community by-laws, and successfully supported adoption of climate-resilient farming practices, including the diversification of farming systems through fruit tree planting in a small number of micro-sheds. Climate change adaptation practices and technologies for on-farm production improvement were also successful, but should have been implemented in all the 650 sub-watersheds. Opportunities to address the long-term problem of overgrazing on communal lands were missed, as originally envisaged policy and regulatory reform activities were not implemented. At the community level, the project did not invest in supporting institutions such as watershed management committees and land use committees – a requirement to ensure women’s representation. Instead, planning was done through a top-down approach led by the Government, and implementation was carried out through local extension systems that had little or no capacity. In this context, income-generating activities are expected to be unsustainable in the absence of marketing analysis, clear rights of resource usage and sufficient private sector engagement. In the future, the impact evaluation recommends adopting a master plan for integrated participatory watershed management, to enable the involvement of all stakeholder groups in the management planning and implementation processes. Drawing on other lessons, the report also suggests to align the length of a project’s duration with the time frame of watershed management plans in order to see the effects on beneficiaries’ income, and to embed monitoring and evaluation elements that can better facilitate impact studies in the design of watershed management projects. In conducting the evaluation, IOE collaborated with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
@Pixabay/microscopic
Africa celebrates fashion*
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his year’s African Celebrates Fashion Reception (AFR) was held in Addis Ababa, from 21 October 2021. The AFR commemorates African traditions, art, culture and cuisine since 2013. This year’s event gathered fashion designers, dignitaries, ambassadors and media from over 30 African countries in a celebration of cultural diversity expressed through the artistic fashion discipline, with a theme “Art, fashion and culture.” The aim of the event was to expand the potential power of fashion as a tool for fighting poverty in Africa by creating wealth through the empowerment of women and youth in the various fashion vocations. It is also set to bring in lots of tourists, hopefully reviving the tourism industry that has taken a huge hit during the pandemic. The event also looked to create self-reliance as it creates jobs across the continent for tailors, creative directors, textile designers, models, cutters, pressers, fashion photographers & writers, hair stylists, make-up artists and alike. “This is a great initiative. As Africans, we have such a rich culture that the whole world deserves to see; it is a great opportunity to showcase what sort of potential lies within the continent. It is also a great opportunity to show the rich heritage of Ethiopia to the extended African and global tourists the event is set to bring in,” said Lelise Duga, Commissioner of Oromia Tourism Commission. *source: https://www.thereporterethiopia.com/ 31
