The bang for the birr: Public expenditures and rural welfare in Ethiopia

Gezahegn Ayele: DCA, EthiopiaPublic investments, Public spending, Rural welfare,

Poverty, Land Resource Management and Gender Participation in Libokemkem District of Northern Ethiopia

High population pressure and land degradation are threats of food security in the highlands of Ethiopia. Poverty and food insecurity are closely related phenomena.Both of them compel poor farmers to practice unwise use and resource management, which lead to low resource productivity. This study examines the various factors determining poverty and resource management at a household level with gender perspective in Libokemekem district of Ethiopia. Farm level diversification of crops and mitigating food insecurity is highly constrained due to lack of farm resources principally limited land size. Consequently, households with large family sizes and limited resources are vulnerable to food insecurity. Although households practice various coping mechanisms and alternative resource management strategies, they are not sufficient to curb household food security. The magnitude however, varies between female and male-headed households.Socioeconomic factors such as age, soil type, farm size, sex of household heads, area under rice production, number of oxen, and slope of the land are among the major factors to influence and discriminate between female and male-headed households. This study concludes by highlighting and indicating possible direction for policy intervention in view of enhancing food security and sustainable resource management

Determinants of Land Contracts and Efficiency in Ethiopia: The Case of Libokemkem District of Amhara Region

The land policy reform that took place in the 1990s in northern Ethiopia has resulted in various forms of land contracts and efficiency. As a policy measure, sale of land is officially prohibited while leasing and inheritance are allowed in one form or another. This paper attempts to assess the efficiency of the different forms of tenure arrangements emerging in Libokemkem district of the Amhara region, northern Ethiopia, and their implication for land tenure policies. With the help of maximum likelihood estimates the effect of various factors on total operated fields was examined. The maximum likelihood result indicates that oxen ownership, family size, age, and total income determine the total cultivated land. It was also shown that choice of crops (tef and wheat) resulted in positive estimates indicating that crop types determine the land area operated. Choice of tenure arrangement on the other hand depends on livestock units, large family size and food shortages, and access to markets. This finding calls for a kind of intervention, which can support operation of informal land markets to be more efficient than the prevailing situation

Infrastructure and cluster development

Rural nonfarm development plays a key role in generating employment in many developing countries. Clustering is an important form of industrial organization in the rural nonfarm sector. Based on a primary survey of both urban and rural handloom weaver clusters in Ethiopia, one of the country’s most important rural nonfarm sectors, this paper examines the mechanism and performance of clustering. That cluster-based handloom production survives even in remote rural areas illustrates its vitality in restricted environments. In the absence of financial institutions, clustered producers set up interconnected trade credit linkages to ease working capital constraints. Moreover, geographical clustering enables entrepreneurs with limited capital to enter the business through shared workspaces and fine division of labor. Despite the viability of the clustering model of production operating in harsh environments, an improvement in infrastructure can further enhance firm performance in a cluster. Our survey indicates that producers in electrified towns work longer hours than those in towns without electricity. In addition, the rental cost of shared lit workspaces is minimal, attracting more poor entrepreneurs to participate in handloom production than would otherwise be possible.Development strategies, handloom weavers, industrial clustering, productivity,

Performance Indicators of Investment and Business Environment (ICBE) Improvement in Private Higher Education (PHE) and Private Health Service Provision in Addis Abeba in the Post 1991 Period

Driven by the restructuring of the world economy with massive incremental output and demand in Asia by China and India in particular, in the last seven years or so, the Ethiopian economy has been experiencing a remarkable average growth rate of 10%.

Performance indicators of Icbe in private higher education and health in Addis Abeba in the post 1991 period

