Ethiopian Development Research Institute(EDRI) and IFPRI Ethiopia Strategy Support Program 2 (IFPRI-ESSP2) Seminar Series November 12, 2009

1. Making Rural Services Work for the
Poor and Women:
An Institutional Analysis of Agricultural Extension
and Drinking Water in Four Districts in Ethiopia
Marc J. Cohen, Oxfam America
Mamusha Lemma, Consultant

2. Rationale of Research Project
• Agriculture is back on the international development
agenda
• Providing agricultural and rural services has remained a
major challenge
• How to reach millions of farmers even in remote areas?
• Governance reforms
• Decentralization – involving local communities in service
delivery – public sector reforms
• What works where and why?
• What works for the rural poor and for women?

3. Project Background
• Part of three-country research project
• Implemented by International Food Policy Research
Institute
• Funded by World Bank
• Research in Ethiopia, India, and Ghana
• Focus on agricultural extension and drinking water
• Q-squared approach – quantitative and qualitative
• Ethiopia study carried out in collaboration
with Ethiopian Economic Policy Research
Institute

4. Ethiopia Research Design
• Research in 8 woredas in Afar, Amhara,
Beneshangul-Gumuz, Gambella, Oromia,
SNNPR, Tigray
• Four pairs of adjoining woredas
• In three pairs, one woreda in a ―leading‖ region
• Woreda government responsible for service provision
• Neighboring woreda in an ―emerging‖ region
• Service provision remains a regional responsibility
• In one pair: Amhara and Tigray—de facto differences in
history of local empowerment
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5. Qualitative Research
• Carried out in four woredas (two pairs)
• Amhara–Tigray
• Beneshangul-Gumuz–Oromia
• Methodology
• Semi-structured key informant interviews
• Focus group discussions
• Semi-structured interviews
• Social network mapping
• 108 total interviews

6. Persons Interviewed in Woreda Capitals
• Administrator
• Council Speaker
• Budget, agriculture, water, women’s affairs
officials
• Cooperative union leader
• Women’s Association leader
• Party leader
Only qualitative case studies at woreda level;
no surveys conducted

7. Kebele Interviews
• Chairperson
• Manager
• Council Speaker
• Cabinet members responsible for agriculture, water, and
women’s affairs
• Extension agents
• Water committee members
• Women’s Association leader
• Cooperative leader
• Party leader
• Men and women farmers

8. What are the Challenges of Rural Servcie
Provision?
• Challenges to make the market mechanism work
• Public good – merit good – externalities
• Challenges for the public sector
• Transaction-intensive in terms of space and time
• Requiring discretion – difficult to standardize (extension)
• Challenges of involving local communities
• Local elite capture, social exclusion
• Capacity problems
• Key to meeting the challenge: Creating accountability!

9. National / State-level National / State-level
Political Representatives (NP) Ministries (NM)
Political
Parties (PP)
Local Political Development
Representatives (LP) Agencies / Advocacy
NGOs (DA)
Community-Based
Organizations (CO)
Household Public Sector
Members (HH) Service Providers (PS)
NGO / Private
service providers (NG)
Services
Accountability Framework based on World Bank (2004)

10. Focus of Ethiopia Study
• Access to agricultural extension
• High policy attention to extension, and increasing adaptation of
packages
• Knowledge gap: How much outreach has been actually achieved so
far in different regions? How well does the delivery mechanism work?
• Gender dimension of agricultural extension
• General government commitment to gender equality
• Knowledge gap: To what extent do agricultural extension services
address the needs of female farmers?
• Drinking water supply
• Government efforts to increase water supply through decentralized
provision, led by community-based water committees
• Knowledge gap: How do these delivery methods actually work on the
ground?

11. Decentralization: Bringing Government to
the Community

12. Decentralization in Theory and Practice
• Theory: Woreda as the hub in which bottom-up
kebele development planning is harmonized with
regional and federal policy guidance
But in practice:
• Woreda decentralization only in four regions
• Woredas remain dependent on regional and
federal governments for funds, and planning
guidance is more than indicative
• Personnel costs absorb much of budget
• Woreda governments say they lack discretion
• Many kebeles see a breach of social contract

13. Agricultural Extension

14. 0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
30%
25%
Extension visits
farm/home
Attend
extensionist's
community meetings
Visit
demonstration
plots
Visit
demonstration
homes
Trained at
Farmer Training
Centre
Service by
cooperative
Men
Agricultural
EEPRI-IFPRI Survey, 2009
input credit
Women
Access to different forms of extension

15. Access to extension by survey site
(percent of respondents)
60
54
50
39 39 37
40
30 27 27 25 24 24
20 18
15 13
11
10 8
2 1
0
Visited by extension agent at farm or home
Attended extension agent’s community meetings
EEPRI-IFPRI Survey, 2009

