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OXFAM IN EthiopiaAnnual report 2012-13Working together for a Future without Poverty

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ContentsIntroductions 4Helping Livelihoods to thrive 5Clean water and sanitation 8Humanitarian response 11Adapting to climate change and building resilience 15 Budget Summary 18

Cover photo: Tom Pietrasik/Oxfam

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WELCOME NOTEThe past 12 months have seen a lot of changes at Oxfam in Ethiopia. We have a new way of working, a new country strategy designed to maximise our impact on addressing poverty, and numerous projects where we are already seeing a positive changes in the communities with which we serve.

In Ethiopia we want to do more than simply deliver services. We aim to be at the forefront of innovation, piloting new water systems and market linkages, promoting resilience to shocks, strength-ening agricultural extension systems, empowering women, and helping people to have sustainable livelihoods. Women living in poverty are at the heart of all we do. We work with others – communities, government, private sector, academics – to come up with the best solutions to poverty that can be scaled nationwide.

Ethiopia is a country of immense potential. Working together we aim to help communities realise that potential and build a future where everyone has access to essential services, a secure livelihood, and the opportunity to feed their families. I hope this report captures a few of the exciting things Oxfam and our partners have been doing in 2012-13, which we will continue to build on over the coming years.

Ayman Omer Country Director, Oxfam in Ethiopia

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INTRODUCTIONOxfam has been working in Ethiopia for over 30 years, supporting communities with long-term development and responding to humanitarian crises. One of Africa’s largest nations, Ethiopia is also one of its poorest and faces frequent shocks such as drought. Working in partnership with others, we aim to address the underlying causes of poverty and help build an equitable Ethiopia where people, particularly women and girls, are empowered to reach their full potential and become resilient to shocks and crises.

A new Oxfam strategy for Ethiopia:There are four Oxfam affiliates working in Ethiopia (Oxfam GB, Oxfam America, Oxfam Canada, and Intermon Oxfam). Previously, each affiliate worked in different areas of the country focusing on different issues. To make Oxfam’s work more strategic it was agreed to bring our work together under a Single Management Structure (SMS) with a joint country strategy. This will help us be more cost effective, efficient and have more impact. Oxfam’s new Ethiopia strategy came into effect in April 2012. It prioritises four key aims:

• Smallholderfarmersandpastoralistswillhavelivelihoodsthataredignified,secureandresilienttoclimate change and other shocks• DisadvantagedpeoplewillhaveimprovedaccesstoqualityWater,SanitationandHealth(WASH)

services, • Poorandvulnerablecommunitieswillbemoreresilienttodisaster,andwhenitdoesstriketheywillhave

access to timely and effective protection and assistance• Thelivesofwomenandgirls,particularlyinhighlydisadvantagedcommunitiesandregions,willbe

changed for the better by enabling them to have control of their future and make decisions that affect their lives

How we work:To achieve these goals Oxfam implements development and humanitarian programmes; we carry out research as well as promote improved national and global policies; we build the capacity of local organisations and institu-tions and; we work with a wide range of partners such as local NGOs, government bodies, academic centres and the private sector; and we work to ensure poor people have better access to markets. Women at the heart of all we do:Gender equality and empowering women are at the heart of all Oxfam’s values, policies and interventions. Women constitute 65 percent of the people we serve. All of our programmes aim to support women, but we also under-take specific work on girls’ education and women’s economic leadership. Where we work:Oxfam works in most of Ethiopia’s Regional States, but we focus particularly on areas that are poorest and least served by essential services, and which face frequent droughts and other crises.

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Helping livelihoods to thrive

Bayush Kassan a member of Assosa women’s cooperative, set up with support from Oxfam, which jointly owns and farms a plot of land where they growMaize

Photo: Tom Pietrasik/Oxfam

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Agriculture accounts for nearly half of Ethiopia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employs 83 percent of its workforce. Oxfam’s livelihoods programme aims to help smallholder farmers and pastoralists to increase productivity, link up with markets, withstand droughts and climatic variations and maximise their income. In particular we aim to increase women’s access to and control of resources, and their participation in decision-making.

