GENDER ASPECTS IN THE USE OF LAND AND

WATER RESOURCES
(THE CASE OF SHINA COMMUNITY IN ETHIOPIA)

Thesis
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of

Master of Arts
Culture and Environment in Africa

Faculty of Arts and Humanities

(Philosophische Fakultt)

The University of Cologne

(Universitt zu Kln)

Submitted by

Saeed Seidu Billa

Wa Ghana

Cologne

February 2011
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am heartily thankful to my supervisor, Prof. Dr. Micheal Bollig, whose encouragement,

guidance and support from the day I was enrolled into the university to this memorable final
level of my M A, enabled me to develop an understanding of the subject that I knew very little
about. I cannot adequately express my appreciation of his personal support without which this
project would not have been possible. I thank him also for linking me to Dr Irit Eguavoen of
ZEF, who has since been part of my academic life.

Secondly, I am very grateful to Dr Irit Eguavoen the coordinator of this project, who guided
me from the beginning to the end of this thesis. Her advice, correction and proof-reading of
my work could not be more helpful.

I owe this Degree to the Albertus-Magnus Program for offering me a scholarship to cover my
living expenses during the entire study. I thank ZEF too for the cost of transport and field stay
in Ethiopia.

I cannot end this list without mentioning Herr Karl-Heinz Korn of the international office,
university of Cologne. His help was vital in my stay in Cologne. I thank him for organizing
accommodation, which would not have been possible without him, and the occasional
refreshments and excursions, helped to make my stay in cologne a memorable one. I am also
thankful to Andrea Bieslar, Jens Funk and all the workers of the Albertus-Magnus Program.

My special thanks and appreciation go to my wife and my daughter Charline and Rakisha
Mariam Billa, for their support and encouragements. Charline I thank you for being a
wonderful mother to my daughter while I was away and for your patience in helping her count
the number of years, months, weeks and days that Daddy will be back.

In a very special way, I thank all the members of the Institute of Ethnology University of
Cologne. Special thanks go to Monika Boeck my first contact, who gave me a very good
impression of the institute and the university. I thank Ulrike Wesch of CASC and all the
workers there both past and presents for their support. The names of Dr Larissa Forster,
Martin Solesch and Anja Berker need to be mentioned.

Lastly, I would like to thank all the wonderful people of Woreta in Ethiopia, especially Jibril
Alamayohu who helped me in various ways during my field stay in Ethiopia.
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents .................................................................................................................................... 3
Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 5
Chapter One: Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 6
1.1 Statement of the research problem ........................................................................................ 6
1.2 Research objectives ............................................................................................................... 11
1.3 Research questions................................................................................................................ 11
1.4 Relevance of the study .......................................................................................................... 11
1.5 Research Methodology ......................................................................................................... 13
1.6 Structure of the thesis ........................................................................................................... 18
Chapter 2: Research Context and Concepts .......................................................................................... 18
2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 18
2.2 The concept of gender .......................................................................................................... 19
2.3 Amhara Regional National State (ARNS) ............................................................................... 21
2.4 Gender in rural Amhara......................................................................................................... 21
2.5 Property rights and land tenure ............................................................................................ 22
2.6 Land tenure and land reforms in Amhara ............................................................................. 24
2.7 Significance of Peasant Associations (PAs)............................................................................ 27
2.8 Conceptual framework .......................................................................................................... 28
Chapter 3: Profile of Shina Community ................................................................................................. 29
3.2 Settlement patterns of the Shina community ....................................................................... 31
3.3 Religion and politics............................................................................................................... 32
3.4 Market and economic activities ............................................................................................ 33
3.5 Sources of water in the community ...................................................................................... 35
2.9 Dam project and managemenet (Serk-Eshet) ....................................................................... 36
4.10 Soil and water conservation .................................................................................................. 41
Chapter 5: Findings and Interpretations ............................................................................................... 43
5.1.1 National and regional authorities...................................................................................... 43
5.1.2 Kebele and local agencies.................................................................................................. 45
5.1.3 Targeted groups ................................................................................................................ 46
5.2 Land registration and tenure security ................................................................................... 47
5.3 Land registration and disputes reduction ............................................................................. 48
5.4 Gender and access to land .................................................................................................... 51
5.5 Gender and labor arrangement ............................................................................................ 52

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5.6 Socio-cultural practices ......................................................................................................... 55
5.7 Summary and Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 58
References ......................................................................................................................................... 61
Glossary ............................................................................................................................................. 65
Acronyms and Abbreviations ............................................................................................................ 65
Appendices ........................................................................................................................................ 66
Appendix 1: Questionnaires and focus group discussion guide ........................................................ 66
Appendix 2: Interview Guide for Focus Group Discussion ................................................................ 69
Appendix 3: Data collection sheet..................................................................................................... 70
Appendix 4: List of contacted persons (Govt. official, development agents, field assistants and NGO
staff) .................................................................................................................................................. 73
Appendix 5: List of index words ........................................................................................................ 73
List of Figures..................................................................................................................................... 74
List of Photographs............................................................................................................................ 74
List of Tables ...................................................................................................................................... 75

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Abstract
Academics and development practitioners all over agree that access to land and water
resource depends not only on economic and environmental factors but also on socio-cultural
ones. One of such important social factors that influence access to land and water resources is
gender. This study focuses on the socio-cultural intricacies that influence womens efforts at
accessing and keeping land in Ethiopia, specifically in Shina community in Amhara region.

The economic situation of the majority of the rural people in Ethiopia has led to accelerated
efforts by both the government of Ethiopia and donor community to improve the situation.
Land reforms are being carried out and there is an increase in irrigation infrastructure
development. Gender equity is among the aims of these efforts which is still lagging behind
and needs more attention.

This study is based on literature review of the gender situation in Amhara and a six week field
research on a micro dam project in Shin. It involves interviews and participatory rural
appraisals. The study found some interesting trends in gender aspects in the use of land and
water resources in this community.

