Background Recent evidence suggests that mistreatment of women during childbirth is a global challenge facing health care systems. This study seeks to explore the prevalence of mistreatment of... Show moreBackground Recent evidence suggests that mistreatment of women during childbirth is a global challenge facing health care systems. This study seeks to explore the prevalence of mistreatment of women in public health facilities of Ethiopia, and identify associated factors. Methods A two-stage cross sectional sampling design was used to select institutions and women. The study was conducted in hospitals and health centers across four Ethiopian regions. Quantitative data were collected from postpartum women. Mistreatment was measured using four domains: (1) physical abuse, (2) verbal abuse, (3) failure to meet professional standards of care, and (4) poor rapport between women and providers. Percentages of mistreatment and odds ratios for the association between its presence and institutional and socio demographic characteristics of women were calculated using bivariate and multivariable logistic regression modeling. Results A total of 379 women were interviewed, of whom 281 (74%) reported any mistreatment. Physical and verbal abuse were reported by 7 (2%) and 31 (8%) women interviewed respectively. Failure to meet professional standards of care and poor rapport between women and providers were reported by 111 (29%) and 274 (72%) women interviewed respectively. Multivariable logistic regression analysis revealed that the odds of reporting mistreatment were higher among women with four or more previous births (aOR = 3.36 95%CI 1.22,9.23, p = 0.019) compared to women with no previous childbirth, Muslim women (aOR = 3.30 95%CI 1.4,7.77, p = 0.006) and women interviewed in facilities with less than 17 births per MNH staff in a month (aOR = 3.63 95%CI 1.9,6.93, p < 0.001). However, the odds of reporting mistreatment were lower among women aged 35 and older (aOR = 0.22 95%CI 0.06, 0.73, p = 0.014) and among women interviewed between 8 and 42 days after childbirth (aOR = 0.37 95%CI 0.15, 0.9, p = 0.028). Conclusion Mistreatment during childbirth in Ethiopia is commonly reported. Health workers need to consider provision of individualized care for women and monitor their experiences in order to adjust quality of their services. Show less
While the inclusion of extreme poor people is a noble and necessary objective, it is challenging. Attempts to include extreme poor people in development interventìons have often been disappointing.... Show moreWhile the inclusion of extreme poor people is a noble and necessary objective, it is challenging. Attempts to include extreme poor people in development interventìons have often been disappointing. This book addresses the challenge of including the poorest people. lt provides deeper understanding of the mechanisms of in- and exclusion of extreme poor people, the structural causes of extreme poverty and the desirability of a univocal definition of extreme poverty. The book contributes to such an understanding through an analysis of extreme poor and marginalised people and their multiple dimensions of wellbeing. Furthermore, this book sheds light on the discourses and practices applied by development agencies in order to draw lessons about how the extreme poor can be sustainably included in development interventions. This is based on original field research - using a partipatory approach - carried out in Bangladesh, Benin, and (rural and urban) Ethiopia. Show less
Vermeiden, T.; Schiffer, R.; Langhorst, J.; Klappe, N.; Asera, W.; Getnet, G.; ... ; Akker, T. van den 2018
Western donor countries consider a proper functioning multiparty democracy as one of the most import conditions for achieving more legitimate governance and subsequently economic development and... Show moreWestern donor countries consider a proper functioning multiparty democracy as one of the most import conditions for achieving more legitimate governance and subsequently economic development and reduction of poverty in their partner countries. Support to free and fair elections is an integral part of the ‘good governance’ agenda of the traditional donor community. On the basis of the findings of this study, it appears however that it is not so much the acceptance of Western type political institutions or compliance with generally endorsed liberal-democratic standards that determine the possibilities for developing countries to achieve economic transformation and substantial poverty reduction, but rather the nature of the political settlement among the political elites. Show less
Event number is an important grammatical category in Konso in addition to nominal number. Event number has two main values, singular and plural, which can be expressed by two distinct verbal... Show moreEvent number is an important grammatical category in Konso in addition to nominal number. Event number has two main values, singular and plural, which can be expressed by two distinct verbal morphological processes, punctual and pluractional. The interpretation of a sentence in terms of event number is arrived at through an intricate interplay of lexical meaning, the core meaning of the number marking morphology and the separate system of aspect. Each verb has its intrinsic values for event number associated with its systematic lexical distinctions in terms of event number. Event number includes both event internal and event external situations. The meaning of the markers of singular and plural event number has a primary and a secondary value. There are several situations in which the primary meaning is excluded and the secondary meaning is the only possible interpretation. The pluractional is fully productive while the punctual is not productive and has interesting structural morphological restrictions. Show less
The 2015 elections in Ethiopia had a predictable outcome, showing an entrenched system of one-party dominance that self-referentially enacts the political order created by the Ethiopian People’s... Show moreThe 2015 elections in Ethiopia had a predictable outcome, showing an entrenched system of one-party dominance that self-referentially enacts the political order created by the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) since 1991. EPRDF spokespersons continued to defend the party’s hegemony as inevitable, grounded in a logic of technocratic authority and with reference to ‘stability’ and ‘development’. This paper describes the electoral process not in the light of democracy theory but of hegemonic governance theory. Elections seem to have lost relevance in Ethiopia as a means of political expression and are only important as a performance of hegemonic governance and as ‘global impression management’ – showing state skills in securing a smooth electoral process as a major organisational feat in itself. Contradictions that the political process creates between the Ethiopian party-state and domestic constituencies, and between the attitudes/policies of certain donor countries, are downplayed or avoided, but problematic in the long run. Show less
