Complexity at the Science-Policy Interface in Ethiopia’s Policy Spaces

The mechanics of interaction between science and policy in the context of complex policy spaces has remained a subject of scholarly debate. Recent focus is shifting towards promoting science-policy interfaces as spaces for integration of science into decision making. However, the question of what these spaces are and how they function remains a puzzle. While existing literature agrees on the apparent disruption of communication between knowledge generation and policy; or offers suggestions on factors that facilitate or inhibit communication, it often fails to present a comprehensive understanding on the mechanisms of actual interchange. Besides, research tends to sideline considerations of complexity disregarding the dynamism of social processes and the intricate relationships among interests, value systems, narratives and power plays influencing policy outcomes. This research analyses how various actors with specific self-interests and positions interact across a range of national policy spaces in the backdrop of conflicting/ reinforcing narratives, structures, and agency characterizing the spaces. Using an “emergent policy environment” framework which is characterized by analytical categories comprising discourses, structures, and agency, the first paper analyzes how the 2011 Climate Resilient Green Economy Strategy came to be, in a policy context characterized by competing narratives, mandate [re]arrangements, and power inter-plays. Through evidence generated by administering a series of open-ended questions, the paper challenges the linear thinking that assumes policies as inevitable products. It establishes that the national climate policy process is complex, entailing interactions among and between national and supranational actors espousing varied, if not polarized, interests and values. These intricacies and nuanced details determine which narrative gains expression in the national climate policy. The second paper uses a set of structured interviews, Focus Group Discussions, and document analysis to examine the Ethiopian Rural Economic Development and Food Security (REDFS) as a science-policy space. It analyzed how the REDFS performs its function of aligning donor-government interaction across the pastoralist livelihood systems. I explored how actors represent themselves (agency) and use opportunities to represent their individual and collective interests in policy outcomes under the collective mandates conferred to them by political structures - in this case, the REDFS. Taking the 2017 Prosopis Management Strategy as one policy outcome, the paper concludes that networked actor interests employed specific narratives and directed resources to influence policy directions to drive policies in their favor. The third paper draws on information generated from a series of interviews and author’s own observation to understand how a national multi-stakeholder process resulted in a high-consensus political document known as Ethiopia’s 2040 Scenarios. Overall, the dissertation research is built upon a combination of qualitative methods including author’s own lived experience to provide empirical evidence on what the social process of policy making looks like in the context of Ethiopia’s policy spaces. It concludes that collaborative knowledge production for policy is possible through carefully facilitated interactive processes, managed through a “safe space” platform, and enabled by creating and nurturing trust all-along the policy development journey

Dependence of the evolution of the cavity radiation of a coherently pumped correlated emission laser on dephasing and phase fluctuation

Analysis of the dynamics of the cavity radiation of a coherently pumped correlated emission laser is presented. The phase fluctuation and dephasing are found to affect the time evolution of the two-mode squeezing and intensity of the cavity radiation significantly. The intensity and degree of the two-mode squeezing increase at early stages of the process with time, but this trend changes rapidly afterwards. It is also shown that they increase with phase fluctuation and dephasing in the strong driving limit, however the situation appears to be opposite in the weak driving limit. This essentially suggests that the phase fluctuation and dephasing weaken the coherence induced by a strong driving mechanism so that the spontaneous emission gets a chance. The other important aspect of the phase fluctuation, in this regard, is the relaxation of the time at which the maximum squeezing is manifested as well as the time in which the radiation remains in a squeezed state.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figure

Response of Red Beetroot (Beta vulgaris L.) to intra-row spacing and blended NPS fertilizer rates at Wolaita Sodo Zuria district, Southern Ethiopia