Firstly, this study confirms that, women in Shina as generally known are disadvantaged in
many areas of social life. Land registration exercise as carried out in Amhara region is not as
successful as shown in most of the literature. In Shina, gender is still an issue in accessing and
keeping farm-plots. Even though some women at the scheme have equal access to water for
their plots, all the plots that are owned by families are considered the property of the man.

As expected, it was also shown that, economic activities have increase because of the dam for
both male and female, which also affected gendered attitudes and relations positively.

Finally, this study shows that most women in Shina, though happy about their changing
circumstance are more interested in having unrestricted access to the products of the land than
been registered as co-owners of the land with their husbands.

5
Chapter One: Introduction

Ethiopia remains one of Africas most tradition-bound societies [...] a vast majority of Ethiopian women
particularly in rural areas are far from being well-off, independent and direct beneficiaries of
development initiatives. Following traditional socio-cultural installation and practices, women are
considered inferior to men, both in family life and in society at large (GID, 2008).

In order to define how human and natural resources can be developed in Ethiopia, it is
important that we know what these resources are, their constraints, their values and the
expectations of the people that these resources are meant to assist (World Bank Social Sector
Report, 2005). It is equally important to understand how these available resources are used
and in what socio-cultural setting these resources are apportioned among various segments of
the society. Understanding the interrelationship between and among various segments of the
Ethiopian society and the socio-cultural intricacies underpinning their relationship will help
our understanding of resource allocation patterns.

Agriculture is the backbone of the Ethiopian economy, as it accounts for nearly half of the
countrys gross domestic product (GDP). Over 90 percent of its rural workforce is engaged in
agriculture. Close to 85 percent of the countrys population depends almost entirely on
agriculture for its livelihood (CSA, 2008). However, agricultural production is said to be
drastically falling over the years amidst rapid increase in population growth. With a
population growth rate of 2.6 percent, Ethiopias population is among the fastest growing in
Africa, but its agriculture production is among the lowest, at 1.2 tons per ha. According to the
World Bank, the pace of Ethiopias agricultural production, if it continues on its current
trajectory, will not cope with the ever increasing demand of the over 80 million Ethiopians
(World Bank, 2000).

1.1 Statement of the research problem

Land is fundamental to the lives of poor rural people. It is a source of food, shelter, income
and social identity (IFAD, 2010). Land is of great social value to the majority of not only the
people in rural Ethiopia, but of the whole of Africa. It is a place of settlement to which people
return with symbolic and ritualistic associations. Land houses ancestors, such as in burial
sites, sacred woodlands and places for other spiritual life (Ogendo, 2000). Secure access to
land reduces a settlements vulnerability to hunger and poverty. However, for many of the

6
worlds extremely poor rural people in developing countries, secure access is becoming more
tenuous.

Availability and access to land and water have been a top development priority of the
government of Ethiopia for a long time, culminating in the land reforms of 1997 and the
construction of a number of irrigation facilities in many parts of the country, including the
Amhara region (my field site, Shina is in this region). In 2003, the government started a
World Bank-supported land registration exercise, which was to end by 2010. However, due to
the urgency that the Ethiopian land reforms required, by 2006, more than half of the countrys
peasants households had their land registered and issued with land certificates (Rahmato,
2008). This accelerated pace comes from the fact that the Ethiopian government sees
modernization of the rural sector as a way out of chronic food shortage and underdevelopment
(Tafesse, 2003). The Agricultural Development Led Industrialization (ADLI) policy has also
brought a lot of attention to certain infrastructural developments, such as irrigation facilities
and road networks, to increase food productivity, especially for Drought-Prone Areas (DPAs).

Land degradation is a serious problem in Ethiopia, which has resulted in a continuous

decrease in productivity in many parts of the country, especially the highland area, including
the area in which the World Bank project was situated. Shina community, which is in Mitsele
kebele, or ward, is one of the most resource-deprived communities in Ethiopia and also
one of the most drought-prone and insect infested areas (Nielsew, 2002). Rainfall, which is
erratic and torrential, often causes soil erosion and a high degree of land degradation,
resulting in low agricultural production and high drought-induced farming among the people.
Fig1: View of Shina Landscape

Source: (Author)

7
Most of the literature state that, women in Ethiopia have suffered socio-cultural and economic
discrimination and have had fewer opportunities than men for personal growth, education and
employment (GID 2008). Even the Ethiopian civil code of 1960 affirmed that women
occupied an inferior position when the code introduced sweeping reforms, most of which
were aimed at improving the circumstances of women (Zewde et al, 2002). However, most
observers commenting on the situation of the Ethiopian women in general usually put a lot
emphasis, sometimes superfluous emphasis, on the physical hardship that they experience
throughout their lives (World Bank, 1999; JICA, 1999; CEDAW, 2004). More often than not,
such hardship involves daily life activities, which curiously enough are not seen by most
women, especially women in Shina. These include, for example, carrying loads over long
distances and generally maintaining the homestead (Frank, 1999; Tiruneh et al., 2001).

The situation in Shina is even more precarious. Increasing productivity and market
accessibility is constantly hindered by other factors, such as the vagaries of the weather, the
persistent fragmentation of farm plots, insecure tenancy and, above all, lack of access to land
by an increasing number of female household heads. This, according to many commentators
on the land use in Ethiopia, is due to historical anomalies in land tenure and reforms from the
imperial times through the Derg regime to the last land reforms in 1997 (Rahmato, 1995,
2004, 2008; McCann, 1995; Deininger et al., 2007 among others). Rahmato (2004) contends
that the agricultural economy-based land tenure arrangements weakened not only the
agricultural production capacity of small households for survival and for the market, but also
their social and economic status as well as their incentive to work and use land resources
sustainably (Rahmato, 2004).

