The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach as an impact assessment tool for development interventions in rural Tigray, Ethiopia : opportunities & challenges

Measuring the impact and sustainability of development programmes requires the development of appropriate assessment tools. This paper examines the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach's (SLA) potential to be transformed to and called in as a practical instrument to evaluate the impact of development interventions in rural Tigray (Northern Ethiopia). Fieldwork has been carried out in communities in woreda Dogua Tembien using participant observation and open interviews as methods. Next to more general challenges of defining, measuring and comparing livelihood assets, context specific factors complicate the operationalisation of the SLA as an impact assessment tool in the area. The SLA distinguishes between livelihood assets on the one hand and transforming structures and processes on the other. The latter lend meaning and value to the former. This conceptual distinction is worthy as it makes the two-way interaction between both categories explicit and escapes from reducing institutions, organisations, policies and legislation to context or background. However, in practice the boundaries are fuzzy and not easy to interpret. The example of religion as a cross-cutting organizing principle illustrates this assumption. Moreover the distinction complicates the operationalisation of the SLA as it implies the meaning and value of capitals to be volatile and depending on the prevailing social, institutional and organisational environment. This is exemplified with the big transforming power of policy shifts in the area. For the SLA to serve as an impact assessment tool, it requires a culture- and policy-sensitive analysis of farmers' asset base. Only a sound understanding of the interactions between livelihood assets and transforming structures and processes can lead to a locally contextualised, meaningful and workable impact assessment tool that measures asset levels using indicators that reflect farmers' own criteria to judge development interventions

Unravelling the dynamics of access to farmland in Tigray, Ethiopia: the 'emerging land market' revisited

This article uses ethnographic evidence from Tigray to revisit the debate on informal rural land markets in present-day Ethiopia. It explores informal farmland rental from a historico-anthropological, micro-analytical perspective in relation to the formal allocation of land use rights and to other informal land transfer practices. It shows how different rationales for land rental give rise to different socially embedded tenancy configurations. On the basis of this empirical evidence, the paper questions the appropriateness of the common idea that in Ethiopia ‘the land rental market is expanding’. It argues that research and policy thinking on land in Ethiopia could gain analytical power and relevance by adopting a less monolithic and abstract view on people’s informal land transfer practices.status: publishe

Richard S. Smith v. Rocky Mountain Helicopters : Brief of Respondent

BRIEF OF RESPONDENT AND CROSS APPELLANT Appeal from the Fourth Judicial District Court Of Utah County Honorable Boyd L. Park, District Judg

An ethnography of rural development and local institutional change in Tigray (Ethiopia) in four essays

