Joint-liability borrowing decisions under risk: Empirical evidence from rural microfinance in Ethiopia

This paper investigates borrowing decisions of rural households from a microfinance in Tigray, Ethiopia using household panel data on 5 years and a dynamic panel probit model. The theoretical model takes two types of risk involved in joint-liability lending explicitly into account: risk of partner failure and the risk of losing future access to credit. Empirical results show that these risks are important in explaining borrowing decisions. Another finding is that the probability of repeat-borrowing is higher than the probability of new participation, with possible implications that perceived joint-liability threats deter participation and easing stringent punishments might help poor households’ access to credit.Microfinance, risk, dynamic panel probit, Financial Economics,

Eritrea-Ethiopia Arbitration: A ‘Cure’ Based on Neither Diagnosis nor Prognosis

The Eritrea-Ethiopia peace process remains stalled a decade after the arbitral award by the Boundary Commission and several years after awards by the Claims Commission. This article assesses why arbitration by the twocommissions did not produce the desired outcome. To this end, the author analyzes primary and secondary sources and argues that arbitration was not the right method of conflict resolution. Mayer’s multi-dimensional approach to conflict and conflict resolution informs the discussion that the conflict between the two countries has cognitive, emotional and behavioral dimensions. It is argued that arbitration as a settlement of dispute by purely legal means is ineffective to adequately address the multiple dimensions of the conflict. The author underscores that such conflicts can only be resolved by using a combination of different interventions. Specifically, while arbitration may be appropriate to deal with some essentially resource related matters, the resolution of emotional and cognitive dimensions of this conflict call for a multi-track approach in which different segments of the people from the two countries can play critical roles.Key words: Conflict resolution, arbitration, border conflict, boundary commission, claims commission, multi-track, peace, Eritrea, Ethiopia

The extent and impacts of decentralization reforms in Ethiopia

Devolution of power, responsibilities, and resources from central to local governments has been the foundation of decentralization reforms in developing countries like Ethiopia. The most recent decentralization reforms in Ethiopia began in the early 2000s at the woreda (district) level, focusing on strengthening local governments as institutions of democratic governance and efficient service delivery. Until now, decentralization in Ethiopia has attracted very little research; this study aims to fill that knowledge gap. The extent of decentralization is examined from a holistic framework, including the three dimensions of decentralization (political, fiscal and administrative), while its impacts are explored by focusing on access, equity, efficiency and quality indicators of education service delivery. Using a qualitative case study approach, this research consists of semi-structured interviews of key informants in government and educational administration, field observations, and review of relevant documents. Four local governments and twelve schools within two regional states of Ethiopia were selected as the sample frame. This dissertation argues that the implementation of woreda decentralization reforms in Ethiopia has proven problematic, as the official establishment of devolution operates within centralized structures and practices. Regional governments have established political, administrative and fiscal decentralization, as evidenced by the existence of legal authority and mechanisms of accountability, expanded functions, and significant allocation of unconditional grants transferred to woredas. Despite much progress, the further deepening of decentralization reforms has been hampered by centralizing practices, including the dominant roles of the ruling party, weak administrative capacity at the local government and school levels, and limited resource base of local governments. The link between decentralization reforms and improved local service delivery has been inconclusive. This study suggests that the impact of decentralization on primary education has been mixed. While decentralization reforms may have facilitated the impressive expansion of access to primary education, quality indicators such as dropout rates and student learning assessments have shown little to no improvements. This study lays the groundwork for continued research into the vital link between decentralization and basic service delivery in Ethiopia and beyond

From a data-model to generated access-and store-patterns

This report describes the design and implementation of a repository generation tool that is used to generate repositories from domain models of the ASML TWINSCAN system. The TWINSCAN system handles a huge volume of data. In the current TWINSCAN SW Architecture, data transfer is combined with control flow. Data transfer to a component that is not under the sender’s control must be performed through a common parent in the hierarchy. There are several problems with this approach with respect to execution, encapsulation, and locality of change. These problems drive the need to separate data, control, and algorithms of the scanner’s software architecture. To tackle these problems, the main objective of this project was to design and implement a repository generation tool for generating data repositories from domain models. The structure of this data is defined by a domain model in an implementation independent formalism. The tool supports several flavors of repositories. As a result of the flexibility of the architecture, it is possible to switch between technologies and implementation patterns without touching domain models. The repository generation tool is tested through continues architecture and design reviews by supervisors, unit tests, and tests by stakeholders in the real environment. The results obtained in this project are being used in an active ASML project within the Metrology group. The results have improved productivity and increased efficiency