Interestingly, the Amhara Kilil, or region, which is located in the northern highlands of
Ethiopia, is said to be one of the surplus crop producing regions of Ethiopia. However, most
rural households in this area, are facing food shortage problems throughout the year, and
nearly half of the 113 woredas in the Amhara region are classified as food insecure (Nielsew,
2006). According to Descheemaeker (2008), the reasons for this precarious and vulnerable
state, which directly evolves from low agricultural productivity, are land degradation, erratic
rainfall, insufficient off- and non-farming income raising activities, lack of technology,
inability to use the water resources in a sustainable way, high population pressure and
inadequate social services, market and credit facilities (Descheemaeker, 2008)

8
 In addition to this problem insecure access to land as well as its increasing fragmentation in
recent years, due partly to several land redistributions, there was no irrigation facility in the
entire kebel. Until 2007, crop production was dependent on rainfall. But the uni-model rains,
which usually start very late or end abruptly, are not sufficient even for subsistence
production. Rainfall distribution in this community in recent years is said to be very minimal
and erratic (ibid). As a result, the people living in this area are perpetually short of food and
therefore inhabit a standard of living that is below the national average. The table below,
shows mean monthly rainfall and temperatures, and mean monthly dependable rainfall.
Dependable rainfall is how much rainfall farmers always get or can at least expect for three
out of four years. The figures for Shina were calculated using figures from 1980 to 2000 from
the nearest meteorological station at Bahir Dar, 35km away. It can be seen between the
months of March and June (highlighted) that more rain is needed than what the farmers can
feasibly get (Nielsew 2002)

Table1: Mean-Monthly Temperatures and Rainfall and Mean Dependable Rainfall for Shina.

Month Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec.

Mean 2.54 2.07 8.48 23.16 84.51 183.61 417.19 385.40 197.75 92.17 21.70 3.35
Monthly
Rainfall

Monthly 2.20 1.80 7.20 19.80 72.20 165.80 356.30 329.10 168.90 78.70 18.50 2.90
Dep.
Rainfall

Mean Max. 26.4 27.6 24.30 29.60 28.60 26.00 23.80 23.60 24.90 26.00 26.10 26.0
Temp. 0 0 0

Mean min. 7.00 8.60 11.50 12.00 14.00 13.70 13.40 13.30 12.50 11.90 10.50 9.30
Temp.

Source: (Nielsew 2002)

According to the UN, the economic growth and development of Ethiopia is directly dependent
on rainfall. Higher rainfall years correspond with higher GDP per capita and vice versa (see
Figure 2). Since the last decade, there has been a consistent decrease in rainfall, which is
likely to cause economic stagnation if nothing is done (IMF, 2007).

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Fig 2: Linkage between Economic Growth and Rainfall in Ethiopia

Source: (UN, World Water Development Report, 2007)

Due to the above problems, there is a need to supplement the rain-fed production with
irrigation-based agricultural approaches if these people are to escape this persistent, vicious
cycle of poverty.

Therefore, the Ethiopian government and international organizations believe that the
provision of dams is a reliable way of lifting rural peasants out of poverty (SERA, 2005;
IFAD, 2009), hence the Shina-Hamusit Micro-Earth Dam Project, which was funded by the
Ethiopian government with support from the Finnish government and was completed in 2008
at a cost of ETB 780,118.02, or an average ETB 7,309.27 per hectare (Chalenchew et al,
2002). The Euro equivalent of the total cost of constructing the dam at the time was about
forty-two thousand ( 42,000). This is a substantial amount of money given that, per capita,
GDP in 2008 was around 600 Euros (CSA 2009)

Under the organization entitled Strengthening Emergency Response Abilities (SERA),

irrigation facilities, in tandem with the land registration exercise carried out in the area,
should bring about sustainable agricultural practices that will increase food security and the
incomes of farmers, especially female headed households, in DPAs.

This study is therefore informed by the persistent lack of adequate access to land for the
majority of rural women, who are responsible for about forty percent of the regions
10
agricultural production (Guday, 2005). This is despite the fact that the productivity of women
in this society is often underestimated and largely non-monetized. The three productivity roles
of women production, reproduction and community management are commonly accepted
norms in this society (Guday, 2005). This makes the situation for women more precarious as
they try to combine effectively all these roles.

In response to this increasingly urgent problem, this study is an attempt to analyze the access
to land and water for the women in the Shina dam project, despite the land redistribution and
registration exercise, the aim of which, among others, was to mitigate this bias against
womens access to land and water for agricultural production (Nielsew 2006)

1.2 Research objectives

The main research objective is to analyze the effects of different modes of access to land and
water on the agricultural productivity of women in the irrigation scheme.

Specifically, this includes the following tasks:

Determining the various methods by which people acquire land and water in the
community.
Analyzing the socio-cultural practices that enhance or hinder womens access to land
and water.
Assess womens perception of the effects of the dam project on their livelihood.

1.3 Research questions

The main research question is, What are the socio-cultural practices that affect womens
efforts to access land and water for agricultural activities and how do these affect their
livelihoods?

In an attempt to answer the research question, this study will try to answer the following
specific questions:

How do people in this community acquire land for agricultural activities?

What factors militate against women in their quest for access to land and water?
What is the womens perception of the effects of the dam on their lives?

1.4 Relevance of the study

In the last twenty years, the Government of Ethiopia has spent considerable financial,
technical and organizational efforts in constructing irrigation infrastructures in parts of the
country, especially the rural areas. One of its main aims, if not the most important aim, is to