Beetroot [(Beta vulgaris L.), Detroit Dark Red] is one of the root crops that is widely cultivated in the Wolaita Zone, southern Ethiopia. The crop is utilized as a vegetable to contribute the food and nutritional security of the farmers. Despite its economic importance, the crop yield productivity is very less in the study area due to inappropriate row spacing and lack of ideal fertilizer application rate. Therefore, this research was conducted to determine the effect of blended NPS fertilizer and intra-row spacing on red beetroot growth, yield components, and root yield in the study area. A total of 15 treatments were used as factorial combinations of three intra-row spacing’s (10, 15 and 20 cm) and five blended NPS fertilizer rates (0, 60.5, 121, 181.5 and 242 kg NPS ha-1 ) in three replications. Selected growth, yield components, and root yield parameters were collected and analyzed procedurally. The result revealed that blended NPS fertilizer rate application and intra-row spacing had shown a significant effect on growth, yield component, root yield, and marketable and unmarketable root yield of the Detroit dark red beetroot variety. The interaction had shown a significant effect on fresh and dry shoot weight. The highest total fresh and dry root weights were obtained from plants at 15 and 20 cm intra-row spacing and a 181.5 kg blended NPS ha-1 fertilizer application rate. The highest marketable root yield (32.74 t ha-1) was obtained at 15 cm intra-row spacing and by 181.5 kg ha-1 NPS fertilizer application rate. The highest marginal rate of return (4219.5) coupled with the highest net benefit of 93717.08 Birr per hectare was obtained from plants received 181.5 kg ha-1 NPS at 15 cm intra-row spacing. Thus, it was possible to conclude that the growing of the Detroit dark red beetroot variety with an application of 181.5 kg ha-1 blended NPS fertilizer and using 15 cm intra-row spacing at the study area had a significant effect on the production of Detroit dark red beetroot.&nbsp

Species Composition and Habitat Association of Small Mammals in Nechi Sar National Park, Ethiopia

Species composition, habitat association and feeding preference of small mammals were studied in Nechisar National Park, Ethiopia, during August 201

Climate Basics, Climate Information Service, Climate Risk Management Training Guide

Climate Basics, Climate Information Service, Climate Risk Management Training Guid

Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) Training Guide

Agriculture, as the backbone of the Ethiopian economy, contributes roughly 40% of GDP, more than 75% of employment, and 80% of foreign exchange earnings (FAO 2021). Ethiopian agriculture is heavily reliant on natural rainfall, with irrigation used on only about 5% of total cultivated land (USAID 2021). As a result, the sector is highly vulnerable to climate change. Climate change endangers the country's agriculture development, natural resources, biodiversity conservation, and government poverty-reduction efforts. Climate change-related impacts such as food insecurity, malnutrition, poverty, biodiversity loss, and loss of livelihood are deeply intertwined and continue to be the country's primary development challenges. In 2021/2022, climate change has caused Ethiopia to suffer one of its worst droughts that has ravaged vast parts of the country. The drought has ravaged livestock and wildlife resources. Future prediction suggest that Ethiopia will continue to suffer from climate change related problems. Thus action is needed to address problem

Integrating Climate Basics, Climate Information Service, Climate Risk Management and Climate Smart Agriculture into the undergraduate agriculture Curriculum in Ethiopian Higher Education

Agriculture contributes about 40% to the country’s GDP, more than 75% to employment, and 80% to foreign exchange earnings of the Ethiopia’s economy. However, climate change poses a serious risk to the sector. On the other hand, agriculture is a major contributor (i.e., about 55%) of the country’s greenhouse gas emission. To address the strong and bidirectional interrelationships between climate change and agriculture, the agricultural sector needs to transform in a climate-smart way. Climate change education will have paramount importance for tackling the problems associated with climate change through generating climate smart technologies for the enhancement of sustainable agricultural production and biodiversity conservation. Climate Change Educations (CCE) and trainings have long been recognized by the national CCE strategy (2017-2030), United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Paris Climate Change Agreement, and the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations (Agenda 2030) as key tools to unravel the complex and multi-sectoral challenges induced/posed by climate change. Thus, specifically, including the concepts of Climate Information Service (CIS) Climate Risk Management (CRM) and Climate smart agriculture (CSA) in the existing climate related courses is critical to build climate resilient agricultural sector in Ethiopia. Thus, Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) in collaboration with Ethiopian Higher Educations initiated to integrate the concept of CIS and CSA in the agricultural program in Ethiopia. Therefore, this document, explore if there is a gap between climate related course contents and the current CIS, CRM and CSA knowledge and innovations to addresses climate related agricultural challenges in ten undergraduate agricultural curricula of Ethiopian Higher Education Institutes. Ten climate related course descriptions were content analyzed to analyze gaps related to the concepts of CIS, CRM and CSA. The study found that there were gaps between the current curriculum and the desired knowledge and innovation of CIS, CRM and CSA to addresses the current and emerging climate change challenges in the agricultural sector. These results emphasize the need for curriculum review and reform to ensure CIS, CRM and CSA knowledge and innovations equipping the university graduates with comprehensive knowledge of climate change