Strengthening honey, coffee and sesame value chainsHoney production is a key source of income for many rural communities in Amhara region, but productiv-ity and profits are often low and traditional practices inefficient. Oxfam supports cooperatives and unions with better equipment and training in new techniques.

We help local producers sell through cooperatives so they can get the best price, and link them up with the private sector to sell their produce in local and global markets.

Partnering with research and academic institutions has enhanced the quality of produce. Since the project began in 2010 honey production in some areas has increased by up to four times. It has also brought social changes – previously beekeeping was a male-dominated profession, but Oxfam’s training has challenged stereotypes and enabled more women to take up production. As well as honey, Oxfam’s agricultural programme provides similar support to over 25,000 coffee and sesame producers.

“Oxfam is working to help rural farmers and pastoralists, especially women, to earn a better living. We enable people to earn more and to have a say in decisions that affect their lives. It is my dream to see an Ethiopia free from food aid. We’ve helped people start exporting crops directly to Europe. This is a transformation.”

– Mulu Tesfaye, Oxfam’s Agriculture Manager.

Tom Pietrasik/Oxfam

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Strengthening Ethiopia’s agricultural extension systemAn effective extension system is crucial for

agricultural development. Oxfam is partnering

with the Ministry of Agriculture to establish a

community-led management system for

Pastoralists and Farmers’ training centres (FTCs).

76 FTCs have been supported in 10 regions. The

system includes capacity building and support

for Development Agents, which has significantly

increased their motivation, and allows for

extension messages to be designed and

delivered based on the demands and feed-

back from small-scale producers. The system

promotes development and dissemination of

improved techniques to strengthen post-harvest

technologies, livestock management, and

beekeeping. The learning from the project has

informed extension policies and strategies.

Supporting pastoralistsAbout 10 million Ethiopians survive through pasto-ralism, yet many are affected by recurrent droughts and poor services. Oxfam supports pastoralists and agro-pastoralists in Somali and Oromia regions to build their resilience to shocks. The ECHO-funded “Regional Drought Decision IV” project has reached over 390,000 people in Ethiopia and Somaliland by rehabilitating communal grazing areas and strategic water points, and vaccinating 5 million sheep and goats against dis-ease. The project has also supported the development of rangeland management plans and pastoralist field

schools, and, given the frequent movement of pasto-ralists between Ethiopia and Somaliland, coordinates with communities and agencies across the border.

Oxfam also works to improve policies affecting pas-toralist communities. Oxfam is the country lead of the Regional Learning and Advocacy Project for Vulner-able Dryland Communities (REGLAP) – a consortium of NGOs which conducts policy research and documents good and bad practices affecting dryland livelihoods, including learning on Integrated Land Use Planning and the potential of irrigated crop agriculture.

Tom Pietrasik/Oxfam

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Clean water and sanitation

“We are working to ensure that people have safe drinking water. A simple step like jerry can washing campaign creates awareness for the people that the jerry cans collect germs when not cleaned properly.”- Habon Ali, Oxfam’s community mobiliser.

Shumon Alam/Oxfam

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One in three people in Ethiopia do not have access to safe water and sanitation. Oxfam is working in drought-prone and impoverished areas of Somali, Oromia, Amhara and Tigray regions to rehabilitate old water systems, improve management of limited resources, and ensure appropriate investment that will benefit communities. Improving access to water is key for increasing economic productivity and development. Smallholders need water resources for irrigation, livestock and supporting entrepreneurship.

