Samuel Larsson's blog

LWF Ethiopia started the new year with a workshop for all program and finance staff. After the Ethiopian Christmas on January 7, some 50 staff members from all filed offices came together in Addis Abeba for three days. It was great to meet everyone, have time to talk and exchange ideas. Among other issues, the classic problem of making finance and program units walk hand in hand were addressed constructively. This effort will hopefully improve LWF Ethiopia’s reporting procedures in the future. Also, the recent introduction of a new PME officer – Endeshaw Mulatu – promises improved reporting.

Other areas covered were communication, finance management, climate change, IT and community participation. The workshop ended with one full day of qualified leadership training for managers and program coordinators.

The interesting thing about this workshop was that not one single external expert or consultant was engaged. Three days of qualified knowledge sharing was covered by internal capacities only. The LWF Ethiopia staff possesses great capacities and skills, and the future method in our staff capacity development efforts will be to make better use of them. Each staff member is encouraged to share what s/he has, and receive what others have. Breaking the internal “skills isolation” and update each other on our respectively areas of expertise will definitely make us a more productive and efficient team. And allow us to build more capacity with less recourses.

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"There will be no snow in Africa this Christmas"

Listening to one of the most known Christmas AND heal-the-world-songs ever recorded I don’t know if I shall laugh or cry.

Do They Know It’s Christmas?, written by Bob Geldof and performed by Band Aid in the 80s, is one long negative advertisement for Africa and its peoples. Being the fund raising idea of the time, the song may be forgiven. But who came up with the idea to re-record it a few years ago? And why is Bono among the famous British singers hired for the project? He should definitely know better.

In communications there is a term called place branding. It is the idea that a place, country or even a continent can be explained to people – advertised – in different ways, giving people different images of that place that influence their mindsets and actions. And in the long run hence also impact the place itself.

And the way Africa is presented in the song – a harsh place without water and agricultural future, with crying helpless people under a fierce sun – I’m sorry to say, is not helping Africa’s case much.

I mean, who is tempted to invest in a continent where “nothing ever grows, no rain nor rivers flow”? And how can you start to believe in a self reliant, dignified and shriving African continent if you are only encouraged to “give a little help to the helpless” that live in “a world of dread and fear […] underneath that burning sun”?

Devastating place branding, that is. And, I’m again sorry to say, that is the image of Africa we have been fed with for a long time, not only by Band Aid: A helpless, needy and passive people. Dwelling on dry, infertile lands. A hopeless future. “Feed the world” has been the call because the only thing we really can do to keep “them” alive is to deliver more food aid. (Then at least the poor hungry people will “know it is Christmas time”!).

Most off you know this is all rubbish. Of course here are needs and problems, but also peoples with strong visions about the future, and enough fertile lands to feed the entire population. What has not been here in the past is a fair opportunity to build on these rich resources.

I think that the only relevant question raised in the lyrics is “if the table was turned would you survive?” recognizing the often very difficult circumstances under which many people live in Ethiopia and elsewhere in Africa. And not only live, but hold their heads high with pride!

So let’s leave that kind of degrading fund raising ideas behind, and start to look upon Africa as a continent of hard work, dignity and with prospects of a bright future. And realize the moral and legal responsibilities of the rich world towards a people with capacities to change their own future.

…but it is a catchy song. You can listen to it here (but please ignore the silly lyrics)

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Recent voices from the LWF assisted communities:

Asked about what improvements LWF Ethiopia’s intervention have brought about, farmers in Abaya shared that they nowadays “are not just storytellers about what have happened elsewhere, but witnesses of our own potentials.”
They used to hear over the radio about harvests produced elsewhere. Harvests of 40 to 60 bags of maize per hectare. In Abaya, the average harvest gave about four to five bags per hectare.
But that was before LWF introduced improved seeds and started to teach modern agriculture technologies: “What we only used to hear about, we are now doing ourselves. The project has made us winners!”