11
minimize rural poverty (cf. World Bank, 2000; SERA, 2006; IWMI, 1996). However,
systematic performance assessments in respect to the benefits are still lacking. Empirical ex-
post evidence of the effects of irrigation is scarce and fragmentary, or gives a mixed picture
when the evidence is available. Shinas case is different, because there is no evidence that
such study has been conducted in the area, and such an anthropological study could be a
strong start. Anthropologists usually take a considerable amount of time in the field, and this
time gives them the added advantage of intensively studying the subject. However, the mostly
positive effects of irrigation intervention on the well-being of smallholders and landless
people which are the two largest groups of the worlds poor, have been reported in other parts
of the country and most parts of Africa and Latin America (von Koppen, 1998). But can the
situation in Shina resemble the situations in other places? A study like this can help to answer
such a question.
On one hand, there is no doubt that new irrigation facilities have improved the land and labor
productivity of smallholders whenever they obtain access to water (Mellor & Desai, 1985;
Boyce, 1987; Hossain, 1989 in von Koppen, 1998). On the other hand, the provision of such
facilities in countries like Ethiopia with chronic land problems may deprive vulnerable
groups, such as women and or female headed households. Land reforms in Ethiopia and the
legal registration of titles to land may not fully serve the purpose that they were meant to
serve (Rahmato, 2008), which is the security of tenure to small-holder peasants.
This study is directly linked to the aim of the project, Re-thinking Water Storage for Climate
change: Adaptation in Sub-Saharan Africa, under the auspices of The Centre for
Development Research (ZEF Bonn). It is financed by the German Technical Cooperation
(GTZ) on behalf of the German Ministry for Development Cooperation (BMZ). It aims to
boost the resilience of vulnerable rural peasants to climate change-related risks through
diversified water storage mechanisms, improved investment in land and water conservation as
well as institutional development.

Moreover, this study is also an attempt to contribute to the debate over the role of gender
mainstreaming in project design and implementation in the region. This issue is gaining
significance, especially in the Ahmara region, and there are some agencies, mostly non-
governmental, with foreign support that are agitating for the emancipation of women in
these communities. Awra Amba is a community about 30km north-west of Shina that is
considered a model of egalitarian society, not just in Ethiopia but also in the whole of Africa
(Christian Science Monitor, 10 July 2010). In this community, women and men are

12
considered equal. Women do whatever men do and vice versa. There are no strict definitions
of gender roles in this society.

Therefore, the findings may be beneficial to the various stakeholders involved in rural
development and/or irrigation development activities in the region. These include locals who
use the water for their livelihood. Some of these uses are wetland recession gardening,
irrigation farming and fisheries, among others. They usually formed associations, such as the
Water Users Association (WUA) or the Land Use and Management Association (LUMA) to
protect their interest. Different types of stakeholders are the state and other state-supported
development agents and NGOs, such as USAID, and other international organizations.
Another agency that is actively involved in rural development in the region is the Commission
for Sustainable Agriculture and Environmental Rehabilitation in the Amhara Region (CO-
SAERAR), which was established in 1995 purposely to:

I. Study, design and construct small and medium-scale irrigation systems and micro
dams,
II. Study and inform the state about valley development, and
III. Study rural development in Amhara.

Finally, this studys findings may serve as a small contribution to the database of institutions,
such as the Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Development (BoARD) in Amhara, which is
actively involved in organizing farmers into associations. Findings may also be of interest to
the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) Addis Ababa, the Sustainable Water
Harvesting and Institutional Strengthening in Amhara (SWHISA), the Ethiopian Agricultural
Research Organization (EARO), as well as the Ethiopian Economic Association and
development agents.

1.5 Research Methodology

The decision as to which method to use in a research project depends largely on the research
problem and the depth of previous research on the target issue. Morgan and Smircich (1980)
think that the actual suitability of any research method derives from the nature of the social
phenomenon to be explored.

Under the project, Re-thinking Water Storage for Climate Change Adaptation in Sub-Saharan
Africa, the author was offered the invaluable opportunity to take part in an anthropological

13
research that was organized by the Center for Development Research, Bonn (ZEF), under the
auspices of GTZ and BMZ.

Shina-Hamusit happens to be one of the pre-selected sites for the study, hence the reason to
do this research in this remote community.

A qualitative research was the obvious option, since the study involved an empirical
assessment of a particular case the Shina-Hamusit Dam Project Community. Qualitative
research, according to Denzin and Lincoln (1988), emphasizes processes and meanings that
are not rigorously measured with regards to quantity, intensity and/or frequency. The aim of
qualitative research is to gather an in-depth understanding of human behavior and the reasons
for such behavior. The qualitative method of investigation asks the why and how of human
actions and inactions, not just what, where and when. Therefore, in such studies, smaller but
focused samples are usually adequate, not large samples. As such, there are instances in social
sciences research where the researcher is only interested in insight, discovery and
interpretation rather than testing hypotheses (Merriam, 1988). Under such circumstances, a
case study is considered the best method for an in-depth understanding and interpretation of
the phenomenon in question.

A case study is a common research methodology in social science that involves an in-depth
investigation of a single individual, group or event. A case refers to an entity, an individual,
an event or even a unit of analysis. It is an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary
phenomenon within its real life context using multiple sources of evidence (Yin, 1989) in
order to find underlying principles.

Based on the above definitions, a case study method seems like the best way to understand the
gendered relationship in the use and management of land and water resources in the Shina
community.

14
Fig4: Focus Group Discussion with Female Respondents

Upon arrival at Woreta, a young man named Jibril Alemayahu, a graduate of the School of
Agriculture in crop and animal husbandry, was introduced to us by the development agent and
he was immediately willing to help. Because of the remoteness of the village, it was difficult
to find the place, but it was finally located after visiting two other villages with similar names.
Staying in the community was not possible, because there was no suitable place for us. The
hotel (Paradise Hotel) in Woreta offered a very good and convenient place for a reasonable
price. The first problem was therefore how to procure a means of transport that could ply that
road. On the first day, the owner of the hotel generously lent a pickup truck, but it was
obvious that we needed a strong motorbike if the research was to be conducted. By the end of
the nine-kilometre journey on the first day, which lasted close to four hours, the truck got
stuck four times. With this start, it was clear that things were going to be more challenging
than we earlier believed. After a long search, we rented an old motorbike, but in the first
week, it was not possible to get to the village using the motor bike, as the bike required a lot
of repair work. However, towards the end of the research, a better motorbike was found. For
the first three weeks of the six-week stay in the field, any means available was used, including
riding bicycles, mules and sometimes walking.