Poor water supply leads to ill health which keeps children out of school and adults out of work. Oxfam’s Water, Sanitation and Health (WASH) strategy aims to promote joint investment, with government and

private sector providing services and communities trained to manage them.• Poorwaterandsanitationfacilitiesarea

major cause of Acute Watery Diarrhoea (AWD). To prevent and respond to outbreaks, Oxfam public health teams distributed 4,315 jerry-cans, 60,000 sachets of chemical water treatment, and organized numerous training sessions on AWD-prevention.• Womenareparticularlyaffectedbypoor

services, spending hours every day travelling to distant water points. In Adegelchat, women reported that Oxfam’s rehabilitation of a hand pump reduced the distance from safe water from 38.5 kilometers to 7.7kms.

Doubling water supply in Moyale In Moyale, in southern Ethiopia, the town’s old water

system has been unable to keep up with the needs

of the rapidly growing population, leading to frequent

water shortages. Many pipelines, tapstands and

boreholes ceased operating. Oxfam engineers have

been working with local authorities to upgrade the

system – now one borehole that used to provide 340

cubic meters of water a day provides 660. “Areas that

have not had a supply of clean water for over seven

years are now receiving water daily,” says Ato Ejigu

of the government water and sanitation office. The

town’s hospital is among those who have benefited:

“The hospital looks after 70-80 people daily, and

every day at least eight mothers give birth here.

We now enjoy a daily water supply – previously the

tanker wouldn’t even fill up during a week,” says the

hospital’s CEO.

A woman collects water from taps rehabilitated by OXFAM in Somali region. Photo: Pablo Tosco

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HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE

Road Building - Oxfam’s “cash for work” initiatives helped crisis affected families get money to purchase food, while also creating infrastructure to improve the communities’ resilience to the next drought – rehabilitating ponds, constructing roads, and digging irrigation trenches. About 10,000 families took part, while disabled and elderly unable to work received direct cash grants.

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Crispin Hughes/Oxfam

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Working with Women volunteers to improve health standardsOxfam worked with local women from Moyale in the southern region of Ethiopia, to change harmful sani-tation and hygiene practices, as well as help tackle some of the region’s public health challenges. This was done through a 10 month ECHO-funded project, which covered 19 kebeles (small administrative units), with the aim of training at least 65 women as community volunteers and health extension workers who would then pass on the knowledge to their communities.

In January 2013 two training sessions were conduct-ed for two days targeting 53 participants who were informed about environmental and personal hygiene, including prevention Acute Watery Diarrhoea (AWD) and other serious illnesses that remain a big risk to public health in the region. During the training some of the key issues that emerged was the challenges women face as a result of community’s traditional practices as well as resistance to change, especially when it comes to tackling AWD. “There are still a number of people who do not want to learn about health and sanitation because they still don’t believe in it,” says Tadit, who was selected for the training by her community because of her ability to influ-ence other women and her exhaustive knowledge of Borena culture and traditions.

It also emerged that cultural associations sometimes do influence people’s perceptions when it comes to health matters. A 35-year-old mother of eight chil-dren Abdiya Warabo, says. “Mothers in the community

tend to give soft drinks when a child experiences di-arrhoea. Without realising that they are actually put-ting the lives of their children at risk, they continue to give them soft drinks, yoghurt and even un-boiled milk.” However after the training, participants were more aware that such practices not only exasperate dehydration and but contribute to ill health. At the end of the training Abdiya promises on using what she learned to educate others, starting with her own family then moving on to share with other members of her community.

Oxfam believes that this training at community level will eventually bring behavioural change – and goes hand in hand with another Oxfam project that is improving people’s access to safe water. Together, the two projects should have an enormous posi-tive impact on public health in the region. While the project ended in May 2013 – Oxfam exits knowing that women like Tadia, Abdiya and Sadiya will be there to carry on the work.

Oxfam’s humanitarian teams respond quickly when disasters strike and provide life-saving aid to affected communities. We also aim to help communities become more resilient to shocks and disasters so that such responses are no longer necessary.

This year we supported over 300,000 people affected by drought and conflict in Borena, Moyale, Siti, Bale and Fafan zones, by trucking in clean water, reha-bilitating water systems, constructing sanitation facilities, and running “cash for work” programmes.

