“Churning” on the Margins: How the Poor Respond to Drought in South Wollo, Ethiopia

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Peter Little, Emory University; A. Peter Castro, Syracuse University; M. Priscilla Stone, Washington University; Workneh Negatu, Addis Ababa University; Tewodaj Mogues, University of Wisconsin
• Language: English
• Date: 2004-10-01
• Publisher: US Aid
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: Works created by the U.S. government are not protected by U.S. copyright law and are considered to be in the public domain
• Final Published Version (URL): http://crsps.net/resource/basis-brief-21-churning-on-the-margins-how-the-poor-respond-to-drought-in-south-wollo-ethiopia/
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: BASIS Brief
• Volume: 21
• Grant/Funding Information: Publication made possible by support in part from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Grant No. LAG-A-00-96-90016-00 through BASIS CRSP.
• Keywords: food security; Ethiopia; Sub-Saharan Africa; poverty; drought; livestock
• Research Categories: Economics, Agricultural; Agriculture, Food Science and Technology

Abstract

THE SOUTH WOLLO AND OROMIYA ZONES have a terrifying nickname: the “buckle of the Ethiopian famine belt.” Farmers there tell of massive losses of livestock and other assets as a result of the inevitable droughts that afflict the region. It has been estimated that two-thirds of people there are poor and that one out of seven live in extreme poverty. Evidence suggests that many households “churn” in and out of poverty, often as a result of severe shocks such as drought. Aggregate statistics and one-time studies miss this poverty dynamic and cannot measure which families recover from a temporary drop into poverty, nor why. BASIS-sponsored research attempted to discover the degree to which the drought of 1999-2000 affected poverty trends in rural Ethiopia.