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Situated on Africa's eastern peninsula, Ethiopia — with a history that dates back 3,000 years — is one of the world's oldest civilizations. It is one of only two African nations that were never colonized (the other is Liberia). Today, it is the continent's second-most populous nation and home to the headquarters of the African Union.
Ethiopia's agricultural economy is vulnerable to frequent drought and poor cultivation practices. Scarce resources, religious conflict and disputed tribal boundaries threaten peaceful progress in the south. Mercy Corps is helping rural herders build better lives; we're showing them how to improve the resilience of their livestock to drought and disease and develop new sources of income. We're also helping defuse conflicts before they turn violent by providing training in conflict mediation, facilitation and negotiation to assist hundreds of Ethiopians to peacefully negotiate their differences.
Agricultural and Pastoral Preservation
The Somali Region is one of the most vulnerable in Ethiopia, with natural and human-made disasters and the market crisis all disrupting the economy and severely threatening food security and livelihoods. The failure of three consecutive seasonal rains since the middle of April 2007, compounded by steadily increasing grain prices since 2005, has gradually depleted the resilience of people in this region.
For pastoralists who already are cut off from their normal trading routes and migration patterns due to conflict and trade restrictions, the recent drought – combined with the effects of rising food prices – will have devastating consequences. Because pasture and water remain scarce despite recently improved rains, and internal movement remains difficult, the livestock/food security situation will become critical. Through an innovative three-year USAID/ OFDA-funded program called Revitalizing Agricultural/Pastoral Incomes and New Markets, or RAIN, Mercy Corps is addressing the key underlying causes of the food price crisis in priority districts of Ethiopia. We are working in areas where the program has the greatest potential for sustainable impact. Designed from the bottom up, in partnership with local communities and government, the RAIN project is ideally placed to increase local resilience to food security shocks by empowering pastoral, ex-pastoral, agro-pastoral and marginal farming households to increase their productivity, economic activity and income generation.
The RAIN project protects vulnerable and food-insecure households, improves preparedness and prevents food insecurity through strengthened and diversified livelihoods. It promotes efficient market-based business, local economic development and economic integration. All together, RAIN will benefit nearly 683,000 people – 30,000 of whom are internally displaced persons. RAIN protects, promotes and diversifies livelihoods in a strategic cluster of connected districts in the Somali Region and East Hararghe. Our goal is to increase households’ resilience to shocks within three years. We are helping food-insecure households protect their agricultural and pastoral productive asset base and preparing them for participation in more profitable markets. And, we are helping these households increase and diversify their asset base via immediate economic opportunities and the development of high-impact agriculture and non-agricultural markets that spur private sector investment and local economic growth.
Following are the key RAIN program activities:
Cash for Work: Cash-for-work initiatives infuse cash into local economies and rebuild vital infrastructure. Through RAIN, local laborers are working on erosion control, enclosing communal land to allow the regrowth of rangeland. They’re also working to remove invasive species so that pastureland can be restored to a healthy, productive condition for growing animal fodder and native grasses.
Communities Managing Rangeland: RAIN works with targeted pastoral and agro-pastoral communities to develop rangeland management plans so that communally owned land is sustainably managed for the benefit of all. Training Animal Health Workers and Treating Livestock: In areas where veterinary care is unavailable or insufficient, RAIN teaches animal health workers about disease diagnosis, transmission, prevention and medications, and about cost recovery systems and financial reporting. The program also provides treatment and vaccines to livestock as needed.
Agribusiness Training for Vendors: RAIN provides seed and tool vendors with comprehensive training in seed varieties and certification, the use of fertilizers and insecticides and business management. Program graduates are eligible to apply for startup capital so they can put their new business skills to work.
Enhance Market Linkages and Private Sector Investment: We are encouraging private investments in value chain development and will build direct relations between businesses and producers, processors, and government offices.
Conflict Prevention and Resolution
In Ethiopia's relatively new political system, ethnicity can be the most important determining factor in the process of state formation. Internal conflicts between the country's more than six dozen ethnic groups can arise quickly over such matters as disputed borders and competition for scarce resources.
The country's limited resources are being further stretched as 200,000 Ethiopian refugees who were displaced by violence and had been residing in Sudan gradually repatriate. It is essential to stabilize conditions for these people as they return home. Mercy Corps is distributing non-food essentials such as blankets, seeds and agricultural tools to help 15,000 people successfully re-establish their lives in Ethiopia. We continue to equip influential locals, including village elders and government leaders, with the training, tools and forums they need — such as negotiation, dialogue and mediation skills and public outreach campaigns — to better address and defuse disagreements over resource allocation.
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