Ethiopia’s national donkey herd is critically undervalued and faces a significant threat from the global skin trade, according to a new research carried out by international animal welfare charity, The Donkey Sanctuary.
The Donkey Sanctuary collaborated with researchers from Bristol University’s Veterinary School and the London School of Economics on the project.
Research focused on four locations in the Oromia region, investigating the role donkeys play in shaping human livelihoods. The research found that donkeys develop and sustain livelihoods and generate income for the most marginalised communities; it also found that their economic contribution is overlooked in development policy and needs urgent revaluation. The research highlights the need to include donkeys in livestock and food security frameworks.
Ethiopia has approximately 8.8 million donkeys, the largest population in Africa. These animals are often visible in rural areas – on roadsides carrying vital supplies of clean water and firewood for homesteads or pulling carts with goods to trade at market.
Less visible is the contribution they make to the development and support of people’s livelihoods in semi-urban and urban environments. In these areas, they provide transport, food security and income generation as well as freeing up women for work and enabling their children to go to school.
There is a common saying in Ethiopia:” A farmer or woman without a donkey becomes the donkey.” Having access to the traditional beast of burden, gives women the opportunity for a less marginalised, more productive role in society.
Zoe Raw, Head of Global Research at The Donkey Sanctuary said “working donkeys and mules are the backbone of rural economies in Ethiopia. They play a central and critical role in supporting poor and rural communities, providing people with a means to earn a living, transport goods, collect water or enable their children to access education. Unfortunately, the remote and marginalised nature of these communities means that they are often overlooked by national or global policy. This piece of work provides robust, scientific evidence to demonstrate the value that working donkeys and mules provide in Ethiopia, and strengthens our message that working animals have a critical role to play in human livelihoods and in development.”
Martha Geiger, Centre Manager, Firoz Lalji Centre for Africa at The London School of Economics and Political Science also said “our research reveals donkeys are pivotal actors in shaping and supporting community livelihoods in rural, peri-urban and urban areas of Ethiopia. Not only are they important at community level, they also hold individual value to their owners providing people with a sense of kinship, relief, and pride. Yet, the socio-economic contributions made by donkeys are often ignored in government processes, which favours ruminant livestock. As a result of their lack of protection, they are now more vulnerable to the skin trade, which could see their population decimated in the coming years. Consequently, those who depend on donkeys would find themselves in precarious positions with their livelihoods in question”.
The skin trade is an additional challenge for these undervalued animals with the escalating demand for their skins as raw material in the production of a traditional Chinese medicine called ejiao. The medicine claims to promote health and vitality as well as treat various conditions such as anaemia.
The research, focusing on direct contact with local community groups, revealed donkeys to be a critical source of support to households, creating economic security, empowerment to marginalised groups – including women and the very poor – as well as providing a sense of companionship to their owners.
Research highlighted several key themes on why working animals should be included in policy making in Ethiopia and across African countries: donkeys are generators of income; donkeys can enhance social status; working with and owning donkeys empowers women in particular and helps address gender imbalance; donkeys reduce social vulnerability and encourage resilience; donkeys provide companionship as sentient beings.
The research concludes that donkeys are not included in livestock development programmes or economic policies in Ethiopia. Owners are thus left exposed and often fall victim to the escalating skin trade and global demand for raw materials to make a traditional Chinese medicine called ejiao.
Ethiopia’s donkeys need urgent re-evaluation
Africa marks six months of COVID-19
Many countries experiencing gradual rise but difficult to discern a specific peak
Africa marks six months on Friday 14 August since COVID-19 was first detected on the continent. While the virus has raced through many other regions of the world, the pandemic’s evolution on the African continent has been different.
Preliminary analysis by the World Health Organization (WHO) finds that an exponential surge in cases which peak about two to three weeks later is not occurring in Africa. Instead, many countries are experiencing a gradual rise in COVID-19 cases and it is difficult to discern a specific peak. Transmission patterns also differ between countries, but more importantly within countries.