Deze thesis verkent vanuit een antropologisch perspectief hoe rurale ontwikkeling werkt in Tigray, de meest noordelijke regio van Ethiopië, en hoe ze er sociale en institutionele veranderingsprocessen veroorzaakt en beïnvloedt. De thesis kadert in de Institutionele Universitaire Samenwerking met de Universiteit van Mekelle (MU IUS) van de Vlaamse Interuniversitaire Raad (VLIR). Ze is gebaseerd op langdurig etnografisch onderzoek in het Degua Temben district in Tigray; empirische gegevens werden hoofdzakelijk bekomen door participerende observatie en interviews. De thesis bestaat uit een theoretische inleiding, vier essays die de onderzoeksresultaten beschrijven en een besluit over de implicaties van deze resultaten voor ruraal ontwikkelingsbeleid in Tigray. De inleiding begint met een toelichting van de motivatie van het onderzoek. Dan volgt een overzicht van de oorsprong en de inhoud van duuzame livelihoods benaderingen van ontwikkeling en een korte discussie van een aantal algemeen erkende beperkingen van deze benaderingen. Vervolgens wordt het wetenschapsdomein van de ontwikkelingsantropologie, waartoe deze thesis behoort, voorgesteld. De discipline wordt tegenover andere ontmoetingen tussen antropologie en ontwikkeling geplaatst en haar basisconcepten worden uitgelegd. Daarna volgen reflecties over hoe ontwikkelingsantropologie kan bijdragen aan het maken van ontwikkelingsbeleid met behulp van een duurzame livelihoods benadering, en ten slotte een korte beschrijving van de onderzoekscontext en een overzicht van de onderzoeksresultaten.Essay 1 onderzoekt hoe lokale actoren in het onderzoeksgebied zich hebben aangepast aan de neerwaartse ontwikkelingsdruk van centraal geformuleerde streefcijfers voor het aantal deelnemers aan ontwikkelingsprogramma s en welke strategieën ze ontwikkelen om met deze druk om te gaan. Dit gebeurt aan de hand van de studie van een programma dat het oogsten van afstromend regenwater in vijvers beoogt en een programma dat de voedselzekerheid van de plattelandsbevolking wil garanderen. We tonen aan hoe ontwikkelaars en boeren deze twee in principe onafhankelijke interventies met elkaar verweven, met een reeks ongewenste effecten tot gevolg.Essay 2 analyseert de verbanden tussen lokale politiek en de deelname van boeren aan ontwikkelingsprogramma s. Het onderzoekt de erfenis van de revolutionaire politiek-economisch alliantie tussen boeren en het Tigray People s Liberation Front (TPLF). Lokale staatsambtenaren en boerenvertegenwoordigers blazen nieuw leven in de collectieve herinnering van boeren aan dit bondgenootschap en vinden de revolutionaire basisdemocratische instellingen die vormgaven aan de alliantie opnieuw uit. Als gevolg van deze mobilisatie van boeren voor ontwikkeling geraken steun aan de TPLF en deelname aan ontwikkelingsprogramma s onlosmakelijk verbonden.Essay 3 bestudeert de effecten van de invoering van microkrediet in termen van sociale en institutionele verandering. Boeren gebruiken hun microleningen om, in tegenstelling tot de doelstellingen van de microkredietprogramma s, seizoensgebonden tekorten aan voedsel, zaaigoed en ossentrekkracht op te lossen. Deze toe-eigening van microkrediet door boeren zorgt ervoor dat informele krediet-, land- en sociale verzekeringsinstellingen meer of minder belangrijk worden en van functie en betekenis veranderen.Essay 4 werpt een nieuw licht op het debat over informele rurale landmarkten in Ethiopië. Het onderzoekt de informele verhuur van landbouwgrond in relatie met de formele toekenning van landgebruiksrechten en met andere informele vormen van landoverdracht. Verschillende motieven voor de verhuur van land geven aanleiding tot verschillende sociaal ingebedde huurconfiguraties. Op basis van deze empirische vaststellingen wordt de relevantie van de algemene veronderstelling van een groeiende huurmarkt voor landbouwgrond in vraag gesteld.De conclusie gaat na hoe de bevindingen van de vier essays kunnen worden teruggekoppeld naar de praktijk van ontwikkelingssamenwerking. Ze geeft een overzicht van de lessen die de MU IUS, en andere ontwikkelingsactoren in Tigray, uit dit onderzoek kunnen trekken in verband met de planning, uitvoering en evaluatie van rurale ontwikkelingsinterventies in de regio.Contents Preface - Voorwoord v Contents ix List of abbreviations xiii Summary xv Samenvatting xvii Introduction 1 Research question 1 Sustainable livelihoods approaches 5 Origin and diffusion 5 A sustainable livelihoods approach to poverty reduction 8 Anthropology and development 11 Interfaces between sustainable livelihoods approaches and development anthropology 16 The research 19 The research process 20 The research context: politics and rural development in Ethiopia 24 The research results 27 Paper 1 Developers and farmers intertwining interventions: the case of rainwater harvesting and food-for-work in Degua Temben, Tigray, Ethiopia 31 Introduction 32 Research area and methodology 33 Actors behind soil and water conservation structures 34 Basics of soil and water conservation in Degua Temben 34 The Productive Safety Net Programme and the Rainwater Harvesting Pond Programme 36 Interventions intertwined 40 Conclusion 44 Acknowledgements 46 References 46 Paper 2 Be like bees – The politics of mobilizing farmers for development in Tigray, Ethiopia 51 Introduction 52 The historical setting 54 Development in Ethiopia today 56 Case study: local development brokers in Degua Temben 57 Be like bees revisited 59 TPLF goes development, development goes TPLF 64 Conclusions 68 Acknowledgements 70 References 71 Paper 3 Interactions between microcredit, farmers and informal institutions in Tigray, northern Ethiopia 77 Introduction 78 Research area and methodology 80 Microcredit in Degua Temben 81 Lending practices in the pre-microcredit era 84 High-risk short-term trade loans 84 “Friendly” loans 85 Seasonal loans and the relation between lending and land 85 How farmers appropriate the microcredit programs 90 Institutional change: credit, land and social security 93 Conclusions 98 Acknowledgements 100 References 100 Paper 4 Unravelling the dynamics of access to farmland in Tigray, Ethiopia: the ‘emerging land market’ revisited 107 Introduction 108 Research area and methodology 111 Access to land in Degua Temben in imperial times and under the Derg 112 The 1990 TPLF land reform and the current distribution of formal land use rights 114 Land exchange and lending 116 Multiple logics of land rental 118 The ‘emerging land market’ revisited 123 Conclusions 128 Acknowledgements 128 References 129 Conclusion 137 References from the introduction and conclusion 141 List of publications 151nrpages: 152status: publishe

