Gender and HIV/AIDS Mainstreaming in Ethiopian Higher Education Institutions: The Case of St. Mary’s University

Studies in Africa and elsewhere indicate that students of higher institutions are highly exposed to many risky sexual behaviors including substance use, sexual compulsion and unsafe sex which predispose them to STIs including HIV/AIDS, unplanned pregnancy and unsafe abortion. The problems of Gender and HIV/AIDS need to be addressed and solved or minimized to a larger extent in order to create favorable working condition and smooth teaching and learning process. In order to fight these problems, it is essential for higher education institutions to mainstream the issue of gender and HIV into their plans, programs and activities of the institutions through designing institutional policy and establishing strong monitoring and evaluation mechanism. It is believed that mainstreaming HIV and gender will contribute the lion’s share to alleviate HIV/AIDS and gender related problems that the youngsters in particular and the University Community as whole are facing currently. Therefore, this study aims to point out the comprehensiveness, the quality and level of gender and HIV mainstreaming practice of St. Mary’s University to find out its contribution to the prevention and control of the pandemic and to address gender inequality in the University and in the education sector as a whole. The study employed a qualitative method to garner primary data. The qualitative study involved two focus group discussions (one with students and one with staff of the University) and in‐depth interviews with the University officials and the surrounding community. The qualitative data was analyzed by thematic areas. In addition, documents and reports of the Gender and HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office (GHAPCO) were used as sources of secondary data The result of this study implies that St. Mary’s has identified and taken HIV and Gender Issues as one of strategic priority areas and incorporate it in its second five year strategic plan(2005-2009EC). Besides, the University has started mainstreaming HIV and gender into the curriculum of the selected courses from each department. This really implies that the University is committed towards mainstreaming the issue of gender and HIV that helps to implement other activities on the prevention and control of the pandemic and maintain gender equality successfully. In conclusion, as a responsible Higher Education Institution, using the good opportunities and finding new and innovative ways, the University is being committed to mainstream gender and HIV issues in all the institution’s structure to perform HIV and Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH)  interventions in a better and sustainable way. Moreover, in order to overcome the challenges and to take gender and HIV issues as a core business of the institution, the University should come up with effective strategies through creating different accesses. In this regard, St. Mary’s has to exert efforts to improve the quality and comprehensiveness of HIV and SRH service as well as gender sensitive and responsive programs in the University.   Acronyms AAHAPCO                           Addis Ababa HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office ARC                                       AIDS Resource Center BCC                                       Behavioral Change Communication BSS                                        Behavior Surveillance Survey CBO/CBOs                           Community Based Organization/ Organizations CC                         Community Conversation CSA                        Central Statistics Authority EDHS                     Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey EHRC                   Ethiopian Human Rights Commission FHAPCO                               Federal HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office FMOE                                    Federal Ministry of Education FGDs                                      Focus Group Discussions GBV                                       Gender Based Violence GHAPCO                              Gender and HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office HEIs                                       Higher Education Institutions HIV/AIDS                             Human Immune Deficiency Virus/Acquired Immunity Deficiency Syndrome IEC                                         Information Education Communication IGA                                        Income Generation Activities NASTAD                               National Alliance of States and Territory of AIDS Directorate NGOs                                     Non-Governmental Organizations RH                                          Reproductive Health SISTA                                    Sisters Informing Sisters on Topic about AIDS SMU                                       St. Mary’s University SPM                                       Strategic Plan Management SRH                                       Sexual and Reproductive Health STIs                                        Sexual Transmitted Infections UNAIDS                                Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS MARPs                                  Most at Risk Populations PLHIV                                   People Living with HIV

Response of Kale (Brassica Oleracea L) Crop to cyanobacterial Biofertilizer in Ziway Area, Ethiopia

