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Researchers from UA several departments will help create a risk management center to train experts in mitigating disasters.

By University Communications
February 8, 2008

Ethiopia, the African nation whose very name is synonymous with catastrophic drought and famine, is getting much needed long-term assistance to help mitigate the kinds of disasters there that have killed millions of people.

A consortium of researchers from The University of Arizona, including the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, the Office of Arid Lands Studies and the agricultural and biosystems engineering department in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences are working with faculty from Ethiopia’s Bahir Dar University to create a regional center of excellence for disaster risk management and sustainable development. The center will serve eastern Africa, including the region called the “Horn,” which includes Ethiopia.

An initial $200,000 grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development started the project in the fall of 2007. The project team is expecting a decision from the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development, a bilateral donor, for supplemental funding of approximately $1.5 million over three years. The additional funding would expand the work at Bahir Dar, as well as carry out parallel activities with the Institute for Development Research at Addis Ababa University.

The UA consortium will train professors at BDU who will in turn develop master’s curricula to teach courses in such topics as economic livelihoods, vulnerability analysis, geographic information system mapping, community-based disaster management and public health.

The project also will include a broad range of other activities, such as development of a Web portal and teleconferencing to facilitate distance learning through BDU, a national conference on disaster risk management, and faculty exchanges between the two schools.

Private-sector collaborators include Ferguson-Lynch, a New Mexico-based firm that provides a Web portal platform for technical management of knowledge systems and distance learning, and TANGO International, a Tucson-based company with extensive food security expertise in Ethiopia. Institutional partners include Save the Children and Oxfam Canada, which have institutional ties to BDU, and DPPA, the Ethiopian agency responsible for disaster management.

Ethiopia is the second most populous country in Africa. In area, it is about the combined size of the U.S. Four Corner region (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah), but its population of 68 million is nearly five times larger. About nine of every 10 Ethiopians live directly off the land, either through farming or raising livestock, most without access to modern agricultural technology.

Like the southwestern U.S., Ethiopia’s droughts often are signaled by El Niño events, which themselves are often unpredictable. In good years, Ethiopia can export some of its agricultural output. But without a constant and reliable source of water, a rainy season that falls short of expectations, or even comes a few days too early or too late can result in widespread crop failure.

Arizona and its dry neighbors have adjusted to the vagaries of desert weather through a system of dams, reservoirs, ground water and irrigation projects. They also have a history of political stability and technological and legal savvy to maintain them. By contrast, Ethiopia’s droughts often are compounded by violent civil unrest.

The goal of the UA and its partners in this venture is to mobilize the educational expertise and resources in Ethiopia to strengthen the country’s infrastructure. The planned risk management center at BDU is expected to enhance the school’s role both as a leader in disaster prevention and mitigation, and in Web-based distance learning to train future community leaders and specialists.