Sunday, August 10, 2014

Fighting hunger and poverty in Ethiopia - Eldis

Implementation of a disaster prevention, employment-generating scheme in food insecure Ethiopia
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Drought, poverty, famine and war are not new to Ethiopia. Much of Ethiopia's overseas aid has come in the form of humanitarian assistance rather than direct efforts to reduce poverty and elimate widespread hunger. This paper provides an overview of the implementation of Ethiopia's National Policy for Disaster Prevention and Management (NPDPM), with a particular focus on Employment Generation Schemes (EGS) and its potential contribution towards hunger eradication and poverty reduction.

Following an examination of the global hunger situation, the paper turns its attention to the specific case of Ethiopia, including issues of governance, regional dynamics, vulnerability and the nature and extent of poverty and hunger. The author reviews a wide range of literature on social protection and food security, leading on to some policy implications and recommendations.
In terms of implementation of the above named schemes, the author finds that:
  • both the NPDPM and EGS schemes remain largely ineffective and inefficient
  • the national policy provides an appropriate pro-poor framework for employment provision and asset creation while essential supportive measures have been neglected
  • EGS has not led to transformation in production and broad based economic growth - nor has it addressed some of the key institutional bottlenecks related to program delivery
  • important policy reform measures related to land and water management and ownership have also not been adequately addressed
  • social protection is often considered to be a high cost, low returns component of democratic governance - experience highlights poor performance in planning and implementation
  • the capacities for implementation are good, although only when sufficienct resources have been allocated and this seldom occurs under the governments own budget.

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