15
Given the above-mentioned constraints, a good anthropological study is not possible with a
population of over 12,000. Therefore, the existence of a well-organized group (Serkshet Users
Association) is useful. Instead of a household survey of the village of over 12,000, the
researchers decided to conduct an in-depth study of this relatively smaller group of 144
people. According to Ato Hailu, the irrigation officer responsible for Dera Woreda, this group
the Sherk Eshet Users Association is the Community and the Community is the Dam.
To understand this community, you got to enter through the Dam and to know more about the
Dam, you have to study Serk-Shet, (personal communication with Hailu).

To form a holistic picture of the scheme, we also interviewed other individuals outside the
group. These included heads of institutional agencies and some experts at both the kebele and
woreda levels. Emphasis was placed on the female members, since these were in the minority
at these levels.

After deciding on the case, the researchers realized that there was a need for some basic
information about the members. Thus, an informal survey was conducted using quantitative
methods to get a sample from the group. This gave the study an idea, among others, of the
household composition of the community, since no such data could be found in any secondary
sources. Thus, the register of the association was used for a systematic random sample of 29
households. Out of this, 23 were male-headed households and six were female-headed
households. Furthermore, in order to get a good insight into the issues of gender, a second
stage sampling (criterion sampling) was used to target all the other four women who were not
selected by the first method or whose names were not in the list because they could not pay
the registration fees to be members of the association. This provided a total number of 33
respondents who were interviewed using a household questionnaire.

Another random sampling was done to get a second group of respondents for the focus group
discussion (FGD). Two groups of both males and females and another two groups of elderly
women and two young women, mostly unmarried, were also formed. Most of these women
were not members of the association, but the study recognized their participation as important
for obtaining the impressions of the non-users regarding the changes involved since the
construction of the dam.

Participant observation, FGD, Face-to-Face interviews and informal talks were conducted
where possible. Therefore, participation in all community activities wherever possible was the
aim from day one. Attending general assembly and executive committee meetings as well as
16
Sambateh meetings became the norm. In such gatherings, the researcher asked questions to
clarify certain controversial issues such as why women could not use the plough.

Finally, five individuals were identified as having interesting personal stories. These (three
women and two men) were extensively studied. Some of their stories are presented here as
case histories. At the end of the research, about fifty individuals were contacted at least once.

Table2: Research Methods

No. Respondents Persons Methods Tools Info. sorted

Interviewed
Experts and Interviews Field note and Information on
1 Opinion leaders 8 and informal interview guide dam and opinion
talks of the people
Questionnaire Opinion on
2 Elderly women (8) in 2 FGD and tape changing role of
groups recording FHH
Questionnaires Gender and labor
3 Younger women 6 in 2 FGD and tape recorded arrangement
groups
FGD Questionnaires Gender and
4 All male groups 12 in 3 and tape recorded changing
groups attitudes and
benefits of the
dam
5 Case Histories 5 Casual talks Field notes Personal stories
and experience
Mixed groups FGD Questionnaires Importance of the
6 (male and 16 in 4 and tape recorded dam and its
female) groups effects on lives
Face to face Structured Access to land
7 Male Household 18 interviews questionnaires and water from
Heads the dam
Female Face to face Structured Access to land
8 Household Heads 5 interviews questionnaires and water from
the dam
Source: Author

Another limitation of this study apart from those mentioned earlier was the language barrier.
Some of the questionnaires, especially the structured ones, had to be translated into Amharic
by the research assistant and those not translated had to be administered by first reading to the
research assistant who then translated the question to the interviewee and translated the
answer from Amharic to English. This process was time consuming and as thus boring to the
respondents. It was also possible to get wrong translations and misinterpretations of answers.

17
These may make the story incomplete or exaggerated and may also result in interviewer bias
due to the presence of the research assistant. One woman being interviewed asked the
research assistant to answer the question. She insisted that the assistant not ask her, because
she thought he already knew the answers to that question.

1.6 Structure of the thesis

After the introductory chapter, which includes the background to the current study and the
definition of the research problem, chapter two is mainly comprised of the literature review.
This is, however, not a literature review in the strict sense of the term; it is about theoretical
consideration and defining some key concepts thought to be relevant to this study. Therefore,
it includes a brief historical background of land tenure in Ethiopia. Chapter three contains the
profile of the study community. This section mainly concentrates on the socio-cultural and
economic aspects of the daily activities of the people. The methods used for the study are
enumerated in chapter four. The limitations of the research and challenges faced during the
fieldwork are mentioned here. The main part of this thesis is chapter five, which includes
findings and interpretations. Chapter five also presents an analysis of the data and an attempt
to evaluate and give reflections on the study. Finally, chapter six ends this thesis with a
summary and some concluding remarks.

Chapter 2: Research Context and Concepts

2.1 Introduction
Womens contribution to economic development the world over is recognized but most often
underestimated. In Sub Saharan Africa, women provide the backbone of the rural economy.
About 80 percent of the economically active female labor force is employed in agriculture and
women provide about 47 percent of the total agricultural labor force (Africa Recovery, 1998).
Food production is the major contribution of African rural women, and their responsibilities
and labor inputs often exceed those of men. Women also provide much of the labor for the
mens cultivation of export crops, from which women derive little direct benefit (ibid).
Women are responsible for 70 percent of food production, 50 percent of domestic food
storage, 100 percent of food processing, 50 percent of animal husbandry and 60 percent of all
SSA agricultural marketing (Africa Recovery 1998).

Unfortunately, the lack of recognition for their enormous contribution is more vivid in SSA
and clearly more so in Ethiopia than in many parts of the world. In no society today do
women enjoy the same opportunities as men. This unequal status, leaves considerable
disparities between how much women contribute to human development and how little they
share in its benefits (UNDP, 1995, p. 29). According to the UNDP, women and girls are

18
more likely to experience malnutrition and its related health consequences than their male
counterparts (ibid). Ironically, women are responsible for most of the worlds food
production, working land they cannot own either because they cannot afford it or because the
system in such institutions as inheritance and ownership rights deny them the opportunity to
do so (Besteman, 1995; Carney, 1993; Kelley, 2000; Saeger, 1997; UNDP, 1995 in Momsen,
2002).