The State of Addis Ababa 2017 report is aimed at providing a comprehensive assessment of existing socioeconomic and environmental conditions in the city, shedding light on the impacts of on-going... Show moreThe State of Addis Ababa 2017 report is aimed at providing a comprehensive assessment of existing socioeconomic and environmental conditions in the city, shedding light on the impacts of on-going fast paced urbanization. The report addresses policy makers and city planners and makes bold recommendations on how resources can be strategically developed and managed to sustainably meet the needs of the urban population of today and the future, improve the short- and long-term wellbeing of citizens and transform Addis Ababa into the city that the citizenry wants. Show less
The State of Addis Ababa 2017 report is aimed at providing a comprehensive assessment of existing socioeconomic and environmental conditions in the city, shedding light on the impacts of on-going... Show moreThe State of Addis Ababa 2017 report is aimed at providing a comprehensive assessment of existing socioeconomic and environmental conditions in the city, shedding light on the impacts of on-going fast paced urbanization. The report addresses policy makers and city planners and makes bold recommendations on how resources can be strategically developed and managed to sustainably meet the needs of the urban population of today and the future, improve the short- and long-term wellbeing of citizens and transform Addis Ababa into the city that the citizenry wants. Show less
In this paper I discuss food, cultural identity and development among the agropastoral Suri people of Southwest Ethiopia. Their food system is discussed in its actual form and in its process of... Show moreIn this paper I discuss food, cultural identity and development among the agropastoral Suri people of Southwest Ethiopia. Their food system is discussed in its actual form and in its process of change, accelerated since a decade or so. The theoretical concern of this paper is with issues of identity formation and continuity through the materiality of food and food systems, in the context of varying assumptions underlying discourses of development. The Suri people remain at the margins of the modernizing Ethiopian state and experienced a decline in food security, health and wealth in the last decade, coinciding with growing inter-group tension and new state developmental plans which devalue the agro-pastoral mode of life. State support or investment is in massive sugar and other mono-crop plantations and in enterprises by foreigners and private capitalists, not matched by parallel investment in local economies of agro-pastoralism and crop cultivation. Some of the effects on the production system, diet and ‘food sovereignty’ of the Suri are described so as to highlight the challenges they face, including growing internal differentiation, pressure on modifying their food system and the increasing sale and use of alcoholic drinks. Observing the, often ambivalent, changes in the Suri food pattern and food consumption shows the challenges they face in (re)defining group identity, responding to internal tensions and to state-capitalist modernizing schemes that impact their way of life. Show less
This study examined impacts of large-scale farming in Ethiopia on local economic development, household food security, incomes, employment, and the environment. The study adopted a mixed research... Show moreThis study examined impacts of large-scale farming in Ethiopia on local economic development, household food security, incomes, employment, and the environment. The study adopted a mixed research approach in which both qualitative and quantitative data were generated from secondary and primary sources. Three large-scale farms (two foreign and one domestic) operating in Oromia, Gambella, and Benshanguel Gumuz regional states were selected as case studies. The result of the study indicated that large-scale farms generally undermined local level food security and incomes, generated little employment opportunities for the local population, deteriorated the local environment, especially in terms of vegetation cover and soil quality, and contributed little to local economic development, such as infrastructure construction, technology transfer, and generating fiscal revenue and foreign currency. The study concluded that the approach of large-scale mechanized farming contributes little to the economic and agricultural transformation of the nation. Local people generally lose out in respect of land transactions and investments, and they are expropriated from their customary land rights to the benefit of national goals. The outcome contradicts with the ethno-linguistic federal state arrangement of the country in which federated states manage their resources to improve their local development. Show less
This work is another instalment of a scholarly bibliography in the social sciences and history of Ethiopia and Eritrea, produced at the African Studies Centre (University of Leiden). It is the... Show moreThis work is another instalment of a scholarly bibliography in the social sciences and history of Ethiopia and Eritrea, produced at the African Studies Centre (University of Leiden). It is the fifth and last publication by the author on this subject, and is only published as an E-book (The other volumes - of 1991, 1995, 2003 and 2010 – were first published in print form). The bibliography gives a representative choice of the most important and insightful scholarly contributions (and also some of the more ‘popular’ material written for wider audiences) of the past five years, which have seen a notable acceleration of work and many new insights into the dynamics of the North-East African region. While fairly complete on a number of themes, citing the most authoritative titles, the work is obviously not exhaustive in its coverage. It provides, nonetheless, an essential starting point for research work, reference and teaching on the societies, culture and history of Northeast Africa. Show less
