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ETHIOPIA - Helping Education, Health and Water Supply in Bugna, Lasta and Gazgibla Wahredas
Progress Report (48A) – June 2016: Norman Coward
Ethiopia in Africa
With 100 million people, Ethiopia is the second most populous African country, after Nigeria. It is the fastest growing African economy – albeit from a very low base. Ethiopia also seems to punch above its weight in a political-military role as the only country in the Horn of Africa which is politically stable and where there has been no significant terrorist activity, despite the influx of over 800,000 refugees from neighbouring countries; a strong Islamic presence (40% of the population is Muslim) and the adjacent unstable Somalia, South Sudan and Eritrea.
The African Union (AU)
All of the 55 countries in Africa are members of AU (except Morocco, due to the status of Western Sahara). The AU was established in Addis Ababa in 2001 and has its headquarters there. Many of the AU’s objectives are similar to those of the United Nations, with whom it works closely, including peacekeeping missions (e.g. Burundi, Darfur Sudan, and Somalia) using the troops of member countries. Some specific goals include the development of an African Free Trade Area and Customs Union; a central Bank and a common currency i.e. an economic and monetary union “African Economic Community”.
Twenty years ago, with many territorial disputesand corrupt inefficient governments almost everywhere in Africa (and Ethiopia in revolution), these goals of the AU would have seemed ludicrous. Clearly the AU still has a huge amount of work to do, but with rapidly improving communications – electronic, road, rail and air - and especially with more stable governments in many countries (certainly including Ethiopia), the challenge does not seem quite so far fetched. The target for the Free Trade Area is 2021. Ethiopia plays a strong role; with the AU’s headquarters in Addis Ababa; its troops in AU peacekeeping missions; and the next Non-Permanent Representative for Africa on the UN Security Council may be Ethiopia.
Developments in Agriculture
A little known development in Africa has been in agriculture. More than 50% of adult workers south of the Sahara are farmers (over 80% in Ethiopia and Rwanda). Mostly each farm is less than 0.5 hectares (in Ethiopia the average is 0.4 hectares, which is less than 1 acre). Any widespread improvement in African economies thus requires improvements in agriculture. This is happening. People even speak of a ‘Green Revolution’ as occurred in Asia in the 1970s. The improvement is coming from new higher yielding crop varieties; increased fertilizer use; strong emphasis on education and training (most kebeles in Ethiopia now have a small Farmers Training Centre, often near to our Health Posts, for teaching and demonstration); and better agricultural land ownership or tenancy regulation. In Ethiopia, for example, where all land is government owned and all farmers are tenants, legislation provides that tenants must have security of tenure so they are encouraged to invest and to adopt practices, including fertilizer use, which have long-term benefits. Also, in Ethiopia, legislation now allows one farmer to negotiate with older or less efficient neighbours, to farm their land on some kind of profit sharing basis. This leads to benefits from economies of scale (not yet tractors in our part of Ethiopia!) and, as a generalization, the industry benefits from this spreading of the skills of the more able and efficient farmers. The farmer who gives up the use of his land in this way, may go to work in towns (the China model) or seek some part-time local work to supplement his rental income. In one area where we are working, there is a protected forest where a honey cooperative has been established with beehives provided in a government programme. Some local farmers have handed the management of their land to a neighbour – and now work in this cooperative.
Drought
We wrote about the major drought in Ethiopia in our last two reports. The rainy season has now started but we will not know how effective this will be in recharging aquifers until September – October. Meanwhile we continue to be impressed with the efforts of government and UNICEF to mitigate the problem. UNICEF have brought in huge drilling machines to tap deep underground water. They are truck-mounted so can only drill near good quality roads – but this is still valuable. The drilled hole can be quickly capped to create a sealed well with a pump on top, which, based on our experience with such pumps, can last for many years.
