Ethiopian e-Journal for Research and Innovation Foresight (Ee-JRIF)

Assessing the rationale and competence of pastoral community innovative adaptation to climate change in Ethiopia

2022-08-14T11:29:00+02:00

The communities in Arid and Semi arid regions have survived till today with ahigh
population growth is an indication that they have developed indigenous mechanisms to
cope up harsh conditions.This study was undertaken in Afar and Somali Regional States
to assess the rationale and competence of pastoral community innovative adaptation to
the incidence of climate change.
This study used Participatory Rural Appraisal techniques i.e. focus Group Discussion
(FDG), individual interviews and Key Informant. FGD were held in Dudub & Boloyita of
Afar region and Degahjabis, Barak, Mete, Millo, Goad & Berdher of Shinile zone in
Somali region. For cross triangulation, in depth interviews with ninety two respondents
were held. Afar and Issa Somali Pastoralists are adapting to changes in a local
innovative way. The typical pastoralist innovative adaption in the Study areas: change in
house construction materials, traditional early warning system through Dagu in Afar,
maximizes female animals in their herds, seasonal forecasting by follow up Goat
behavior i.e. shake their legs as if the legs immersed in mud and also traditional water
cooling system of drinking water.
This research output provides a framework for addressing climate change problem by
the Ethiopian pastoralists and assists them in realizing their potentials to rise up to the
challenge. It will also enable policy makers and NGOs to chant an appropriate course for
policy and programme directions

Wolf Leslau, English-Amharic Context Dictionary, Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 1973 ISBN 3 447 01482 2

2022-08-14T11:29:00+02:00

Wolf Leslau has left a rich legacy by composing an Amharic-English dictionary by using grounded
and context specific translation of words and finding meanings by covering almost every possible
word until the period of the early 1970s. It is to be expected that over the last forty years the
Amharic and English words have been growing. Amharic is indeed growing fast, and one wonders
if Wolf Laslau or some one of his calibre, stamina and rich knowledge were to update this already
1000 pages tome of contextualised dictionary by including the additional ways of expressions and
words. One wonders how many more pages would be needed to cover the last forty years of the
development of the Amharic language. Surely, it cannot be a few hundreds

Potentials of Indigenous Techniques of Knowledge Creation in Qinea Schools of Ethiopia

2022-08-14T11:29:00+02:00

As the world has entered the knowledge economy and organizations search for ways to create
new knowledge, we must recognize that knowledge creation has been practiced since the
beginning of mankind. Communities have been creating and using indigenous knowledge for
centuries. However, indigenous knowledge and indigenous techniques of knowledge creation
have been neglected for decades and there has been a divide between the modern (scientific) and
traditional worlds. Despite advances in knowledge creation, there is a fear that knowledge
management can become another management fad that promised much and delivered little.
Besides, application of modern knowledge is limited especially in third world communities like
Ethiopia. Such communities are heavily dependent on traditional knowledge for solving
problems. Thus, studying traditional practices may lend an additional lens to better understand
and facilitate knowledge creation. By leveraging our past and incorporating our traditional
practices in knowledge creation, we can further enable today’s knowledge creation efforts. This
research explores the potentials of indigenous knowledge creation techniques of instantaneously
creating knowledge, which has been in use by the Orthodox Church communities of Ethiopia
(and Eritrea) since the 5th Century. Using an interpretive field study, qualitative data was
collected from the indigenous Poetry schools through participant observation, unstructured and
semi-structured interviews, and document analysis. Analysis of the data indicated that the
indigenous techniques have important implications related to promoting creative problem
solving, creative education, tolerance, ethics, inspiration, and entertainment, expressing the
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unsayable, and predicting the future. Besides helping to preserve the heritage of the accumulated
wisdom, this research plays a role in narrowing the divide between tradition and modernity
regarding knowledge creation and is useful to researchers in creative education, communication,
natural language, and information retrieval

Evaluation of the Developmental Bible: A program to integrate HIV and other reproductive health information in the teachings of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church

2022-08-14T11:29:00+02:00

For many remote rural Ethiopian communities, religious structures are often the only sustained contact
with a formal institution, and so, they provide opportunity for conveying health and developmental
messages directly to a large audience. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church (EOTC) is the country’s
largest religious institution. The Developmental Bible (DB) project took advantage of its significant reach
to convey key health and development messages to its congregants.
The DB project sets out to incorporate health and other development messages in the teachings of the
Church to be passed as key messages during Church sermons by trained priests. The evaluation of the
DB project also sets out to establish the advantages of using indigenous structures of the Church and to
demonstrate that the Church could be a partner for social change and development.
The DB project was a two‐year pilot project conducted during 2008–2010. The project was launched
following the formulation of DB manual, training of active priests in clergy training centers and theology
colleges. A quasi‐experimental research design with baseline and endline surveys was used to measure
changes between baseline and endline in HIV knowledge, attitude and stigma, as well as attitudes about
FGM/C. Results were measured against baseline values.
The results show positive changes, with significant increases in knowledge of modes of HIV transmission
among priests, youth and women, and in knowledge of HIV prevention methods for priests and youth
groups. An increase in the proportions of respondents who believe FGM/C should be discontinued was
also documented. Findings for other attitudinal indicators showed mixed results.

