African Journals Online
Eastern Africa Social Science Research Review
(EASSRR)

Abstracts (Vol 16 No 1)

Processes and Causes of Accelerated Soil Erosion on Cultivated Fields of South Welo, Ethiopia
Belay Tegene

Abstract: The processes and causes of accelerated erosion on cultivated fields in the South Welo zone of Ethiopia were assessed on the basis of information collected from field surveys, group discussions and secondary sources. The findings suggest that soil erosion by water on cultivated slopes in the zone is currently proceeding at an average rate of 35 t/ha/year. Comparable if not more intensive soil loss is also taking place due to tillage erosion on the cultivated slopes although no data is available to support this. Three very broad and inter-linked groups of factors were identified as causes for both the water and tillage induced erosion in the zone. The first group comprises the biophysical factors, i.e., the rainfall erosivity, the soil erodibility and the gradient and length of slopes, which raise the vulnerability of the arable land to accelerated erosion. The second group and the real causes of erosion were identified as the cropping and land management factors. In most of the highlands, crop cultivation is carried out without any type of terracing, while about 74 per cent of this land requires application of contour plowing, broad-based terracing, or bench terracing. The third group of factors include the social and institutional factors which not only compel farmers to cultivate fragile environments but also exert strong influence on the type of land management practices the farmers apply on vulnerable soils. The major ones among this group were rapid population growth (and shortage of land), widespread poverty, and insecure land tenure system.

Some Social Goals of Ethiopian Adolescents: An Aspirational Perspective
Habtegiorgis Berhane Getahun

Abstract: Aspirations are believed to account, to a large extent, for high levels of success in academic, material, social, political and psychological achievements of individuals. This study examines the aspirations of Ethiopian adolescents. A questionnaire which contains occupational choice, marriage and family life and future activities of adolescents was administered to 239 (117 males and 122 females) subjects under conditions of anonymity. It was found that to be an electrician or electrical engineer was ranked first as an ideal vocation; opportunity for further training and good remuneration were ranked first and second respectively as valued conditions of future jobs; sharing one's own opinions and beliefs was regarded as the most important character of a good spouse and was ranked first. Female subjects indicated that they expected to marry earlier than male subjects; female adolescents (90.8%) responded that both the wife and the husband should be equally influential in the direction and control of family affairs; adolescents of “high” income families wanted to have earlier marriage than adolescents of “average” income families; adolescents of “average” income families wanted to have fewer children; adolescents of “high” income families wished to bring up their children as they were brought up. Adolescents who rated themselves as “good” academically felt in general more enthusiastic and hopeful, never felt in doubt, and were determined.

Impact of Public Programmes and Household Income on Child Mortality in Rural Sudan
Nour Eldin A. Maglad

Abstract: This paper uses household data from Sudan to examine the factors which affect child mortality. Thus, the impact on child mortality of the education of the mother and the father, public health program provisions and household income per adult are examined. In examining the interaction between income and child mortality the former is instrumented on household assets, which are used as identifiers in the Two Stage Least Squares estimation of the mortality function. In Ordinary Least Squares estimates, parental education and income per adult are found to have a significantly negative impact on child mortality, and mother's education, in particular, is found to have a larger and more significant effect than that of the father. Public health Programmes are found to produce significant reductions in child mortality. However, Two Stage Least Squares estimates indicated that the most important factors influencing child mortality are the mother's age, household per capita income, area of residence and, to some extent, hospital services.

The Impact of Macro - Adjustment Programmes on Housing Investment in Kampala City - Uganda: Shelter Implications for the Urban Poor
Augustus Nuwagaba

Abstract: Shelter is indisputably one of the basic needs of mankind. The improvement and state of the housing sector is part and parcel of the development process, a fact which evidence especially from poor countries apparently contradicts. In the worst cases, the current poor shelter state, reinforced by growing homelessness, is a far cry from the pre-historic caves, for the poorest of the poor. Hitherto, the shelter problem has continued to be a global phenomenon varying in terms of magnitude rather than presence. In Uganda's case, the causes of the urban housing problem are rooted in the country's turbulent history, inhibitive land tenure system, haphazard urbanisation and phenomenal demographic dynamics. Since the early 1980s, efforts to bring the economy back on the development track through adjustment programmes have undermined the housing sector in general and urban shelter for the poor in particular. Indeed Macro-Adjustment Programmes (MAPs) in Uganda have among other effects fuelled rural-Urban migration, reduced income opportunities, swollen the ranks of the urban poor and devastated the people's living standards. The programmes in their orthodox framework have deterred investment, both private and public. The adjustment methodology has side-lined and gravely undermined the housing sector thereby aggravating the shelter problem. The paper is neither an indictment of adjustment per se nor does it seek to exonerate Uganda's recent turbulent history. The gist is that while the past upheavals, uncontrolled edaphic and explosive demographic dynamics sowed the seeds of the current shelter problem, the orthodox Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) methodology as currently employed in economic management has ably nurtured the seeds so as to create formidable problems. These already threaten the very survival of the urban poor and urgent intervention to defuse them is imperative. Such intervention should aim at revising the current SAP methodology beginning with serious initiatives to identify the urban vulnerable groups, especially the poor, and to design strategies directed at cushioning them from `shocks' as a result of adjustment programmes. There is a need to incorporate and emphasise the social-human dimension in the adjustment programmes without which they are doomed to failure.

Regional Development Planning in Ethiopia: Past Experience, Current Initiatives and Future Prospects
Tegegne Gebre Egziabher

Abstract: This paper examines the evolution of regional development planning in Ethiopia and explores its future prospects. The main contention of the paper is that in the past, regional development, in line with the functional integration approach, was considered a national project. Four main problems have influenced regional policy areas, namely: a) the need for rapid growth and development, b) the need to industrialise, c) the need to develop water resources, and d) the need to develop resource frontiers and expansion of agricultural export. A concentration strategy and package programs; import substitution industrialisation; river basin development and commercial farms have been the regional policy responses to the above problems. These policies were not adequate to stimulate regional development and reduce the imbalances in the country. The current initiatives of regional policies are marked by decentralised planning systems, inter-regional allocation of resources; investment policies; regional capacity building; river basin planning and special area programs. The adequacy of each of these elements, however, indicates that there is room for improvement. In addition these policies are not implemented as part of an overall regional policy. The future orientation of regional policy should be based on the macro-economic development model of the country. Hence regional policy should derive from the policies of de. regulation, liberalisation, promotion of private investment, export-led growth and rural centred strategies. Similarly, the deepening of decentralisation should lead to more emphasis on local level development. Explicit concern with bringing regional equity should guide the resource allocation in future. It is recommended that the country should develop an explicit regional policy whose components should emphasise inter-regional co-operation; regional competitiveness; and regional resource mobilisation. Regional policies at regional levels should work towards achieving appropriate incentives/investment policy, participation of the people and generation of inter-sectoral plans.