Poverty, Resource Scarcity and Incentives for Soil and Water Conservation: Analysis of Interactions with a Bio-economic Model

The paper examines the interlinkages between population pressure and poverty, possible impacts on household welfare and land management, and the consequent pathways of development in a low potential rural economy. A dynamic non-separable bio-economic model, calibrated using data from the Ethiopian highlands, is used to trace key relationships between population pressure, poverty and soil fertility management in smallholder agriculture characterized by high levels of soil degradation. Farm households maximize their discounted utility over the planning horizon. Land, labor and credit markets are imperfect. Hence, production, consumption and investment decisions are jointly determined in each period. The level of soil degradation is endogenous and has feedback effects on the stock and quality of the resource base. This may in turn influence land management choices. Under high population pressure, land becomes dearer relative to labor. This is likely to induce conservation investments, especially when conservation technologies do not take land out of production. When markets are imperfect, poverty in vital assets (e.g., oxen and labor) limits the ability or the willingness to invest in conservation and may lead to a less sustainable pathway. Boserup-type responses are more likely when (privately) profitable technologies exist and market imperfections do not limit farm-households' investment options.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Work-related operating theatre accidents among surgical residents in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Background: With the Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic and infections with hepatitis B, C and D, occupational exposures to these infections is a cause of concern to all health care workers, especially those working in the operating theatre in low income countries.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate the prevalence and context of all work-related accidents that occurred as a result of contamination with blood and blood products, among surgical residents at the Black lion teaching specialized referral hospital, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Data was collected from all 36 surgical residents who were at different stages of their specialty training in 2006/07.Results: Thirty two (88.9%) of the residents were males; 17 (47.2%) in their 3rd and 4th year, and the rest 19 (52.8%) were in their first and second year of training. Of the 36 respondents, 28(77.8%) had sustained a needle-stick injury inside the operating theatre at least twice during their residency (Range=2-10 times). For 13(36.1%), the accidents involved a high risk patient at least once. Cut with a sharp object, contact of blood to an unprotected skin and splash of blood to the eyes and face were reported by 11(30.6%), 27(75%) and 27(75%) of the respondents respectively. Information concerning the most recent occupational injury inside the operating theatre revealed that 31(86.1%) of the residents sustained work-related accident in the 6 months preceding the survey, 8(25.8%) of which involved a high risk patient. All of the 8 (100%) of the recent high risk injuries and 22(95.6%) of the non-high risk injuries were not reported to the hospital’s employee health service. The most frequently cited reasons for not reporting include; “The occupational health service doesn’t exist or I don’t know if it exists in the hospital” for 15 (50%), among others.Conclusions and Recommendations: Overall, the present study revealed that work-related accidents among surgical trainees constitute a substantial risk of acquiring and transmitting blood-borne infections which calls for well targeted educational and other preventive measures in the teaching hospital

Evaluation of current and future water resources development in the Lake Tana Basin, Ethiopia

Lakes / Weirs / Environmental flows / Water resources development / Models / Ethiopia / Lake Tana Basin / Chara Chara Weir

Determinants of Agricultural Technology adoption: the case of improved groundnut varieties in Malawi

This paper applies the Average Treatment Effect (ATE) framework on data obtained from a random cross-section sample of 594 farmers in Malawi to document the actual and potential adoption rates of improved groundnut varieties and their determinants conditional on farmers’ awareness of the technology. The fact that not all farmers are exposed to the new technologies makes it difficult to obtain consistent estimates of population adoption rates and their determinants using direct sample estimates and classical adoption models such as probit or tobit. Our approach tries to control for exposure and selection bias in assessing the adoption rate of technology and its determinants. Results indicate that only 26% of the sampled farmers grew at least one of the improved groundnut varieties. The potential adoption rate of improved groundnut for the population is estimated at 37% and the adoption gap resulting from the incomplete exposure of the population to the improved groundnut is 12%. We further find that the awareness of improved varieties is mainly influenced by information access variables, while adoption is largely influenced by economic constraints. The findings are indicative of the relatively large unmet demand for improved groundnut varieties suggesting that there is scope for increasing the adoption rate of improved groundnut varieties in Malawi once the farmers are made aware of the technologies and if other constraints such as lack of access to credit are addressed.groundnuts, adoption, Average Treatment Effect, Malawi, Crop Production/Industries,

Levels and Trends of Occupational Hazards among Surgical Residents at Tikur Anbessa Hospital, Addis Ababa Ethiopia

