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 Corse(Lesson) outline  Agro-climatic,Environmental
 Definitions and basic concepts  Disaster risks
 Livelihoods &Food security  Anthropogenic causes
 Sustainable livelihood approaches  Causes of livelihoods and food insecurity in
 The Sustainable livelihoods framework and Ethiopia
strategies  Livelihood and food security strategies
 The framework
 Institutional & Indigenous
 The asset building blocks of livelihood
 Livelihoods and food security/insecurity
 Vulnerability context analysis techniques
 Livelihood strategies and Livelihood outcomes  Household Food Balance Model
 Issues related to livelihood strategies in (HFBM)
Ethiopia
 Household Food Insecurity Access
 The link of sustainable livelihoods framework to Scale (HFIAS)
other development approaches
 Rights-based approaches  Household Food Consumption Score
(FCS)
 Participatory development
 Sector-wide approaches
 Household Dietary Diversity Score
(HDDS)
 Integrated rural development
 Coping Strategy Index (CSI)
 Developmental state model
 Trickle-down theory
 Household Hunger Scale (HHS)
 Shocks/vulnerability to livelihoods/food Livelihood and food security policies and
strategies in Ethiopia
insecurity
 Forms of livelihoods/food insecurity  Famine, famine history and food security trends
in Ethiopia
 Vulnerability to livelihoods and food insecurity
 Factors exerting influence on livelihoods
 Livelihoods strategies
 Contemporary livelihoods and food security
situation in Ethiopia
 Causes of livelihoods and food insecurity
Livelihood and food security by Adane A.
Dilla Ethiopia 2025
Chapter One: Definitions and basic concepts
 Livelihoods: origin, definition and concept
What is livelihood?
 A person's livelihood derived from life-lode (way of life) refers to their "means of
securing the basic necessities (food, water, shelter and clothing) of life".
 Livelihood is adequate stocks, flows of food and cash to meet basic needs (Chamber's,
1988). Such basic needs include securing water, food, fodder, medicine, shelter, and
clothing.
 In another Livelihood are „means of making a living‟, the various activities and resources
that allow people to live (FAO, 2007).
 An individual's livelihood involves the capacity to acquire basic necessities in order to
satisfy the basic needs of themselves and their household.
 The activities are usually carried out repeatedly and in a manner that is sustainable and
providing of dignity. For example, a fisherman's livelihood depends on the availability
and accessibility of fish. Different people have different lifestyles and ways of meeting
their needs. Understanding those lifestyles will help you when you look at food security
and access to food.
 Livelihoods are similar for groups of people doing similar things.

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 …cont’d
 We call a “livelihood group” a group of people who access similar resources,
share similar social and cultural values and have a comparable economic status.
Moreover, people of the same livelihood group share the same risks and kinds of
vulnerability. It is common to see more than one livelihood group in the same
geographical area.
A livelihood is sustainable when it enables people to cope with and recover from
shocks and stresses (such as natural disasters and economic or social upheavals)
and enhance their well-being and that of future generations without undermining
the natural environment or resource base.

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1.2. Food security: origin, definition, concept and forms of food insecurity.
A. Food security mean when all people at all times, have physical and economic access to
sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an
active and healthy life (FAO, 1996).
The definitions main emphasis on:
integrates stability,
food availability,
access and
Utilization.
 Thus, “Food security,” means: “Access by all people at all times to enough food for an
active healthy life”.
 This definition denotes to relations between and among four key concepts:
• access and entitlements-whether households and individuals may acquire adequate food,
when and where it is available;
• nutritional sufficiency-not merely whether a pre-determined amount of food is available,
but whether particular kinds of food (notorious food) are accessible in sufficient quantity. It
is related with food consumption.

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 Food consumption: refers to a proper biological use of food to obtain an appropriate
energy and nutritious diet, potable water, and adequate sanitation. Biological utilization
relates to individual level food security and is the ability of the human body to
effectively convert food into energy.
 A household that has the capacity to acquire all the food it needs may not always have
the ability to utilize that capacity to the fullest.
• security- individual‟s access to food, as well as actions designed to manage or
overcome those risks;
• Timing-the seasonality of production (hence cash income) versus the steady rhythm of
consumption.
 However, the overall definitions of food security, circuit's
• availability
• access and basic principles
• utilization
 Food security is thought as a dynamic output of livelihood systems. Worth noting here
is that food, though certainly important, is only one of the factors that drive households
to make decisions that affect their livelihood systems, among competing (making choice
among) interests and adopt risks in production systems.

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• Preservation of livelihood assets may often take precedence over fulfillment of food
needs in the short run, and people will often go hungry for a period of time in order to
save seeds for planting, purchase inputs for cultivating their fields or to avoid having to
sell an animal. When land and livestock begin to be sold to fulfill the food needs of the
family, it implies an acute exhaustion of options or an enhanced level of desperation in
the situation.
 Livelihood security may be seen as a precondition of household food and nutrition
security.
 Households are food and nutritionally secure when their livelihoods are sustainable.
 Food security is a subset of livelihood security; food needs are not necessarily more
important than basic needs or aspects of subsistence or survival within households.
 Food insecure households juggle among a range of requirements, including immediate
consumption and future capacity to produce. b/c of he/she has no enough food.

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B. Food Insecurity
• Food insecurity is a lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy
life(USDA, 2018). The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) divides food insecurity
into the following two categories:
Low food security: reduced quality, variety, or desirability of diet and little or no
indication of reduced food intake.
Very low food security: multiple indications of disrupted eating patterns and reduced
food intake.
 Food insecurity concern (reasons) may be due to either:
• inadequate physical availability of food supplies (shortage or lack of supply),
• poor access to food among the population (inefficient distribution channel),
• inadequate utilization of food (poor or low dietary-notorious food intake).
 Forms of Food insecurity: food insecurity classified as:
a. Chronic (i.e., a routine, cyclical pattern).
b. Transitory (i.e., a temporary and irregular occurrence)
a. Chronic food insecurity occurs when a household is persistently unable to meet the food
requirements of its members over a long period of time.
• It, therefore, afflicts households that persistently lack the ability to either buy or produce
their own enough food.
• The cyclical type of food insecurity
Livelihoodisand
caused by seasonality.
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 …cont’d
 Structural factors contributing to chronic food insecurity include:
 poverty (as both cause and consequence),
 a fragile natural resource base,
 weak institutions and
 unhelpful or inconsistent government policies. Poor households highly affected.
b. Transitory food insecurity refers to a temporary decline in a household's access to enough
food.
Due to:
• crop failure,
• seasonal scarcities,
• temporary illness or unemployment,
• Instability in food prices, production, household income and etc.
This does not works in all parts of world, example the main triggers of transitory food
insecurity in Ethiopia are drought and war.
 However, what is transitory may become chronic, and irregular occurrences sometimes
evolve into cyclical patterns.

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 …cont’d
 Theoretically, poverty, household vulnerability, and undernourishment may be distinct
conditions.
• Yet, in practice, these conditions intersect and overlap: poor households are usually most
vulnerable to transitory and chronic food insecurity, hence they are often undernourished.
• In general, a household can be said to be food secure only if it has protection against all
kinds of insecurity. The average access to food over the long term should be nutritionally
adequate, and a household should be able to cope with short-term vicissitudes (changes)
without sacrificing the nutritional needs of any of its members.

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 …cont’d
• It is important to know that though hunger, malnutrition, poverty and food insecurity
are closely related, even they are distinct concepts.
 Hunger:- is usually understood as an uncomfortable or painful sensation caused by
insufficient food energy consumption. Scientifically, hunger is referred to as food
deprivation.
 all hungry people are food insecure, but not all food insecure people are hungry, as
there are other causes of food insecurity, including those due to poor intake of micro-
nutrients.
 Malnutrition:- may be an outcome of food insecurity especially poor intake of micro-
nutrients, or it may relate to non-food factors, such as:
• inadequate care practices for children,
• insufficient health services; and
• An unhealthy environment. while
 poverty:- is a cause of hunger, lack of adequate and proper nutrition itself is an
underlying cause of poverty.

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 1.2. Sustainable Livelihood Approaches
• The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA) is a method of analyzing and changing the lives of
people experiencing poverty and disadvantage. It is a participatory approach based on the recognition
that all people have abilities and assets that can be developed to help them improve their lives.
• In another sustainable livelihoods approach is a way of thinking about the objectives, scope, and
priorities for development activities.
It is based on evolving thinking about the way the poor and vulnerable lives their lives and the
importance of policies and institutions.
 In Sustainable Livelihood Approaches, Poverty-focused development activity should be:
 People-centered: sustainable poverty elimination will be achieved only if external support focuses on
what matters to people,
 Responsive and participatory: poor people themselves must be key actors in identifying and
addressing livelihood priorities. Outsiders need processes that enable them to listen and respond to the
poor.
 Multi-level: poverty elimination is an enormous challenge that will only be overcome by working at
multiple levels(from micro-level to macro-level structures. E.g. in policies, strategies and etc.
 Conducted in partnership: with both the public and the private sector.
 Sustainable: there are four key dimensions to sustainability - economic, institutional, social and
environmental. All are important - a balance must be found between them.
 Dynamic: external support must recognize the dynamic nature of livelihood strategies, respond
flexibly to changes in people's situations, and develop longer-term commitments.

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 …cont’d

Source: Springer Nature Switzerland AG (2020).

