UNITED NATIONS  DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME Emergencies Unit for Ethiopia

The Need for Alternatives

Ethiopia’s Afar region - like the Somali and other lowland areas - is one of the most impoverished zones in one of the world’s poorest countries. Its history of chronic conflict, instability, and inaccessibility has contributed substantially to the neglect and underdevelopment that persist to the present day. Past attempts to engage the Afar people in development schemes have often been disappointing, leaving little in the way of enduring improvement. Visions of development expounded by others have been neither beneficial nor attractive to the Afar, but the Afar themselves have equally failed to produce an alternative. Like other lowland areas with nomadic or semi-nomadic populations, the Afar region requires a different approach from other parts of Ethiopia: its climate, ecosystems, social and cultural norms, all point to the need for contextually appropriate, culturally relevant development strategies.

Ethiopia’s new policy of ethnic federalism opens an unprecedented opportunity to the Afar people to leave behind the chronic instability, economic stagnation, and neglect that have characterised the region’s past. The Ethiopia’s Afar population is today consolidated for the first time within a single province with autonomous powers of self-government. Still, change that benefits the majority of Afars is far from assured. Failure to seize this opportunity will certainly mean only more of the same, together with the increasing marginalisation and irrelevance of the Afar people at the national and international level. Such conditions are a laboratory for conflict.

This paper will attempt to describe, briefly, the challenges to development in the Afar National Regional State and a possible strategy for UNICEF engagement in that region. Despite this paper’s present limited scope, it is hoped that such an approach might also form the basis for development strategies in other regions, like the Somali, which have shared problems and shared potential
 

Challenges to Development

Administrative stability and capacity

A major constraint to development of the region has been chronic instability and the absence of an effective administration. After several years of gross mismanagement under previous regimes, the new regional government gives cause for optimism that the next few years may see real progress. Already, considerable emphasis is being placed on the "Afarisation" of social services - the training and employment of Afar personnel in posts previously held by members of other ethnic groups. This has yet to be articulated in a clear policy orientation, however, and is not uniformly reflected throughout the various bureaux. Another critical problem yet to be overcome is what the government refers to as lack of "capacity:" the dearth of trained, educated Afars and the lack of resources for them to function at their full potential. Such basics as stationery and typewriters are in short supply, and more expensive equipment like vehicles and radios are in high demand.

While capacity building is undoubtedly a real need for the region, the policy context and orientations in the service of which this capacity is supposed to be put to use remain vague. Some bureaux lack even the skills to formulate coherent sectoral development plans, and have resorted to earlier, inappropriate models. Although concrete institutional capacity building measures at operational and administrative levels is the point of departure for strengthening regional government, support to the administration in policy development is also essential in order to ensure that energies and resources be channelled in appropriate and positive directions.
 

Pastoralism

State systems in the Horn of Africa have tended to marginalise pastoralists and attempt to either to transform them or to exclude them entirely from the state political apparatus and economy. The underdevelopment of the Afar region today is striking testimony to such policies. At least 80% of the Afar population relies on transhumant animal husbandry for subsistence, while a minority have settled along the banks of the Awash river, or have adopted a sedentary existence in communities along major transport routes. Sedentarisation, however, is not an option for the vast majority of the population. Like other nomadic communities, Afar pastoralism has evolved in response to hostile environmental conditions and the fragility of the local ecosystem, which renders other modes of existence impracticable, since they may disturb the environment’s delicate equilibrium. Overdevelopment of one aspect of the system may encourage depletion of others: expansion of water resources typically encourages overgrazing; inappropriate cultivation techniques can lead to rapid soil salinisation and infertility. This fragility of arid and semi-arid ecosystems thus dictates a culturally and ecologically adapted approach to development. One key proposed area of programme focus, therefore, concerns the study and promotion of pastoral modes of life, and the reconciliation of nomadism with the needs of a modern administration.

Inaccessibility

The Afar people inhabit some of the most arid and environmentally hostile territory of the Horn of Africa. Only the Awash valley and the forested highlands of northern Djibouti offer respite from an otherwise rocky and arid terrain. Out of necessity, the Afar have evolved a highly adapted mode of transhumant pastoralism, which is probably the most efficient (and perhaps only) sustainable form of land use in such a barren environment. In times of drought, the fertile pastures along the Awash river provide some security as an alternate source of water and grazing.

With an average annual rainfall of less than 200 mm in some areas, and summer temperatures exceeding 48ºC, large tracts of the Afar region are virtually uninhabitable by those who are not acclimatised. Volcanic, rock-strewn desert, sharp contours, and the absence of any surface transport routes severely restricts access by vehicle. For the time being, travel on foot with pack animals - donkeys or camels - is the only way to reach much of the region.

