Old Harari Woman, Harar, Ethiopia. Photo: Rod Waddington/FlickR
Getting older is a natural process, and one that I would like to go through. However, in the community where I am living, getting older is the most challenging part of life. This is because people have no formal care and support and families have to bear it. Likewise, older people are among the most vulnerable to be hit by different shocks and they may not have the necessary resources to withstand them.
But are older Ethiopians benefitting from safety nets?
Ethiopia is the second most populous country in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a population of about 112 million, of which 80.5% live in rural areas. Despite achieving impressive economic growth of the past decade, Ethiopia remains one of the lowest-income countries in the world.
Ecosystem degradation is a major threat to livelihoods and sustainable development across the globe. Habitat loss also increases the risk of pandemics, serving to remind us of humans’ complex and delicate relationship with nature. While the origins of COVID-19 remain unclear, this is a crisis that continues to affect human health, livelihoods and economies worldwide, and threatens to overturn decades of development gains.
This is certainly true for Africa. In Ethiopia and countries across sub-Saharan Africa, vast informal economies mean dependence on hourly or daily wages. Many of these jobs ended with the introduction of pandemic-related restrictions and curfews. Consequently, even though infection rates and deaths in this area of the world remain comparatively low, COVID-19 led to the region’s first recession in 25 years and may still inflict greater economic damage. The ongoing pandemic also continues to exacerbate existing inequalities and could push 39 million more Africans
Worries rise for Tigray residents longer-term safety
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Addis Ababa, Monday 19 April, 2021 – As Tigray residents recount the horrors they have faced, worries rise for people’s longer-term safety as they are left without food, inputs for planting, and high food prices and access to cash and markets. A recent CARE assessment found that the food situation in a number of areas of eastern Tigray is truly alarming, with little or no agricultural inputs available for people to recover over the coming months.
Esther Watts, CARE Ethiopia Country Director says; “this is an area that was already suffering from food security issues before the conflict, with amongst the worst malnutrition and stunting rates in the country even beforehand. On top of this northern and central parts of Tigray were also hit by the locust swarms last year. All this means that people in the region have no harvests to live off and nothing to plant during the upcoming planting season, leaving them in a trul
COVID-19 pandemic offers rare chance for food systems transformation | IFPRI : International Food Policy Research Institute ifpri.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from ifpri.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.