Rural Livelihood Diversification Strategies of Sodo Zuria Woreda: Determinants and Constraints

Agricultural activities are subjected to a variety of risk arising from natural and manmade factors. These factors endanger not only the household’s livelihood and income but also undermine the viability of agricultural sector. Therefore, supplementary sources of livelihood and household diversification strategies assume an important place in this situation. The present study investigated factors and constraints that influence the rural households’ choice of livelihood strategies in Sodo Zuria, Woreda, Wolaita Zone of Southern Nations Nationality and Peoples’ Regional State. The main objective of the study was to identify the determinants of rural livelihood diversification strategies. A multistage stratified sampling technique was employed to select 123 household heads from 6 selected kebeles. The data was collected using survey questionnaire, key informants interview and focus group discussions. Both descriptive and econometric analyses were used. Descriptive analysis addressed the wealth status and strategies practiced by household heads. The results showed that age of HH head, family size, education level, dependency ratio, training conducted, operational land size, agro-ecology, livestock holding, input use, cooperative membership, extension contact and proximity to market were found to be significant among the sample households who pursue different livelihood strategies. The majority of households from poorest of the poor, poor and medium, and better off; choose a livelihood strategy of AG + nonfarm, AG + Off farm and AG + Nonfarm + Off farm income diversification, respectively. The Multinomial logit model results revealed that out of 14 explanatory variables, choice of AG + Nonfarm livelihood strategy was determined by livestock holding, proximity to market and dependency ratio, and choice of AG + Nonfarm + Off farm livelihood strategy was influenced by agro-ecology, land size, credit access, dependency ratio and training received. Poor asset base, poor credit and training facility, agro-ecology and risk fearing becomes the major constraints. Thus, interventions must be undertaken regarding asset status of rural household and targeting specific group of societies. Infrastructure development, accessing credit service and training will expand the household’s choice of livelihood strategies. Keywords: Constraints, Livelihood diversification strategies, Multinomial logit, Stratified, Wolaita

Postnatal Care Services Utilization and Its Associated Factors Among Women Who Gave Birth in the Past One Year in Gulele Sub City, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Introduction: Postpartum period is a critical period in which most maternal and infant deaths occur, especially in the first month after birth. Post natal care is one the interventions for reducing larger proportions of maternal and neonatal deaths. But evidence shows utilization of post natal care services in Sub Saharan countries including Ethiopia is low. Therefore, it is essential to understand the factors that influence women’s for utilization of post natal care services.Objective: To assess postnatal care service utilization and associated factors among women who gave birth in the past one year in Gulele sub city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2015.Methods: Community based Cross sectional study was conducted from February to June 2015 among 817 women who gave birth in the past one year prior to the study. Multistage sampling technique was employed. The data was collected through interview by using a pre-tested questionnaire. Data was entered into EPI info version 7 then exported to SPSS version 20.0 for further analysis. Descriptive statistics was done and both Bivariate and Multivariate analysis were applied to see the association between dependent variable and independent variables.Results: The study revealed that 729 (89.2%) of the respondents were utilized postnatal care services at least once in health facilities. Being married (AOR=4.34), have less than 4 family size (AOR=2.16), delivery assisted by Midwives (AOR=13.79) and Doctors (AOR=9.59), had no information about PNC (AOR=0.07), didn’t received PNC counseling during delivery at health institution (AOR=0.36) and women who were under influence of their husband (AOR=0.21) were found to be significantly associated with postnatal care services utilization.Conclusion and Recommendation: The level of postnatal care service utilization is relatively higher compared to the previous studies. Women’s marital status, assistance at delivery by health professionals, family size, heard information about PNC, counseling on PNC during delivery and those who are able to visit health institution without their husbands influence were significantly associated with utilization of PNC service. Therefore, Federal Ministry of health, Addis Ababa health Bureau together with other stakeholders need to work on women empowerment and strengthening communities’ awareness through health education during Antenatal Care, labor and delivery and post natal care about the importance of having follow-ups after she gave birth to boost the postnatal care service utilization. Keywords:-Post natal care, Utilization, Addis Abab

Middle Level Managers’ Quality of Leadership and Good Governance, and Organizational Performance of Wolaita Sodo University