Access to the majority of the Afar population is therefore problematic, but can be roughly divided into three categories: the population of the Awash valley and along major transport axes; semi-nomadic populations with restricted migratory patterns; nomadic, highly mobile populations unassociated with the Awash or transport routes. These groups are, respectively, increasingly inaccessible, and will require discrete approaches for engagement in programme activities.

Sustainability

All of Ethiopia’s regions receive the vast majority of their budgets through transfer payments from the federal government. Afar region, like the Somali region, generates very little local revenue, even in comparison with other Ethiopian states. One challenge faced by social service programmes, in accordance with Ethiopian national policy, is to therefore find a way for services to pay for themselves, or at least, in the short term, to defray some of their costs. Expansion of services from their present level to one where the majority of the population has access, is probably beyond present budgetary parameters. Any new programmes should therefore consider cost recovery measures, fee for services, and integrated service delivery among the alternatives.
 

Proposed Strategy

Institutional Capacity-Building, Planning, and Policy Development

As long as the administration remains so institutionally weak, it will remain handicapped by limited capacity at all levels and a finite absorptive potential for funding and material support. There exists an immediate need for instruction and support in administrative tasks and procedures, as well as for technical training and certification of staff involved in delivery of various social service sectors (e.g. health workers, educators, veterinary scouts etc.). Training programmes must take into account that, despite the present dearth of skilled human resources, ceilings on employment in both the private and public sector are very low and will probably remain so for some time. Investment in the training of personnel who will be obliged to search for jobs in other regions, or who will simply add to the length of the administration’s bureaucratic payroll, will be ultimately counterproductive. The numbers and types of staff to be trained should therefore be carefully reviewed in advance together with the regionl government.

Possible institutional capacity-building activities include:

• Direct training of personnel in regional, zonal and, where appropriate, woreda governments;
• Workshops, seminars and consultation with managerial staff on aspects of general administration, personnel, and financial management;
• Offer subsidies / scholarships in support of advanced training of personnel in key sectors (i.e. health, veterinary, sanitation, education etc.).

 Training of key members of Bureaux at all levels in planning and policy-making;

• Collaboration with the regional administration on development of relevant, specifically adapted sectoral strategies for engagement of nomadic and semi-nomadic Afar communities;
• Technical co-operation and exchange between UNICEF programmes within Ethiopia, and from other countries of the IGADD sub-region e.g. consultation with national and international experts experienced in programming among pastoral communities (esp. Afar of Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Eritrea);
• Establishment of a resource or data base concerning pastoralist-oriented projects (governmental, non-governmental, and UN) within the Horn of Africa and Sahel; development of working level linkages between these projects and the Afar regional government.

Given the various constraints on the regional administration, institutional capacity-building can be expected to have only a very limited impact, even in the long term, on the lives of most Afar communities. While the government develops administrative capacity and explores various alternative development strategies, immediate, concrete results can also be realised through the pursuit of community-based service-delivery programmes oriented towards pastoralist groups. Such programmes will require collaboration with UN, NGO and community partners since government capacity will be too limited to expand services on a broad scale. These programmes might be seen as exploratory projects subject to ongoing, field level monitoring and evaluation, whose results will enable the government to observe and decide between alternative approaches to implementing development programmes in pastoralist communities.

With regard to accessibility, engagement with the Afar population could be described in three broad categories, as follows:

•  Sedentarised, stable or "urbanised" communities (i.e. Awash valley, main roads)
• Semi-nomadic rural communities
• Remote nomadic communities

Extending essential services to more remote rural communities will me more difficult and should probably take place in two phases: first to more stable, accessible groups, and later to more isolated, migratory communities.

The first step beyond the major towns could then be the identification of relatively settled pastoral and agro-pastoral groups with restricted migratory patterns. Among these will be groups whose routine movements include seasonal grazing in the Awash valley and along the main road, where punctual vaccination campaigns for humans and livestock, together with short term health education and health care might be possible. Participatory Rural Appraisals (PRA) would help to identify major needs, to establish how members of the community might receive basic skills training (as CHWs, TBAs, literacy teachers, vet scouts etc.), and whether static or mobile service delivery would be better suited to the community’s needs.

Other relatively stable communities include those where permanent water sources and sufficient grazing permit the human and livestock population to remain in a relatively restricted and well-defined geographic area. In such circumstances, long-range migration becomes unnecessary and in times of distress, other communities may send families and livestock to these areas for water and pasture (examples include the communities living in the Imino Valley and at the southern end of Lake Afxeera). Access to some of these groups may be difficult or impossible by vehicle, but their restricted movements allow more or less static training and service delivery programmes, and may permit programme staff to remain and work with the groups for extended periods. One way to overcome this problem would be to establish permanent, semi-permanent or seasonal project bases in a few select areas (depending on local conditions), initially among these more accessible semi-nomadic groups with whom consultation and collaboration would be easier to maintain. Sites should be only selected following initial consultations with these communities, during which they would describe the kind of programme they would like to establish.