This article is about institutional development around Investment Climate and the Business Environment [ICBE] in the establishment and growth of segments of the vital two social services ‐ private higher education [PHE] and private health, in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia in the post 1991 period. ICBE encompasses aspects of institutions as they relate specifically to the start up, growth, development and performance or otherwise of businesses and their capacity to drive the pace of economic and social progress.While the broad objective of the study has been to gauge progress in this arena and compare levels and directions of development, the specific objectives of the study was to develop parameters of performance indicators, gauge the on‐going process as perceived by the market participants, derive issues for further fine tunings of ICBE, policy and serve as a baseline for further study.To meet the objectives of shedding light on the on‐going ICBE process, apart from desk research, the Data Collection Team interviewed 424 respondents including the managers and staff of private higher education [PHE] and private health service providers, the direct beneficiaries of the social services [employers, current students, graduate alumni and patients], the indirect beneficiaries [staff and parents] and the regulatory authorities [education and health bureaus of the City Government of Addis Abeba].Partly as a result of improved ICBE, noticeable positive changes in governance, expansion in private higher education [PHE] and private health provision, efficiency gains, more effectiveness in the physical and social infrastructure are reported. Moreover, there are trends towards improved regional & gender equity, accountability in PHE and health delivery services, some levels of innovativeness and development and sustainability. Notwithstanding these, the absolute quality and standard of education and health provision leave a lot to be desired. The noticeable achievements have been attained with some challenges which need to be addressed in the forthcoming fine tuning of ICBE improvement policies and institutional engineering.Genuine and effective partnership between Government, the private sector and employers need to be remodeled with a certain level of autonomy for each. Government needs autonomy to ensure that its social goals are not entirely subsumed by the profit objectives of PHE and private health firms. The latter require autonomy to tailor their services in order to meet the specific demand of the market. The ultimate beneficiaries of the process, employers and students can enrich the institutional packaging through bringing in their up to date need in the state of the art and the content of education.Ethiopian Journal of Economics vol 20 (1) 201

Organic Rural Innovation Systems and Networks: Findings From a Study of Ethiopian Smallholders

Agriculture in Ethiopia is changing. New players, relationships, and policies are influencing the ways in which information and knowledge are used by smallholders. While this growing complexity suggests opportunities for Ethiopian smallholders, too little is known about how these opportunities can be effectively leveraged to promote pro-poor processes of rural innovation. This paper examines Ethiopia’s smallholder agricultural sector from an innovation systems perspective to understand the changing roles, responsibilities, and interactions of diverse actors in relation to smallholder livelihoods. The paper uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative research tools to paint a picture of the innovation landscape at both the system and local levels. Findings suggest that public sector extension, administration, and related service providers form a closely-knit network in rural Ethiopia with the ability to influence smallholder access to knowledge and information. Given the Government of Ethiopia’s priorities of improving rural welfare by increasing market access among smallholders, these findings suggest the need for policies and programs designed to strengthen innovative capabilities among rural service providers from the public sector, and to create more space for private and civil society actors to participate in smallholder innovation networks.Ethiopia, Agricultural development, innovation, technology, Social networks, Social learning, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Farm Management, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, International Relations/Trade, Marketing, Productivity Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Livelihood Strategies and Food Security of Rural Households in Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia

Despite the continuing economic dominance of agriculture in Wolaita, farm households widely engage in and pursue diverse livelihood activities to generate income and achieve food security. The major objectives of this study are to analyze households’ food security status as an outcome of livelihood strategies and identify factors affecting food security of rural farm households. For the purpose of this study primary data were collected from randomly selected 300 households in four woredas of the zone. The main tools of analysis for this study include descriptive statistics and logistic regression model. The finding of the survey result indicates that rural households in the study area practice diversified livelihood strategies, in that large part of the respondents (57.7%) combine agriculture with other activities (non/off-farm). Food security status of the households was analyzed based on nationally recommended calorie requirement (2200kcal) of the households. Based on this, about 57% of the sample households found to be food insecure. The relationship b/n rural households’ livelihood strategies and food security status depicted that majority of food secured households (62%) rely on farming alone as one of most important livelihood strategies. On the contrary, non-farming and off-farming activities were the common livelihood means which specifically practiced by food insecure households. Binary logit model results reveal that out of 25 explanatory variables included in the logistic model, 12 were found to be significant at less than 10% probability level. According to this, education, family size in AE, cultivated land size, frequency of extension visit, access for credit, access to farm plus off-farm activities, access to farm plus non-farm and off-farm activities, safety net aid, use of chemical fertilizer, cooperative membership and agro-ecological zone were found to be the most important determinants affecting the state of food security positively. On the other hand, family size in AE was found negatively and significantly affected food security status of the household. The finding of the study considers government and other concerned bodies to design appropriate development policies and strategies in relation to significant variables to bring sustainable livelihood improvement in attaining household food security goals. Keywords: Livelihood strategies, determinants of food security, rural households, binary logit model, Woliata, Ethiopi