Review on Performance of Formal Rural Financial Institutions in Ethiopia

The main objective of this paper is to review performance and challenges of rural financial institutions in Ethiopia. Performance of the industry was reviewed in terms of outreach, financial sustainability and welfare impact. The main challenges of the industry were also reviewed. Relevant secondary data for the study were collected from published sources. The total number of active borrowing clients of the microfinance institutions in Ethiopia reached over 2.4 million customers in 2011 whereas the total credit extended by all microfinance institutions amounted to Birr 6.9 billion. Of the total credit granted, the share of the three largest Microfinance institutions is Birr 5.1 billion. Dependency ratio measured by the ratio of donated equity to total capital decline, ratio of retained earnings to total capital is rising letting the industry to be financially self-sufficient. Microfinance programs have improved savings of the respondents through letting access to saving services and increasing household income out of which they can use to save. After joining microfinance programs, mean monthly expenditure of the respondents has significantly increased in food, clothing, housing furniture, health, education, and service items.  Limited loan products, absence of legal title of assets in rural areas, less willingness from commercial banks to lend to MFIs without collateral, the less conducive legal environment in enforcing the loan contract, and shortage of logistic in rural areas are the major challenges reviewed. Keywords: Microfinance, Sustainability, Outreac

Performance of Formal Rural Financial Institutions in Ethiopia: Country Review

The main objective of this paper is to review performance and challenges of rural financial institutions in Ethiopia. Performance of the industry was reviewed in terms of outreach, financial sustainability and welfare impact. The main challenges of the industry were also reviewed. Relevant secondary data for the study were collected from published sources. The total number of active borrowing clients of the microfinance institutions in Ethiopia reached over 2.4 million customers in 2011 whereas the total credit extended by all microfinance institutions amounted to Birr 6.9 billion. Of the total credit granted, the share of the three largest Microfinance institutions is Birr 5.1 billion. Dependency ratio measured by the ratio of donated equity to total capital decline, ratio of retained earnings to total capital is rising letting the industry to be financially self-sufficient. Microfinance programs have improved savings of the respondents through letting access to saving services and increasing household income out of which they can use to save. After joining microfinance programs, mean monthly expenditure of the respondents has significantly increased in food, clothing, housing furniture, health, education, and service items.  Limited loan products, absence of legal title of assets in rural areas, less willingness from commercial banks to lend to MFIs without collateral, the less conducive legal environment in enforcing the loan contract, and shortage of logistic in rural areas are the major challenges reviewed. Keywords: Microfinance, Sustainability, Outreac

REVIEW ON OPPORTUNITIES AND CONSTRAINTS OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT ON ECONOMIC GROWTH IN ETHIOPIA

This paper is designed to review opportunities, constraints and contributions of industrial development on economic growth in Ethiopia. Sources such as scholarly publication, News and magazines, Books and chapters, Conference proceedings, government documents, theses and Dissertations have been reviewed. The review result indicates that industrial sector have substantial contribution to economic growth that helps to create a large portion of the resources needed to fund social development programs in the country. In addition, creation of employment and hence generation of income take place in the sector directly and are indirectly fostered in other sectors like agriculture or services through their linkages to industry. However, financial constraints, shortage of raw materials supply and lack of skilled manpower were identified as the main obstacles to the development of the sector. Finally the review argues that high rate of capital accumulation is a necessary condition for bringing about structural transformation and increased level of production and productivity to give rise for industrialization and the use of appropriate combination of skilled manpower, modern and suitable technologies and investment on both public infrastructures and manufacturing activities should be made

Mango Value Chain Analysis in South West Ethiopia: the Case of Gomma District Jimma Zone, Oromia National Regional State, Ethiopia

This study is designed to investigate mango value chain in Gomma district, Southwest Ethiopia. The specific objectives of the study are to: identify mango marketing channels, estimate marketing margins and identify factors affecting mango market supply. Descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation & frequencies and multiple linear regressions have been used. The study identified seven potential mango market channels in the study area. The computed marketing margin among different actors and channels indicated the total gross marketing margin of mango is highest in Channel II, III, VII, IV and followed by Channel V Traders and processors get the highest TGMM which accounted for79.8, 62.6 and 58.6% of consumers’ price. Producers share in consumer price is less than 25% in all channels except in channel I, V and VI. The result from multiple linear regressions model indicates that seven variables from the total of 12 independent variables are significantly affected quantity of mango market supply. Their magnitudes, relationship with quantity of mango market supply and interpretations are given in results and discussion part of the document. Finally, policy recommendation is suggested based on the significant variables. Key words: marketing margin, multiple linear regressions, Mango value chai