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In response to the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Ethiopia, members of ACT International in Ethiopia (ACT Ethiopia Forum, AEF) have issued an appeal covering 70,000 people. The appeal target is USD 3,254,386 for three months.
LWF Ethiopia is one of the implementing agencies, requesting 257,596 to reach 7,000 people in Goro and Dawe Kachen with humanitarian assistance.
The total population in need of humanitraian assistance in Ethiopia during the fourth quarter was recently estimated to be 6,2 million.

You can download the whole appeal here: Response to Drought (AFET 91).

Please note that the appeal is still pending, and is not officially published by ACT head office in Geneva.

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No more Countdown to Copenhagen – the UN climate change summit has started. Africa accounts for just 3,7% of the total CO2-emissions, but for millions of Africans the effects of climate change are not just a future threat, but today’s harsh reality. While waiting for the outcome of the summit, let us share an example of how LWF Ethiopia is working to mitigate the effects of a changed climate.

Drought preparedness in Dawe Kachen
In Dawe Kachen the effects of a changed climate is evident. Drought has increased, rainfall has decreased, and a large proportion of the pastoralists’ livestock has died. Recurrent and intensified droughts have led to environmental degradation, notably the depletion of natural resources. Acute and chronic food and water shortages plague the communities. Funded by DanChurchAid and EU, LWF Ethiopia implements a project in Dawe Kachen that aims to strengthen people’s capacity to prepare for drought, to develop water resources for use in time of drought, and to improve livestock health.

Dawe Kachen's next generation are now better equipped to meet future challenges. Photo: LWF/M. Ölund

Preparing for the future
Climate change will most likely lead to further deteriorated living conditions in drought prone regions as Dawe Kachen. People who already are suffering from drought will suffer more in the future. The changing weather will not necessarily go along with reduced average amount of rain, but with more irregular rainfall patterns: short downpours combined with long-lasting droughts. Therefore, it is essential to make maximum use of the rain water by storing it for periods of droughts. Hence, rainwater harvesting is a key part of the LWF project. The water is “harvested” from larger areas surrounding the ponds (called catchment areas) which normally are established in small depressions, so that the water can run into the ponds by gravity. The project has constructed three large ponds with the total capacity of 68,000m3 (68 million liters). Ponds are traditional methods of saving water in the area but since droughts have become more frequent and severe, larger ponds are needed to store water for longer periods of time. The construction of the ponds will mean that water is available during the dry periods and make it possible for the communities to stay in the area instead of migrating to other areas. Grasses and shrubs were planted around the pond catchments areas to stabilise the soil and minimise soil erosion. The grasses and shrubs can also be used as animal fodder. Additionally, rainwater is harvested from the roofs of schools and health facilities and stored in reservoirs. The water will be used for human consumption and for livestock in prolonged dry periods.

Mitigating an unfair burden
In pastoralist communities, women normally spend more than 14 hours a day engaging in household work. The gender division of labor in pastoral areas is unequally distributed due to cultural norms. The additional burdens facing families during periods of drought fall more heavily on women than on men. The recurrent droughts have increased their workloads with most women having to walk to far off rivers to fetch water. At the same time they have fewer pack animals, to help them carry the load, since most of their camels and donkeys have died. Pond construction reduces their workload, since rain water is harvested and is available for human use and their livestock.

An edited version of the text was recently published by ACT International in a book about best practices to meet climate change challenges.

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Abaya, a small district nestled in the dramatic mountainous landscape in southern Ethiopia, is home to rural and chronic food insecure communities. The people living on the steep hillsides till their land and manage their cattle as they have done for ages, and labor division between men and women follows traditional patterns. With a high workload and low access to resources and influence, women depend heavily on their men. But following LWF Ethiopia’s community development project in the area, things are changing.

Learning to write. Lemlem, 7, is one of the 220 girls out of 500 children now attending primary school in this part of Abaya district.

