Study on Food Security among Rural Households in Wolaita, Ethiopia

CEFA The seed of Solidarity is a Non-Government Organization whose headquarter is in Bologna, Italy (www.cefaonlus.it), that has been working for 49 years in order to overcome hunger and poverty. It helps the poorest communities in the world in reaching food self-sufficiency and respect for fundamental rights (education, work, health, gender equality, freedom of expression).

CEFA mainly works in the following activities: 1) Rural economy with production, transformation and commercialization of agricultural products; 2) Economic empowerment for women and youth living in rural areas; 3) Basic infrastructures to guarantee water access, re-qualification and environment protection of the territory and the use of renewable energies.

CEFA is present in Ethiopia since April 2018, promoting actions in line with its Mission, Vision and Areas of Expertise.

Background

Wolaita zone is one of the 13 zones of the SNNP region covering an area of 4,208.6 km². Wolaita zone is divided into 12 woredas and three administrative towns. Soddo town is the administrative center of the zone. It is located at 380 km south of Addis Ababa and 157 km away from Hawassa town.

The total population is estimated to be about 1,5 million with a density of 385 inhabitants per square kilometer. Agriculture is the major source of livelihood, mainly small scale-farming system with an average farm size per capita of 0.62 ha.^[1]

Food security is highly constrained by many problems including limited farm land holding, soil degradation, rainfall variability, lack of high quality agricultural techniques, technologies and inputs. Critical shortage of arable land forced farm community to cultivate sloppy areas that in turn aggravated soil erosion. Land degradation is one of the major causes of low agricultural productivity and in many places responsible for food insecurity and rural poverty.

Undernutrition (stunting, wasting and underweight) is a major public health problem in Wolaita, and it has a high prevalence in under-5-year-old children in the area.^[2]

Research on household food security and local responses has not adequately undertaken in the study area. An assessment of food security at household level is important to studies and design appropriate strategies across the different socio-economic settings in the area.

[1] Bagnara, Gian Luca. (2017). AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION AND MARKET OF WOLAITA RURAL AREA (ETHIOPIA). 10.13140/RG.2.2.34313.95846.

[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7102890/

Location

Wolaita Zone, SNNP Region, Ethiopia

Objective of the Study

The overarching objective of the study is to assess food security situations among households in rural areas of Wolaita, where CEFA projects implementation has been ongoing.

The final outcome of the study should include:

• Carry out food security assessment among rural households in Wolaita communities.

• Determine of factors responsible for improvement in food security situations of rural households.

• Analysis of coping strategies for developing intervention forecasting in short, medium and long-term.

• Development of Study summary with main findings, observations and conclusions to share with local Zone Authorities.

Methodology

The methodology should include a combination of qualitative and quantitative data collection.

Primary data and data analysis process will be disaggregated by detailed sub-categories, in order to provide an inclusive, unbiased and complete topic overview.

For Qualitative Data Collection, key informant interviews with partners and local stakeholders – including local communities and Zone and Woreda officials.

The Consultant will be expected to develop detailed, systematic methodology for data collection and analysis, specifying sampling strategy, data collection tools and approaches for data analysis and report writing.

Expected Outputs

1) Inception Report, clearly stating proposed methodology, work-plan and data collection tools.

2) Study draft to be submitted following field-work activities, which shall include a background, approach and methodology used, detailed findings, recommendations and conclusion, and annexes;

A review phase will be conducted jointly by CEFA and by consultant, following the submission of the study draft. The outcome of the review phase will be the incorporation of CEFA comments and observation in the final research. The review phase to research draft will have no time-bounds.

3) Final Study, incorporating comments from CEFA.

Duration and phasing

The study is scheduled to be implemented starting from 15^th of February 2022 and ending by 15^th of May 2022, with an overall duration of 90 (ninety days).

1) Inception Report from 15/02/2022 until 28/02/2022

2) Study Draft from 01/03/2022 until 14/04/2022

3) Final Study from 15/04/2022 until 15/05/2022

Costs and payments

All costs should be considered in the bid by the consultant.

The total allocated budget is 120.000 (one hundred twenty-thousand) ETB.

Payment will be phased upon successful completion of milestones detailed below:

·        Submission of inception report (30%)

·        Study Draft delivery (30%)

·        Submission and final approval of final elaboration (40%)

Job Requirements

• Demonstrated Experience in Food Security analysis and Agriculture-related researches and evaluations;

• Demonstrated Experience working in a rural environment;

• Good understanding of the economic and social situation of southern Ethiopia;

• Demonstrated Experience in participatory approaches to evaluations.