Continent-Wide Survey Reveals Massive Decline in African Savannah Elephants

African elephants (Loxodonta africana) are imperiled by poaching and habitat loss. Despite global attention to the plight of elephants, their population sizes and trends are uncertain or unknown over much of Africa. To conserve this iconic species, conservationists need timely, accurate data on elephant populations. Here, we report the results of the Great Elephant Census (GEC), the first continent-wide, standardized survey of African savannah elephants. We also provide the first quantitative model of elephant population trends across Africa. We estimated a population of 352,271 savannah elephants on study sites in 18 countries, representing approximately 93% of all savannah elephants in those countries. Elephant populations in survey areas with historical data decreased by an estimated 144,000 from 2007 to 2014, and populations are currently shrinking by 8% per year continent-wide, primarily due to poaching. Though 84% of elephants occurred in protected areas, many protected areas had carcass ratios that indicated high levels of elephant mortality. Results of the GEC show the necessity of action to end the African elephants’ downward trajectory by preventing poaching and protecting habitat

In vivo efficacy of artemether-lumefantrine against uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria in Central Ethiopia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>In vivo </it>efficacy assessments of the first-line treatments for <it>Plasmodium falciparum </it>malaria are essential for ensuring effective case management. In Ethiopia, artemether-lumefantrine (AL) has been the first-line treatment for uncomplicated <it>P. falciparum </it>malaria since 2004.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Between October and November 2009, we conducted a 42-day, single arm, open label study of AL for <it>P. falciparum </it>in individuals >6 months of age at two sites in Oromia State, Ethiopia. Eligible patients who had documented <it>P. falciparum </it>mono-infection were enrolled and followed according to the standard 2009 World Health Organization <it>in vivo </it>drug efficacy monitoring protocol. The primary and secondary endpoints were PCR uncorrected and corrected cure rates, as measured by adequate clinical and parasitological response on days 28 and 42, respectively.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of 4426 patients tested, 120 with confirmed falciparum malaria were enrolled and treated with AL. Follow-up was completed for 112 patients at day 28 and 104 patients at day 42. There was one late parasitological failure, which was classified as undetermined after genotyping. Uncorrected cure rates at both day 28 and 42 for the per protocol analysis were 99.1% (95% CI 95.1-100.0); corrected cure rates at both day 28 and 42 were 100.0%. Uncorrected cure rates at day 28 and 42 for the intention to treat analysis were 93.3% (95% CI 87.2-97.1) and 86.6% (95% CI 79.1-92.1), respectively, while the corrected cure rates at day 28 and 42 were 94.1% (95% CI 88.2-97.6) and 87.3% (95% CI 79.9-92.7), respectively. Using survival analysis, the unadjusted cure rate was 99.1% and 100.0% adjusted by genotyping for day 28 and 42, respectively. Eight <it>P. falciparum </it>patients (6.7%) presented with <it>Plasmodium vivax </it>infection during follow-up and were excluded from the per protocol analysis. Only one patient had persistent parasitaemia at day 3. No serious adverse events were reported, with cough and nausea/vomiting being the most common adverse events.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>AL remains a highly effective and well-tolerated treatment for uncomplicated falciparum malaria in the study setting after several years of universal access to AL. A high rate of parasitaemia with <it>P. vivax </it>possibly from relapse or new infection was observed.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p><a href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01052584">NCT01052584</a></p