Background: A previous study conducted four years ago among surgeons-in-training at the Addis Ababa University revealed that work-related  accidents among surgical trainees were enormous, and there was huge under reporting to the occupational health unit (OHU) of the hospital. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the strengthened OHU of the hospital and what the current status of work-related accidents is like at the same hospital three years later.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate the  prevalence and context of all work-related accidents that resulted in contamination with blood and blood products inside the operating theatre, among surgical residents at the Tikur Anbessa teaching specialized referralhospital, in Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. Data was collected from all 76 surgical residents who were at different stages of their specialty training in 2011.Results: Seventy- two (94.7%) of the residents were males and 26  (34.2%) were in their 3rd and 4th year of training. Of the 76 respondents, 53 (69.8%) had sustained a needle-stick injury inside the operating theatre at least once during their residency (Range=1-15 times). For 20 (26.3%), the accidents involved a high risk patient at least once. Cut with a sharp object, contact of blood to an unprotected skin and splash of blood to the eyes and face were reported by 9 (11.7%), 39(51.3%) and 28(36.9%) of the respondents respectively. Information concerning the most recent injuries inside the operating theatre revealed that 46(69.7%) of the residents sustained accidents in the 6 months preceding the survey, 7(9.2%) of which involved a high risk patient. All of the 7 (100%) of the recent high risk injuries and 10(27.7%) of the low-risk injuries were  reported to the OHU and all the high risk injury victims were commenced on HIV prophylaxis.Conclusions and Recommendations: Overall, the study revealed that work-related accidents among surgical trainees are still unacceptably high, even though there is a decline in the number of sharp object cut, and blood splash accidents. However, there is a positive trend towards reporting of injuries, particularly those which are high risk. More is expected from the hospital to create a safe working environment and to encourage reporting of all form of injuries

The Gap between Surgical Resident and Faculty Surgeons Concerning Operating Theatre Teaching: Report from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Background: In a continent like Africa where the number of surgeons is alarmingly few, training of a large number of residents is the way forward. However, sudden expansion in the number of trainees in an existing teaching environment may bring the quality of the most fundamentaleducation i.e. operation room teaching into question.Method: We wanted to investigate the different perceptions of our surgeons-under-training and faculty concerning preoperative preparation, intra operative teaching and postoperative feedback. A validated questionnaire was administered to our surgical residents and faculty at the Addis Ababa University, School of Medicine, Department of Surgery. Results were analyzed with 2-sample t tests, comparing Likert scores. Findings were significant if the p value was < 0.05.Results: Forty residents (15 second year, 15 third years and 10 final years) and 30 faculty members completed the survey. With respect to preoperative preparation, faculty were significantly more likely to claim that residents’ preparation in terms of reading is low (3.77 vs 2.45; p=0.001) and anatomy review (3.73 vs 2.34; p=0.001) before the procedure. There was a very significant difference with regards to intra-operative teaching activities, i.e teaching of the operative steps (2.60 vs 3.79; p=0.048), instrument handling (2.30 vs 3.72; p=0.002), and surgical technique (2.23vs 3.83; p= 0.001). Residents’ perception of the effort of the faculty to act as a teacher in the operating room was significantly lower compared to the faculty (2.13 vs 3.94; p=0.002). Postoperatively, significant differences were found in perceptions of positive feedback (2.48 vs 3.86; p=0.01) and feedback on areas to improve (1.85 vs 3.34; p=0.001).Conclusion: There is a universal agreement on the need to improve the current residency training. However, the difference between resident and faculty in the teaching-learning process is alarmingly significant. As there is no substitute for the intra-operative training of residents, every effort must be made to not to trade off number of graduates with quality and  competence of surgeons-under-training.  Keywords: Resident, Surgeons, Operating, Theatre, Teachin

Collective Action for Integrated Community Watershed Management in Semi-Arid India: Analysis of Multiple Livelihood Impacts and the Drivers of Change