Association between sexual and reproductive health education in peer group and comprehensive knowledge of HIV among adolescent girls in rural eastern Ethiopia: a community-based cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVES: This study examined the association between sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education in peer-group discussion and comprehensive knowledge of HIV among young adolescent girls in rural eastern Ethiopia. DESIGN: The study analysed data from a large quasi-experimental study involving 3290 young adolescent girls aged 13-17 years. The intervention targeted adolescent girls aged 10-14 years. Data were collected using a comprehensive HIV knowledge tool adopted from the demographic and health survey questionnaire. Multi-level mixed-effect logistic regression analysis was employed to examine associations using STATA/SE V.14 statistical software. SETTING: West Hararghe, rural Ethiopia. PARTICIPANTS: 3290 adolescent girls. RESULTS: Magnitude of comprehensive knowledge of HIV among those who received SRH education and those who did not receive SRH education was 16.78% (95% CI 14.41% to 19.45%) and 14.01% (95% CI 12.38% to 15.81%), respectively. Overall, 14.84% (95% CI 13.4.% to 16.39%) of the adolescent girls aged 13-17 years had comprehensive knowledge of HIV. The odds of having comprehensive HIV knowledge were higher (1.36 times) among adolescent girls who received SRH education compared with those who did not receive SRH education (adjusted OR 1.36, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.84) after controlling for selected potential confounders. Odds of having comprehensive HIV knowledge were also higher (1.73 times) among older adolescent girls (adjusted OR 1.733 95% CI 1.098 to 2.735) and (3.89 times) among those who attended secondary school (adjusted OR=3.889 95% CI 1.836 to 8.235) compared with young adolescent girls and the uneducated, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Comprehensive knowledge of HIV among young adolescent girls was very low. Providing SRH education for young adolescent girls improved their comprehensive knowledge of HIV in rural eastern Ethiopia. Initiating sexual education at an early age would benefit HIV prevention efforts

Long-lasting insecticidal nets and indoor residual spraying may not be sufficient to eliminate malaria in a low malaria incidence area: results from a cluster randomized controlled trial in Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: Conflicting results exist on the added benefit of combining long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) with indoor residual spraying (IRS) to control malaria infection. The main study objective was to evaluate whether the combined use of LLINs and IRS with propoxur provides additional protection against Plasmodium falciparum and/or Plasmodium vivax among all age groups compared to LLINs or IRS alone. METHODS: This cluster-randomized, controlled trial was conducted in the Rift Valley area of Ethiopia from September 2014 to January 2017 (121 weeks); 44 villages were allocated to each of four study arms: LLIN + IRS, IRS, LLIN, and control. Each week, 6071 households with 34,548 persons were surveyed by active and passive case detection for clinical malaria. Primary endpoints were the incidence of clinical malaria and anaemia prevalence. RESULTS: During the study, 1183 malaria episodes were identified, of which 55.1% were P. falciparum and 25.3% were P. vivax, and 19.6% were mixed infections of P. falciparum and P. vivax. The overall malaria incidence was 16.5 per 1000 person-years of observation time (PYO), and similar in the four arms with 17.2 per 1000 PYO in the LLIN + IRS arm, 16.1 in LLIN, 17.0 in IRS, and 15.6 in the control arm. There was no significant difference in risk of anaemia among the trial arms. CONCLUSIONS: The clinical malaria incidence and anaemia prevalence were similar in the four study groups. In areas with low malaria incidence, using LLINs and IRS in combination or alone may not eliminate malaria. Complementary interventions that reduce residual malaria transmission should be explored in addition to LLINs and IRS to further reduce malaria transmission in such settings. Trial registration PACTR201411000882128 (08 September 2014)

Review of the Socio-economic Importance of Village Poultry Production in Ethiopia

This paper sought to review the socioeconomic importance of village poultry production in Ethiopia. The review indicated that poultry has played, and still plays important social and cultural roles in the life of rural people for building social relations with other villagers. The review also confirmed the widely recognized contribution of smallholder poultry keeping to the income and internal household position of women. However, there is generally a scant literature on poultry marketing system in the country, the limited research showed that a large number of marketing agents are involved along the poultry marketing chain where on average a trader handles between 40 to 100 chickens per week while the middle man manages 2000 eggs per month. Moreover the review identified that the average number of birds that are sold at local markets ranges from 30 to 400 per day. The chicken and egg marketing channels in the country are informal and poorly developed where chicken and eggs are sold to consumers within the villages, on roadsides and in local and urban markets. Furthermore input supply system for exotic breeds is poorly developed or nonexistent and characterized by high price and inconsistent availability if it exists. The input supply system for local breeds is also poor and inconsistent in availing inputs like compound feed and veterinary services that cannot be found in local market places. Even if it existed, characterized by high price and found in long distance from the farmers resident. Finally the current review identified that such poorly developed poultry input supply system can have adverse effect on the productivity and profitability of the subsector.Key words: village poultry, socioeconomic