At the onset, COVID-19 mainly affected capital cities. However, the virus is now moving from high density urban areas to informal settlements and then onward to rural areas that have a lower population density.
“In Africa, curbing COVID-19 is a marathon and not a sprint,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa. “We are observing multiple local outbreaks each with their own infection patterns and peaks. It is by bolstering the response at the community level that we will win this race. The COVID-19 response must be integrated into the fabric of every health district.”
In the past six months, countries have made a lot of progress. Many African governments were quick to impose lockdowns and key public health measures that helped to slow down the virus. Over time preventive, diagnostic and treatment measures have been strengthened. All countries can now diagnose COVID-19, with 14 performing over 100 tests per 10,000 population. Production of oxygen, critical for severely ill COVID-19 patients, has also considerably increased, with the number of oxygen plants in the region rising to 119 from 68 at the onset, while the number of oxygen concentrators has more than doubled to over 6,000.
A recent WHO assessment based on self-reporting by 16 countries in sub-Saharan Africa found that the countries improved their capacity to respond to COVID-19. WHO measured countries’ readiness in a range of areas including coordination, surveillance, laboratory capacity, case management, infection prevention and control. Six months ago, the score was 62% and now it is 78%. While much progress appears to have been made at the national level, at the district level countries are generally lagging behind. The scores for coordination (38%), infection prevention and control (46%) and clinical care for patients (47%) are all particularly low at the district level.
While progress has been made, it is important that governments step up readiness and response measures, particularly at the subnational levels. With the loosening of movement restrictions, there are risks that the virus may spread even further into remote areas of the continent.
“Not only must we keep up with the evolving trends, we must also anticipate, predict and act faster to head off potentially disastrous outcomes,” said Dr Moeti. “Areas of high transmission as well as localities with relatively fewer infections both deserve attention. In short we must be strong on all fronts.”
WHO has worked with partners to provide technical support, training and essential medical supplies including the delivery of more than 2.1 million testing kits and the training of around 100,000 health workers.
WHO is also supporting countries witnessing a large number of COVID-19 infections. Last week, the first members of a surge team arrived in South Africa. WHO is also increasing support to other countries that have requested urgent assistance by mobilizing more technical experts on the ground and by scaling up training to build local capacity, particularly at the provincial and district level.
Ethiopian Diaspora Trust Fund releases funds for five projects
The Ethiopian Diaspora Trust Fund (EDTF) announced the release of funds for the first set of five projects in the country that were previously approved by the EDTF Board of Directors.
“The projects were reviewed by expert Technical Review Teams which had confirmed their compliance with EDTF’s project eligibility criteria,” a statement from EDTF reads.
“Before final funding, each project was subjected to rigorous and transparent capacity assessment and budget review focusing on organizational capacity, operational and financial management and effectiveness to deliver on proposed project outcomes,” the statement further reads.
Among the key evaluation criteria included were: project sustainability, potential impact, scalability, innovation and creativity, cost efficiency (value for money), accountability and transparency. The release of the funds was approved by the Advisory Council of fEDTF (Friends of EDTF) on 9 August 2020 after a final round of thorough inspection of the projects and the applicant organizations. The total first quarter installment of the project funds amounting to 5.9 million birr was transferred directly to the Bank accounts of the implementing organizations.
The five funded projects are:
Help for Persons with Disabilities-Organization (HPD-O) – Construction of special needs education units for disabled and neglected children in selected primary schools in 3 Woredas of Amhara Region, Semien Shewa Zone.
Hiwot Integrated Development Organization (HIDO) – Early Childhood Care and Education Services for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) at Woreda 06 of Addis Ababa.
Pro Development Network (PDN) – Promotion of Safe Water Supply, Hygiene and Sanitation – Forhard-to-reach communities using renewable energy in Afar and Tigray Regions.
Gurmuu Development Association (Gurmuu) – Improving children’s learning environment in four primary schools in Oromia Regional State.