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Food First Approach Sustainable Livelihood Approach
Access to food  Secure and sustainable livelihood
Failure to subsist(does not have continuity)  Success in feeding, living (have continuity)
Food at the top of the hierarchy of needs  Food is one part of a jigsaw of livelihood needs
Food needs met before and in preference to  Food needs met to the extent possible given
all others immediate and future livelihood needs
Lack or want of food  Defenselessness, insecurity, exposure to risk,
stresses and shocks
Opposite of vulnerability is enough food,  Opposite of vulnerability is security
regardless of the terms and conditions on
which it is acquired
Based on social, medical criteria  Based on economic, cultural criteria
Designed to maximize immediate  Designed to preserve livelihoods
consumption
Degrade environment to meet immediate  Preserve environment to secure future
food needs

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 …cont’d
 The sustainability of livelihoods raises many questions that fall in two categories:
 whether a livelihood is sustainable environmentally, in its effect on local and global
resources and assets.
 whether a livelihood is sustainable socially, that is, able to cope with stress and shocks,
and retain its ability to continue and improve.
Environmental sustainability concerns the external impact of livelihoods on other
livelihoods; while social sustainability concerns the internal capacity to withstand
pressures.
Sustainability is thus a function of how assets and capabilities are utilized, maintained
and enhanced, so as to preserve livelihoods.

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 …cont’d
a. Environmental sustainability: Most conventional thinking equates sustainability with
preservation or enhancement of the productive resource base, particularly for future
generations, at two levels: locally and globally.
 At local level,
 the question is whether livelihood activities maintain and enhance, or deplete and degrade
the local natural resource base.
On the negative side, livelihood activities may contribute to desertification, deforestation,
and soil erosion, declining water tables, Stalinization and the like.
On the positive side, livelihood activities can improve productivity of renewable
resources like air and river water, soil, organic soil fertility, and trees.
 At the global level,
 the question is whether, environmentally, livelihood activities make a net positive or
negative contribution to the long-term environmental sustainability of other livelihoods.
This focuses on issues of pollution, greenhouse gases and global warming, the ozone
layer depletion, the irreversible use of the world‟s store of non-renewable resources, and
the use of sinks (such as the sea for carbon dioxide) for pollution emissions.

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
…cont’d
Globally, the most environmentally sustainable are those of the rich, economically and
technologically advanced (the North) than those of the poor developing countries and
people (the south). Why? Urbanization, industrial distribution, …etc.
• Locally the main challenge is to enhance sustainable livelihood- intensity of resource use,
especially in the rural areas of the south (of the poor people of the developing countries).
• Globally the main challenge is to reduce the unsustainability of livelihoods, especially in
the urban areas of the North (the developed countries).
b. Social sustainability:
• In terms of equity, environmental sustainability of livelihoods has to be complemented by
the social sustainability of all livelihoods.
 Social sustainability refers to whether a human unit (individual, household or family) can
not only gain but maintain an adequate and decent livelihood. This has two dimensions, a
negative and positive side:
• The negative dimension is reactive, coping with stress and shocks;
• The positive dimension is proactive, enhancing and exercising capabilities in adapting to,
exploiting and creating change, and assuring continuity.

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 …cont’d
Dynamic livelihood capabilities: Social sustainability of a livelihood also depends on
positive and dynamic competence, the ability to perceive, predict, adapt to and exploit
changes in the physical, social and economic environment. It refers to:
• The capacity to assess, to organize, to manage and exploit links with the wider economy.
• Awareness, experimental innovation, and adoptability contribute to dynamic
capabilities, particularly in agriculture, through this farming family‟s livelihood can
become more sustainable in uncertain and changing conditions where markets and price
fluctuate, and where old opportunities shrink and new ones appear and expand.
C. Intergenerational sustainability:
• social sustainability of a livelihood also involves maintaining and enhancing capabilities
for future generations.
 Intergenerational sustainability can be direct or indirect.
 In its direct form, it takes the form of the inheritance of assets and/or skills; land or the
tools that are passed to the next generations. For example- skills and knowledge are
transmitted from parents to children through family apprenticeship.
 In its indirect form, is achieved through children moving to other places or to other
occupations. There they may find or create new livelihoods which may be the same or
different from those of the earlier generation.
• As rural populations rise, farm sizes diminish, and changes accelerate; so dynamic
livelihood capability and intergenerational sustainability become more critical.

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Chapter Two: The Sustainable livelihoods framework and strategies
2.1. The Sustainable livelihoods framework
• The livelihoods framework: is a tool to improve our understanding of livelihoods,
particularly the livelihoods of the poor.
• It is a holistic approach that tries to capture, and provide a means of understanding, the
fundamental causes and dimensions of poverty without collapsing the focus onto just a
few factors (e.g. economic issues, food security, etc.).
 SLA tries to sketch out the relationships between the different aspects (causes,
manifestations) of poverty, allowing for more effective prioritization of action at an
operational level.
 The SL approach (or approaches given that there is no set way of doing things) aims to
help poor people achieve lasting livelihood improvements (Sustainable Livelihoods
Support Office, 1999).
 is concerned first and foremost with people.
 It seeks to gain an accurate and realistic understanding of people‟s strengths (assets or
capital endowments) and how they endeavor to convert these into positive livelihood
outcomes.
 is founded on a belief that people require a range of assets to achieve positive livelihood
outcomes; no single category of assets on its own is sufficient to yield all the many and
varied livelihood outcomes that people seek. This is particularly true for poor people
whose access to any given category of assets tends to be very limited.
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 …cont’d

Source: DFID (1999)

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 …cont’d
 The vulnerability context: refers to the external environment in which people live. This
includes trends (such as national or international economic trends, changes in available
technology, political systems), shocks (such as illness or death, conflict, weather), and
seasonality (of prices, production cycles and so on). This factors have a direct impact on
the possibilities that poor people have to earn a living now and in the future.
 refers to the extent an individual or a community or a country is exposed to certain risks
like food insecurity, famine, or any natural or manmade hazards.
• an illness in the family can deprive a family of an important source of income and can
force them to sell important assets that they have built up.
• Seasonal shifts in prices, production and employment opportunities are one of the most
enduring sources of hardship for poor people all over the world.
 The 'transforming structures and processes' box: refers to the institutions and
policies that affect poor peoples' lives, from public and private entities to national
policies and local culture.
 The idea of assets: is central to the sustainable livelihoods approach. Rather than
understanding poverty as simply a lack of income, the sustainable livelihoods approach
considers the assets that poor people need in order to sustain an adequate income to live.

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 …cont’d
• Based on those assets, and shaped by the vulnerability context and the transforming
structures and processes, poor people are able to undertake a range of livelihood strategies
activities and choices that ultimately determine their livelihood outcomes.
 Poor people are usually obliged to combine a range of strategies in order simply to
survive; individuals may engage in multiple activities, and the different members of a
household may live and work in different places.
 The outcomes that they may achieve, all being well, could include more income, increased
well-being, reduced vulnerability and greater food security.
 Sometimes one outcome can negatively affect another; for example, when poor people
engage in less risky and hence lower income activities, in order to be less vulnerable to
shocks.

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 …cont’d
 Sustainable livelihoods framework/Approach(SLA) has seven guiding principles. They
do not prescribe solutions or dictate methods. Instead, they are flexible and adaptable to
diverse local conditions. The guiding principles are:
1. Be people-centered: begins by analyzing people's livelihoods and how they change
over time. The people themselves actively participate throughout the project cycle.
2. Be holistic: acknowledges that people adopt many strategies to secure their
livelihoods, and that many actors are involved; for example the private sector,
ministries, community-based organizations and international organizations.
3. Be dynamic: seeks to understand the dynamic nature of livelihoods and what (the
factors) influences them.
4. Build on strengths: builds on people's perceived strengths and opportunities rather
than focusing on their problems and needs. It supports existing livelihood strategies.
5. Promote micro-macro links: examines the influence of policies and institutions on
livelihood options and highlights the need for policies to be informed by insights from
the local level and by the priorities of the poor.
6. Encourage broad partnerships: counts on broad partnerships drawing on both the
public and private sectors.
7. Aim for sustainability: Sustainability is important if poverty reduction is to be lasting.

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 [Link] asset building blocks of livelihood
A. Livelihood Assets
 An asset is a resource owned or controlled by an individual, corporation, or government
with the expectation that it will generate a positive economic value.
• A larger asset base generally translates into greater livelihood opportunities and greater
livelihood security. The opposite is true in smaller asset. Assets are the important part of
any sustainable livelihood.
 Livelihood assets refer to the resource base of the community and of different categories
of households.
• By building assets, individuals and households develop their capacity to cope with the
challenges they encounter and to meet their needs on a sustained basis.
• There are different assets that people have; the amounts available to them vary, in the
livelihoods framework, assets are conventionally divided into:

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 …cont’d
I. Human assets:-represent the skills, knowledge, education, ability to work and good
health that enable people to pursue different livelihood strategies and achieve their
livelihood objectives.
II. Social assets:-refer to status in society, as well as access to an extended family and other
social networks. It also includes relationships of trust and reciprocity that facilitate
cooperation, reduce transaction costs and can provide the basis for informal safety nets
amongst poor people.
III. Natural assets:-e.g. land, forests, and water resources.
IV. Physical assets:- include livestock, land, shelter, tools, equipment, but may also be
community owned, e.g. road infrastructure.
V. Financial assets:-include income, but also access to credit and investments. They may
include available stocks, which can be held in several forms, e.g. cash, bank deposits,
livestock and jewelry. They may also include regular inflows of cash, including pensions
and remittances.
 These five asset categories are interlinked. No single category on its own is sufficient to
yield all the many and varied livelihood outcomes that people seek.
• The resilience of people‟s livelihoods is largely determined by the resources or assets
available to them and how these have been affected by disaster. However, assets can be
transformed into life-threatening liabilities. Pentagon ?
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 2.3. Vulnerability context
 The vulnerability context refers to unpredictable events that can undermine livelihoods
and cause households to fall into poverty.
 Another Robert Chambers defines vulnerability as: defenselessness, insecurity and
exposure to risk, shocks and stress and difficulty in coping with them.
 Vulnerability has two sides:
• an external side of risks, shocks and stress to which an individual or household is subject
and
• an internal side, which is defenselessness, meaning a lack of means to cope with
damaging loss.
People‟s livelihoods and the wider availability of assets are fundamentally affected by
trends, shocks and seasonality over which they have limited or no control.
• Assessing the local vulnerability context is a key part of livelihoods analysis.
• The poor are constantly insecure but there are certain factors and trends that can make
their insecurity much deeper. Vulnerability assessment involves an analysis of factors and
long-term trends. Many of these factors come from several levels away from the immediate
environment.