Water Committees
The drought has also highlighted the need for the Water Committees, which must be formed for every spring improvement project. Typically each Committee comprises 4 males and 4 females, elected informally by the beneficiaries of the project and they elect their chairman. Once they are formed, we fund a training programme for them, organised by the woreda hydrologists.
The Water Committee must oversee the construction of a fence with locked gate round the reservoir to be able to maintain control and to reduce damage risk. The Committee must also manage the appointment of a guard – sometimes he is simply an able-bodied villager in rotation, unpaid. Sometimes a little money is collected from every beneficiary to pay a permanent guard. If minor problems occur in the project (e.g. failed tap) the Committee must fix it themselves with a wrench which we supply. If the problem is more major, (e.g. storm damage to the spring cap) they must report it to the Woreda Water Department, who should then fix it. The Water Committee must also manage any problems arising from water shortage. At one spring, for example, where water flow has been reduced by the drought, the villagers can no longer collect at lunch-time but they can line up their cans for filling at any time because their position in the can queue is monitored and each morning and evening the one at the front of the queue must return her can to the end of the line for the next opening. This ensures that if/when the water runs low, each villager suffers in turn. Also, in most villages, the strict Orthodox religion requires that they do not collect water (seen as work) on Saturday and Sunday. On these days therefore the animal drinking facility is opened and cattle, goats, sheep and donkeys quickly come. We are not sure if this Sabbath behaviour condemns the animals to an uncomfortable afterlife.
The existence of a well-managed Water Committee is a great advantage for us in knowing that the project should be well maintained – but also in tapping their local knowledge. When we make our random spot check visits we ask to see the Chairman, or at east some Committee members and they quickly arrive. They are invariably knowledgeable and helpful. A side effect of the Water Committee is that they know all of the beneficiaries for their particular spring. We always want to know the number of beneficiaries but many Water Committee members are not numerate. They can however call out the names of the beneficiaries, house by house, and we add them up visually on our fingers! There is much laughter as we try to repeat the pronunciation of the names as they call them out.
OUR PROJECTS
Maternity Unit in Lalibela Hospital
As in our last reports, construction progress on the ground is excellent. The foundations are completely finished as are the top tie beams. This means that hopefully at least a part of the roof can be put in place to enable internal work to continue unhindered in the rainy season. Our bureaucratic difficulties with Aster, the Zonal Surveyor, however, continue. We asked her and her boss to come to the site for a meeting (5 hours drive) and happily they accepted. This resolved a few issues but some still remain. We did get Aster to shake the hand of our On Site Project Manager;she did so, but we have rarely seen such negative body language!
Health Posts [14 completed. None currently planned until the Maternity Unit is further advanced.]
Spring Improvement Projects[62 completed; 2 failed; 7 in construction or agreed. Total beneficiaries 31,000]
The terrain is so mountainous that it would take more than a month by truck and mule for us to visit all ourexisting projects. We do not therefore have an accurate picture of how many of the 62 have completely run dry as a result of the drought. However, we estimate, from conversations with Health Extension Workers and the Emergency Relief truck drivers that the number is around 12. As far as possible we only construct where we are assured that the spring has never gone dry in living memory – so the current number of dry springs is a measure of the seriousness of this years’ drought in relation to water. Mostly the 12 affected villages are able still to get to a neighbouring improved spring, or to unimproved water – albeit with a long walk – or they are receiving emergency trucked supplies. The cessation of water flow does not permanently damage our projects in any way and hopefully the dry ones will be functional again by September/October.
School Classrooms [22 classrooms completed]
Small Scale Irrigation Projects [2 projects completed] No news.
Date of Next Visit
August 28th, 2016.
APPENDIX – Definitions
Our Objective
Our objective is to improve the health, education and drinking water facilities in a small area of Amhara Region, Northern Ethiopia. We do this through the construction of health posts, classrooms and spring improvement projects. Our current projects are mostly in remote areas where no Charities or Aid Agencies currently work.