Modeling Groundwater Denitrification by Ferrous Iron Using PHREEQC

Nitrate is one of the most common groundwater contaminants, and ingesting it leads to potential health risks. Denitrification, the only effective process to eliminate nitrate, is limited by the abundance of biologically available electron donors. Thus, understanding the natural denitrification capacity of aquifers, through the analysis of all the major electron donors, is essential. A better way to estimate groundwater denitrification reactions is to compute the mass balance of the redox sensitive species. The University of North Dakota (UND) denitrification team installed mesocosms (ISMs) to understand the fate of nitrate in field conditions. Accordingly, the team has shown the significant role of sulfides (dominantly pyrite) and organic carbon in the denitrification processes of the regional aquifers. However, the role of Fe(II) has largely been overlooked in regional studies mainly because of two reasons: 1) the geochemical evidence for ferrous iron is more difficult to decipher due to the precipitation of Fe(III)-oxyhydroxides from the aqueous solution. 2) in the event when denitrification by both Fe(II) and organic carbon gave rise to precipitating reaction products, the role of Fe(II) is deceivably masked by that of the organic carbon. Thus far, little is known about the significance of solid phase biologically available ferrous iron in our region. We hypothesized that Fe(II)-supported denitrification, owing to the abundance of iron in aquifer sediments, has regional environmental significance. Three techniques, wet chemical extraction, x-ray diffraction and Mössbauer spectroscopic measurements, were combined to determine ferrous iron contents and Fe(II)-bearing minerals of aquifer sediments. Geochemical modeling (PHREEQC) was employed to get an insight into the in situ denitrification processes that take place via all the common electron donors. Emphasis was given to Fe(II)-supported denitrification reactions because it has been overlooked in our region. All aqueous analytical data, mineralogy and chemistry of sediments and geochemical modeling work support the research hypothesis. As a result, all the major electron donors are found to be important and Fe(II)-supported denitrification appears to have a significant role as a natural remediation process in the aquifers of our region

Workshop 2 - Intro to Microsoft Power BI

PowerBI is an interactive data visualization and reporting tool that is used in businesses. In this workshop, you will learn how to apply Power BI for best practices that are in line with current businesses and technical requirements for extracting, loading, modeling, visualizing, and analyzing data

Profitability of Groundnut Production Under Smallholder Farmers in Metekel Zone North Western Ethiopia

Groundnut is South America origin introduced in to Ethiopia in 1920s which is now grown over all warm climate low land part of the country and used as staple food and valuable cash crops for millions of smallholder Ethiopian farmers. This research aims to provide farm level evidence that could guide informed production decision making. The research tried to identified and estimated of cost component and profitability of groundnut production under smallholder farmers. Enterprise budget and descriptive statistics methods were used to analyze data collected from field records of 80 selected groundnut producer smallholder farmers from two districts. The descriptive statistics revealed that harvesting and pilling of groundnut takes higher labor share and female labor contribution is almost similar with male labor in groundnut production process. The enterprise budget analysis revealed that sample smallholder farmers earned net gross margin of ETB 15,761.26 per hectare from groundnut production. Moreover the benefit cost ratio 2.29 indicated that for every one ETB incurred cost, farmers could earn a benefit of ETB 2.29. In addition to this, the sensitivity analysis indicated that profitability of groundnut is more sensitive to increasing of input price and decreasing of output price than to decreasing input price and increasing of output price simultaneously. Therefore, this paper concluded that groundnut production in Metekel zone of Benshagul gumuz is profitable enterprise. This paper suggests that variety improvement and market linkage between producers and agro-industries would be enhanced production and profitability of groundnut under smallholder farmers. Keywords: Groundnut, Production, Cost, Enterprise budget analysis, profitability and Sensitivity analysis DOI: 10.7176/JBAH/13-1-03 Publication date: January 31st 202

Base Line Study of Mitkie Learning Watershed of Pawe District, North Western Ethiopia

Conducting Baseline study before implementing of watershed project is crucial to evaluate and monitor the impacts of watershed project intervention on beneficiaries’ socioeconomic. The purpose of this study was to characterize the socio economic condition of Mitkie learning watershed in Pawe district with objective of identify and document the current status, potentials and constraints of Mitkie learning watershed and to provide base line data and information for further project monitor and evaluation of the intervention. It was used systematic and simple random sampling method to select 80 sample households (72 were males and 8 were females) and descriptive statistics method of data analyze was employed. The socio economic of the study area was good which is 70% were able to read, write and above, more than half of them was used improved seeds, fertilizer and herbicide to enhance their crop production, 68.8 % access to irrigated land  and suitable for low land bamboo productions whereas some are poor socio economic characters were 100% used flooded method of irrigation, saving(18.75%) and borrowing(6.25%) habit, local animal breed(3.8%) and forage technology usage(6.25%). This study suggest that stakeholders as well as project managers should be used and cooperate the base line study in their Annual plan and implement accordingly for further improvement of socio economic of the sample households. Keywords: Baseline study, Watershed, Monitor and Evaluation, Impact DOI: 10.7176/JNSR/14-7-02 Publication date:May 31st 202