Fig2: Contribution of Women in Economic Activities in Africa

Source: UN Africa Recovery 1998

2.2 The concept of gender

Gender is a complex social construct that is based upon biological sex but is not the same as
sex. Whereas sex is used to indicate biological differences, gender usually refers to socio-
cultural difference. The Oxford English dictionary defines gender as the state of being male
or female. (OED 2010) This definition emphasizes the state of being or even perceiving to be
male or female and not just the set of physical characteristics that distinguish males and
females, particularly in the cases of men and women. The OEDs definition includes the roles
and perceptions of individual groups and cultures regarding what is considered masculine or
feminine. Gender has gone through radical transformation since John Money first used the
term in 1955 to distinguish biological sex from gender roles. Gender came back to the scene,
especially in anthropology, when feminist anthropologists like Mead and Benedict accepted
the distinction between biological sex and the social construct of gender in the 1970s
(Cornwall et al., 2008). The Freudian concept of gender claims that there are primary and
secondary identifications that form a gendered self (Butler, 1990). Earlier in 1945, Simone de
Beauvoir thought that gender is what society makes of it: One is not born a woman, one
becomes one (ibid). According to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO, 1999),

19
gender is the relations between men and women, both perceptual and material. Gender is not
determined biologically, as a result of sexual characteristics of either women or men, but is
constructed socially. It is a central organizing principle of societies, [which] often governs the
processes of production and reproduction, consumption and distribution (FAO, 1997).
UNESCO, in its Implementation Framework on Gender Mainstreaming, defines gender to be
the roles and responsibilities of men and women that are created in our families, our societies
and our cultures (UNESCO 2003). The concept of gender also includes the expectations held
about the characteristics, aptitudes and likely behaviors of both women and men (femininity
and masculinity). As a result, social expectations teach and enforce gender roles on children.
Therefore, they can change over time and they vary within and between cultures (UNESCO,
2003).
Yet unlike feminism, which is seen by many as a political ideology, gender is often
misunderstood as being the promotion of the course of women (Butler, 1990). This, as can be
seen from the above definitions, has to do with issues that focus on women and on the
relationship between men and women, their roles, access to and control over resources,
division of labor, interests and needs. Gender relations affect household security, family well-
being, planning, production and many other aspects of life (Bravo-Baumann, 2000).
Feminisation of poverty is the term used by the Beijing platform for action to refer to the
severity of the burden of poverty borne by women in the developing world. It has become
orthodoxy that one-third of all households in the world are headed by women and that 70% of
the worlds poor are women (UNIFEM, 2000). [I]t is estimated that 60% of the worlds one
billion rural poor are female; and female-headed households are increasing worldwide, with
divorced, widowed, or single women falling deeper into poverty (UN, 1995). It must be
noted that there is usually no empirical evidence supporting such sweeping claims (Momsen,
2002). However, the reasons for some of these claims are obviously easily noticeable in many
parts of Ethiopia. Some of these stereotypical characteristics of female-headed households,
such as the over burdened single mother without a corrugated iron-sheet roof, no oxen or a
plough in the household, nor a man to plough the field. Some of these realities are limited
access to a farm plot and lack of polical participation. These must, however, be looked at in a
gender sensitive manner if we are to understand the intricacies of the rural poors access to
land and water resources.

20
2.3 Amhara Regional National State (ARNS)
The Amhara region covers roughly about 170 thousand km2 of land area, with an altitudinal
range from 600 to 4620 m a.s.l. There are four major water basins that drian the water of the
region. These are the Abay, which is by far the biggest, draining 80 % of the land in the
region (Descheemaeker 2008). The other three are the Tekeze River, Awash River and Afar
drainage basin. Even though irrigation potential of the region is enormous, which is estimated
at 700000 ha of land, rainfed agriculture remains predominant. Irrigated crop production only
contributes just 8 % of the total crop production in the region (ibid)

In rural Amhara, like most rural areas in Africa, agriculture is the mainstay of the economy.
Out of an estimated 17,214,056 people living in the Amhara region, 87 percent of the people
are rural and over 90 percent of this 87 percent are employed in subsistence agriculture,
contributing about 40 percent of the countrys GDP (Ethiopian population census
commission, 2007). The gender ratio is relatively insignificant. Males constitute 50.2 percent
of the entire Amhara population and females constitute 49.8 percent. This indicates that male
labor migration or rural urban migration in this area is relatively small in comparison to other
African-rural communities. According to Rahmato (2005), previous land policies in Ethiopia
have tied peasants to the land in rural areas. This and demographic pressure have caused more
fragmentation of land in most rural areas. In Shina, where the population density is about 200
persons per km, 0.75 ha is the average land holding per household. Even though Amharas
standards considers this to be a dearth of land, Amharas conditions are far better than those in
places like Wolloita in the south, where the population density is about three times higher and
a household will consider itself lucky if it has 0.25 ha (Rahmato, 2008).

Most households in Amhara are headed by male adults even though the incidence of female
headed households is gradually becoming important about 18 percent (ibid). This number is
significantly high, given the social constraints and lack of acceptance of single women,
especially in the rural areas of Amhara. It is important to know that household headship is one
of the social stratification criteria used for the allocation of resources, especially land.

2.4 Gender in rural Amhara

While women in Ethiopia contribute half of the labor in agricultural production, their share in
decision-making, even with regards to agricultural activities, is negligible (Guday, 2004). In
rural Amhara, the inability of women to have an equal say in the formal process of
agricultural extension and formal structures for rural development has exacerbated household
food insecurity (Frank, 1999). One of the aims of CEDAW is economic empowerment. When
21
achieved, womens empowerment will lead to self-realization and a feeling of self-sufficiency
among women, as they would no longer have to depend entirely on the earnings of men
(CEDAW, 2004). This, many argue, can bring about drastic positive changes in interpersonal
relationships within Amhara (Frank, 1999; Lasterria-Cornhiel, 2005).