While evaluating and programming progresses with these communities, possibilities for outreach to more remote, nomadic groups could also be explored. Isolated pastoralist communities will be harder to reach, particularly those who do not routinely visit the Awash valley or come close to the main road. Furthermore, their migratory habits will make it difficult for programme staff to remain with them for extended periods and will also severely limit the utility of static structures for either training or service delivery.
 

Adaptation of Programmes to Pastoral Communities: Project Design

Since no single model exists for engagement of Afar or other pastoral groups, it is impracticable to propose a comprehensive project design at this early stage. It is possible, however to articulate some general principles pertaining to the process of project design: a gradual, phased approach; monitoring and evaluation of diverse exploratory programme strategies employed by government, UN and NGOs; technical co-operation with other pastoralist-oriented projects; cultural and social relevance; dependence on Afar personnel, particularly from within target communities.
 

The first phase of the programme could include:

• Capacity building within the regional administration, including planning policy development
• Upgrading of existing services in accessible areas
• Exploratory discussions with select semi-nomadic communities and/or nomadic groups whose seasonal migratory patterns bring them to easily accessible areas (i.e. Awash valley)
• Support and participatory evaluation in existing initiatives by organisations engaged in projects with Afar communities (i.e. Afar Relief Association, HealthNet, Afar Aid, Denis Gerard / Ali Abdalla Trust etc.)
• Networking with projects /programmes in countries of the Horn and Sahel concerned with pastoralist communities (i.e. UNICEF Djibouti & Somalia, Farm Africa, Health Unlimited, PENHA, ILRI, SERP etc.)

• Prioritisation / selection between the various exploratory programme techniques
• Training of rural Afar staff in target communities as appropriate
• Selection of Afar staff for further education as appropriate
• Phased expansion to more remote nomadic communities

Cost efficiency and cost recovery

Although community participation and "ownership" of programmes has become a universal tenet of development work, the extreme circumstances of the Afar region and society render this principle all the more critical. Only the full engagement and investment of target communities from the beginning can ensure the endurance of any programme in Afar areas, partly because conditions are so adverse that non-Afar programme staff and even many "citified" Afar - who are generally no longer acclimatised to the difficult nomadic lifestyle - are unable to perform in the field for extended periods. Programmes that fail to be relevant in Afar perceptions or to otherwise meet with full acceptance will also suffer from lack of commitment and will eventually wither since Afar communities generally have little time or resources to spare for any activities but those considered truly essential.

Extension of services to rural communities will therefore require more than a token investment from "beneficiaries." Given the near-total lack of regional government revenue, sustainability of the programme must ultimately be underwritten by its financial independence and viability - implying local contributions towards the programme. Whether this best takes the form of cash, labour, livestock or some combination will depend on the nature of the programme and the micro-economy of the community involved. In any event, this will need to be worked out together with the community.

A programme intended to address the primary problems of Afar communities will naturally include access to water, health and hygiene, nutrition, and education. The interrelationship of these problems dictates that responses be as comprehensive and integrated as possible. Small, migratory groups will be quickly overwhelmed by parallel attempts to introduce multifarious "development" activities like education, health, hygiene, veterinary etc. Modest interventions that incorporate complementary activities (i.e. educational programmes including essential health and hygiene topics; simultaneous human and animal vaccination) might be easier for communities to digest.

The problems of physical access to these communities will also increase in direct proportion to the extent that they depend upon of external direction and support. The sooner and the more thoroughly they can become "community-based" in terms of staff and resources, the more likely they will endure beyond the period of an external agency’s direct participation. Upon withdrawal of UN or NGO support, government responsibilities for the programme would remain essentially supervisory and regulatory: a more realistic expectation for the foreseeable future than counting on comprehensive management and support from an embryonic administration with meagre human and financial resources.

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Note:
For relevant background information concerning Ethiopia’s Afar region, refer to Situation Report on Region 2 (Afar National Regional State)(UNDP/EUE: Matt Bryden, January1996). Pertinent considerations for a strategy of engagement in the Somali region may be found in the draft document Peace, Stability and Development: A Rehabilitation and Development Strategy for Somali Regions of the Horn of Africa (UNDP/EUE: 1995)
 
 

DISCLAIMER

The designations employed and the presentation of material in this document do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever of the UN concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.