Gradual soil fertility depletion is resulted in declining agricultural production and  productivity  generally in Ethiopia. It is obviously understood that commercial fertilizers have helped to improve yield of crops. Use of this inputs among smallholder farmers are very low in the study area due to higher costs, accessibility and crop nutritional quality reduction. This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of cyanobacterial biofertilizer on yield and nutritional quality of kale (Brassica Oleracea L.) crop in Ziway. Five treatments: liquid cyanobacterial, dry cyanobacteria, urea, cattle manure and control were laid out in RCBD with three replications. All necessary data from each experimental treatment were collected and subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA).The results showed that plant height, leaf number and leaf nitrogen have increased when liquid cyanobacterial biofertilizer was applied by 13.97cm, 2.68, and 3.07% over the control, respectively whereas the application of dry cyanobacterial biofertilizer has increased the plant shoot fresh weight, shoot dry weight, leaf area, Leaf phosphorus and plant beta carotene by  341.8 g, 26.8g, ,2089.1 cm, 2 2.43 g, , 0.187 mg kg-1 and 0.9 µg/g over the control, respectively. Therefore, the use of cyanobacterial as a biofertilizer should be recommended as an alternative source of inorganic N fertilizer to increase yield and nutritional quality of kale crop for medium and small-sized farms in the study area. Keywords: Anabaena spp, Biofertilizer, β-carotene content, Cyanobacteria, Kale crop and N-fixin

Including soil organic carbon into nationally determined contributions: Insights from Ethiopia

Healthy soils are the foundation of sustainable and regenerative food systems and provide several vital ecosystem services. Sequestering carbon in agricultural soils, for example, can have mutual benefits for climate change mitigation and adaptation, food and nutrition security, biodiversity, and water resilience. Despite these benefits, there are few policies that incentivize farmers to invest in maintaining and improving soil health. This policy brief highlights opportunities for the inclusion of soil health and soil organic carbon (SOC) into the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) in Ethiopia as a key step for governments to support farmers in investing in their soil. We interviewed key informants involved in the NDC process to understand the process for the developing the NDC targets and investigated reasons why policy makers did or did not include soil in these targets

Evaluation of a direct colorimetric assay for rapid detection of rifampicin resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis

No Abstract Available Ethiop.J.Health Dev. Vol.19(1) 2005: 51-5

Variations in seed and post-harvest residue yields and residues quality of common bean ( Phaseolus vulgaris L.) as a ruminant feedstuff

Common bean is widely grown as a food legume and the post-harvest crop residues (CR) (i.e. haulm + pod wall (HPW)) are valuable as ruminant feedstuffs. The yields and constituents indicative of nutritive value for ruminants of the HPW from a wide range of common bean genotypes (G) were examined at 4 trial sites in Ethiopia during the 2013 main cropping season to assess the extent of genetic variation among G for simultaneous improvement of both HPW attributes and seed yield. Attributes measured were seed and HPW yields and the amounts of the morphological components, their concentrations of total nitrogen (N), neutral detergent fibre (aNDFom) and acid detergent fibre (ADFom), and the dry matter digestibility (DMD). The constituents were measured using near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and calibrations based on a large set of reference tropical forages and CR (including common bean), and were validated against other CR reference samples. These CR quality attributes were very well predicted with R2v and RPDv ranging from 0.90 to 0.98 and 3.13–7.36, respectively. There was considerable variation in yields of HPW and seed, and in the proportions and attributes of the HPW fractions among the common bean G. Trial site means for yields of HPW and seed ranged from 0.74 to 2.54 t/ha and 0.79–2.62 t/ha, respectively while for N, aNDFom and ADFom concentrations and DMD of HPW ranged from 7.7 to 11.4 g/kg DM, 648–739 g/kg DM, 502–585 g/kg DM, and 467–570 g/kg DM, respectively. Environment (E), as represented by site, generally affected the yields of HPW and seed (P < 0.001) and nutritive value of the HPW fractions (P < 0.05) as feedstuffs. Seed yield was positively correlated with HPW yield both within and across trial sites (r = 0.92; P < 0.0001), but in general seed yield was not related to the N concentration. Across all sites, seed yield was positively correlated (r = 0.68; P < 0.0001) with haulm DMD. Although this correlation may be due to variation associated with E rather than G, it is nevertheless important in that selection for higher seed yield is likely to also increase metabolisable energy (ME) content of the HPW. There were G x E interaction effects on yields of HPW (P < 0.0001) and seed (P = 0.011), but these were generally less important than E effects which explained 52–58% of the variation. In conclusion the study demonstrated that it is possible to identify genotypes such as ECAB0081 which combine high yields of both seed and HPW, and with HPW attributes which improve their quality as ruminant feedstuffs

