Background

 

Ethiopia is located in the Horn of Africa with an estimated population of 74.2 million (UN, 2005). With an area of 1.13 million km2, Ethiopia is a land of great physical diversity, with altitudes ranging from 116 metres below sea level, in the Danakil Depression, to 4,620 meters at Africa's fourth highest peak, Ras Dashen. Over three-quarters of the population depend on agriculture for their living, and over three-quarters of Ethiopia's export earnings come from agriculture and livestock.

Being one of the poorest developing countries in the world, the vulnerability context of Ethiopia is quite challenging: in 2004 it ranked 170 in the human development index out of 177 countries; it ranks 21st in the world in under-five mortality rate and one-third of the population survive on less than 1 USD a day; it has the largest HIV/AIDS infected population in the world; 31 percent of female adults are literate; and 24 percent have access to clean drinking water (UNICEF, 2005).

Ethiopia, unlike much of the rest of Africa has a long recorded history of disasters of both natural and anthropogenic origin. The common hazards include epidemics, floods, landslides, earthquakes, civil war, and mass displacement, as well as external shocks (for example, rapid declines in commodity prices) (MOFED, 2002: 10). Of all natural hazards, drought is the commonest disaster trigger accounting for over 98% of disaster fatalities. Drought has in most cases combined with anthropogenic hazards, mainly civil conflicts, to trigger famines (Hancock, 1985; Clay and Holcomb, 1986). The frequency of nation wide droughts that trigger food shortages increased from once in 10 years (in 1970s and 1980s) to once in about three years now (Middlebrook, 2003); and between 1970 and 1996 droughts and the resultant food shortage have affected millions and killed a significant number of people in Ethiopia. The 1984 - 85 famine, for example, is estimated to have claimed one million lives, and will go down in history as one of the greatest disasters on the African continent in the last century (Smith and Davies, 1995).

There are other factors other than drought, which are increasing the vulnerability of Ethiopia's rural population include: 

  • Rapid increase of human and livestock population pressures on exhausted arable land and pasture; 
  • Fragmentation and decreasing size per family of land holdings and insufficient land tenure and certification;
  • Desiccation of water sources, due in part to the destruction of the natural vegetation cover from deforestation, overgrazing and mountain slope cultivation and a lack of water conservation measures;
  • Low access to basic social services (public health, water, sanitation, education), technology and other inputs that might improve their productivity;
  • Near complete dependence on rain-fed agriculture and lack of access to irrigation;
  • Limited off-farm employment opportunities.
    (Steering Committee Evaluation Report, 2004)