16. Satisfaction with agricultural extension
(percent of respondents)
100
90
80
70 Very dissatisfied
60
50
Somewhat
92.5 95.4 dissatisfied
40
Somewhat
30
satisfied
20
Very satisfied
10
0
HH Heads Spouses

17. Extension Agents’ Interaction with Farmers
• Deployment of agents to kebeles increaseas
awareness of community concerns and potential
• Service provision remains top-down
• Accountability is to woreda officials
• Promotion and training depend on enrolling farmers in
extension ―packages‖
• Extension training is technical
• Also need training in community mobilization and
gender issues
• Farmers complain that agents focus mainly on
mobilizing labor contributions
• ―Stone-carrying participation‖

18. Agents’ Interaction with Female Farmers
• Perception bias: ―Women don’t farm in Ethiopia‖
• Therefore, don’t need extension services
• Cultural barriers make it difficult for male agents
to work with women
• Women’s Associations and female political leaders
may help overcome barriers, e.g. by organizing
women’s extension groups
• Extension agents tend to deal with household
heads, so advise farm wives via their husbands
• Even on women’s activities such as poultry raising
and home gardening

19. Evolution in Extension Services
• Strong policy commitment to gender equality
• Gender audits and focal points in woreda
governments
• Expansion of extension service means more
women agents (10% in study woredas)
• Packages are now more flexible, but ―women’s
package‖ not tailored to female household heads
• E.g., focus on poultry
• Ignores that female household heads may spend
much time providing weeding services to other
farmers, making poultry raising impractical

20. Conclusions and Policy Implications
• Reducing regional disparities in access to
extension
• Federal support to emerging regions already ongoing
• What additional strategies could be used?
• Strategies to better target female farmers
• Linking extension with women’s groups
• Increasing female staff among extension agents and
supervisors
• Integrating community development and
gender analysis into extension curriculum

21. Conclusions and Policy Implications
• Making extension more demand-driven
• Trade-off
• Better supervision in case of package approach
• Allow adaptation to diverse local conditions and farmer
demands
• How to increase discretion of extension agents, while using
other mechanisms to create accountability?
• Recent policy changes (Implemented after this study)
• Development of packages based on ―best practices‖ of local
model farmers
• Shifting of responsibility for monitoring from supervisors to
more highly trained Subject Matter Specialists
• Increased role for kebele councils/cabinets

22. Drinking Water

23. Access to drinking water
(Primary water source)
National
average:
11%
(2004, WDI 2008)
EEPRI-IFPRI Survey, 2009

24. Average time to get water from different
water sources (in minutes)
Water source Wet season Dry Season
River, lake, spring, pond 58 91
Rainwater 6 –
Well without pump 74 102
Well with pump 71 82
Public standpipe 30 29
Household’s private
standpipe/ tap 3 3
Water vendor 63 80
Other 24 153
EEPRI-IFPRI Survey, 2009

25. Identification of drinking water as greatest
problem
BY Region
Afar- Amhara- Amhara- Benesh. G- Gambella- Oromia- SNNP- Tigray-
D D2 D3 D D D D D
Drinking water 65% 29% 25% 35% 28% 36% 19% 34%
BY Gender
Men Women
31% 34%
EEPRI-IFPRI Survey, 2009

26. Satisfaction with quantity and quality of
drinking water supply
EEPRI-IFPRI Survey, 2009

27. Capacity of Water Committees
• Water committees receive limited technical training on
operations and maintenance
• No training on getting community ―buy-in‖ on value of
clean water, hygiene, maintenance, fees, etc.
• Many users object to fees
• Strong perceptions of unfairness
• Often little support from woreda water offices
• Limited capital budgets, spare parts, and vehicles
• All water committees included women, but usually
chaired by men
• In Beneshangul-Gumuz, policy is that women chair committees

28. Conclusions and Policy Implications
• Access to safe drinking water sources is very low
• 32% of study households—which is substantially higher
than nation-wide rural access of 11% (2004, WDI 2008)
• Weak accountability links may be a hindrance in translating
rural residents’ priority concerns into policy priorities
Placing access to safe drinking water higher on the priority
list (noting that it also has implications for productivity)
• Households identify drinking water as their main priority
concern
• Yet they report relatively high satisfaction rates and hardly
take any action to complain
Treat satisfaction data with care

29. Conclusions and Policy Implications
• Water committees, the lowest level service providers, are
still insufficiently inclusive
Women usually fetch the water – shouldn’t they chair the
committees?
Should councils pay more attention to drinking water?
• Water committees not able to counteract top-down facility
provision
Draw on local knowledge and local considerations in
selecting sites – more discretion
• Water committees have high discretion in setting rules,
fees, etc., but unable to effectively use this discretion due
to nearly no training on community relations
Train water committees on community relations
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