Out of Utah - to Africa

Prompted by U.S. Congress members who are advocating more effective use of research and development aid to Africa, congressional advisor Pearl-Alice Marsh is seeking information about successful approaches American universities are using to boost the economic health of impoverished communities throughout the African continent. What she learned from Utah State University researchers is that small, peer-mentored efforts at the village level can yield big results in fostering economic stability and improving lives.

Marsh, a senior staff member for the House International Relations Committee who is responsible for African issues, says cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development budget — especially for agricultural projects — intensify the need for better extension efforts that encourage agriculturalists’ productivity.

“We want to focus on ways to broaden capacity building in Africa,” says Marsh. “That is, we want to build up the institutions and infrastructure that enable livestock producers, farmers and fishermen to produce more for local consumption as well as revenue-generating products for export.”

On a recent visit to Ethiopia, Marsh met with USU postdoctoral research associates Solomon Desta and Getachew Gebru in Addis Ababa to discuss the university’s Pastoral Risk Management Project — known as PARIMA — that operates in the border region of northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia.

PARIMA, led by USU and federally funded since 1997, is a consortium of university collaborators from the United States and Kenya, as well as an extensive network of partnerships with East African public and private entities. Coordinated by Layne Coppock, principal investigator and associate professor in the College of Natural Resources’ Department of Environment and Society, the team’s major focus is helping southern Ethiopia’s poor rural households, most of which depend on herding for sustenance, diversify their livelihoods. In addition, the project seeks to bolster residents’ economic security by linking them with livestock export markets.

Pastoralists in the region’s Borana Plateau depend on raising cattle, sheep and goats to earn a living, Coppock says. Encroaching settlement and cultivation, along with drought, population growth and overgrazing are forcing the semi-nomadic people to find new ways to supplement their incomes.

“PARIMA is a good example of helping pastoralists radically increase the number of ruminants they can support, while helping them export livestock to new markets in the Middle East,” Marsh says.

Marsh says she was also impressed with PARIMA’s development of a successful model to facilitate collective action by 60 women’s groups, which now boast more than 2,000 members in southern Ethiopia. The groups provide peer mentoring, instruction and support in helping members develop income-generating ventures to supplement their families’ traditional earning sources. Through the PARIMA groups, women are pooling resources and learning how to set up their own viable cottage businesses.

Of all the lessons learned during the PARIMA team’s decade-long existence, Coppock says the success of the women’s groups, which the team initiated in 2001, is “probably the biggest surprise.”

“They’ve accomplished so much in a short amount of time, which is impressive considering the very difficult environment they live in and the limited formal skills they originally had,” he says.

Women participating in the groups have saved significant amounts of money, greatly improved how their households are run, are sending their sons and daughters to school and are creatively engaged in the marketplace, Coppock says.

“The key is that they now have a dream that their lives can be a bit better, and this dream has spread uncontrolled like a wildfire,” he says. “Motivated by a few successful peers from northern Kenya, the Ethiopian women have received modest education in reading and math, along with small business training from PARIMA.”

Coppock says the strong traditional culture, where women rally to each other’s aid in times of difficulty, underpins the remarkable success of PARIMA’s savings and credit program.

“Over the past five years, the rate of loan repayment — after hundreds of loan disbursements — is still perfect at 100 percent,” he says.

John McMahon, senior staff member of the U.S. AID Mission to Ethiopia, attended USU’s meeting with Marsh and explained how the PARIMA model has been used to guide implementation of similar crisis-mitigating efforts elsewhere in the Greater Horn of Africa.

“I think PARIMA’s model can be replicated throughout Africa but securing the funding to do it is a major issue,” Marsh says.

Marsh says she would like to return to Ethiopia and meet with one or more of the PARIMA women’s groups. “I’m responsible for efforts throughout Africa so I don’t know if I’ll be able to return to Ethiopia this year,” she says. “It’s a big continent with many needs.”

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