As in most traditional patriarchal societies, women in rural Amhara, remain spectators to

community development issues. Furthermore, there are no women in the roughly nine
agricultural extension service workers who support the community. There are only two visible
female government officials. One oversees hygiene and sanitation, and the other works as a
community health nurse. There is also a female teacher who has been assigned to the
community. In all the committees formed for the various activities of Sherk-Eset, only two
women are members. The local social court, which is said to be inactive, is comprised of only
male members.

According to a study conducted by Guddy (2002) on early marriege and girl-child education,
most girls drop out of school vey early in order to get married. As a result, women are often
confirned at the household and are not visible in places where decisions concerning the
community are made. Other studies conducted in the region points to lack of female agency in
almost all areas of community life.

2.5 Property rights and land tenure

The arguments of most proponents of property rights advances can be linked to the economic
theory of profit or utility maximization. Simply put, an individual will invest time and
resources in a product if he or she is sure of getting maximum benefit from such a venture.
Property rights theorists want us to believe that maximization of profit is the main incentive
for individuals to produce. Therefore, if individuals have secured rights to the benefit of a
product such as land, they are motivated to invest in it more for the sake of higher
productivity (Gwako, 2002 in North 1990). North (1990), as cited by Gwako (2002),
contended that property rights as well as the institutional structure of a society are very
important keys to understanding the discrepancies of economic production between men and
women. In a study conducted in Kenya, Gwako concluded that the productivity of women is
higher when they (the women) feel confident of the benefits of their production.

Hernado De Soto went as far as to suggest that good property rights regimes in land title
registration will end poverty in the developing world. He argues that property rights, when
codified in law and made manifest in title registration for the rural poor, will propel them out
22
of poverty (Rahmato, 2008). This is because economic pursuit and relationship requires an
effective and inclusive legal system with clearly defined rules that will secure participants
rights to property and will govern commercial and contractual relations. Such legal systems,
he opined, would promote efficiency, increase investment and sharpen entrepreneurial drive
(De Soto, 2000 in Rahmato, 2010).

This argument, among others, presents some of the reasons for the massive support of land
reforms in Sub-Saharan Africa during the past twenty years by the international community,
including the UN. Ethiopia had it share of support and the UN and other donor organizations
are full of praises of the land registration exercise in Ethiopia (ibid). It is even suggested that
the manner in which it was done in Ethiopia rapid, participatory, with no bias against the
poor or women, and, above all, with low cost should be replicated in other parts of Africa
(Deininger et al., 2007). Ethiopia therefore has shown that the implementation of pro-poor,
low-cost land reforms in Sub-Saharan Africa is possible and achievable if done properly with
enough political will.

This study was not able to establish a link between womens productivity and the holding of
title rights. Instead, the study focuses on the womens perception of their productivity as a
result of the construction of the dam and the effects of this dam on their lives in general.
However, it was able to identify, as we will demonstrate later, that holding titles or keeping
the certificates of rights, as they are called, is not as important as the right to use the produce.

The FAO presents the common definition of land tenure, which states that land tenure is the
relationship, whether legally or customarily defined, among people, as individuals or groups,
with respect to land. It is an institution of rules and regulations invented by society to check
its behavior with regards the use of land. It therefore determines, among other things, how
access rights are granted to people to use, control and transfer land. Therefore, land tenure
defines who can use what resources, for how long and how much (FAO, 1997).
Land tenure is often classified into four groups:
I. Private: the assignment of rights to a private party (either an individual or a group of
individuals such as couples, corporate bodies or an entity). When individuals have
such rights, they are able to exclude others from the use of the resource.
II. Communal: the right of commons may exist in a community for members to use the
resources independently.
III. Open access: here, no specific rights are assigned to anyone and no one can be

23
 excluded. Marine tenure in the high sea is a good example of open access.
IV. State: property rights are assigned to some authority in the public sector.
A cursory look at the history of land tenure development in Ethiopia tells us that its land
ownership cannot be precisely defined by these categories of rights. Ethiopias history is,
however, close but not equivalent to private ownership. Therefore, a brief historical trace of
the turbulent land tenure history of Ethiopia may be helpful to put things in perspective.

2.6 Land tenure and land reforms in Amhara

Prior to the l974 revolution, Ethiopia had a complex land tenure system. In some places, the
tenure system was impractical. For instance, in the Wello Province, there were as many as
111 types of land tenure (Deininger et al., 2007). The complex and turbulent nature of the
land tenure system in Ethiopia, coupled with the lack of reliable data partly due to political
expedience, has made a thorough assessment of landownership in Ethiopia a problem for
researchers (ILC, 2000; Deininger et al., 2008; Mongabay, 2010; Rahmato 2008). However,
historically, Ethiopia was divided into the northern highlands, which constituted the core of
the old Christian kingdom, and the southern highlands, most of which were under imperialism
for a long time. This north-south distinction was reflected in land tenure differences in the
country, which still influences land reforms in Ethiopia today. During the Imperial regime,
which lasted until 1974, tenure classification was commonly categorized into communal
(rist), grant land (gult) or freehold (gebbar) tenures. Also, there was the Church, or Samon,
and state (mengist, maderia) tenure regimes. Thus, land tenure systems can be classified in a
rudimentary way on the basis of the distinction between the different landownership practices
in the south and those in the north.
In the northern regions of Tigray, Amhara and Afar, the major form of ownership was a type
of communal system known as rist (Rahmato, 1994). According to this system, all
descendants -both male and female- of an individual founder were entitled to a share of land,
and individuals had usufruct right to a plot of family land (authors accentuation). The rist
system was hereditary, inalienable and inviolable. No user of any piece of land could sell his
or her share outside the family, mortgage or bequeath his or her share as a gift, as the land
belonged not to the individual but to the descent groups. Most peasants in the northern
highlands held at least some rist land, but there were some members belonging to minority
ethnic groups who were tenant farmers (Mongabay, 1991).
The main tenure system in the south was the gult. This was an ownership right bestowed on
provincial rulers by the monarch, who were empowered to make land grants. Gult owners