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between middle level managers’ quality of leadership and good governance, and organization performance of Wolaita Sodo University. The study employed descriptive survey method and used quantitative approach. College/school Deans, Department heads and Coordinators were source of data. Using availability sampling technique, 61 middle level managers in the university were included in the study. Accordingly, IQAP-Self instrument and demographic variables survey questionnaires were employed to collect data. The data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The result of this study showed that all subscales of a goal statement that identifies a desired organization performance have significant correlation with one another. Finally, the researchers recommended that the university officials should identify whether there are skilled purchasing specialists, system exists to collect feedback from all stakeholders, establishes a reporting and evaluation system to check the effectiveness and efficiency of purchasing activities, takes immediate measures when inconsistencies happen in purchasing of materials, avails sufficient properties in safety stocks to run activities without problems and system exists to check whether or not properties are registered, placed and distributed in a proper and safe manner in order to ensure efficient purchasing and implements systematic procedures to ensure efficient property management and accountability. Keywords: Good governance. Quality leadership, Organization performanc

Determinants of Financial Profitability of Microfinance Institutions in Ethiopia

Microfinance is a term often applied in reference to small-scale financial services primarily credit, savings and insurance. It is a tool that has been acceptable over time to offer poor people access to basic financial services, such as loans, savings, money transfer services and micro insurance. The rapid changes in the business environment have led to the increase in resource productivity and decrease in non-performing assets. However, the profitability has come under pressure because of changing environmental requirement of safe care of money. This study attempted to investigate the factors that determine the financial performance of MFIs in Ethiopia. The study followed a quantitative research approach using a balanced panel data set of 39 observations from 13 MFIs over the period 2004, 2006 and 2008. From the findings, outreach, borrowing, capital asset ratio, equity and percentage of female borrowers were important variables in determining financial profitability of Microfinance institutions in Ethiopia. Thus, interventions must be undertaken by promote and support women’s in accessing credit, increase number of borrowers, increase the total as well as average loan size and in general should ensure their profitability growth to go in line with their objectives to make their initial mission sustain, serving the interest of small groups of people. Keywords: Financial profitability, microfinance institutions, outreac

Challenges and Opportunities Facing Youth Entrepreneurs in Ethiopia: A Review Paper

The objective of this article is to review the challenges and opportunities facing youth entrepreneurs in Ethiopia and make suggestions that will help in solving some of these problems and enhance the participation of youth women and men entrepreneurs within their own country and global marketplace as required. The paper also highlights opportunities for growth and profitability in the national as well as global marketplace for these entrepreneurs. Understanding the challenges and difficulties faced by entrepreneurs in Ethiopia will be important if Ethiopian government is to come up with policies which will stop their small businesses from being swept away by rapid changes taking place in today's global economy. The article concludes with recommendations for addressing these challenges and enhancing the competitive ability of youth Ethiopian entrepreneurs. Keywords: competitive ability, profitability, youth entrepreneur

Assessment of Factor Affecting Institutional Performance: The Case of Wolaita Sodo University

The purpose of this study is to explore factors that affect institutional performance of Wolaita Sodo University. The study has identified middle level manager’s perceptions toward institutional performance to indicate the key factors that seem to affect the performance of the university. Data were collected using structured questionnaires and interview. The collected data were analyzed using simple quantitative analysis. The finding of the study revealed that factors that influencing the institutional performance are leadership experience, academic rank of the managers, applied policy and procedures, making professional learning community and ensuring efficient financial management and accountability. Finally, recommendations were forwarded based on the major finding in order to improve Institutional performance like as officials should updates its policies and proceduresthrough participation of the whole community, professional pathways should include professional learning priorities, financial resource allocation and distribution should be made to each unit in accordance with aligned work and activities, accessing training regarding educational leadership and promoting the staff to engaged in research and community service and publish on reputable journals. Keywords: Institutional performance, leadership, Wolaita Sodo Universit

Mortality and Associated Factors among Children Born to Human Immunodeficiency Virus-infected Mothers in Public Hospitals in North Gondar, Northwest Ethiopia