We are sitting in the local women’s saving and credit cooperation’s new small mud house. The community leaders are there, as well as so many of the villagers there is room for. The rest stands outside in the fierce sun. Inside it is dark and cool. Children, hens and an occasional goat run in and out. Berhanu Boniya is a local farmer, and he shares with us the changes the LWF project has brought to the area: agricultural improvements and the enhanced food situation for his family that followed. Suddenly he begins to talk about changed attitudes towards women:

- Traditionally we discriminated women. We saw them as inferior, but that have changed.

I ask if he can give an example of how the changed attitudes show.

- Look around, he says. They are sitting here with us, sharing ideas and opinions.

Half of the group is women, and some of them are pregnant. Gidi Berhanu will soon have her sixth child, and says that nowadays the birth attendants wear gloves and use clean tools during labor. I ask the group of women if they are happy with the improved services of the birth attendants. From one of the room’s dark corners a man suddenly interrupts:

- Not only the women are happy with the attendants’ new skills. We men are also happy, he says and shares the story of how he almost lost his wife and unborn child after an accident. A trained birth attendant could however see that the child was injured and referred his wife the far distance to a hospital where her and the child’s lives were saved. I now have a strong son, he concludes.

Except from train birth attendants and raise the community’s awareness on equality, LWF have also addressed the women’s domestic situation in several ways in Abaya. New fuel saving stoves reduce women’s workload and save time. Spring developments now give access to clean potable water on a five minutes distance instead of three kilometers one way to fetch dirty river water. Saving and credit cooperations give poor widows an income and social status.

- I was poor, but now I am rich, tells widowed Dararu Goditi. With a credit from the project she bought a cow, which she is now fattening and she plans to sell it for twice the price. With the remaining part of the credit she opened a small shop where she sells injera (local food) and fruit.

- I have been able to hire someone to take care of the cow. Thanks to god there has been a change!

Maybe the most prominent change is found in the communities’ attitude against girls’ education. Visiting one of the primary schools built by the project, the result of an ambitious campaign on girls’ education become evident. Out of the 500 newly enrolled children, 220 are girls. Traditionally very few girls enroll in school due to parents’ hesitance to refrain from the much needed domestic work force.

- Mathematics and Oromo (the local language) are my favorite subjects, reveals Lemlem, 7, who now have a few minutes’ walk to school. Before it was five kilometers, and her parents didn’t let her go.

Leaving the village, we meet a group of adolescent boys on their way to fetch water carrying jerricans on their heads. Traditionally being a task carried out by women and girls only, this group of boys might be an evidence that attitudes in Abaya have changed.

By: Samuel Larsson/LWF

Feel free to use this article, but credit LWF Ethiopia and/or the author. Photos available.

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LWF Ethiopia conducted an assessment of the psychosocial needs of the refugees in Teferi Ber/Awbare camp last week. The assessment is hopefully the starting point of a more focused and professional community based psychosocial work in the future.

Children in Teferi Ber/Awbare refugee camp. Their wellbeing is in focus when designing community based psychosocial activities.

LWF has been involved in refugee assistance in Awbare since 2007, and the first phase of the refugee program funded by Church of Sweden comes to an end in December 2009. During that period, LWF has been implementing water development and environmental activities. It has also done some community services, such as popular trainings and organized sport activities. In 2010 LWF hopes to raise its profile in this area and adopt a community based psychosocial approach. To avoid shooting in the dark, it was decided to conduct a psychosocial assessment to use as a baseline in the planning for 2010.

The assessment showed considerable gaps. Children were encouraged to “forget about the past”, and weren’t allowed to debrief and defuse past experiences of war and violence. Further, some 100 children live in the camp without any family support, and rape was reported a problem. LWF now manage to deliver enough clean water to the camp, but food rations were considered too small, and malnutrition widespread.

Some strengths were also reported, such as the religious life is without restrictions. Customs and rituals can be conducted in a traditional way, and mosques are enough in number. Many NGOs also make use of the capacities found in the refugee community in their work, and some vulnerable groups are organized in associations, such as women and physically disabled. These are strong positive factors helping the community to cope with past experiences and speed up a return to normal.

A community based psychosocial approach to humanitarian assistance is basically the belief that that most people need only their community’s care and support to maintain psychosocial wellbeing, and activities should aim at strengthening the community’s capacity instead of treating individuals (i.e. counseling, etc).

