The resilience of rural Ethiopian livelihoods : a case study from Hararghe zone, Eastern Ethiopia

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis was to examine the resilience and sustainability of rural Ethiopian livelihoods. The resilience and sustainability of livelihoods were studied in framework of food security. Preventing, coping and recovering from the shocks and stresses, in this case from drought and food insecurity, form an essential part of resilience and sustainability and therefore preventing and coping strategies were emphasized in this study. Also the effectiveness of the external aid was touched in empirical data because of its essential existence in the studied villages.

The empirical data was gathered by interviewing people living in six rural villages in Hararghe zone, Eastern Ethiopia. In total, 12 interviews were executed. Semi-structured group interviews were used as the main data collection method and the findings were analyzed with qualitative methods; coding and finding themes from the data. The villagers were selected to be the key informants because the study is based on sustainable livelihoods thinking which emphasizes bottom-up approach and gives voice to local people.

The results showed that resilience and sustainability in studied villages were low and fragile because of the severe shortage of water and lack of financial support. Difficult climatic conditions caused negative relations between ecological and economic sustainability. The villages have not been able to recover from the drought and are currently using the coping and preventing strategies to survive. From the results it could be also concluded that forms of external aid should be credit- or development based instead of temporary food aid.