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 Vulnerability and its factors
 Weather-related shocks and natural calamities: drought, earthquakes, hurricanes, tidal
waves, floods, heavy snow, early frost, extreme heat or cold waves
 Pest and disease epidemics: insect attacks, predators and diseases affecting crops,
animals and people
 Economic shocks: drastic changes in the national or local economy and its insertion in the
world economy, affecting prices, markets, employment and purchasing power
 Civil strife: war, armed conflict, failed states, displacement, destruction of lives and
property
 Seasonal stresses: hungry season food insecurity
 Environmental stresses: land degradation, soil erosion, bush fires, pollution and
 Idiosyncratic shocks: illness or death in family, job loss or theft of personal property.
 Structural vulnerability: lack of voice or power to make claims

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 …cont’d
 Reducing vulnerability has two dimensions:
 External involving public action- to reduce external stress and shocks through flood
prevention, disaster preparedness, off-season public works to provide employment,
prophylaxis against diseases, and the like.
 Internal involving private action, in which a household adds to its assets, so as it can
respond more effectively and with less loss.
2.4. Livelihood strategies
• Livelihood strategies are the range and combination of activities and choices that people
normally make or undertake in stable and peaceful times in order to achieve their
livelihood goals (e.g. productive activities, investment strategies, reproductive choices).
 Livelihood strategies can be divided into:
Natural resource-based activities, e.g. cultivation, livestock-keeping, weaving,
collection and gathering; and
Non-natural resource-based activities, e.g. trade, services, remittances.
• Most households employ a combination of the two. Even in urban settings many
households will use limited land space around or near the compound for small-scale crop
production and will also keep small livestock.
 The more choice and flexibility that people have in their livelihood strategies, the greater
their ability to withstand or adapt to the shocks and stresses of the vulnerability context.
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 2.5. Livelihood Outcomes.
 Livelihood outcomes: are the achievements or outputs of Livelihood Strategies.
• It helps to recognize the richness of potential livelihood goals, and in turn, to understand
people‟s priorities, why they do what they do, and where the major constraints lie.
 Livelihood outcomes can be categorized under three headings:
• Economic:-e.g. Food and income security, i.e. the ability to acquire sufficient food and
income to meet basic needs, is essentially an economic outcome.
• Biological:-e.g. Mortality and malnutrition rates or levels are essentially biological
measures of livelihood outcome). E.g. reduce mortality and malnutrition rates and
• Social:- e.g. Dignity is an all-encompassing term that includes notions like choice and
control over one‟s future, sense of self-worth and status. It is clearly a social measure
and as such is hard to quantify. The right to life with dignity is one of the fundamental
principles in the humanitarian charter but in the rush to respond to emergencies, people‟s
dignity is often forgotten.

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2.6. Issues related to livelihood strategies in Ethiopia
• Ethiopian agriculture appears to be locked into a downward spiral of low and declining
productivity, caused by an adverse combination of agro climatic, demographic, economic
and institutional constraints, trends and shocks.
 Livelihood strategies
• As some researcher identified Livelihood strategies in Ethiopia are multidimensional.
 Income diversification
 on-farm livelihood categories were crop and livestock production.
 Off-farm strategies included agricultural activities employed out of the farmland of the
households e.g. forest products and fishery employment, trade of animals and crop, trade
of food and drink, sell of handcraft products, income from carpentry, remittance and gift
were taken as non-farm
 Movement: either to urban areas or to farm in parts of the country where arable land is
available. In Ethiopia, both these options are problematic. b/c
• Employment opportunities in towns are very limited
• Excessive bureaucratic

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• Livelihood diversification is a process by which rural households construct a diverse
portfolio of activities and social support capabilities in their struggle for survival and
improvement in their standards of living and the means of gaining a living. It can be
defined as the maintenance and continuous alteration of highly varied range of activities
and occupations to minimize household income variability, reduce the adverse impacts of
seasonality, and provide employment or additional income(BioMed Central 2020).
 The researcher (Terefe Degefa,2019) identified Some of Local Institutions in the Food
Security and Livelihoods in Ethiopia.
 Social relations and labor sharing practices
• Edir: - is an informal association organized by households living in the same or nearby
villages.
• Debo:- It is thus a means to lessen the burdens of work of individuals/households
particularly at peak times of agricultural activities, construction of houses, fences,
clearance of farmlands and others.
• Pairing oxen: - is a traditional local institution by which two individuals pair their oxen
and use it to farm their land with the paired oxen on a turn basis.
• Ox sharing: sharing oxen to some who is in need.
 Local formal structures for the livelihood of households
• Micro finance: - most of financial institutions which have significant market share both in
borrowing and provision of loans are owned by the state. They target poor sections of the
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urban duelers and rural farmers. Dilla Ethiopia 2025
Chapter 3: The link of sustainable livelihoods framework to other development
approaches. Is there link? Yes!
3.1. Rights-based approaches
 A human rights-based approach is a conceptual framework for the process of human
development that is normatively based on international human rights standards and
operationally directed to promoting and protecting human rights.
• It is about empowering people to know and claim their rights and increasing the ability
and accountability of individuals and institutions who are responsible for respecting,
protecting and fulfilling rights.
• seeks to analyze inequalities which lie at the heart of development problems and redress
discriminatory practices and injustices distributions of power that impede development
progress.
• It focuses on those who are most marginalized, excluded or discriminated against. E.g.
gender norms, rural population, some discriminated groups of people.
There are two main rationales for a human rights-based approach:
 the intrinsic rationale(natural reason), acknowledging that a human rights-based
approach is the right thing to do, morally or legally; and
 the instrumental rationale (materialist reason), recognizing that a human rights-based
approach leads to better and more sustainable human development outcomes.
In practice, the reason for pursuing a human rights-based approach is usually a blend of
these two. Livelihood and food security by Adane A.
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 …cont’d
 Elements of good practices under a human rights-based approach
 Programs identify the realization of human rights as ultimate goals of development
 People are recognized as key actors in their own development, rather than passive
recipients of commodities and services.
 Participation is both a means and a goal.
 Strategies are empowering, not disempowering.
 Both outcomes and processes are monitored and evaluated.
 focus on marginalized and excluded groups.
 The development process is locally owned.
 aim to reduce disparities and empower those left behind.
 Situation analysis is used to identify immediate, underlying and root causes of
development problems.
 Analysis includes all stakeholders, including the capacities of the state as the main duty-
bearer and the role of other non-state actors.
 Human Rights standards guide the formulation of measurable goals, targets and
indicators in programming.
 National accountability(both government& individuals).
 Strategic partnerships are developed and sustained.
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 3.2. Participatory development approach
 Participatory development is a process through which stakeholders can influence and
share control over development initiatives, and over the decisions and resources that affect
themselves.
It is an alternative to mainstream top-down development. There is some question about the
proper definition of PD as it varies depending on the perspective applied.
 Two perspectives that can define PD are:-
1. The Social Movement Perspective defines participation as the mobilization of people to
eliminate unjust hierarchies of knowledge, power, and economic distribution. This
perspective identifies the goal of participation as an empowering process for people to
handle challenges and influence the direction of their own lives.
2. The Institutional Perspective defines participation as the reach and inclusion of inputs
by relevant groups in the design and implementation of a development project.