Morphophysiological diversity of rhizobia nodulating pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan L. Millsp.) growing in Ethiopia

Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.) is an important protein source grown in several tropical and subtropical countries, and is considered a multi-purpose plant that is resistant to the conditions where drought and salinity is a common phenomenon. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diversity of rhizobial isolates obtained from root nodules of pigeon pea plants grown in central and southern Ethiopia. A total of 116 nitrogen-fixing rhizobial strains were isolated. The bacterial isolates were characterized by 91 phenotypic traits including cultural characteristics, intrinsic antibiotic and heavy metal resistance, salt, pH and incubation temperature tolerance, and carbon and nitrogen sources utilization ability. Preliminary symbiotic properties of the isolates were also evaluated. The isolates were compared with seven reference strains of rhizobia by application of the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic means (UPGMA) using NTSYSpc Version 2.1 software program. The dendrogram constructed from cluster analysis of 91 phenotypic traits, grouped them into six clusters and eight un-clustered positions at 80% relative similarity. Cluster I contained 83% of the test isolates that were grouped together with the reference strains Bradyrhizobium japonicum (HAMBI 2314T) and Bradyrhizobium elkanii (LMG 6164), suggesting that pigeon pea is commonly nodulated by bradyrhizobia. Results from symbiotic effectiveness test revealed that majority of the isolates were found to be effective. Generally, this investigation demonstrated that rhizobial population nodulating C. cajan on the study area were phenotypically diverse and symbiotically effective. Furthermore, the result indicates the existence of strains in the collection, which can tolerate environmental stresses, thus can be developed into inoculant for pigeon pea inoculation and production in Ethiopia and beyond

Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) and cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp) growing in Ethiopia are nodulated by diverse rhizobia

A total of eighty one (81) rhizobial isolates were recovered from root nodules of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp.) and groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) grown in soils collected from eight different sites (Hawassa, Wondogenet, Chofa, Badawacho, Bodity, Gofa, Ziway, and Alemtena) in Ethiopia with no known history of inoculation. The test isolates together with seven reference strains belonging to five genera including Rhizobium, Ensifer, Mesorhizobium, Bradyrhizobium and Azorhizobium were characterized using ninety phenotypic traits. Thirty one isolates (38%) were found to be fast growers while fifty isolates (62%) were slow growers. The majority of the isolates showed an intrinsic resistance to antibiotics (μg/ml), Chloramphenicol (5 and 15), Lincomycin (100), Novobiocin (0.5 and 1.5), and Erythromycin (10 and 20) and to heavy metals manganese sulphate (500) and copper chloride (100). Most isolates did not tolerate NaCl concentration >3% (w/v) and high temperature (45°C). Dendrogram was constructed by applying the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic means (UPGMA) using NTSYSpc Version 2.1. They were grouped into seven clusters and eight unclustered positions, when 82% relative similarity was used as a cut point. Fifty eight percent of the test isolates were grouped with Bradyrhizobium japonicum and Bradyrhizobium elkanii superclades, thus indicating that rhizobia nodulating cowpea and groundnut are delineated within a branch that defines Bradyrhizobium genus. To elucidate the precise taxonomic positions of the isolates, further genetic studies are required using modern molecular biological methods

Phenotypic Characteristics and Preliminary Symbiotic Effectiveness of Rhizobia Associated with Haricot Bean Growing in Diverse Locations of Southern Ethiopia