Chaotic, fluid and unstable : on the complex housing trajectories of homeless people in Flanders, Belgium

This article analyses the housing and homeless pathways of (ex)homeless persons in the coastal city of Ostend. After a short review of the literature on the causes and meaning of the vulnerability of homeless persons, we describe how our case study with (former) homeless persons in Ostend was organised. We deal with some methodological issues and the analytic results, revealing a very complex housing trajectory. We focus on these dynamic and complex housing pathways and look at the role of relationships and relationship breakdown, work and unemployment, eviction after rent arrears and moving as an escape strategy. We also deal with the searching process for housing and the role of social networks. We end with some conclusions and interest points for policy

The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach as an impact assessment tool for development interventions in rural Tigray, Ethiopia: opportunities & challenges

Measuring the impact and sustainability of development programmes requires the development of appropriate assessment tools. This paper examines the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach's (SLA) potential to be transformed to and called in as a practical instrument to evaluate the impact of development interventions in rural Tigray (Northern Ethiopia). Fieldwork has been carried out in communities in woreda Dogua Tembien using participant observation and open interviews as methods. Next to more general challenges of defining, measuring and comparing livelihood assets, context specific factors complicate the operationalisation of the SLA as an impact assessment tool in the area. The SLA distinguishes between livelihood assets on the one hand and transforming structures and processes on the other. The latter lend meaning and value to the former. This conceptual distinction is worthy as it makes the two-way interaction between both categories explicit and escapes from reducing institutions, organisations, policies and legislation to context or background. However, in practice the boundaries are fuzzy and not easy to interpret. The example of religion as a cross-cutting organizing principle illustrates this assumption. Moreover the distinction complicates the operationalisation of the SLA as it implies the meaning and value of capitals to be volatile and depending on the prevailing social, institutional and organisational environment. This is exemplified with the big transforming power of policy shifts in the area. For the SLA to serve as an impact assessment tool, it requires a culture- and policy-sensitive analysis of farmers' asset base. Only a sound understanding of the interactions between livelihood assets and transforming structures and processes can lead to a locally contextualised, meaningful and workable impact assessment tool that measures asset levels using indicators that reflect farmers' own criteria to judge development interventionsstatus: publishe

Developers and farmers intertwining interventions: the case of rainwater harvesting and food-for-work in Degua Temben, Tigray, Ethiopia

Understanding the objectives, strategies and actions of the different actors that play a role in the implementation of rural development programmes is a key to explaining the latter's success and sustainability. Based on in-depth anthropological fieldwork and from an actor perspective this paper shows how the Rainwater Harvesting Pond Programme (RHPP) and the public work component of the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) work out in practice in one district of the Tigray region in Ethiopia. Developers and farmers turn the two essentially unrelated rural development programmes into practically intertwined interventions, which leads to an undesirable set of outcomes. The RHPP's participants, who are conceived of as willing to improve, are favoured above other candidates for employment in the PSNP, which farmers compete for. Developers' and farmers' moves and countermoves result in targeting errors in the PSNP and in farmers massively constructing rainwater harvesting ponds, the large majority of which fail because farmers do not aspire to make them succeed, but merely see them as a stepping stone to employment in the PSNR In addition both groups' perception of each other is affected. Our observations challenge prevailing interpretations of the effects of development interventions on Tigrayan people's livelihoods

Actors behind soil and water conservation structures: a case study in Tigray, Ethiopia

Soil and water conservation (SWC) structures do not crop up of their own accord. Understanding the strategies and objectives of different actors that play a role in the implementation of SWC techniques is a key to explaining the latter’s effectiveness and efficiency. The role of and interaction between the state, as a deliverer of rural development interventions, and farmers, as their receivers, in SWC programmes have been studied in a rural society in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. Data have been gathered by participant observation, complemented with open and semi-structured interviews with both farmers and development workers. A sustainable livelihood approach (DFID among others) has been used and adapted to conceptualize the role of agency in creating differential livelihood impacts of one single development intervention. In the study area farmers’ and developers’ objectives and strategies influence the performance and sustainability of SWC structures in two ways. Firstly the majority of SWC structures are built within the framework of food for work (FFW) programmes on village scale organised by the government to bridge seasonal food gaps. Employment in these FFW programmes depends on farmers’ readiness to adopt newly introduced techniques and technologies, some of them for their part in the field of SWC. These back- and forward linkages between FFW and SWC have consequences for SWC measures’ success and sustainability, as farmers are willing and competing to participate in FFW programmes. Secondly farmers’ room for participation in the decision making process with respect to rural development and environmental rehabilitation in the study area is limited. This influences SWC measures' sustainability, as households are pushed to look for other opportunities to go about with development interventions.status: publishe