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 …cont’d
 The institutional perspective can also be referred to as a Project-Based Perspective. From an
institutional perspective, there are four key stages of a development project:
1. Research stage
In where the development problem is accurately defined.
All relevant stakeholders can be involved in this process.
The research around the development problem can include studying previous experiences, individual
and community knowledge and attitudes, existing policies and other relevant contextual information
related to socio-economic conditions, culture, spirituality, gender, etc.
2. Design stage
 defines the actual activities.
 helps to secure the ownership and commitment of the communities involved.
 Active participation by local citizens and other stakeholders aims to enhance both the quality and
relevance of the suggested interventions.
3. Implementation stage
• is when the planned intervention is implemented.
• Participation at this stage increases commitment, relevance and sustainability.
4. Evaluation stage
 participation ensures that the most significant changes are voiced, brought to common attention and
assessed.
 For a meaningful evaluation, indicators and measurements should be defined in a participatory
process at the very beginning of the initiative involving all relevant stakeholders.
Livelihood and food security by Adane A.
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 …Cont’d
 There are various forms of Participatory approaches:
 Participation by consultation is an extractive process, whereby stakeholders provide
answers to questions posed by outside researchers or experts. However, this consultative
process keeps all the decision- making power in the hands of external professionals who are
under no obligation to incorporate stakeholders‟ input.
 Participation by collaboration forms groups of primary stakeholders to participate in the
discussion and analysis of predetermined objectives set by the project.
• This level of participation does not usually result in dramatic changes in what should be
accomplished, which is often already determined.
• Require an active involvement in the decision-making process about how to achieve it.
• This incorporates a component of horizontal communication and capacity building among
all stakeholders-a joint collaborative effort.
 Even if initially dependent on outside facilitators and experts, with time collaborative
participation has the potential to evolve into an independent form of participation.
 Empowerment participation is where primary stakeholders are capable and willing to
initiate the process and take part in the analysis.
• outsiders are equal partners in the development effort, the primary stakeholders are primus
inter pares, i.e., they are equal partners with a significant say in decisions concerning their
lives.
• Dialogue identifies and analyzes critical issues and an exchange of knowledge and
experiences leads to solutions. Livelihood and food security by Adane A.
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3.3. Sector-Wide Approach (SWAp) is an approach to international development that
brings together governments, donors and other stakeholders within any sector.
• It is characterized by a set of operating principles rather than a specific package of
policies or activities.
 A SWAp is:
• broadening policy dialogue;
• developing a single sector policy (that addresses private and public sector issues) and a
common realistic expenditure program;
• common monitoring arrangements; and more coordinated procedures for funding and
procurement.
• involves a different type of relationship between government and development partners;
• support to public expenditure programs can be better coordinated;
• a means of improving aid effectiveness-by improving the efficiency and effectiveness.
• is an approach, not a blueprint.
• It is a form of program based approach (PBA) applied at the sector level.

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 …cont’d
 The key components of an effective SWAp are:
• A clear nationally-owned sector policy and strategy;
• A medium term expenditure framework that reflects the sector strategy;
• Systematic arrangements for programming resources that support the sector;
• A performance monitoring system than measures progress and strengthens accountability.

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 3.4. Integrated rural development
• IRD is an ongoing process involving outside intervention and local aspirations; aiming to
attain the betterment of groups of people living in rural areas and to sustain and improve
rural values; through the redistribution of central resources, reducing comparative
disadvantages for competition and finding new ways to reinforce and utilize rural
resources.
• It is integrated in the sense that as opposed to central development it is controlled and
managed locally; but opposed to local development besides local resources it also leans
on the professional and financial support of the center.
 In other words, integrated rural development could be called the theory of the „new rural
development paradigm‟ which tries to identify how local development and/or the
reconfiguration of rural resources can be helped by the center; for the benefit of rural
localities; at the same time maintaining rural values for the future.
• Rural development marginality is usually understood in geographical terms and is often
synonymous with peripherally or remoteness.
• people living in rural areas have suffered problems of physical exclusion from urban-
based services and jobs (Lowe et. al. 1995).
• Nevertheless, for rural development 'center' and „periphery‟ can be seen in a number of
dimensions.

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 …cont’d
 IRD approach can be based on the following principles:
 development can best be achieved through large financial investments and by building
infrastructure, agencies and administration;
 it should be based on programming, have large scope in terms of time and geographical
space, and consider higher or longer term objectives (such as environmental goals or the
cohesion of different areas);
 resources should be concentrated; this presumably brings better results, and also means
large projects, which can be administered, controlled and evaluated by the central
institutions all the way enabling transparency and accountability of public spending;
 development resources should be additional to private(domestic) and public money,
helping projects that could not be realized, otherwise (this, again, often means expensive,
large projects, such as building of motorways);
 During the development process, policies should consider and be continuously informed
by local interests, effects and reactions.

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3.5. Developmental state model
 A Developmental State is a state where the government is intimately involved in the
macro and micro economic planning in order to grow the economy, with the addition
whilst attempting to deploy its resources in developing better lives for the people. It first
developed in East Asia in the late twentieth century.
 sometimes referred to as state development capitalism, the state has more independent,
or autonomous, political power, as well as more control over the economy.
• Characterized by having strong state intervention, as well as extensive regulations and
planning.
• a government ministry can have the freedom to plan the economy and look to long-term
national interests without having their economic policies disrupted by either corporate-
class or working class short-term or narrow interests.

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 Characteristics of the Developmental state
 Emphasis on market share over profit
 Economic nationalism
 Protection of fledging domestic industries
 Focus on foreign technology transfer
 Large government bureaucracy
 Alliance between the state, labor and industry called corporatism
 Skepticism of neoliberalism and the Washington Consensus
 Prioritization of economic growth over political reform
 Legitimacy and Performance
 Emphasis on technical education

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 Some of the best prospects for economic growth in the last few decades have been found
in East and Southeast Asia. Japan, China, Singapore, India, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam,
Malaysia, South Korea, Philippines, and Indonesia are developing at high to moderate
levels. Several East and Southeast Asian countries today have been doubling their
economies every 10 years. It is important to note that in most of these Asian countries, it
is not just that the rich are getting richer, but the poor are becoming less poor. For
example, poverty has dropped dramatically in Thailand. Research in the 1960s showed
that 60 percent of the people in Thailand lived below a poverty level estimated with cost
of basic necessities. By 2004, however, similar estimates showed that poverty there was
around 13 to 15 percent. Thailand has been shown by some World Bank figures to have
had the best record for reducing poverty per increase in GNP of any nation in the world.
 These „development states‟ have the will and authority to create and maintain policies
that lead to long-term development that helps all their citizens, not just the wealthy.
Multinational corporations are regulated so that they may follow
• domestically mandated standards for pay and labor conditions,
• pay reasonable taxes, and by extension leave some profits within the country.
 Specifically, developmental state is a government with sufficient organization and power
to achieve its development goals.
 state with the ability to prove consistent economic guidance and rational and efficient
organization, and the power to back up its long-range economic policies.
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3.6. Trickle-down theory
• Trickle-down economics or the trickle-down theory refers to the economic proposition
that taxes on businesses and the wealthy in society should be reduced as a means to
stimulate business investment in the short term and benefit society at large in the long
term.
• The term is refer „money was all appropriated for the top in hopes that it would trickle
down to the needy.‟
 Development has been conventionally associated with economic growth and priorities,
with a kind of inevitable, linear progression of countries and communities towards
modernization and, usually, westernization. The success of such development is then
assessed by indicators relating to an increase in gross domestic product, average income
or investment in industry. However, this method of understanding and measuring
development rarely takes into account social or political dimensions, or reveals other
factors such as the disparity between different groups within countries. It also rarely
considers whether the kind of development taking place is culturally and locally
appropriate and sustainable. In recognition of such limitations, human rights principles
have been increasingly explored as a guiding framework for development.
 The United Nations General Assembly's 1986 Declaration on the Right to Development
(DRD) defines development as a human right with social, cultural, civil and political as
well as economic dimensions, and recognizes individuals and peoples as rights holders -
as subjects and not objects of development.

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 …cont’d
 The trickle-down theory postulates that the benefits from tax cuts, capital gains,
dividends, and even looser regulations on corporations and wealthy individuals would
eventually flow down to benefit middle- to low- income earners. The extra wealth
accruing from the deductions would drive the wealthy to invest in or expand businesses,
boosting economic growth.
• It is the notion that development is purely an "economic" phenomenon in which rapid
gains from the overall growth of GNP and per capita income would automatically bring
benefits (i.e., "trickle down") to the masses in the form of jobs and other economic
opportunities. The main preoccupation is therefore to get the growth job done while
problems of poverty, unemployment, and income distribution are perceived to be of
secondary importance.
Trickle down: the idea that making the North, the cities and the elites in the South, and
the rich generally, richer will ultimately produce trickle-down benefits for the worlds less
advantaged.
 Trickle-down economics generally does not work because:
Cutting taxes for the wealthy often do not translate to increased rates of employment,
consumer spending, and government revenues in the long-term.
Instead, cutting taxes for middle-and lower-income earners will drive the economy
through the trickle-up phenomenon.
The added income for the wealthy, resulting from tax cuts, will simply increase the
growing income inequality inLivelihood
the United States.
and food security by Adane A.
Dilla Ethiopia 2025
Chapter: 4 Shocks/vulnerability to livelihoods/food insecurity
 A shock is a relatively short acting stress, such as drought, epidemic, or fall in output
prices. However, the effects may be long-lived, or a series of individually minor impacts
may ‘ratchet up’ into a major one over time.
 If shocks are more gradual, then they become a trend, such as:
• urbanization,
• structural transformation,
• population growth,
• resource degradation,
• the distribution of new technologies or the development of new markets and demand.
• Trends may be less devastating in the short-term as they provide livelihood systems with
time to assess prepare and adapt, but the impacts are likely to be just as permanent.
Cycles, particularly those associated with seasonality, are more predictable, though they
are often modulated by trends and shocks (e.g. particularly bad or good rains).

Shock Trend

Seasonality Livelihood and food security by Adane A.