Socioeconomic importance and production characteristics of village poultry production in Ethiopia: A review

This paper is aimed at reviewing the socio-economic importance and production characteristics of village poultry production in Ethiopia. The review indicated that poultry has played and still play important social and cultural roles in the life of rural people for building social relationships with other villages. The review also confirmed the widely recognized contribution of smallholder poultry to the income and internal household position of women. However, there is generally scant literature on poultry marketing system in the country. The limited research conducted so far showed that a large number of marketing agents involved in the poultry marketing chain where an average trader handled between 40 to 100 chickens per week while a middle man managed 2000 eggs per month. Poorly developed poultry input supply system including feed supply and availability of veterinary services in this country has adverse effect on the productivity and profitability of this subsector.Keywords: village poultry production, socio-economics, constraints, opportunitie

Low contraceptive utilization among young married women is associated with perceived social norms and belief in contraceptive myths in rural Ethiopia.

IntroductionDespite the increasingly wider availability of contraceptives and the high levels of unmet need for family planning in rural Ethiopia, contraceptive utilization among young married women is low. Studies on associated factors in Ethiopia so far have been focused on individual factors with little emphasis on socio-cultural factors. This study aimed to assess the association between contraceptive utilization and socio-cultural factors among young married women in Eastern Ethiopia.MethodsA community-based survey was conducted among young married women aged 14-24 years. A total of 3039 women were interviewed by trained data collectors using a structured questionnaire. Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) with 95% Confidence Intervals (CI) was used to identify factors associated with contraceptive utilization using multivariable logistic regression analysis.ResultsThe current contraceptive prevalence rate was 14.1% (95% CI: 12.8-15.5). Perceived social approval (AOR = 1.90; 95% CI = 1.60-2.30) and perception of friends' contraceptive practice (AOR = 1.34; 95% CI: 1.20-1.54) were significantly and positively associated with contraceptive utilization. On the contrary, increased score of belief in contraceptive myths was significantly and negatively associated with contraceptive use (AOR = 0.60; 95% CI: 0.49-0.73). Moreover, recent exposure to family planning information (AOR = 1.67; 95% CI: 1.22-2.28), ever-mother (AOR = 9.68; 95% CI: 4.47-20.90), and secondary and above education level (AOR = 1.90; 95% CI: 1.38-2.70) were significantly associated with higher odds of contraceptive utilization.ConclusionOnly about one-in-seven young married women were using contraceptive methods. Socio-cultural factors significantly influence young married women's contraceptive utilization. Interventions to address social norms and pervasive myths and misconceptions could increase the use of contraceptive methods in young married women

One in five women suffer from pelvic floor disorders in Kersa district Eastern Ethiopia: a community-based study

Abstract Background Hundreds of millions of women suffer from pelvic floor disorders globally, often in silence. Women in developing countries do not disclose their problems due to associated social stigma or lack of access to services. Thus, the extent of the problem remains largely unknown. This study was conducted to assess the magnitude of pelvic floor disorders in Kersa district Eastern Ethiopia. Method We conducted a community-based cross-sectional study among ever married women who reside in Kersa district, Eastern Ethiopia. The study subjects were selected through stratified multistage probability sampling. The data were collected using a structured questionnaire through face-to-face interviews. The prevalence of various pelvic floor disorders are presented along with the 95% Confidence Intervals (CI). Results A total of 3432 women participated in the study, of which 704 (20.5%; 95% CI; 19.2, 21.8) reported at least one type of pelvic floor disorder and 349 (49.6%; 95% CI: 46.0, 53.0) reported two or more pelvic floor disorders. The most common pelvic floor disorders included an over active bladder (15.5%; 95% CI: 14.4, 16.8), pelvic organ prolapse (9.5%; 95% CI: 8.5,10.4), stress urinary incontinence (8.3%; 95% CI: 7.4, 9.2) and anal incontinence (1.9%; 95% CI: 1.5, 2.4). More than two-thirds of the women with pelvic floor disorders (68.0%; 95% CI:64.4, 71.3) reported having severe distress but had never sought health care. Conclusions The magnitude of the health problem and the low level of health seeking behavior indicates the silent suffering of many women in the study area. Extrapolating these figure to national statistics would indicate the staggering number of women suffering from pelvic floor disorders in the country. This calls for urgent action to improve prevention, diagnosis and treatment services to mitigate the suffering of women from pelvic floor disorders