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We also provided water and sanitation for over 30,000 Somali refugees in the vast Dollo Ado camps.

Water and sanitation for people displaced by violence: In 2012 violent clashes broke out in northern Kenya and thousands of Kenyans fled their homes and crossed the border to Moyale. With the influx of people and open defecation, illnesses in-creased.

Oxfam built over 1000 latrines, carried out public health campaigns, and pumped clean water. Tatu Boru sheltered 32 displaced people in her own small house: “Every corner of the compound was full of people. Many children got sick out of nowhere.” Tato had two latrines installed at her house, and worked with Oxfam to spread health messages to the new arrivals.

Drought recovery initiatives: Many areas where Oxfam works continue to feel the impact of the 2011-12 drought and food crisis, which affected 4.5 million Ethiopians. In areas such as Bale and Tigray the emergency persisted until the end of 2012, with Oxfam continuing to provide life-saving water to affected communities. Oxfam supported 8,000 families in Bale, and east and south Tigray zones, by rehabilitating water infrastructure through “cash for work”.

Other areas saw improvements in the situation this year, but needed major support to recover from the crisis. Oxfam’s EFSL (Emergency Food Security and Livelihoods) team works to ensure people are less vulnerable to future drought. This includes training women in business skills, helping farmers get better access to commercial markets, and setting up grain banks and stores to preserve potatoes and hay.

Gender in emergencies: In humanitarian crises, women and girls are particularly at risk and Oxfam led a “Gender in Emergencies” initiative looking at how aid agencies can improve their responses to provide better quality support to these vulnerable groups.

Cash for work project enables communities create easy, less dangerous access to places where people living nearby are reached, have

access to markets more quickly and easily, and that other traders also have access to come to

their area which makes people less reliant on surviving solely on what their own family can

produce.

Crispin Hughes/Oxfam

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Helping refugees tackle disease: In Hilaweyn refugee camp, the crowded and basic conditions mean potentially fatal disease outbreaks are a real threat. Oxfam has trained refugees to become community mobilisers, helping raise awareness of good hygiene practices.

Sanitation innovation – a “zero water” latrineIn Dollo Ado, where water shortages and rocky soil make it difficult and expensive to dig latrines, Oxfam has designed and piloted a new model of latrine. The “UDDT” (Urine Diversion Dry Toilet) uses no water, making it ideal for arid locations. It also produces less waste and even generates fertiliser that refugees use to grow vegetables. Other agencies are now also us-ing the model and replicating it elsewhere. In addition Oxfam has also been at the forefront of humanitarian innovation, by piloting environmentally friendly toilets that use Tiger Worm to transform waste into manure.

Monitoring water points with mobile phonesOxfam conducted a pilot project on strategic water points monitoring using mobile phones for six months in Diredawa covering three districts- Ayisha, Hadigala and Shinile . The project funded by Nokia was initi-ated in November 2012, and 10 water points within the three districts were monitored by 10 community water committee members who are also in charge of operating as well as managing the hand pumps in their villages.

The 10 water committee members were trained and provided with Nokia smart phones that they used for data collection which they submitted to Oxfam office in Diredawa, and eventually the compiled informa-tion was sent to Oxfam’s office in Addis Ababa. The phones were configured with questions that guided the data collecting such as; number of people who used the water points to fetch water, number of livestock that drunk water from the water points, the status of water points, availability and condition of the boreholes and other nearby water facilities, prices , availability of rain, pasture, condition of the livestock etc. Based on this information from data collected it ensured that immediate response was available, for example if there is a damaged water reservoir, then timely maintenance will be provided in response to the information supplied.

