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[PANEL] 0309 DEVELOPMENT AID, FOOD SECURITY PROGRAMMES AND THE EFFECTS
Organizers:
DEGEFA Tolossa, College of Development Studies, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia
Paper presenters:
DEGEFA Tolossa; SINTAYOH Fissha; Logan COCHRANE; Gabrielle BAYLE
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CONVERGENCE OF SUSTAINABLE LAND MANAGEMENT (SLM), PRODUCTIVE SAFETY NET PROGRAM (PSNP) AND AGRICULTURAL GROWTH PROGRAM (AGP) TOWARDS ENHANCING FOOD SECURITY IN ETHIOPIA: CASE STUDIES IN AMHARA REGION [Abstract ID: 0309-02]
Ethiopia has put in place a series of agricultural and food security policies and strategies with the aim of accelerating economic growth, alleviating rural poverty and improving the livelihoods and food security of rural people. Despite progress in poverty alleviation, food insecurity and malnutrition continue to threaten the livelihoods of millions of citizens. About 29% of Ethiopia’s population are food insecure and consume below the minimum daily requirement of 2100 Kcal. The nation is characterized by a high rate of malnutrition, insofar as 40% of children under the age of five are stunted, 9% are wasted, and 25% are underweight. Ethiopia’s situation in terms of hunger and malnutrition is still categorized as “serious” with a Global Hunger Index of 33.4. In recent years, the Ethiopian government, in partnership with development partners and various donors, has devised the PSNP (Protective Safety Net Program) as a main food security program for addressing chronic food insecurity in the country since 2005. The objective of PSNP is to provide transfers to the food insecure population in 253 chronically food insecure woredas in a way that prevents asset depletion at household level, and creates assets at community level. Under the umbrella of the Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP), the Agricultural Growth Program (AGP) has been initiated in four regions of Ethiopia viz., Amhara, Oromia, SNNPR, and Tigray. The goal of AGP is to boost agricultural growth and productivity in high potential areas in a sustainable manner. AGP Phase I was implemented between 2010 and 2014, and phase II was launched in 2015. In Ethiopia, the SLM (Sustainable Land Management) Program, started as a project in 2009, emphasizes the scaling up of successful practices, approaches and technologies to prevent or control land degradation by pursuing integrated and cross-sectoral approaches to sustainable land management. The main objective of the SLM program is to provide assistance to smallholder farmers to adopt sustainable land management practices on a wider scale. The three programs fall within the remit of the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources and their outcomes therefore contribute towards attaining the Ministry’s vision and objectives. They appear to be complementary when it comes to attaining food security. This is because PSNP is the nation’s core food security program; reversing land degradation and improving productivity and thereby raising the income of farmers is the core aim of SLM; and the aim of AGP is to increase agricultural productivity in order to raise the incomes and improve food security for farm households. Hence, on the basis of field data generated from some woredas in Amhara region, the main objective of this paper is to explore the convergence of the three programs with regard to improving livelihoods and food security at both community and household levels. The paper also looks at various political economy factors that affect the implementations and successes of each program.
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DOES FOREIGN AID HELP TO IMPROVE EXPORT ORIENTATION IN ETHIOPIA? [Abstract ID: 0309-01]
Ethiopia is a major recipient of foreign aid, especially since the introduction of the policy changes in 1992. This has been used to raise government expenditure on various productive activities, which either contribute directly to increasing the country’s economic growth (accelerator) and/or to the development of services (multiplier). I view the ongoing efforts by the government on both facets, using aid as an additional resource, as contributing to improved economic growth, though in different ways. Some aid goes purely to development and contributes to the economic progress of the country or its people. Some is strategic and comes with political or economic conditions tied to it, for example imposing certain restrictions if aid is to be disbursed or to continue. This strategy affects the development of the country. The central proposition of this paper is that Ethiopia should start to think critically and analytically about the strategic agenda of donors, and take the economic and political interests of the country into account when responding to aid conditions. Aid dependency should be reduced not because of donors, but because such dependence on foreign aid could substantially affect the country’s macroeconomic performance, for example impairing Ethiopia’s export sector, and could derail the country’s export-oriented development strategy. To back up these policy conclusions, I estimate the relationship between foreign aid (ODA), exchange rates and non-traditional exports using a time series data.
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KNOWLEDGE COPRODUCTION & FOOD SECURITY RESEARCH [Abstract ID: 0309-04]
Macro-level quantitative data based upon externally defined indicators of food (in)security are available for many areas of the world. This presentation will analyse the knowledge coproduction processes and outcomes of a research project that brought together community members in southern Ethiopia to re-define the indicators and stages of food (in)security based on their lived experiences, in order to enhance knowledge about food (in)security with micro-level qualitative data. Although significant resources and investments have been made in order to reduce vulnerabilities and expand livelihood options in rural areas, smallholder households continue to experience chronic poverty and food insecurity. In addition to analysing food (in)security, this knowledge coproduction approach sought to investigate why smallholder farmers do not adopt advocated agricultural changes, particularly within the context of their experiences of vulnerabilities to food insecurity. These findings were used to assess the appropriateness and suitability of services being offered to smallholder households. The results indicate that services need to be re-aligned and better tailored as the most vulnerable to food insecurity and/or those experiencing chronic food insecurity are being excluded from a number of existing supports. These in-depth community-level analyses shed light on how policies and programs, often designed at the national-level, may not be appropriately addressing the needs, vulnerabilities and strengths of smallholder farmers.
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MECHANISMS OF DEVELOPMENT AID NEGOTIATION [Abstract ID: 0309-03]
In the context of my PhD research on the capacity and specificities of the Ethiopian State to negotiate for development aid, I wish to present my findings about the formal aid processes in place in Ethiopia, pertaining to negotiation and program implementation relations between donors and relevant state representatives. In this presentation, I will look at approach strategies, aid negotiation and early stages of program implementation and monitoring. I shed light on the set up of state organs to attract, channel and manage donor support, focusing on coordinating and implementing Ethiopian ministries. I look at guidelines, agreements, rules, and customs relating to aid in Ethiopia and produced by the Ethiopian State as well as by donors in a global context of development aid partnerships. I introduce data gathered from participants to the aid sector, including some of the expectations of each party to the aid agreements and some of the stakes at play. In conclusion, I present some of the political and pragmatic shortcomings that were perceived while conducting interviews with both parties in Addis-Ababa.