For pastoral communities living in the dry land environments and more arid areas of the country where it is challenging to grow crops, moving from areas to areas in search of water and forage for the herds is a common and longstanding trend. Due to these recurrent movements made following the changing seasons, the communities for long were compelled to lead nomadic life rather than settled and stable life.
The government has been undertaking various activities in collaboration with a number of development partners to respond to this challenge and change the trend, assist them to settle in specific areas and in so doing to make the pastoral communities more productive as well as to enable them have stable and healthy life.
Currently, in cooperation with Care Ethiopia, it is working to address the challenges, make the pastoralists productive and betterment their lives by engaging them in various income generating activities such as livestock and forage development, farming through irrigation and other activities for better development results.
According to Sintayehu Mesele, Care Ethiopia Program Quality and Learning Facilitator Office Head, the Organization has been working with the government in nation’s development endeavors with the view to improve the lives of the pastoral communities that drive to social transformation.
The Care is working with the primary objective of addressing social challenges, facilitating conditions to make females and males equal beneficiaries and bring about social transformation. To this effect, it has been carrying out different activities, he said.
Taking part in women’s development activities (predominantly the rural ones) and empowering them yield substantial benefit for all. If they are supported well and empowered would contribute a lot to ensure food security, promote better health conditions at household level, lift up their self-esteem and self-confidence and ensure comprehensive development. Due to this, Care works giving due emphasis to enhance the entrepreneurship capacity of women and empower them economically, he said.
As to him, the Organization is working focusing on three major programs that are intended to be implemented within the coming ten years – to improve the lives of pastoralist women, ensure food security and build resilience in pastoral communities’. Concurrently, it is working on urban youth job creation opportunities.
In this regard, in partnership of industrial parks, some activities have already begun so as to create healthy workplace environment for women, he said.
In the past two decades, Ethiopia has been undertaking several economic strides and conducted evaluations and assessments measures that can provide valuable insights how best to support the pastoral communities to lead settled and sustained quality life.
Thus, developing a program that increases local resilience by integrating development and humanitarian efforts and promoting the meaningful participation of women in related key processes such as Integrated Risk Management (IRM) and emergency preparedness is imperative.
CARE Ethiopia firmly believes that women have the potential to bring about change in their respective communities. If they are to realize their aspirations, investing on at key points – equipping them with the necessary skill development, offering competency upgrading trainings and provision of adequate resources – is critical, he remarked.
The Ethiopian Herald November27, 2019
BY ALAZAR SHIFERAW