Background: HIV has become one of the world’s most serious public health problems. Mother to child transmission of HIV/AIDS during pregnancy, deliver and breast feeding are major sources of HIV-infection in children. Without treatment, one third of children with HIV will die of AIDs before their first birthday; half of them die before celebrating their second birthday. Hence, assessing mortality and associated factors among children born to HIV-infected women is of paramount importance.Objective: To assess mortality and associated factors among children born to HIV-infected women in public Hospitals in North Gondar, Northwest Ethiopia.Methods: Institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted from March to May, 2013 in Public hospitals in North Gondar Zone. Data were collected from 422 HIV-positive mothers by face-to-face interview. The entire 422 younger child born from these mothers within five years were included in the study and analysis. Data were entered into Epi-Info and exported to SPSS for further analysis. Bivariate analysis was employed to see relationship between variables. Predictors having p–value ≤ 0.2 in bivariate analysis were included in the multivariate model. Odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals were calculated. A p-value of ≤ 0.05 was considered as statistically significant in multivariate model.Results: Of the total 422 children, 292 [69.2%] were 24 months and above aged. The overall mortality was, 75 [17.8%]. Early age at weaning [AOR=5.16;95%CIs; 1.67-15.97], early age of child [AOR=67.51;95%CIs; 21.38-213.12], second and third birth order [AOR=8.32;95%CIs:2.62-26.44], fourth and above birth [AOR=17.43;95%CIs:3.86-78.71], preterm gestational age [AOR=4.32;95%CIs:1.01-18.42], having history of previous child loss [AOR=5.89;95%CIs:1.44-24.18], Child HIV test [AOR=7.14;95%CIs:2.79-18.28], mixed child feeding for the first six month [AOR=6.64]  were significantly associated with mortality of children.Conclusion: The prevalence of mortality was high among children born to HIV-infected mothers and it may indicate a hidden burden in children. Therefore, weaning child according to the WHO recommendations was good protector of child mortality. Keywords: Mortality, HIV-infected, Weaning, child loss, North Gonda

A Review of Challenges and Opportunity of Livestock Marketing in Southern Part of Ethiopia

The livestock sector in Ethiopia contributes about 16.5% of the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 35.6% of the agricultural GDP. It also contributes 15% of export earnings and 30% of agricultural employment, provides significant importance to the economies of Ethiopia and to local livelihood systems. However, in recent years official export has been declining while illegal export has been increasing. The Middle Eastern countries have been a traditional export market for Ethiopian animals but increasingly stringent health and quality control regulations restricted exports to these countries in recent years. Of the total household cash income from crop and livestock, livestock account the lion share in terms of revenue in different parts of the country, and the higher the cash income the higher is the share of livestock, indicating that increased cash income come primarily from livestock, particularly in the pastoral areas. However, current knowledge on livestock marketing, constraints, performance, opportunities, and prices is poor and inadequate for designing policies and institutions to overcome perceived problems in the marketing system. Knowledge on how marketing routes and systems could contribute to the spread of diseases and the implications of these for national and international trade in livestock is also highly inadequate to design any policy or institutional innovation to improve marketing for the benefit of the poor. Further, regaining the export market will require an understanding of the market potential in the importing countries including growth in demand, sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) and other quality requirements, rules and regulations governing the market, Ethiopia’s competitiveness in the market in relation to alternative suppliers and ability of the domestic market to respond to the export market opportunities. Since the livelihood of smallholders is highly dependent on the cash income from livestock and livestock products, alleviating challenges to the export market and domestic trade and marketing structure, improving market information, and upgrading marketing infrastructures including health and sanitary conditions will increase the welfare of smallholder producers, urban consumers and improve the national balance of payments. Keywords: Challenges, export, marketing, performance, phytosanitary

Determinants of Financial Profitability of Microfinance Institutions in Ethiopia

Microfinance is a tool that has been acceptable over time to offer poor people access to basic financial services like credit, savings, money transfer services and micro insurance so as to meet their demand. The rapid changes in the business environment have led to the increase in resource productivity and decrease in non-performing assets. However, the profitability has come under pressure because of changing environmental requirement of safe care of money. This study attempted to investigate the factors that determine the financial performance of MFIs in Ethiopia. The study followed a quantitative research approach using a balanced panel data set of 39 observations from 13 MFIs over the period 2004, 2006 and 2008. From the findings, outreach, borrowing, capital asset ratio, equity and percentage of female borrowers were important variables in determining financial profitability of Microfinance institutions in Ethiopia. Thus, interventions must be undertaken by promote and support women’s in accessing credit, increase number of borrowers, increase the total as well as average loan size and in general should ensure their profitability growth to go in line with their objectives to make their initial mission sustain, serving the interest of small groups of people. Keywords: Financial profitability, microfinance institutions, outreac