Link to more information about a community based psychosocial approach.

Link to a short version of the assessment report.

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Yesterday the drought was the problem. Today it is the flooding – and the drought.

Reuters Alertnet published an article about the heavy rains that hit East Africa recently. Heavy rain after a period of drought adds to the problem rather than solves it. Destroyed infrastructure and agricultural production, escalated food prices, increased prevalence of malaria and pneumonia are among the expected results.

From the article:
“Heavy rain from the El Nino weather system has started to flood parts of east Africa and over the next few weeks will inflict more misery on an area already struggling with the worst drought in a decade. Thousands of people in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia have fled the flooding, and aid agencies are preparing to evacuate hundreds of thousands more when further rain pours down on the hard, sun-baked ground.”

Link to the article.

See also Reuters Alertnet’s Climate change page.

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ACT Ethiopia Forum recently issued a statement as a response to Ethiopia’s deteriorating food security situation and increasing food aid requirement. LWF Ethiopia is part of the ACT Ethiopia Forum. See statement below.

Humanitarian Requirement Appeal for Ethiopia as per Oct. 22, 2009.

The Government of the F.D.R. of Ethiopia published a fresh humanitarian appeal on October 22, 2009. This appeal is based on field surveys made in September and October.

Main findings identified in this report are:

1. Number of population in need of emergency assistance is 6.2 mill.
2. Total food aid requirement for the period Oct-Dec 09 is 346.915 MT (additional need to confirmed pledges is 159.410 MT, estim. to 121 mill USD).
3. Need for supplementary food is estimated to 11.000 MT (valued 8.9 mill USD).
4. Non-food item needs (health, nutr., water & sanit., agric and livestock) are estimated to USD 45 mill.

9 regions of the country are affected with the highest population in need are found in Somali (1.8 mill), Oromia (1.3), SNNP (1.06), Amhara (1.01) and Tigray (0.7 mill).

The State Minister H.E. Mitiku Kasa in his presentation statement said that ‘’- implementation will continue to be carried out by the concerned regional authorities and Non-governmental Organizations -‘’.

ACT Ethiopia, representing a number of international Church-based NGO’s, together with the two national members the EOC and EECMY represent a broad experience and capacity for humanitarian response. We are again prepared to respond to this severe situation affecting the peoples of Ethiopia.

ACT Ethiopia is therefore appealing to our head offices, national organizations, churches and governments to make resources available for an immediate response to this humanitarian need in Ethiopia.

Read the government humanitarian appeal (pdf)

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It is World Food Day, and we’re supposed to focus our attention on the lives of people living in hunger. There are over one billion of them, as mentioned before. BBC reports about it, as do many others. Just google “World Food Day”.

The UN agency FAO “hosts” the day and its official web site. They also launched a hunger-web, FAO: Hunger, with more information and a interactive hunger map to learn more about world hunger. Note Ethiopia’s prevalence of undernourishment: 44%.

Anyway, in competition with all other awareness rising days (climate change, refugees, human rights, etc.), world hunger gets 15 minutes of fame the 16th of October every year, and is gone… (Almost)

But for LWF and other aid agencies working close to hunger all the time, this day is of course not very different to other days. Hunger is always there.

Ironically we just today had a meeting with one of our supporting agencies about a cut in pledged funds for one of our proposed projects by 80% (!). They regret it as much as we do, and they are not to blame. The financial crisis is part of their reality too. Agriculture development is identified as the answer to world hunger, and today we lost an opportunityto be part of that with full force. Not to speak of the opportunity lost for the people the project intended to assist…  And it is not just us, I know that everyone is struggling with budget cuts and lost opportunities these days, from the small local NGOs to the large global UN bodies.

With this background it is understandable that a good share of our time is consumed by fund raising. Discussions about who might have some little extra funds to support this or that is looming over the program all the time, and sharing concept notes and producing proposals is part of everyday life. Even on the World Food Day.

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