Spatial and temporal attributes of watersheds and associated market failures require institutional arrangements for coordinating use and management of natural resources. Effective collective action (CA) for watershed management has the potential to provide multiple economic and environmental benefits - tangible and non-tangible - to rural communities. This allows smallholder farmers to jointly invest in management practices that provide collective benefits to community members. The functions of the group can also extend to include provision of new services like collective marketing of products and essential inputs. While watershed management contributes to resource productivity and sustainability, increased commercialization and market access open opportunities to diversify into high-value crops, creating incentives for agricultural intensification. However, evaluating the multi-faceted impacts of integrated watershed management interventions is complicated by problems of measurement, valuation and attribution. While, more rigorous methods for evaluating such impacts in the context of developing countries are beginning to emerge, this study employs a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods for evaluating these multi-faceted impacts from a case study of a watershed project in semi-arid India. Results from qualitative insights are confirmed through econometric analyses and empirical measurements using proper count erfactuals. The study analyses the drought mitigation, economic and environmental gains along with linked benefits for commercialization of production and increased farmer participation in markets.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Countdown to 2015: Ethiopia's progress towards reduction in under-five mortality: 2014 country case study

On September 13, 2013 the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) of Ethiopia and UNICEF announced that Ethiopia has successfully reduced the under-five mortality rate by two thirds between 1990 and 2012, which is the target for achieving Millennium Development Goal-4. In 1990, the under-five mortality rate in Ethiopia was one of the highest in the world at 205/1,000 live births. However, by 2012, this rate had declined to 68/1,000 live births with an average annual rate of decline of 5.0%. This exceeded the 4.3% annual rate of decline needed to reach MDG4 and was significantly higher than the decline rates observed in many sub-Saharan African countries and even other low and middle-income countries. In an effort to understand the story behind Ethiopia’s remarkable achievement of MDG-4, EPHI has conducted this in-depth Case Study which is supported by Countdown to 2015. The findings are believed to generate valuable lessons and guidance for other low-income countries in their quest for accelerating health improvements and reducing child deaths

Population Genomics of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Ethiopia Contradicts the Virgin Soil Hypothesis for Human Tuberculosis in Sub-Saharan Africa

Colonial medical reports claimed that tuberculosis (TB) was largely unknown in Africa prior to European contact, providing a "virgin soil" for spread of TB in highly susceptible populations previously unexposed to the disease [1, 2]. This is in direct contrast to recent phylogenetic models which support an African origin for TB [3-6]. To address this apparent contradiction, we performed a broad genomic sampling of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Ethiopia. All members of the M. tuberculosis complex (MTBC) arose from clonal expansion of a single common ancestor [7] with a proposed origin in East Africa [3, 4, 8]. Consistent with this proposal, MTBC lineage 7 is almost exclusively found in that region [9-11]. Although a detailed medical history of Ethiopia supports the view that TB was rare until the 20(th) century [12], over the last century Ethiopia has become a high-burden TB country [13]. Our results provide further support for an African origin for TB, with some genotypes already present on the continent well before European contact. Phylogenetic analyses reveal a pattern of serial introductions of multiple genotypes into Ethiopia in association with human migration and trade. In place of a "virgin soil" fostering the spread of TB in a previously naive population, we propose that increased TB mortality in Africa was driven by the introduction of European strains of M. tuberculosis alongside expansion of selected indigenous strains having biological characteristics that carry a fitness benefit in the urbanized settings of post-colonial Africa

Factors that transformed maize productivity in Ethiopia

Published online: 26 July 2015Maize became increasingly important in the food security of Ethiopia following the major drought and famine that occurred in 1984. More than 9 million smallholder house- holds, more than for any other crop in the country, grow maize in Ethiopia at present. Ethiopia has doubled its maize produc- tivity and production in less than two decades. The yield, currently estimated at >3 metric tons/ha, is the second highest in Sub-Saharan Africa, after South Africa; yield gains for Ethiopia grew at an annual rate of 68 kg/ha between 1990 and 2013, only second to South Africa and greater than Mexico, China, or India. The maize area covered by improved varieties in Ethiopia grew from 14 % in 2004 to 40 % in 2013, and the application rate of mineral fertilizers from 16 to 34 kg/ ha during the same period. Ethiopia ’ s extension worker to farmer ratio is 1:476, compared to 1:1000 for Kenya, 1:1603 for Malawi and 1:2500 for Tanzania. Increased use of im- proved maize varieties and mineral fertilizers, coupled with increased extension services and the absence of devastating droughts are the key factors promoting the accelerated growth in maize productivity in Ethiopia. Ethiopia took a homegrown solutions approach to the research and development of its maize and other commodities. The lesson from Ethiopia ’ s experience with maize is that sustained investment in agricul- tural research and development and policy support by the national government are crucial for continued growth of agricultur