Evaluation of Crossbred Heifer Calves Rearing Practices and Growth Performace in Urban and Peri-Urban Dairy Systems of Sebeta Awas Wereda, Oromia, Ethiopia

Abstract. The study was aimed at evaluating the rearing practice and growth performance of heifer calves in urban and peri-urban dairy systems of Sebeta Awas Wereda, Oromia National Regional State, Ethiopia. Stratified random sampling method was used to select target farms and sample respondents for the prepared questionnaire. Farms for monitoring study was selected from data collected during the survey. Hence, 18 farms which had crossbred dairy heifer calves of (3-6 months of age), were purposively selected from both production systems and across the entire herd size category. Eighteen heifer calves were monitored from 18 different farms (2 production systems, 3 farm sizes, 3 replicates). Dairy farming has been gradually expanding in the area through years where above 90% of farms were established within last fifteen years. The overall average crossbred dairy herd size per household was 10.6±2.1 in urban and 11.3±2 in peri-urban area, where, the proportion of heifers accounted for 50.5% for urban and 48.8% for peri-urban farms of their respective total herds. Stall-feeding system is commonly practiced in urban and peri-urban farms, mostly feeding hay, straw, high-energy and protein feeds. Above 91.7% households raised their heifer calves through bucket feeding, where, 60%, 26% and 14% of overall farms weaned their calves at three, four and above four months of age respectively. Crude protein (CP) to metabolizable energy (ME) ratio of offered feeds to heifer calves were slightly below the desired level (66:1) in most farms. Body weight change, body condition score, girth height and average daily body weight gain (adg) of heifer calves were not affected by production systems. There was significant difference in body weight changes and adg due to difference in herd sizes. The overall observed heifer calf rearing and growth were good. But relatively inferior performance and prominent management problems were observed in medium sized farms Key words: heifer calf, urban, peri-urban, body weight, body condition score Abstrak.  Penelitian ini bertujuan mengevaluasi praktik budidaya dan pertumbuhan sapi heifer di peternakan kota dan pinggir kota di Sebeta Awas Wereda, Oromia National Regional State, Ethiopia. Metode sample acak terstruktur digunakan untuk memilih target peternakan dan sampel responden untuk kuesioner. Peternakan untuk penelitian dipilih dari data yang dikumpulkan selama survei, sehingga ada 18 peternakan dengan sapi heifer perah silang berusia 3-6 bulan dipilih baik dari segi sistem produksi dan dari seluruh kategory jumlah ternak. Delapan belas sapi heifer diteliti dari 18 peternakan berbeda (2 sistem produksi, 3 ukuran peternakan, 3 pengulangan). Peternakan sapi perah berangsur berkembang di daerah itu sepanjang tahun dimana lebih dari 90% peternakan dibangun selama 15 tahun terakhir. Total rataan jumlah ternak sapi perah silang per rumah tangg adalah 10,6±2,1 di daerah kota dan 11,3±2 di pinggiran kota, dimana proporsi total ternak heifer sejumlah 50,5% di kota dan 48,85% di pinggiran kota. Sistem stall feeding umumnya diterapkan di peternakan kota dan pinggir kota yang sebagian besar menggunakan pakan jerami, rumput serta pakan tinggi protein dan energi. Lebih dari 97,6% rumah tangga memelihara ternaknya dengan pakan yang diberikan dalam ember, 60% peternakan memelihara ternak berumur 3 bulan, 26% empat bulan dan 14% diatas 4 bulan. Rasio protein kasar (PK) terhadap energi metabolit (ME) pada pakan berada di bawah level peternakan pada umumnya (66:1). Perubahan bobot tubuh, nilai kondisi tubuh, lingkar dada dan penambahan bobot tubuh harian (pbbh) sapi heifer tidak dipengaruhi oleh sistem produksi. Ada perbedaan nyata dalam perubahan bobot tubuh dan pbbh karena perbedaan jumlah ternak. Keseluruhan kondisi pemeliharaan dan pertumbuhan sapi heifer bagus, namun peternakan berukuran sedang menunjukkan performa yang kurang baik dan masalah manajemen yang menonjol. Kata  kunci: sapi heifer, kota, pinggir kota, bobot tubuh, nilai kondisi tubu