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4.1. Forms of livelihoods/food insecurity
 Intervention strategies of livelihoods which determine Household food, nutrition and
income security.
a. Livelihood promotion (development-oriented programming)
 It involves improving the resilience of household livelihoods so that food and other basic
needs can be met on a sustainable basis (i.e. development). Interventions of this type often
aim to reduce the structural vulnerability of livelihood systems by focusing on:
 improving production to stabilize yields through crop diversification and natural resource
management measures (e.g. soil and water conservation);
 creating alternative income-generating activities (e.g. activities to develop small
enterprise);
 reinforcing coping strategies that are economically and environmentally sustainable (e.g.
seasonally appropriate off-farm employment);
 improving on-farm storage capacity to increase the availability of buffer stocks;
 Improving common property management through community participation.
 It could also deal with meso-level development. Such interventions could help improve the
terms of trade for the poor by improving local access to income, enhancing food
availability and lowering food prices.
 livelihood promotion activities could focus on preventive measures that improve health and
sanitation conditions and the population/resource balance to insure that any income and
production gains are not lost to disease and unchecked population growth.
Livelihood and food security by Adane A.
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 …cont’d
b. Livelihood protection (rehabilitation/mitigation-oriented programming)
• involves protecting household livelihood systems to prevent an erosion of productive
assets or to assist in their recovery (rehabilitation/mitigation).
• These types of interventions entail timely food and income transfers which can reduce
long-term vulnerability resulting from the forced selling of productive assets to meet
immediate food and other needs.
 The negative impacts of livelihood insecurity can be reduced by
timely detection of where livelihood and food insecurity are likely to occur and
establishing contingency plans that can be implemented rapidly before a significant
erosion of household assets occurs and other erosive coping strategies are activated.
• This could be at an early stage and to respond promptly could considerably reduce the
costs of dealing with a full-blown emergency.
 Protection-type interventions would include infrastructure improvements or soil and
water conservation measures, carried out through food- or cash-for-work or some other
means, to enhance the long-term viability and resilience of the communities.
 Recovery measures such as infrastructure repair and rehabilitation, distribution of seeds
and tools, reforestation and repair of water sites.

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 …cont’d
c. Livelihood provisioning (relief-oriented programming):
 involves providing food and meeting other essential needs for households to maintain
nutritional levels and save lives.
• Interventions of this type usually entail food and health relief for people in an emergency
or people who are chronically vulnerable.
• Targeted food and health relief is critical and should be combined with promotion
interventions where possible, to phase out the food transfers.
• In relief situations where people have left their homes (i.e. situations involving refugees
and internally displaced populations), promotion interventions such as health and
nutrition education and family planning initiatives will be limited to those activities that
can be brought to the camps.
• Community-focused interventions may be necessary for chronically vulnerable
populations (e.g. mother and child health program) to allow for the provisioning
activities to be taken over by the community on a sustainable basis.

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4.2. Vulnerability to livelihoods and food insecurity
 Vulnerability refers to the extent an individual or a community or a country is exposed to
certain risks like food insecurity, famine, or any natural or manmade hazards.
 Resilience, on the other hand, refers to the rate at which an individual, community or a
country recovers from such setbacks.
• People‟s livelihoods and the wider availability of assets are affected by: trends shocks and
seasonality.

Shocks: floods, storms, civil conflict, etc.), unpredictable

Trends may or may not be more benign, though they are more predictable. They have a
particularly important influence on rates of return (economic or otherwise) to chosen
livelihood strategies.
Seasonal shifts in prices, employment opportunities and food availability.

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4.4. Determinants (factors) of Food Security /Insecurity.
a. Food availability: refers to the physical presence of food which may come from own
production, purchases from internal market or import from overseas.
 On national level food availability is a function of the combination of domestic food
stocks, commercial food imports, food aid and domestic food production, as well as the
underlying determinants of each of these factors.
b. Food access: Household food access is the ability to obtain sufficient food of guaranteed
quality and quantity to meet nutritional requirements of all household members.
 The food should be at right place at the right time and people should have economic
freedom or purchasing power to buy adequate and nutritious food.
 Food access is determined by physical and financial resources as well as by social and
political factors.
 Access depends on;
income available to the household,
the distribution of income within the household,
the price of food and others such individual‟s access to market, social and
institutional entitlement/rights.

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c. Food utilization: refers to ingestion and digestion of adequate and quality food for
maintenance of good health.
 This means proper biological use of food, requiring a diet that contains sufficient energy
and essential nutrients as well as knowledge of food storage, processing, basic nutrition,
child care and illness management.
d. Stability of food: refers to the continuous supply of adequate food all year round without
shortages.
• To be food secure a population, household, or individual must have access to adequate
food at all times.
• They should not be at risk of losing access to food as a consequence of a shock (e.g., an
economic or climatic crisis), or cyclically (e.g., during a particular period of the year,
seasonal food insecurity).
 Therefore stability refer to both the availability and access dimensions of food security.

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 …cont’d

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4.4. Livelihoods strategies
 Adaptive mechanisms are measures used to manage and minimize the risk from chronic
food insecurity and recurring situations. Adaptation is a process of adjustment to a
longer-term solution, for instance pastoralists moving to areas of better rainfall and
pasture growth.
 Coping mechanisms are temporary responses to reduce or minimize effects of a
stressful event or an unfavorable situation where food access is abnormally disrupted, for
instance by drought, flood, earthquake or military activity.
 Distress mechanisms, also known as crisis or survival mechanisms in their more radical
form, are measures that households will undertake in response to severe crisis that are
largely irreversible, damaging to people‟s livelihoods or their dignity and that may
permanently undermine future food security and livelihoods. They are an extreme form of
a coping mechanism.
 Practicing Preferred food and Undesirable foods
 Preferred foods refer to foods of a particular form (e.g. whole rice vs. broken rice); type
of staple (e.g. millet vs. corn); or quality (e.g. meat or fish). People will often switch to
less preferred foods in the less severe stages of food insecurity, reducing quality to
maintain the same level of consumption.
 Undesirable foods refer to foods consumed only under extreme hardship or so-called
famine foods, e.g. wild foods not normally consumed, immature crops, seed stock.
 Consumption of these foods is associated with severe food insecurity and a food crisis.
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Type of coping Consumption strategies  Livelihood strategies
strategy
Adaptive • Rely on less expensive/ less preferred foods  Borrow food, or cash to buy food, from neighbor/friend
(generally • Gathering or hunting of nutrient/ calorie-rich  Buy food on credit (with expectation of ability to pay
sustainable foods back)
and
• Slightly reduce food consumption (e.g. limit  Atypical short-term, short-distance migration
reversible)
portion size, reduce number of meals in a  Engage in atypical petty trade (e.g. firewood
day) collection)
• Reduce expenditure on non-food,  Engage in non-preferred wage labour
nonessential items  Slight sales of asset stocks (with expectation of
• Increase consumption of staple items vs. renewal)
non-staple items  Adapting agricultural practices (e.g. planting quick-
• Minor reduction of diet diversity maturing annuals, switching to subsistence crops)
Distress(some • Harvest immature crops  Removing children from school

not • Moderately reduce food consumption  Child labour

sustainable or • Consume next season's seed stocks  Moderate to heavy sales of productive asset stocks

reversible, • Devote all or nearly all cash resources to  Atypical long-term, long-distance labour migration

depends on staple food purchase

degree) • Gathering or hunting of nutrient/ calorie-
poor foods
• Send family members (especially children)

to richer relatives
• Major reduction of diet diversity

• Begging

Survival(unsu • reduce food consumption (e.g. restrict  Complete sales of assets

stainable, consumption by adults in order for small  Widespread migration to search for money/food
irreversible, children to eat, skip eatingLivelihood
for entireand
days)
food security by Adane A.
high risk)
• Severe reduction of diet diversity Dilla Ethiopia 2025
 …cont’d
 Some of the strategies of livelihood and food security also FAO identified are:-
Expands from a narrow focus on agriculture towards a range of interventions that support
diversified agricultural and non-agricultural livelihoods strategies.
Reflects the diverse and complex realities faced by poor people in specific contexts and
allows that development priorities often differ from location to location.
Builds interventions based on people's existing capabilities and assets, rather than relying
on external expertise and inputs.
Works with and through local organizations in order to reinforce self-help capacity and
sustainability
Addresses and strengthens micro-meso-macro linkages, institutions and services.
Pays particular attention to improving access of the poor to resources and markets.
Gives priority attention to the sustainability of livelihoods, with less emphasis on short-
term outcomes.

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Chapter Five: Causes of livelihoods and food insecurity
• There are many causes of global food insecurity and most of them are region specific,
except climate change where impacts are felt globally. Basically classified as:
 human causes like
• destruction of fertile lands,
• industrialization,
• modern agricultural practices and the need to produce for the market without thinking
about environmental sustainability and
 non-human cause like natural disasters
• Climate change-cause increasing irregularities in seasonal rainfall patterns e.g. floods&
Storm
• changing growing seasons have shifted ecological niches.
N.B While human destruction of his mother nature through careless management practices
have impacted negatively on his ability to produce enough food for the population, the
contribution that humans make to climate change is potentially causing increased food
insecurity globally.

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[Link]-climatic (moisture stress, aridity, variability of rainfall,)
• The global population is anticipated to increase to over 9 billion by the year 2050 (UNEP)
placing major new demands on global food production. For some, this is a catastrophe
waiting to happen. Predictions of catastrophe as a consequence of population increase and
resultant starvation extend back to the times of Malthus and beyond, but by and large, they
have not eventuated. Increased food production has resulted in greater consumption of
water. Agriculture is the major user of fresh water globally, and as the food production
system gears itself to meet the demands of the increased population, it uses more water.
 In generally there is
 Demand for food is set to increase, but the volume of water available to agriculture is
stable or decreasing, it follows, logically, that there must be major changes.
 Demand of water for food production is increasing.
 The increased number and duration of droughts and more prevalent sand and dust storms
are projected to lead to significant declines in agricultural yields and livestock production,
 The level of water salinity and soil salinity is expected to increase in parallel with the
temperatures increase as a result of rising evapotranspiration.
 water stress will increase and efficient irrigation techniques are crucial to maintain
productivity and food security.
 On average, an increase in global precipitation is expected, but the regional patterns of
rainfall will vary.
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 5.2. Environmental (soil degradation, vegetation and water resource depilation)
 Environmental degradation refers to a situation of declining resources of an environment.
• The environment provides all life support systems of every human society. These life
support systems are built and sustained by the natural resources found in air, land and
water. The misuse or over-use of these resources affects their quality and/or quantity in
comparison with their pristine availability in the environment.
 Degradation of land and water resources increasingly threatens national and household
food security in many parts of the developing world.
• Loss and degradation of water and land for agriculture are not universal, but are
widespread and accelerating, particularly in developing countries.
• Agro-ecological systems and societies have a threshold to degradation resilience, and
collapse when natural resources are degraded too far, as had happened in the past.
 Major concerns related to degradation are:
 Loss of water for agriculture and reallocation to cities and industries.
 Reduction in land quality in many different ways, leading to reduced food supplies, lower
agricultural income, increased costs to farmers and consumers, and deterioration of water
catchment functions.
 Reduction in water quality due to pollution, waterborne diseases and disease vectors.
 Loss of farmland through conversion to nonagricultural purposes.

