...and income inequality are a concern to both developing and developed countries across the world making them the central agenda in both Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (Melamed, 2014; IFPRI, 2014). These problems are especially more serious in developing African countries like Ethiopia. African countries are at large hit by poverty incidence, vulnerable and weakly resilient mainly due to increase in climate variability that led to decreases in crop yields (Badolo and Romuald, 2015). Poverty is so widespread and rampant in Ethiopia that it made the country among the poorest...
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...Climate change is one of the most severe environmental challenges facing the world at present. It refers to any change in climate over time, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity (Kinyangi et al., 2009). Global warming shows increasing trend and is expected to bring about long term changes in weather conditions (FAO, 2008). Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia. The atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, and sea level has risen. Each of the last three decades has been successively warmer at the Earth’s surface than any preceding decade since 1850. The period from...
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...Ethiopia is Africa’s oldest independent country and its second largest in terms of population with over 100 million inhabitants. Despite recent improvements, Ethiopia remains one of the poorest nations in the world. In 2016, Ethiopia is 148th about economy in Global Ranking, its economic freedom score is 51.5( no change) ( from http://www.heritage.org/index/country/ethiopia). In the last few decades, Ethiopia has faced fierce famine, drought, political instability and war. Peace has returned but the nation remains developmentally weak and more than 42 million Ethiopians do not have access to safe water. The aim of the paper is focusing on finding new sources of water to solve Ethiopia’s water problem. Two potential water sources are water harvesting and dam. In this report, the public acceptability of both water sources is compared. 1. Background The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Ethiopia was worth 55.61 billion US dollars in 2014. The GDP value of Ethiopia represents 0.09 percent of the world economy. GDP in Ethiopia averaged 15.70 USD Billion from 1981 until 2014, reaching an all time high of 55.61 USD Billion in 2014 and a record low of 6.93 USD Billion in 1994. GDP in Ethiopia is reported by the World Bank. It is seem that Ethiopia has a low GDP. Furthermore, The level of poverty in Ethiopia is extremely high. Ethiopia has the second largest population of all African countries and has only once, for a brief period of time, been occupied. One of Africa’s oldest independent...
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...Discuss the assertion that disasters in Africa occur when hazards and vulnerability meet. Disasters are adverse or unfortunate events especially sudden and extraordinary misfortunes or calamities. Inhabitants of sub-Saharan Africa are threatened by natural disasters. This has led to consequences like poverty and disease (World Risk Report 2013). The assertion that disasters in Africa occur when hazards and vulnerability meet is true. Disasters in Africa tend to affect the vulnerable. Natural disasters occurring in African countries undermine the economic survival of poor communities. Many populations in countries throughout the continent have suffered under the impact of such hazards, which have killed thousands and caused injuries to many others. Mainly it is the vulnerable groups of people and their locations that are exposed to risk of these disasters. It is of paramount importance to note that these disasters can be natural or man-made. It is the scope of this paper to deliberate if disasters in Africa really occur when hazards and vulnerability meet or not. Increasing disaster threats not only reflect the onset of events such as earthquakes or floods, but also the changing demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the population. A large, violent tornado, for instance, passing through an open field presents little danger. On the other hand, a relatively weak tornado can pose significant risks to human life and can result in great economic losses in densely populated...
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...Global Warming Global warming has been an alarming issue for many years and poses a current and future threat to the environment. Several years ago when global warming was initially addressed, the government panicked assuming that humans are the cause. Others believe that the earth’s natural resources are the root of the problem. Scientists still are not sure who’s to blame. It may be a combination of humans and natural resources. Despite the cause, global warming has a direct impact on environmental psychology. Johannessen (2011), published an article in the New York Times addressing Global warming and climate change and what effects it has not only on the environment but also on the people and other organisms that live in such environments. Johannessen thinks that the United Nations should provide resources necessary to adapt to changes in the climate to people who live in underdeveloped or poor nations. The United Nations has funded global talks but conflict still exists (Johannessen, 2011). Well-known controversies surrounding the issue are: conflicting responsibilities of industrialized and developing nations, deciding how to generate money to help poor nations adapt, the stress of protecting tropical forests, and the need to develop and organize clean energy technology (Johannessen, 2011). According to the National Geographic (2012, para 1), global warming is the releasing of heat-trapping gases released when humans power their modern lives. The gases are at its...
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...The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia September 7, 2012 Currently, various countries in the world are faced with many serious issues, and these problems can make countries collapse. According to Jared Diamond (2011), who is a professor of Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles, “There are four frameworks that cause societies to collapse, consisting of human impacts on the environment and climate change, declining relations with friendly neighbors, relations with hostile societies, and society’s responses to their problems”. Ethiopia is one of the East African countries that is now facing with various national problems, which can be clearly explained by all of Jared Diamond’s frameworks. Ethiopia has a significantly high risk of collapsing in the very near future. One of the most critical factors that Ethiopia faces is the various environmental catastrophes, which deals with the first framework that Jared Diamond has pointed out. According to the Embassy of The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (2012), most of the land in Ethiopia is highlands, grasslands, deserts with only a few rivers, and Ethiopia is a landlocked country. Therefore, Ethiopia has lacked adequate of water resources. Moreover, Ethiopia is faced with human impacts on the environment such as deforestation, soil erosion, desertification, and water shortages in some areas (“CIA The World Factbook,” 2012). ...
