse Gas (GHG) reduction, and (ii) Net Energy Balance (NEB) relative to diesel oil. The study shows that the net GHG emissions reduction potential of Jatropha Methyl Ester (JME) is highly influenced by the magnitude of initial carbon loss occurring in the process of conversion of different land uses to Jatropha plantation, and less so on other unit processes of JME production system analysed. The NEB of JME relative to use of diesel oil per functional unit of one GJ is less sensitive to impacts of land use change and is generally positive. Where no land use change impacts is considered, or where Jatropha is grown on lands with low carbon stock such as grasslands, substitution of diesel oil with JME in Ethiopia can provide GHG emission reduction of about 43%, and for each MJ of JME produced the nonrenewable energy requirement will be 0,38 MJ. Production of JME by converting lands with high above ground, below ground and/or soil carbon stocks such as shrub lands or well stocked forest lands will result in net loss of carbon and require ecological carbon payback time of 50 to hundreds of years. The impact of introducing and use of JME-diesel oil blends by Anbassa City Bus Services Enterprise (ACBSE) bus fleets shows that, displacement of diesel oil with JME that have positive GHG reduction potential, will also contribute to the reduction of air pollutants and improvement of ambient air quality in Addis Ababa. Two key recommendations of this research work are that to ensure environmental sustainability of biodiesel production from Jatropha seeds (i) land availability and land suitability assessment for estimating the potential available land for Jatropha (and other oil-seed bearing plants) shall be conducted, and (ii) minimum requirements on GHG reduction and NEB requirements on biodiesel shall be established.Environmental SciencesM. Sc. (Environmental Management

Cash 'plus' - Integrated Nutrition and Social Cash Transfer (IN-SCT) Pilot in Ethiopia: perceptions and feedback from clients and service providers

The Integrated Nutrition Social Cash Transfer (IN-SCT) pilot project is embedded within phase 4 of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme phase 4 (PSNP4), and is being implemented in four PSNP woredas, two in Oromia region and two in SNNPR. Since 2005, PSNP has delivered support to millions of rural households throughout rural Ethiopia, in the form of temporary employment (Public Works), unconditional cash transfers (Direct Support), and asset transfers. Several evaluations have confirmed that the PSNP has improved household food security and protected productive assets against distress sales. However, impacts on nutrition have been limited. Several innovations have been introduced on PSNP4 to enhance programme outcomes, specifically in terms of child nutrition. Most significantly: (1) Permanent Direct Support (PDS) clients now receive payments all year instead of only 6 months per year; (2) pregnant and lactating women (PLW) and caregivers of malnourished children are moved from Public Works (PW) to Temporary Direct Support (TDS); (3) co-responsibilities have been introduced for TDS and PDS clients, particularly to strengthen linkages between PSNP with health care and other social services. The IN-SCT pilot aims to support increased uptake of social services by PSNP households; improved knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of DS households in terms of nutrition, hygiene, health, education and child protection; the implementation of nutrition-sensitive components of PSNP4; and cross-sectoral collaboration between a range of stakeholders at regional, woreda and local levels.RF/16013 Centre for Social Protection, IDS, UK and REBRET Business and Consultancy, Ethiopi

Assessment of the effect of Value Added Tax on consumption behavior: The Case of Nekemte Town, Wollega

This study has been conducted having the objective of assessing the effect of Value Added Tax on consumption behavior of Nekemte Town households.  Descriptive research design has been implemented to undertake this study. The two most commonly used data collecting mechanisms (questionnaire and interview) have been used for this study by taking a sample size of 384, out of 20,870 households using stratified random sampling and three higher officials of Ethiopian Revenue and Custom Authority  Nekemte branch from twelve total staff members using purposive sampling.  To collect and measure the study,  Liker Scale question were used and the collected data were edited for minor error.  Relevant statistical methods of analysis like mean, standard deviation correlation and regression were use using the statistical package. The study revealed that the implementation of VAT to go down well with Consumers, the scheme has to come with some compensatory measures such as the reduction of income taxes to put more money in the pockets of households and to boost their purchasing power. And to ensure that the low-income and poor consumers – who may not enjoy the benefits of lower income taxes as most likely they are already exempted from such payment in the first place - are not worse off with VAT, zero-rating some basic essential products and providing other targeted assistance programmes are necessary measures to help them

Food insecurity among households with and without podoconiosis in East and West Gojjam, Ethiopia