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 …cont’d
 The global impacts of climate change on agriculture will depend on shocks at local and
regional levels and it is therefore important to understand the likely impacts at these scales.
Irrigation and other forms of agricultural water management are important and will be
impacted by climate change:
• Large surface irrigation systems fed by glaciers and snowmelt (notably northern India and
China);
• Large deltas which may be submerged by sea-level rise are increasingly prone to flood and
storm (cyclone) damage or experience salinity intrusion through surface and groundwater;
• Surface and groundwater systems in arid and semi-arid areas, where rainfall will decrease
and become more variable;
• Humid Tropics that experience seasonal storage systems in monsoon regions, where
proportion of storage yield will decline but peak flood flows are likely to increase;
 All supplemental irrigation areas where the consequences of irregular rainfall are mitigated
by short-term interventions to capture and store more soil moisture or runoff. This
comprises
• Temperate regions (in Europe and North America) that will experience seasonal drying,
even with increased annual rainfall, and
• The Mediterranean and seasonally arid regions.

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[Link] risks (natural disasters, manmade disasters,)
• Natural and man-made disasters are among the main drivers of hunger and malnutrition.
• They cause the loss of lives and livelihoods, destroy homes, productive assets and
infrastructure, and affect the availability of food and water.
 Natural disasters and food insecurity are directly interconnected.
• Climate change related hazards such as: floods, hurricanes, tsunamis, droughts and other
risks can weaken food security and severely impact agricultural activities.
 Consequently, this has an impact on market access, trade, food supply, reduced income,
increased food prices, decreased farm income and employment.
• Natural disasters create poverty, which in turn increases the prevalence of food insecurity
and malnutrition.
• It is inseparable natural disaster from human on livelihood and food insecurity, because
one leads to other. But
 some of man-made disasters of livelihood and food insecurity are: uncontrolled Population
growth, Lack of environmental conservation, political instability conflict and etc.

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 5.4. Anthropogenic (man made)causes
 Civil Conflict:- It is almost exclusively a phenomenon of countries with low levels of
economic development and high levels of food insecurity
 Interstate War:- wars have been waged to reduce demographic pressures arising from the
scarcity of arable land
 Democratic and Authoritarian Breakdowns: - Democratic breakdowns occur when
leaders are deposed and replaced by officials who come to power without regard for
elections, legal rules, and institutions.
 Protest and Rioting:-Throughout history higher food prices have contributed to or
triggered violent riot.
 Communal Violence:-Competition over scarce resources, particularly land and water,
often causes or exacerbates communal conflict
 Demographic and Social Factors:-In general, countries with proportionately larger
numbers of 15–24 year olds experience more protest and rioting, civil conflict and
terrorist attacks. Especially in developing countries where job opportunities are few,
many youths engage in black and grey-market activities or participate in gangs,
paramilitary groups and insurgent forces.
 Political violence: - Highly repressive authoritarian regimes may create incentives for
clandestine action such as insurgency or revolution, but these regimes are generally well
positioned to deter and repress public protest.
 Even the problem is common in the world it highly affect developing nations specially
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 5.5. Causes of livelihoods and food Poor soil fertility,
insecurity in Ethiopia Frost attack,
• Africa remains the region with highest chronic shortage of cash income,
prevalence of under nourishment with around Poor farming technologies,
one in four people out of about one billion
estimated to be undernourished. Weak extension services,
 Among Sub-Saharan African countries, it is the High labor wastage,
second most severely affected country in terms Poor social and infrastructural situation
of the prevalence of chronic dietary energy
deficiency.
 The cause of livelihoods and food insecurity in
Ethiopia(natural and man-made).
Deterioration of food production capacity (due
to drought and land degradation),
Population pressure and instability and armed
conflict.
drought (erratic rainfall),
Shortage of farmland due to population
pressure,
Soil erosion,
Lack of oxen,
Low price of cattle and diseases,
Water logging and problem of pests and plant
diseases. Livelihood and food security by Adane A.
Dilla Ethiopia 2025
Chapter Six: Livelihood and food security strategies
6.1. Institutional
• Policies and institutions are an important set of man-made external factors that influence
the range of livelihood options open to different categories of people. They also influence
access to assets and vulnerability to shocks.
 Institutions include both membership organizations and invisible "rules of the game"
 Formal membership organizations such as cooperatives and registered groups
 Informal organizations such as exchange labour groups or rotating savings groups
 Political institutions such as parliament, law and order or political parties
 Economic institutions such as markets, private companies, banks, land rights or the tax
system
 Social-cultural institutions such as kinship, marriage, inheritance, religion or draught
oxen sharing
 An enabling policy and institutional environment makes it easier for people - poor and less
poor -to gain access to assets they need for their livelihoods.
 A disabling policy and institutional environment may discriminate against the poor, thus
making it difficult for them to get access to land, livestock, capital and information.
Asset ownership influences the range of livelihood options

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 Local institutions influence household livelihood strategies
• Directly, by determining which activities are legal/illegal and appropriate/inappropriate
for women and men, by creating incentives to pursue certain activities and choices over
others, and by influencing perceptions of the effectiveness of particular strategies for
achieving desired outcomes.
• Indirectly through their influence on access and control of household assets.
6.2. Indigenous strategies
• Indigenous knowledge or local knowledge is a particularistic knowledge of place and the
things in it (Scoones and Thompson (1994).
• It is a knowledge born from rooted experience and is precisely the kind of intimacy that
may be unavailable to an outsider.
• Indigenous peoples and their civilizations have contributed greatly to the world‟s
agricultural diversity and its related biological diversity and knowledge diversity. They are
the originators and custodians of millennial and dynamic agriculture and food systems that
remain viable in the twenty first century. Their resource management practices and
techniques contribute to the maintenance and adaptation of productive, sustainable
ecosystems.
• An overwhelming majority of the world‟s remaining biodiversity is found within
indigenous peoples‟ territories, illustrating the fundamental interdependence between the
abundance of plant and animal species and the culturally-based resource management
practices of indigenous peoples.
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 …cont’d
• Through the knowledge systems, technologies and institutions they have developed for the
holistic management of this biodiversity.
• Indigenous peoples play a key role in: domestication, conservation and adaptation of
genetic resources and agricultural biodiversity, not just for their immediate surroundings
but also at landscape scale.
• Their agricultural, hunting, gathering, fishing, animal husbandry and forestry practices
typically incorporate sustainable use of land and water resources, as well as various
habitats and economic, social and cultural components. This, in turn, contributes to
sustainable land and water management, forest and marine conservation, and efforts to
combat desertification.
• Through their dynamic conservation of bio-cultural diversity (e.g. diversity of seed stock,
crops and related knowledge systems), they contribute to climate change adaptation and
risk mitigation.
• Their sustainable management practices have enabled them to endure in highly vulnerable
environments and regions such as dry lands, wetlands, mountains, tropical rain forests,
coral reefs and the Arctic, indicating that the continuity of their sustainable management
practices in these fragile environments is invaluable.

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 So as (Abioye et al., 2011), argues the Farmers adopt a wide range of indigenous
agricultural practices based on generations of experience, informal experiments and
intimate understanding of their environments.
 The application of indigenous agricultural farming for example has reflected in the
following:
Indigenous soil preparation and planting materials
Indigenous methods of controlling pests and diseases
Indigenous methods of maintaining soil fertility
Indigenous methods of controlling weeds
Indigenous methods of harvesting and storage.