Previously, staff and community members would have to travel long distances in order to do the monitoring, posing a huge time gap between actual observation and reporting, including the sharing of results since it took longer to analyse the data that was collected manually. But now, things have changed and the system is able to generate reports immediately fast tracking humanitarian responses. The mobile moni-toring has also reduced the mix up of information since the technology provides clear information in-cluding pictorial evidence that is incorporated during submission of data. Oxfam is now looking at scaling up this monitoring project further to the zonal level within districts like Afdem and Measo where there are huge number of pastoralist movement.

“The camp was overcrowded and people were defecating everywhere. We drank water from a source near where people defecated, which was also next to where we cooked. I volunteered to be a community mobiliser, so I could learn how to stop this happening. Since the training no one has died of diarrhoea. I’m proud of what we’ve achieved.” Habiba Mohamed Noor

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In the arid Shinile region of eastern Ethiopia, pastoralist communities are now using mobile phones to monitor water points and provide early warning of droughts before they strike. Every af-ternoon Ali taps in the latest data and instantly sends it to experts around the region.

“We used to write letters when things got bad. When communities saw warning signs of impending droughts they would hand deliver the letters to the nearest town, and it could take months before action was taken. The Oxfam mobile phones project is helping communities capture water data and send it instantly to responsible NGOs and government.”

Ali Mohamed from the arid Siti zone.

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Leake Borana and her husband Dechassa Boset, carrying cut corn home from their fields. The family uses the crop, which has performed very badly, mainly as fodder for the their three head of livestock.

Aubrey Wade/ Oxfam

Adapting to climate change and building resilience

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The impacts of climate change are strongly felt by smallholder farmers and pastoralists. Climate change also impacts people’s access to natural resources such as water and their susceptibility to disease or ability to feed their families. Oxfam aims to increase people’s resilience to severe weather shocks. Weather insurance:

The Horn of Africa Risk Transfer for Adaptation (HARITA) project involves risk reduction, weather-indexed crop insurance, and access to credit and savings for over 18,000 farming families in Tigray re-gion – and this year also expanded to Amhara, where changes in rainfall patterns have affected the normal cropping calendar and productivity and left farmers increasingly vulnerable. When the rains fail, farmers lose their crops – so the project enables them to take out insurance to cover potential losses.

If farmers don’t have the cash to pay for their insur-ance policies, they can pay through labour, working on infrastructure projects that benefit the wider com-munity. When there is a shortage of rain, the insur-ance companies pay out. In November 2012 farmers received 5.8 million Birr ($322,772) to cover some of their losses from poor rainfall. The payout – the second in the past four years – was shared between 12,000 farmers in 43 villages.

The project is being implemented in partnership with Relief Society of Tigray (REST), Swiss Re, the National Meteorology Agency, Ministry of Agriculture, and nu-merous micro-finance institutions, farmers’ coopera-tives and other organisations – began in one village

in 2009 and now extends to 76. Its success in Ethiopia has led to Oxfam and the World Food Programme (WFP) expanding the model to two other countries worldwide. Re-named as the R4 Rural Resilience Initiative, the project will expand to reach thousands of at-risk farmers and pastoralists over the next five years.

Policy development: Oxfam also supports the devel-opment of policies to help address climate change. We lead the Ethiopia work of the Africa Climate Change Resilience Alliance (ACRRA), and we work closely with government departments providing technical input on developing national policies and strategies such as the Climate Resilience Strategy, Disaster Risk Management, contingency planning and the Climate Resilience Green Economy (CGRE).

Together for a Food Secure Ethiopia: Oxfam is part of a multi-agency initiative called “Together for a Food Secure Ethiopia” which aims to provide policy rec-ommendations to ensure Ethiopia’s long-term food security. In particular it focuses on greater support for smallholder producers, tackling climate change, and supporting women producers to get land and a say in decisions.

Women farmers produce much of the nation’s food yet face numerous challenges, from land rights and traditional gender inequality to poor access to credit and financial support.