Background: Household food insecurity remained one of the most crucial challenges to economic development and has been aggravated by household health conditions. Nearly one billion people are undernourished of which 98% in developing countries like Ethiopia. Objective: To assess households’ food insecurity among podoconiosis patients and non-podoconiosis in East and West Gojjam Zone,Ethiopia, 2016. Method: A community based comparative cross sectional study was conducted in East and West Gojjam, 2016. Multi-stage sampling technique was employed to select 208 podoconiosis and 400 non-podoconiosis household heads. Data was collected by using structured and pretested questionnaires. The collected data was cleaned, coded and entered into Epi data then exported to SPSS version 22. Descriptive and inferential statistics was performed. Both bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses was employed. The association was measured by adjusted odds ratio (AOR), 95%CI (confidence interval) and P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Result: A total of 608 study participants were involved in this study. Food insecurity podoconiosis patients and non-podoconiosis household was 83.7%, 53% respectively (p = 0.0001). Podoconiosis and non- podoconiosis whose heads could not read and write AOR = 5.84, (95% CI: 2.14, 15.95) and AOR = 1.70, (95% CI: 1.06, 2.72) were food insecure respectively. Podoconiosis patients without off farm activities AOR = 4.90, (95% CI: 1.60, 14.95), not using fertilizer AOR = 4.38, (95% CI: 1.15, 16.67) and living at > 5 kilo meter distance from market AOR = 4.47, (95% CI: 1.38, 14.48) were food insecure. Non-podoconiosis heads with no perennial plant AOR = 2.11, (95% CI: 1.17, 3.34), not using improved seeds AOR = 2.20, (95% CI: 1.25, 3.87), no access to asset building program AOR = 2.07, (95% CI: 1.27, 3.34), living in medium and low altitude AOR = 8.87, (95% CI: 1.81, 43.40) and AOR = 10.04, (95% CI: 1.90,52.93) were food insecure. Conclusion: Food insecurity was higher among podoconiosis than non-podoconiosis households. Being a female, unable to read and write absence of off farm activities, not using of fertilizers and living in more distance from market were significantly associated with food insecurity among podoconiosis patients. Special emphasis should be given for improvement of food security of podoconiosis and non-podoconiosis households

Forecasting malaria incidence from historical morbidity patterns in epidemic-prone areas of Ethiopia: a simple seasonal adjustment method performs best.

The aim of this study was to assess the accuracy of different methods of forecasting malaria incidence from historical morbidity patterns in areas with unstable transmission. We tested five methods using incidence data reported from health facilities in 20 areas in central and north-western Ethiopia. The accuracy of each method was determined by calculating errors resulting from the difference between observed incidence and corresponding forecasts obtained for prediction intervals of up to 12 months. Simple seasonal adjustment methods outperformed a statistically more advanced autoregressive integrated moving average method. In particular, a seasonal adjustment method that uses mean deviation of the last three observations from expected seasonal values consistently produced the best forecasts. Using 3 years' observation to generate forecasts with this method gave lower errors than shorter or longer periods. Incidence during the rainy months of June-August was the most predictable with this method. Forecasts for the normally dry months, particularly December-February, were less accurate. The study shows the limitations of forecasting incidence from historical morbidity patterns alone, and indicates the need for improved epidemic early warning by incorporating external predictors such as meteorological factors

The Practices of Instructional Supervisions in Supplementing Holistic Teaching-Learning Process: Qersa and Omo Nada Woreda Secondary Schools of Jimma Zone in Focus

The purpose of the study was to assess the practices of instructional supervision in supplementing teaching-learning process in secondary schools of Qersa and Omo Nada woreda of Jimma zone. It particularly treats issues of how instructional supervision is practiced in improving the holistic teaching learning process, how instructional supervisors render professional support to teachers to enhance classroom instruction, and what challenges are there in practicing instructional supervision in think of promoting the provision of quality education. To accomplish this purpose, the study employed a descriptive survey method, which is supplemented by quantitative and qualitative research method to enrich data. The study was carried out in two secondary schools of the two woreda which comprises -58 teachers, 31 internal school supervisors (2 principals 2 vice principals, 12 department heads and 15 senior teachers) and 2 woreda supervisors who included in the study purposively.  Questionnaire and interview was the main instrument utilized during data collection.Descriptive statistics like frequency, percentage for part and narration for qualitative were employed to analyze the data. Finally, the results of the study revealed that the practices of instructional supervision in supplementing holistic teaching learning in the woreda were ineffective and suffered with many challenges like lack of adequate knowledge among supervisors, shortage of resources for support, low top management attention and the like. Therefore, it is recommended that the woreda would  be able to enhance the supervisory activities in considering its importance in assuring quality education by arranging training, improving resource allocation for supervision work and give due attention for the issue in order to alleviate the problem. 

Practices and Challenges on Reflective Teaching: an Investigation of Second Cycle Primary Schools (5-8) EFL Teachers

The purpose of this study was to explore the practices and challenges of reflective teaching in helping EFL teachers to become more efficient practitioner