Korah Great Hope Charity Organization (KGHCO) – Hygiene and sanitation promotion education and practices in Kolfe Keraniyo Sub-City Qoshe area of Addis Ababa.
The COVID 19 Pandemic
The COVID 19 Pandemic has brought to the forefront a lot of discussions some of which are on gender based violence and management of schools. Capital Newspaper conducted an interview on these issues with Yehualashet G/Michael, Acting Director of Initiative Africa, a local Civil Society Organization working on gender equality, quality education, reducing gender based violence and business support programs.
Capital: Since the first case of COVID 19 in Ethiopia was announced, stay at home was advised as the best precaution. In the following weeks, media reports surfaced of an increase on Violence against Women and Girls. As an organization working on reducing gender based violence, what is Initiative Africa’s response to the situation?
Yehualashet: Gender based violence has been one of the major challenges of most patriarchal societies who are way behind achieving gender equality like Ethiopia. I think the COVID-19 crisis brought new challenging situation and also became an eye opener to understand more about gender equality and see our gender structure.
As you have said there is more news of gender based violence on the media though we are short of statistical evidences to show the increase. For example, in Addis Ababa there are three one-stop-centres – Tirunesh Beijing, Gandhi and Menelik hospitals – which serve those victims of sexual violence but have seen a decrease in reported cases of sexual violence. This is perhaps because women and girls fear going to health centres during this crisis, or perhaps because they live with the people who have caused them harm and they do not have the privacy to report the abuse. On the other hand, there are some studies which disclosed preliminary results that the number of confirmed rape cases and domestic violence is increasing by 25-30%. The instances of the violence have been executed by close relatives, family members and abusive partners. Different regional states have also reported early marriage cases.
Hence, as part of our Making Change Happen Project, we are conducting a survey to have the evidence and plan an intervention.
Capital: Kindly, elaborate more about the Making Change Happen Project.
Yehualashet: In Ethiopia, gender inequalities prevail and are affecting everyone. Not everyone experiences inequality the same way. The situation is worse, and often different, for women and girls. Women are vulnerable to increased risk of acts of violence. Women still remain severely under-represented in key, growth-enhancing fields of education such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The labour markets exhibit many “gender gaps” particularly beyond the lowest level of hierarchy. Women remain underrepresented as subjects of news stories, as sources and positively influencing the media than men.
In order to address such issues Initiative Africa started to implement the Making Change Happen Project as we are an organization striving to contribute to the country’s development goals by increasing women’s participation, leadership, influence and decision making. The Making Change Happen Project is focused on addressing gender issues in the workplace, schools and communities, and the media. It is a three years project which ends in June 2021 and supported by the Embassy of Sweden/Sida. The project targets 92 Woredas in six regional states and is working to directly benefit more than 178,590 girls and boys in and out-of-school.
Capital: What is the progress of the project with regards to the components you mentioned?
Yehualashet: As always, we are working with government offices, local civil societies and the community in the project target areas.
With this project we have been trying to propel women in the decision making structure of the private sector and non-governmental organizations; improve sexual and reproductive health of adolescents in secondary schools through health/sport clubs, training materials, equipment’s, information/ education/ communication materials, workshop training; assist secondary school girls in 92 schools gain confidence and capacity they need to get rid of gender based violence in schools and their community by using School Violence Index and making their voice heard and taken into account; and support work places achieve gender equality by building capacity of media that support gender equality objectives.
In response to the pandemic situation, apart from conducting the survey I mentioned earlier, we are organizing online discussion forums on issues of gender based violence and gender equality. Aiming at reaching girls who are staying at home, we are now screening 42 episodes of secondary school science lab experiments performed by Ethiopian girls on the MOE TV Channel in collaboration with the Ministry of Education.
Capital: What is the way forward?
Yehualashet: In the coming 9 months we will be focussing on completing the planned activities and mobilizing more resources for scaling up the project outcomes and the initiatives underway. We are also now getting ready to provide our support to the education offices and the community in the target areas on their efforts of preparation for school re-openings.