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Chapter Seven: Livelihoods and food security/insecurity analysis techniques
7.1 Indicators of livelihoods and food security Techniques of food in/security analysis
 Nutrition security is a process that can be understood at the organism level as it is
achieved when the cells, tissues and organs that form the human body are properly
nourished.
• It is the product of food security and health security and the interrelationship between the
two.
• is derived from access to both a healthy diet and to preventive and curative healthcare.
 Investigating food security status of a community and/or and individual household can be
a very complex analysis that needs to be treated with a combination of different cross-
sectional and longitudinal techniques. This is mainly because, issues related to food
security is characterized by multifaceted and intertwined socioeconomic and
environmental circumstances.
 The main food security Techniques of food in/security analysis are
Household Food Balance Model (HFBM),
Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS),
Household Hunger Scale (HHS),
Coping Strategy Index (CSI),
Food Consumption Score (FCS) and
Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS).
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7.1.1. Household Food Balance Model (HFBM)
• This is a simple equation originally adapted by Degefa (1996) from FAO Regional Food
Balance Model and thenceforth used by different researchers in Ethiopia.
 HFBM is employed to compute the net quantity of per capita food.
• The net available food per household, as reported from household recall, is converted into
dietary energy equivalent using EHNRI/FAO (1998)'s Food Composition Table for Use in
case of Ethiopia.
• Then, the medically recommended level of calorie per adult equivalent
(2100kcal/day/person for Ethiopia) is used as a cut-off point for food insecure and food
secure households or individuals.
The following simple equation of HFBM is modified and used by Messay (2011) for
household food security analysis is: NGA = (GP + GB + FA + GG + CC + MP + DP) -
(HL+ GU + GS +GV) Where,
NGA = Net grain available (quintal/household/year)
GP = Total grain production (quintal/household/year)
GB = Total grain bought (quintal/household/year)
FA = Quantity of food aid obtained (quintal/household/year)
GG = Total grain obtained through gift or remittance (quintal/household/year)
MP = Meat, meat based products and poultry (kilogram/household/year)
DP = Dairy and dairy based products ((kilogram/household/year)
HL = Post harvest losses due to grain pests, disasters, thievery, etc, (quintal/household/year).
GU = Quantity of grain reserved for seed (quintal/household/year)
GS = Amount of grain sold (quintal/household/year)
GV = Grain given to others within a year (quintal/household/year)
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7.1.2. Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS)
• The Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance Project (FANTA) developed the HFIAS in
2007 with an aim to provide a valid tool for use in a developing country context that
would be capable of measuring food insecurity in a comparable way, i.e., with cross-
cultural equivalency.
• Each of the questions in the following table is asked with a recall period of four weeks
(30 days). The respondent is first asked an occurrence question that is, whether the
condition in the question happened at all in the past four weeks (yes or no). If the
respondent answers “yes” to an occurrence question, a frequency-of-occurrence question
is asked to determine whether the condition happened rarely (once or twice), sometimes
(three to ten times) or often (more than ten times) in the past four weeks.
• Example:
• In the past four weeks, did you worry that your household would not have enough food?
0 = No (skip to Q2) 1 = Yes
• How often did this happen? 1 = Rarely (once or twice in the past four weeks) 2 =
Sometimes (three to ten times in the past four weeks) 3 = Often (more than ten times in
the past four weeks)

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 …Cont’d

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 …cont’d
 Household Food Insecurity Access Prevalence (HFIAP) indicator categorizes households
into four levels of household food insecurity (access):
a. food secure,
b. mild,
a) moderately
b) Severely food insecure.
a. Food secure household experiences none of the food insecurity (access) conditions, or
just experiences worry, but rarely.
b. Mildly food insecure (access) household worries about not having enough food sometimes
or often, and/or is unable to eat preferred foods, and/or eats a monotonous diet or less
preferred foods, but only rarely. But it does not cut back on quantity nor experience any of
three most severe conditions (going a whole day without eating, going to bed hungry, or
running out of food).
c. Moderately food insecure household sacrifices quality more frequently, by eating a
monotonous diet or less-preferred foods sometimes or often, and/or has started to cut back on
quantity by reducing size of meals or number of meals, rarely or sometimes. But it does not
experience any of the three most severe conditions.
d. Severely food insecure household has graduated to cutting back on meal size or number of
meals often, and/or experiences any of the three most severe conditions (going a whole day
without eating, going to bed hungry, or running out of food), even as infrequently as rarely. In
other words, any household that experiences one of these three conditions even once in the
last 30 days is considered severely food insecure.

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 7.1.3. Household Food Consumption Score (FCS)
• The FCS is a composite score based on dietary diversity, food frequency, and relative
nutritional importance of different food groups.
• Food items are grouped into 8 standard food groups with a maximum value of 7
days/week.
• The consumption frequency of each food group is multiplied by an assigned weight that
is based on its nutrient content.
• Those values are then summed obtaining the Food Consumption Score (FCS).
 Food consumption, measured in kilocalories, is one of the most theoretically grounded
indicators for analyzing food security. However, actually measuring kilocalorie
consumption requires the collection of detailed food intake data, which can be difficult
and resource demanding. See the table.

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 …Cont’d
These are the standard Food Groups and current standard weights used in all analyses. The
food items listed are an example from the x region.

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 7.1.4. Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS)
 Household dietary diversity score (HDDS) is a simple, rigorous and straightforward
technique of analyzing the access component of food security.
• It depends on the number of different food groups consumed by a household or an
individual over a given reference period.
 Household dietary diversity, the number of different food groups consumed over a
given reference period is an attractive proxy indicator for the following reasons:
 A more diversified diet is an important outcome in and of itself.
 It is associated with a number of improved outcomes in areas such as birth weight,
child anthropometric status, and improved hemoglobin concentrations.
 It is highly correlated with such factors as caloric and protein adequacy, percentage of
protein from animal sources (high quality protein), and household income. Even in very
poor households, increased food expenditure resulting from additional income is
associated with increased quantity and quality of the diet.

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 …cont’d
 Questions asked at the household or individual level, making it possible to examine food
security at the household and intra- household levels.
 Obtaining these data is relatively straightforward.
 Field experience indicates that training field staff to obtain information on dietary
diversity is not complicated, and that respondents find such questions relatively
straightforward to answer, not especially intrusive or especially burdensome. Asking these
questions typically takes less than 10 minutes per respondent.
 To better reflect a quality diet, the number of different food groups consumed is
calculated, rather than the number of different foods consumed. Knowing that households
consume, for example, an average of four different food groups implies that their diets
offer some diversity in both macro- and micronutrients. This is a more meaningful
indicator than knowing that households consume four different foods, which might all be
cereals.

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
…Cont’d
The following set of 12 food groups is used to calculate the HDDS:
• Cereals
• Fish and seafood
• Root and tubers
• Pulses/legumes/nuts
• Vegetables
• Milk and milk products
• Fruits
• Oil/fats,
• Meat, poultry, offal
• Sugar/honey
• Eggs
• Miscellaneous
 Calculation of the HDDS Tabulation of the HDDS is a relatively simple matter that can be done by
hand or with the aid of computer software such as a database or spreadsheet.
• First, the HDDS variable is calculated for each household. The value of this variable will range from 0
to 12.
• Second, the average HDDS indicator is calculated for the sample population by dividing sum of
HDDS by total number of households. An increase in the average number of different food groups
consumed provides a quantifiable measure of improved household food access.
 In general, any increase in household dietary diversity reflects an improvement in the household‟s
diet.
 In order to use this indicator to assess improvements in food security in a performance reporting
context, the changes in HDDS must be compared to some meaningful target level of diversity.
Unfortunately, normative data on „ideal‟ or „target‟ levels of diversity are usually not available.
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7.1.5. Coping Strategy Index (CSI)
 CSI is very important to appraise the food security situation of a community over
multiple periods, among locations and across specific population groups provided that
the examines are from the same community, location, or culture for which the CSI tool
can be adapted.
• To cope with shocks of food deficit and minimize potential declines in food access, hds
typically adjust their consumption patterns and reallocate their resources to activities
which are more insulated from the influence of those risks.
• In sowing/rainy periods, for example, households may sell-out small assets to ensure
continued food supply for their family.
• They may also shift their labor resources from crop production to non-farm petty-income
activities such as firewood and charcoal production, and labor rental. Sometimes destitute
households may send-off some of their family members to well-off relatives. Others may
request social support from the community.
• They may also adjust their consumption patterns by reducing their dietary intake to
conserve food relying more on less preferred foods to meet their immediate food needs. If
the crises of food shortfalls continued unabated, household responses usually become
increasingly costly leading to the loss of productive assets (such as livestock, land and
farm equipment) which can ultimately threaten the households' future livelihoods and
food security status. Consumption Coping Strategy Response.

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 …Cont’d
• The analysis of Coping Strategy Index (CSI) depends on many possible responses (0 to
7) to a single question: 'What did you do when you did not have adequate food and did
not have the money to buy it in the last 7 days?' This helps measure what the households‟
do when they cannot access enough food timely.
• The basic idea is to measure the frequency of the coping behaviors (how often is the
coping strategy used?) and the severity of the strategies (what degree of food insecurity
do they suggest?). Information on the frequency and severity is then combined in a
single score, the CSI, which indicates the household‟s food security status over space
and time.
• Based on the average perception values, the households/individuals can be grouped into
four severity categories:
a. very severe,
b. severe,
c. moderately severe and
d. least severe.
• Although there was no complete agreement on each strategy, there was fairly good
consensus on the severity of most of the strategies. For instance, relying on less
preferred and less expensive foods, limiting portion size, skipping the entire day without
food and begging were reported to be the most severe coping strategies among the re-
settlers
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[Link] Hunger Scale (HHS)
 HHS is a new and simple indicator to measure household hunger in food insecure areas.
• It is different from other household food insecurity indicators in that it has been specifically
developed and validated for cross-cultural use.
• HHS produces valid and comparable results across cultures and settings so that the status of different
population groups can be described in a meaningful and comparable way to assess where resources
and programmatic interventions are needed and to design, implement, monitor, and evaluate policy
and programmatic interventions.
• The HHS is a household food deprivation scale, derived from research to adapt the United States
(U.S.) household food security survey module for use in a developing country context and from
research to assess the validity of the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) for cross
cultural use.
• The approach used by the HHS is based on the idea that the experience of household food deprivation
causes predictable reactions that can be captured through a survey and summarized in a scale.
• This approach, sometimes referred to as an ;experiential‟ or „perception based‟ method of collecting
data, was first popularized in the mid-1990s, when the United States Department of Agriculture
(USDA) adopted the approach for routine measurement of household food insecurity in the United
States.
• It is important to note that the HHS focuses on the food quantity dimension of food access and does
not measure dietary quality. Additionally, because the HHS is a household level indicator, it does not
capture data on food availability or food utilization, which are other components of food security
typically measured at the national level (availability) and individual level (consumption/utilization).