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...terms, a rift can be thought of as a fracture in the earth's surface that widens over time, or more technically, as an elongate basin bounded by opposed steeply dipping normal faults. Geologists are still debating exactly how rifting comes about, but the process is so well displayed in East Africa (Ethiopia-Kenya-Uganda-Tanzania) that geologists have attached a name to the new plate-to-be; the Nubian Plate makes up most of Africa, while the smaller plate that is pulling away has been named the Somalian Plate (Figure 1). These two plates are moving away form each other and also away from the Arabian plate to the north. The point where these three plates meet in the Afar region of Ethiopia forms what is called a triple-junction. However, all the rifting in East Africa is not confined to the Horn of Africa; there is a lot of rifting activity further south as well, extending into Kenya and Tanzania and Great Lakes region of Africa. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the general geology of these rifts are and highlight the geologic processes involved in their formation. What is the East Africa Rift System? The oldest and best defined rift occurs in the Afar region of Ethiopia and this rift is usually referred to as the Ethiopian Rift. Further to the South a series of rifts occur which include a Western branch, the "Lake Albert Rift" or "Albertine Rift" which contains the East African Great Lakes, and an Eastern branch that roughly bisects Kenya north-to-south on a line...
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...submerged (WMO, 1990). It is an unavoidable natural phenomenon occurring from time to time in all rivers and natural drainage systems which creates damages on properties, natural resources and people (Kumar and Santosh, 2015). In Ethiopia, a major river basin that has serious flood problems is the Awash River basin located in the Rift Valley. About 200,000-250,000 ha. is subject to flooding during high flows of the Awash River. The other rivers where significant floods occur are Wabi-Shebelle River in southeastern Ethiopia near the Somali border and Baro-Akobo/Sobat River in western...
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...5 mio Vietnam 22 mio bags 40 bags / ha 10 / ha Ethiopia 6 mio 7 Indonesia 13 mio bags 1 Hivos IUCN Nederland Oxfam Novib Solidaridad WWF Content 2 1 Introduction Coffee, cultivated in more than 80 countries in Central and South America, Africa and Asia, ranks among the world’s most valuable agricultural commodities. Coffee cultivation provides livelihoods for 20-25 million farming families [4]; and engages over 100 million people in its producing and processing. Smallholder coffee farmers, together with their families and rural workers produce over 70 per cent of this labour intensive crop. Women comprise half the productive workforce and play a crucial role that often goes unnoticed. However, to retain the involvement of rural youth is a challenge as they often aspire to a different future and seek employment outside the coffee sector. Historically, declining terms of trade and price volatility have plagued coffee production. This makes poverty reduction, which is essential to ensure the sustainability of the sector, both an important and difficult challenge. Figure 3 presents an overview of the main social, economic and environmental challenges for smallholders and plantation labourers. These problems at the production level are compounded by the effects of changing climatic conditions. The International Coffee Organization [9] acknowledges that the world coffee sector is facing major challenges from climate change. Prolonged droughts, raised temperatures or heavy...
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...THE NEED OF SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT AS A HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE ABSTRACT Environmental protection is a recent concept, developed in the international or regional human right protection systems or mechanisms. In those early days, especially when modern human rights protection mechanisms such as UDHR, ICCPR, IESCR and other human rights instruments adopted, the concern given to environmental protection was not that much significant . The only few provisions in these instruments recognizes some rights like the right to healthy and favorable condition of work, the right to get adequate food, clothing and shelter and the like. It was during in 1992, earth summit, that the relationship between human rights and sustainable environment is addressed. The need for the protection of environment becomes a necessity. In fact environment is a totality of human life; it means that it is sources of food, clothing, and shelter. The denial of environmental protection could bring about the denial of some fundamental rights such as the right to health, life, food and so on. It is true that, environment should be properly managed in order to make it favorable to human life. However; the effort to protect the environment faces different challenges like the issue of locus-standi, justifiability, conflict between developmental efforts and environmental protection, burden of proof, lack of cooperation among states...
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...THE IMPACT OF THE CHARITIES AND SOCIETIES LEGISLATION ON THE PROMOTION OF ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE IN ETHIOPIA By Gebremedhin Birega gbdagaga@gmail.com March 2014 Addis Ababa Ethiopia 1 Abstract Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in general and environmental CSOs in particular, have been playing considerable constructive role in the nation building efforts in Ethiopia. However, all their contributions are not wholeheartedly accepted by the government. In 2009, the government introduced a new law overtly presented to register, administer and create an enabling environment for a more meaningful contribution of CSOs/NGOs. Nevertheless, it has been argued that the introduction of the new law further weakened the already young and inexperienced CSO/NGO sector in general and those engaged in environmental justice in particular. The main objective of this paper is therefore to assess the impact of the legislation on NGOs/CSOs engaged in environmental justice mainly in: limiting areas of intervention; affecting access to foreign funds and other forms of support to undertake mandated tasks; retaining competence including knowledge and skills; making government answerable to felt needs of the society; advancing meaningful networking among CSOs at national, regional and global level on environmental policy reform issues; downsized change in amount of budget and skilled staff; engaging in research undertaking; conducting quality monitoring and evaluation activities. Based on...