Woreda and Kebele
A Woreda is an administrative region like a UK county; a Kebele is a smaller administrative region within a Woreda - typically 15-30 Kebele per Woreda. A typical kebele has a population of 4,000 – 10,000.
Community Involvement
Our agreements for the construction of our projects are all similar. We first discuss priorities with the Woreda Departments of Health, Water and Education. In the case of Health and Education, the Woreda agrees to provide and pay Health Workers and Teachers – we will not proceed without this agreement. We then visit the local kebele with Department representatives to meet the kebele chairman, who is invariably strong, well respected (and carrying his Kalashnikov!). He usually agrees readily for his community to collect sand, gravel (by hand-breaking rock), building stone and wood, and provide the unskilled labour, all free of charge. We then provide the cement, corrugated iron, pipes, nails, etc. and the (local Ethiopian) builder, who manages the community workforce. At the end we hand over the building to the community, who must form a committee to maintain it. We re-visit a proportion of the completed projects at each of our quarterly visits, to make unannounced spot checks.
Health Post
Typically a block of 5 small rooms; consulting (2)/baby delivery/drug store/ general store and refrigerator - either paraffin or solar panel fuelled. Their work is mainly preventive (contraception; malaria awareness; HIV AIDS awareness; nutrition advice; vaccination etc. plus baby delivery and ante- and post-natal care). They can also deal with basic curative medicine - dispensing antibiotics; first aid etc. and identifying more major health problems for referral to Lalibela, where there is a very basic, poorly staffed hospital. The most frequent problems are malnutrition, water-borne diseases, acute respiratory infections, internal parasites and malaria. There is also HIV AIDS, pneumonia, typhoid, TB and even cholera and leprosy.
School Classrooms
Identical construction to Health Posts but in blocks of 2 or 4 classrooms. Average class size was 80-90 ten years ago – now around 50.
Spring Improvement Project
An existing spring is opened out to maximise its water bearing capacity. A concrete 'box' structure is built around it to seal it; collect all the water and pipe it to a nearby stone and concrete reservoir typically 3 x 4 x 1 metres. The reservoir is created in a place, which is easily accessible and acceptable for local people. On the reservoir 3 taps provide the clean spring water for local people for drinking; one pipe from the reservoir fills an animal drinking trough; and another feeds into concrete trays used for washing. In this way the drinking water is kept separate and clean, directly from the spring. The animal drinking facility is important. There are many cattle, sheep and goats in the area and they are a vital part of farmers’ livelihoods. They quickly recognize “sweet” clean water and internal ruminant parasites are virtually eliminated. Spring Improvement complements well another Lalibela Trust activity, which is the construction of Health Posts, where many of the patients suffer from water-borne disease.
Maternity Unit
A recent major new project for us is managing the construction of a new self-contained Maternity Unit in Lalibela Hospital. Of the funding, 80% is coming from Lalibela Trust, a Somerset based charity which we have worked with increasingly since 2010. The other 20% is from the government. In this more sophisticated project there is no community participation; all labour is paid.
Ethiopian Politics
A democracy was established in 1993 after Mengistu’s Communist-backed military regime was overthrown. The basic political structure is sound. However, the ruling EPRDF makes it very difficult for opposition candidates to stand, especially in rural constituencies. From time to time there are (illegal) political demonstrations, often in and around universities, and some agitators are jailed or shot. The May 2015 Election was peaceful and EPRDF secured every seat! There are allegations of intimidation by the numerous government workers, of the 87% of the population who are generally illiterate farmers who may need food aid. The first democratic leader from 1993, Meles Zenawi, led until his death in August 2012. His successor, Hailemariam Desalegne, is so far following the same policies which achieved stability and excellent economic growth rates of 7 - 10% per year in the last 10 years.
Potential future instability still exists in relation to the Eritrea border in the north; the Somalia border in the south east and possible Al Shabaab violence, as in Kenya, but the Ethiopian army and police force are very strong and these risks are low.
ETHIOPIA - Progress Report (48A) - June 2016.docx