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 …Cont’d
• The HHS is intended to be used as a small module within a larger, more comprehensive
food security and nutrition questionnaire administered to a representative population-
based sample of households.
• Ideally, the HHS should not be used as a unique, stand-alone measure of food insecurity
but instead as one of a suite of tools to measure complementary aspects of food
insecurity.
• Other components of a household food insecurity assessment toolkit might include
anthropometric data on women and children; measures of household income,
expenditure, and food production and consumption; and information on coping strategies
and household and individual dietary diversity.
• The most appropriate time of year to administer the HHS should be determined by the
intended use of the scale. If the HHS is used to assess the change in the household food
insecurity situation between years, or to measure the impact of an intervention, it is
important to administer the HHS at the same time of the year. When using the scale to
measure the prevalence of food deprivation or for establishing a baseline prevalence
estimate, it is advisable to administer the HHS during or directly after the worst of the
lean season, as this is when the greatest number of households is likely to be affected by
food insecurity.
 However, if the aim is to use the HHS for geographic targeting, the height of the lean
season may not be the optimal time to administer the HHS, as the results will not
distinguish those who are chronically food insecure from those who are only episodically
food insecure, such as during the lean season.
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 …Cont’d
• Tabulation of the Categorical HHS Indicator To tabulate the categorical HHS indicator,
two different cutoff values (> 1 and > 3) are applied to the HHS scores that were
generated in Step 3 above.
 HHS Categorical Indicator
a. 0-1=little or no hunger in the household
b. 2-3= Moderate hunger in the household
c. 4-6=Severe hunger in the household
• The median value is the value that falls at the 50th percentile of the score distribution for
the sample. This value can be identified by most data analysis software programs by
producing summary statistics for the variable of interest. An alternative method of finding
the median HHS value is to order all HHS values in the sample in ascending or
descending order and find the HHS value that falls in the middle of all ordered values.

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7.2. Livelihood and food security policies and strategies in Ethiopia
 According to Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (August 2009) Food Security Program
(2010-2014) some policies and strategies of Ethiopia as follows:
• There are a number of policies relevant to the Food Security Program both directly and indirectly.
 The policies and strategies focus
• Accelerated and Sustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP),
• Rural Development Policy and Food Security.
• managing micro-finance
• Environmental protection
• Government systems and an environment of transparency and accountability
 Policies specially relating to these areas are described briefly below:
a. Rural Development Policy and Strategy
Extensive utilization of human labour
Proper use and management of land, water and other natural resources.
Agro-ecology based development approach;
Integrated approach to development;
Targeted interventions for drought-prone and food insecure areas;
Encouraging the private sector: In particular, agricultural marketing, agro processing, expanding
commercial agriculture and industrialization.
Agricultural Technical Vocational Education and Training:
Agricultural Development Led Industrialization(ADLI)
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 Food security strategy
 The Federal Food Security Strategy rests on three pillars, which are:
a. Increase supply or availability of food;
b. Improve access/entitlement to food;
c. Strengthening emergency response capabilities.
 The detailed aspects of the strategy are:
• Agricultural production in mixed farming systems, the aim is to enhance supply or availability of
food through increasing domestic food production where soil moisture availability is relatively better.
• Subsistence farming has to be transformed into small-scale commercial agriculture.
• Household based integrated and market oriented extension packages would be employed.
• With regard to pastoral communities, the Food Security Strategy places emphasis on livestock
development, strengthening livestock marketing, agro-pastoralism and voluntary sedentary.
• Government promote micro and small-scale enterprises.
• Food entitlements of the most vulnerable sections of society. Under entitlement there are three
elements: supplementary employment income support schemes, targeted programs for the
disadvantaged groups and nutrition intervention.
• Improving the emergency response capabilities
• A range of interventions were envisaged including: strengthening the early warning system;
increasing the capacity of the Ethiopian Strategic Food Reserve (ESFRA), and improving the quality
of relief distributions.
• Revising the disaster Prevention and preparedness policy.
• New livelihood-based needs assessment
Livelihoodmethodology
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7.3 Famine, famine history and food security trends in Ethiopia
 Famine is a widespread condition in which many people in a country or region are unable to access
adequate food supplies. Famines result in malnutrition, starvation, disease, and high death rates.
 Difference b/n famine and hunger?
• Famine is the most disastrous form of widespread hunger. While famine must meet the criteria such
as starvation and death, but
• hunger is undernourishment that lasts at least one year where people are unable to consume enough
food to maintain a healthy weight and continue necessary physical activity.
 Ethiopia is also seriously affected by famine and food security in different regime.
 Food security situation in Ethiopia
• Agriculture in Ethiopia is the largest contributor to economic growth and the economy's most
important sector. Especially among the poverty-stricken rural population, the livelihood of most
Ethiopians depends on agriculture. Although it is a country with "significant agricultural potential
because of its water resources, its fertile land areas, and its large labor pool," this potential goes
largely undeveloped.
 Agricultural production failure due to bad bioclimatic and ecological factors, prolonged civil wars,
policy mismanagement, low purchasing power, inappropriate market linkage, unfair distribution of
food to the disadvantaged group of people, political nepotism and lack of good governance have
been critical factors for the lengthy and severe food crises in Ethiopian history.

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• The National Food Security Strategy (FDRE,1996) reports that as the Ethiopian population grew from
15 million in 1951-55 million during early the 1990s, the production of cereals dropped on per capita
basis by more than 25% from around 200 kg in early 1950s to 150 kg in 1992. The proportion of
population unable to attain their minimum nutritional requirements is estimated at 52% of the rural
population and 36% of the urban population (MEDAC, 1999).
• Drought and famine have become an everyday reality in Ethiopia. The country has faced three major
famines and numerous famines like situations in the past three decades.
• The recurrent of famine in 1970s, 80s and 90s has affected significantly the country‟s food production.
• During the period between 1958 and 1977 over 25 million people were directly affected by famine and
drought. The number of death was estimated between three and five million people. The 1984/85
famine alone had taken the lives of 300,000 people. It was estimated that close to 58 million were
affected by famine between 1973 and 1986 (Berhanu, 2001).
 Many factors are contributing to trap Ethiopia in the current state of food insecurity and poverty.
• production fluctuations, low non-farm employment, low income, regional fragmentation of markets,
high rate of natural degradation, low level of farm technology, high level of illiteracy and inadequate
quality of basic education, poor health and sanitation, high population growth, poor governance and
inter-state, intra-state military conflicts and wars. These factors impede the achievement of food
security and sustainable economic development. It has one of the lowest per capita incomes in the
world and high incidence of absolute poverty with 50% of the population below the poverty line (Asefa
and Zegeye, 2003).
• According to the FAO (2010), 41% of the Ethiopian population lives below the poverty line and more
than 31 million people are undernourished. However, the latest undernourishment numbers show a
positive trend (1990-92: 71% of the population; 1995-97: 64%; 2000-02: 50%; 2004-06: 44%).
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• The concentrations of food insecurity and malnutrition are prevalent in rural areas with a
population of six to seven million chronically food insecure and up to 13 million seasonally
food insecure.
• With more than 90 million people, Ethiopia is the second most populous country in sub-Saharan
Africa and has one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. The foundation of its economic
growth is agriculture, which employs 80% of the population. Ethiopia could potentially reach
middle-income status by 2025 with an emphasis on boosting domestic savings rates, private sector
development and improving the trade logistics, according to the World Bank (CARE, 2014).
However, poverty is still a big obstacle to overcome in Ethiopia.
• Nearly one third of the population lives below the poverty line and a vast majority depends on
subsistence agriculture. Consequently, chronic and acute food insecurity is prevalent, especially
among rural populations and smallholder farmers. About 10% of Ethiopia’s citizens are chronically
food insecure. 2.7 million People will require emergency food assistance in 2014 and 238,761
children require treatment for severe acute malnutrition in 2014 (UNICEF. 2014).
• The overall food security is deteriorating following poor rains, both in livestock keeping and
farming areas, swarms of locust have affected food production in eastern parts of the country.
Ethiopia is a disaster prone country. Around 12 million people in the country are regularly exposed
to droughts, floods, landslides, epidemics and earthquakes. These regular shocks have many
negative consequences such as forced internal displacements of population, destruction of assets and
livelihoods, extreme poverty, under nutrition and extreme food insecurity (ECHO., 2014).
• Favorable food security conditions prevail in most parts; however, over 7.1 million people were
estimated to live in conditions of crisis and emergency in November 2013. These populations are in
North Eastern Amhara, Eastern Tigray and Eastern Oromia in Ethiopia (WFP., 2014). The number
of children with severe acute malnutrition in Afar, Amhara, Oromia, Southern Nation Nationality
Peoples region, Somali and Tigray regions showed a slight decrease from 21,566 (86.2% reporting
rate) to 21,105 in 2014 (84.4% reporting rate). As compared to 2013, this year’s rate is lower by
10.7%, indicating an improved food security situation in 2014 (UNICEF) 2014).
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 Fig: Food security trends in Ethiopia

This indicates the current Ethiopian government is acknowledged for showing high political
commitment for achieving food security through financial allocation to the sector. Much has
been done to combat food insecurity, but still now there are many problems related with food
insecurity. Today, Ethiopia faces high levels of food insecurity, ranking as one of the hungriest
countries in the world with an estimated 5.2 million people needing food assistance in 2010.
Ethiopia was ranked 104 in the world in Global Hunger Index 2017.
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 Another

The Figure above indicates the number of population affected during major food
crises from past regime to present and even was increase crises highly.

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