Automating Message Delivery through Mobile Phones to Expectant Mothers

2022-08-14T11:29:01+02:00

Ethiopia is among the nations with very high maternal and child mortality rates. The latest
available estimates show that there are 5.90 maternal deaths per 1,000 live births. Though
progress has been made in the reduction of mortalities as compared with the previous years
estimates, much effort needs to be done yet to meet the ambitious Millennium Development
Goals which aim for the reduction of maternal mortality by three quarters and child mortality by
two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015.
Accordingly, among a multitude of interventions underway in the country to meet the
Millennium Development Goals, one key component is to understand and address key barriers of
communication between different service delivery points in the primary health care unit (Primary
Hospital, Health Center, Health Post and Community) in rural areas. Currently, the
communication between different service delivery points is either non-existent or paper-based
which makes it inefficient and affects the speed and effectiveness of Maternal and Neonatal
Child Health (MNCH) services. The trend to use communication technologies has shown
promising results to meet the challenge.
In this regard, the mobile technology has come with the unique potential that it has already
become a routine part of most peoples’ everyday lives. It is also becoming increasingly
affordable and accessible. Required infrastructure to support its easy use and maintenance is also
available even in rural areas. With the aim of sharing experiences and lessons learnt, this paper
reports on a project work that was conducted to explore the potential utilization of mobile phone
technologies to improve communication between service providers for a more effective MNCH
service delivery in rural primary health care units in Ethiopia. Encouraging results were obtained
in terms of demonstrating the potential applications of m-health to increase access and uptake of
priority MNCH services even in remote rural areas.

Assessment of Farmers’ Criteria for Common Bean Variety Selection: The case of Umbullo Watershed in Sidama Zone of the Southern Region of Ethiopia

2022-08-14T11:29:01+02:00

Participatory variety selection (PVS) trials were conducted in 2004 and 2005 in
Umbullo watershed of Sidama zone in the Southern region of Ethiopia to evaluate the
performance of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) varieties and to assess farmers’ criteria for
bean variety selection, and thereby identify the most important farmers’ criteria for future bean
improvement work in the region. Six varieties including the local check were used for the study.
Mother and baby design was employed and the trials were replicated over farmers. Yield data
was subjected to analysis of variance and there was significant difference (p<0.01) among the
varieties. GL and GLY interaction effects were also found to be significant (p<0.05). Awash-1
was the best genotype followed by Omo-95. But the farmers’ selection criteria were beyond
yield and most farmers gave priority for qualitative traits. Accordingly, five qualitative traits
were ranked by farmers as the best criteria that are better than yield. These are seed color,
drought tolerance, disease and pest resistance, marketability and seed size. Almost all farmers in
the study area preferred Ibado as a number one variety due to its seed color (red speckled), seed
size (large), demand in the market (high), early maturity (<90 days) and relatively good yield (>2
tons ha-1). The local variety was ranked second due to its seed color (light red) and marketability.
Therefore, our future bean improvement program should target at developing varieties that fulfill
farmers’ preferences especially for home consumption and local market.

Zera Yakob's philosophy

2022-08-14T11:29:00+02:00

There is a need to read Zera Yakob's philosophy by relating it to a contextualized interpretation
of how he came to write this philosophy. There is a need to produce plausible references and
accounts to demonstrate he wrote the Hateta. He wrote at a time when the Ethiopian
Orthodox faith was being assaulted by Portugese Jesuits. Philosophers such as Claude
Summner, Charles Vernharn and others claim that his philosophy is on a par, if not even better
in many ways to the work of the so‐ called European philosophers. The claim that that the work
was actually written by Italian Jesuit D'Urbino rather than Zera Yakob appears to be a
fabricated account. What is important is not to be distracted by these claims, but move on to
explore the subtelty of Zera Yakob's original philosophy by re‐ reading the Hateta with the
perspective of how new philosophical methodologies and insights are included or revealed in
it or can be extrapolated from it. Ethiopian philosophers must deeply get immersed in
excavating the originality of Ethiopian philosophy, that some philosophers claim is so deep that
Ethiopia is indeed the originator of the philosophy of harmony that will save the world.