Phenotypic characteristics of one hundred thirteen rhizobia nodulating haricot bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) growing on soils of nine different locations from southern Ethiopia were studied. Their tolerance to varying temperature, salinity, soil pH, heavy metals, antibiotics, their symbiotic effectiveness and cultural characteristics were determined. Eight reference species belonging to four different genera were also included in the analyses. The analyses allowed the description of a wide physiological diversity among tested isolates. Numerical analysis, based on numerical taxonomic approach, of the phenotypic characteristics, using Unweighted Pair Group Method with Average algorithm as implemented in NTSYspc21 software package, showed that, the tested isolates fell into five major diversity groups (designated as group I-V), when 82% level of relative similarity were used as cut-off point. Four strains were found to occupy a separate branch, thus designated as U (unclustered) group. While strains belonging to groups 1-IV were found to associate with recognized species belonging to Rhizobium, Ensifer and Mesorhizobium genus, the remaining test strains in cluster V and U were found to occupy distinct branches of their own on the dendrogram. Under laboratory condition, they were able to grow at pH ranging from 4 to 10.5; majority tolerated salt concentration (0.5-1%) and grew at a maximum temperature between 35 and 40 °C. The isolates were able to utilize a wide range of carbon and amino acid source and tolerated range of antibiotics and heavy metals. Based on the symbiotic effectiveness test, a number of potential isolates have been identified for inoculation trials

Phylogeography and Symbiotic Effectiveness of Rhizobia Nodulating Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) in Ethiopia

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) used to be considered a restrictive host that nodulated and fixed nitrogen only with Mesorhizobium ciceri and M.mediterraneum. Recent analysis revealed that chickpea can also establish effective symbioseswith strains of several other Mesorhizobium species such as M. loti, M. haukuii, M. amorphae, M. muleiense, etc. These strains vary in their nitrogen fixation potential inviting further exploration. We characterized newly collected mesorhizobial strains isolated from various locations in Ethiopia to evaluate genetic diversity, biogeographic structure and symbiotic effectiveness. Symbiotic effectiveness was evaluated in Leonard Jars using a locally released chickpea cultivar “Nattoli”. Most of the new isolates belonged to a clade related to M. plurifarium, with very few sequence differences, while the total collection of strains contained three additional mesorhizobial genospecies associated with M. ciceri, M. abyssinicae and an unidentified Mesorhizobium species isolated from a wild host in Eritrea. The four genospecies identified represented a subset of the eight major Mesorhizobium clades recently reported for Ethiopia based on metagenomic data. All Ethiopian strains had nearly identical symbiotic genes that grouped them in a single cluster with M. ciceri, M. mediterraneum and M. muleiense, but not with M. plurifarium. Some phylogeographic structure was observed, with elevation and geography explaining some of the genetic differences among strains, but the relation between genetic identity and symbiotic effectiveness was observed to be weak

Symbiotic interactions between chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) genotypes and Mesorhizobium strains

Legume genotype (GL) x rhizobium genotype (GR) interaction in chickpea was studied using a genetically diverse set of accessions and rhizobium strains in modified Leonard Jars. A subset of effective GL x GR combinations was subsequently evaluated in a pot experiment to identify combinations of chickpea genotypes and rhizobium strains with stable and superior symbiotic performance. A linear mixed model was employed to analyse the occurrence of GL x GR interaction and an additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) model was used to study patterns in the performance of genotype-strain combinations.We found statistically significant interaction in jars in terms of symbiotic effectiveness that was entirely due to the inclusion of one of the genotypes, ICC6263. No interaction was found in a subsequent pot experiment. The presence of two genetic groups (Kabuli and Desi genepools) did not affect interaction with Mesorhizobium strains. With the exception of a negative interaction with genotype ICC6263 in the jar experiment, the type strain Mesorhizobium ciceri LMG 14989 outperformed or equalled other strains on all chickpea genotypes in both jar and pot experiments. Similar to earlier reports in common bean, our results suggest that efforts to findmore effective strains may be more rewarding than aiming for identification of superior combinations of strains and genotypes