Oxfam supported the first ever Ethiopian “Female Food Heroes” awards, to celebrate the achievements

Women from a farming cooperative prepare their land for irrigation in the village of Amba Sebat. They are part of a cooperative of 31 women who collectively own land on which they farm vegetables, Sesame and other oil-seeds and their village cooperative is part of the Assosa Farmers Multipurpose Cooperative Union. With support from Oxfam, twenty farming cooperatives have formed the Assosa Farmers Multipurpose Cooperative Union.

Tom Pietrasik/Oxfam

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of women food producers. Over 300 women from across the country were nominated, with 12 finalists receiving a week’s training on marketing, harvest management and other skills. Media, policy makers and celebrities attended the final event.

Several competitors were widows and have overcome many obstacles to feed their families. “When my husband died I don’t know what to do,” said Beleyu Kassaye, one of the finalists who is now a successful farmer. “He was the one who did everything and I never bothered to learn anything. It’s not easy when you’re all alone and have to feed eight children. I’m very proud of what I accomplished.”

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Our Partners in Ethiopia

• AbebechGobenaYehetsanatKebekabenaLimatMahiber (AGOHELMA)

• ActionforDevelopment(AFD)• ActsofCompassion(AOC)• AdigratDiocesanCatholicSecretariat(ADCS)• AgriServiceEthiopia• ArbamenchUniversity• AssosaUnion• BasicEducationNetworkEthiopia(BEN-E)• CentreforDevelopmentInitiative(CDI)• ClimateChangeForum-Ethiopia(CCFE)• CommunityDevelopmentServiceAssociation

(CDSA)• CommunityInitiativeSelfHelpOrganization(CISO)• EmanuelDevelopmentAssociation(EDA)• EnvironmentalProtectionAuthority(EPA)• EthiopianCatholicChurchSocialDevelopment

Coordination Office - Meki (ECCCOM)• FacilitatorforChange(FC)• ForumforAfricanWomenEducation(FAWE)-

Ethiopia Chapter• ForumforEnvironment(FFE)• GayoPastoralistDevelopmentInitiative(GPDI)• HornofAfricaVoluntaryYouthCommittee(HAVOYOCO)

• Hundee–OromoGrasrootsDevelopmentInitiative• InternationalDevelopmentEnterprise(IDE)• LimuCooperative• MinistryofAgriculture(DisasterRiskManagement

Food Security Sector and; Bureau of Agriculture)

• MinistryofWaterandEnergy• MujejegoLokaWomenDevelopmentAssociation

(MLWDA)• NationalMeteorologicalAgency(NMA)• OgdenWelfareDevelopmentAssociation(OWDA)• OrganizationDevelopmentinAction• OrganizationforRehabilitationandDevelopmentin

Amhara (ORDA)• OromoDevelopmentAssociation(ODA)• OromiaPastoralDevelopmentCommission(OPDC)• PastoralistConcernAssociationofEthiopia(PCAE)• PastoralistForumEthiopia(PFE)• ReliefSocietyofTigray(REST)• RiftValleyChildrenandWomenDevelopmentOr-

ganization• SIIQQEEWomen’sDevelopmentAssociation(SWDA)• SomaliAidandDevelopment(SAAD)• SOSSahel-Ethiopia• SustainableEnvironmentandDevelopmentAction

(SEDA)• SustainableEnvironment&Development

Association - SEDA• WaterAction(WACT)• WomenAssociationofTigray• WomenSupportAssociation• YenigatTsehaySelfHelp• ZenbabaUnion

A special thank you to all our partners for supporting our work and we look forward to continued partnerships working towards a future without poverty.

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BUdget summary

Expenditure Per Goal %

Programme support, quality and administration 28

Sustainable livelihoods 20

Clear water and sanitation 11

Humanitarian response 20

Adapting to climate change and building resilience 13

Gender equality 8

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Contact person: Tigist Gebru,

Senior communications and information officerTel: +251-1166 13344

Fax: +251-1166 13533 www.oxfam.org/Ethiopia

Aubrey Wade/ Oxfam