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...these countries already suffer consequently of water scarcity preventing them from being able to grow enough food for their growing populations. 2. How do land acquisition in Ethiopia and Sudan by South Korea and Saudi Arabia affect food security in Egypt? Egypt is a nation of bread eater requiring millions of tons of wheat per year and in addition Egypt is also the world’s leading wheat importer and subsidized bread. Or, in order to have enough bread for the population Egypt’s grain is either imported or produced with the water of the Nile River. The Nile flows through Ethiopia and Sudan before reaching Egypt. However, according to the Nile water agreement; Egypt is entitled to 75% of the Nile’s river flow. Yet, now those developing countries are acquiring a lot of land in Ethiopia and Sudan with the intention to grow food with nil’s river water regardless of the water agreement. It is fear that demand of water reaches a point where there will not be enough water reaching Egypt in order to sustain its agricultural production, leading then to food security issues in the future. 3. Explain the Nile water Agreement. The Nile water agreement is a legal piece signed in 1959; Egypt and Sudan agreed that Egypt will get 75% of the river flow and Sudan the remaining 25% and none for Ethiopia. Ethiopia and Sudan are now contesting this agreement...
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...To what extent do you agree that the human causes of desertification in the sahel are more important than the physical causes? Desertification is when formerly productive land becomes a desert due to a combination of natural and human factors. It’s a long term change that results in land degrading or becoming poorer, vegetation dying and soil becoming exposed to erosion by wind and rain. The Sahel is an example of where desertification has happened. The sahel is a semi arid region of north central Africa south of the sahara desert. It passes through countries such as Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia and Chad. The sahel has been turning in to the desert since the late 1940s, this has been caused by drought, population increase, overcultivation, over grazing and cutting firewood. There is only one physical cause of desertification in the Sahel and that is climate change. There have been frequent and very intense droughts that occurred from 1968 to 1974 and then again from 1979 to 1984. Without water for a long period of time the vegetation will die and the soil will turn to dust thus making it more easily eroded by the wind. The intense and frequent droughts are said to be caused by global warming which leads to higher temperatures and an increased evapotranspiration, therefore you could say that the droughts are caused partially by humans as they burn the fossil fuels causing global warming. The other four causes of desertification; population increase, over cultivation, overgrazing...
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...Ethiopia`s development from famine to economic growth The classic theory of modernization has its origins in the 1950`s, a post-war period which challenged strategists to investigate the problems faced by the underdeveloped countries, in their attempt to provide aid programs and technological assistance and promote long-term economic growth and political stability. Typical traditional societies were analyzed in the processes through which they should develop into modern social structures by following an unidirectional path similar to the ones already tested by the Western societies. Several factors that contribute to the development of a modern society (including technological, economic, social, political, military and cultural innovations) were illustrated in many studies of this theory. The complexity of outcomes was generally overlooked, making necessary more than just the classic theory for a proper analysis of a country`s modernization. Thus, the Harvard Project, the most relevant study on the social and cultural aspects of development, emphasized that an ideal model can`t be defined, as the modern personality corresponds more to a desirable plan of modern society than to the contradictory nature of modern reality. Therefore, I will further seek to determine Ethiopia`s (one of the countries severely affected by famine for the last years) development in its process of modernization. Ethiopia has been plagued by famine going back to the 16th century. While climatic conditions...
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...in danger. Global warming changes poses and additional severe risks to food security and the agriculture sector. Agriculture is considered to be one of the most vulnerable sector. Global warming impact is particularly fraught with damage for smaller farmers in developing countries. A newly published report the WTO (World Trade Organization) and UNEP (United Nations Environment Program), states that in low latitude regions, even a small temperature increase of 1°C would lead to reduction of 5-10 percent in the yields of major cereal crops (“ how does…”). This is really scary for the future. If the world keep the same environmental rules by 2020 crop yield in African countries could fall up to 50 percent (“How Does”…). This shows how the poor countries agriculture sector is become a victim of the global warming. For example, the people of East Africa faced a drought in 2009 crops withered and failed from Kenya to Ethiopia, livestock drop dead and famine spreads (Biello 1). Another obvious disadvantage of global warming is the climate change. Our Earth’s average temperature has risen by 1.4 °F over the past century, and it’s projected to rise another 2 to 11.5 °F over the next hundred years (“Climate...”). This is a good example how our world is hotter, and Abay 2 how small changes in the average temperature of our...
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