24
collected tribute from the peasantry, usually in the form of labor. Other important tenure
systems were the Samon, which the imperial government bequeathed to the Orthodox Church.
As a result, it is argued that the Ethiopian Orthodox church, by the beginning of the revolution
in 1974, had claim to about one-third of Ethiopias land (Mongabay, 1991). However, this
figure is considered by many to be highly exaggerated. Rahmato, (2005) and Shimelles (2009)
argued that the total amount of land held by the Church prior to 1974 could have been
between 10 and 20 percent. This type of land tenure system contained by the imperial regime
in Ethiopia is described as one of the most complex compilations of different land use systems
in Africa (Brietzke, 1976 in Shimelles, 2009). There was a time when more than 70 percent
of the fertile land was owned only by 1 percent of the property owners of the entire population
in Ethiopia (Shimelles et al., 2009, p. 13).
By the late 1960s, there was an overwhelming number of agitations in many sectors of
Ethiopian society for land reform. The main grievances against the regime, agitated mainly by
university students, were the stark inequality of land ownership, reduced productivity and
investment and many other political grievances that eventually led to the overthrow of the
imperial regime in 1975 (Deininger et al., 2008).
Under the socialist Derg regime, which had overthrown the imperial government, a massive
agrarian transformation took place that changed the rural agricultural structure and designed a
new mechanism of access to land (Rahmato, 2005; Shimelles, 2009). The Public Ownership
of Rural Land Proclamation nationalized all rural land in a sweep and set out to embark on a
huge land redistribution exercise to its tillers and to organize farmers into cooperatives, or
Peasant Associations, as they are called today. This measure effectively abolished the feudal
order of exploitative landlord-tenant relations that had been so pertinent under the imperial
regime. It also changed the landowning patterns, especially in the south, in favor of peasants
and small landowners, who were permitted to hold a maximum of ten hectares of land.
Overall, the performance of the Derg regime, with regards to agriculture, had minimum
success. The winners of this transformation are often considered the landless, wage-laborers,
tenant-sharecroppers and the poor, powerless rist holders.
After the ousting of the military socialist Derg regime in 1991, little change has been
introduced. According to Crewet et al. (2008), who cited Hussen (2001), Kessa and Manig
(2004) and Yigremew (2001) to support their claim, they argue that very little changes to
property rights to land occurred with regards to agricultural policy. In fact, the present
regime announced the continuation of the land policy of the Derg regime (Crewet et al.,
2008, p. 13). This was captured in the new constitution of 1995, which formally conferred the
25
ownership of all land in Ethiopia to the state. Therefore, the land policy today is essentially
the same policy that was introduced by the Derg a few months before it fell in 1990. The
intent and purpose of the policy was to reintroduce individual farming, whereby the state
holds ownership rights and the farmer holds the rights of possession and use (Rahmato,
1994, p. 39).
Presently, the legal situation of land tenure is mainly usufruct rights bestowed on rural peasant
landholders. It excludes the right to sell or mortgage the land. In Amhara, however, holders
after the land registration exercise can rent land out to anybody for up to 25 years and may
extend the lease for as many times as they wish, but outright selling is not permitted. The
government argues that this policy protects the rural poor peasants from selling their land to
wealthy landlords, which would leave them landless and without any source of livelihood.
The Ethiopian land policy today is premised on social and historical justice that is based on
two principles:
(1) Justice understood as egalitarianism- guaranteeing every farmer in need of agricultural
land equal rights of access to such land, and
(2) Historical justice of undoing the wrongs of former regimes by guaranteeing tenure
security to all Ethiopian farmers who had experienced land deprivation and
expropriation (Shimelles et al., 2009).
Table3: Historical Timeline of Land Administration in Ethiopia
Year Event (s)

1974 Overthrowing of the imperial regime of Haile Selassie, nationalization of all

land; beginning of the Derg military regime
1991 Ousting of the Derg military government

1994 Introduction of multi-party Democracy and the beginning of the current

regime
1995 Inception of SARDP, the Sida-Amhara Rural Development Programme

1997 Formulation of the Federal Land Administration and Use Proclamation

2000 Endorsement of the New Land Proclamation and the legal establishment of
EPLAUA in Amhara
2002 Land certification program begins with support from SARDP

26
 2009 EPLAUA is legally upgraded to bureau and renamed to BoEPLA

Source: Author

2.7 Significance of Peasant Associations (PAs)

As mentioned earlier, Peasant Associations (PAs) were formed in 1975 to manage the radical
land reforms introduced by the Derg regime. The influence of these associations is still
relevant today, especially in land and water resource management and how the management
affects the livelihood of women.

During the imperial rule, local landlords managed the land and water resources, who
sometimes acted as Balabbats, or local commissioners. In their absence, a father of Water,
or Wuha Abbat, took control, especially in places where there were irrigation facilities. The
landlords were the representatives of the imperial government and wielded real political
power and authority with considerable influence on the local people (Watson, 2009).
However, after the imperial regime was overthrown, the Derg eradicated any leadership or
action that resembled oppression. Landlordism was persecuted, including some entrenched
socio-cultural practices and institutions that underpinned the local administrative structure and
even managed resources better than the new socialists associations (Kloos et al., 2010). In
some parts of Amhara including Shina, the new regime considered most of the traditional
authority institutions repressive or oppressive and so abolished them. The even punished
followers when caught them in the practice.

In order to fill the vacuum created by the ousting of these institutions, articles 8 and l0 of the
l975 Land Reform Proclamation Bill introduced by the Derg administration required that
peasants be organized into hierarchies of associations that would facilitate the implementation
of rural development programs and policies. Accordingly, through the Zemacha campaign, or
development through cooperation, the government mobilized more than 60,000 students to
organize peasants into associations. By the end of l987, there were 20,367 peasant
associations with a membership of over 5.7 million farmers in Ethiopia (Rahmato, 1994;
Scott, 1998). Each association was to cover an area of not more than 800 ha, and members
included tenants, landless laborers and landowners holding fewer than 10 ha each. Former
landowners who had held more than 10 ha of land could join an association only after the
completion of land redistribution. An umbrella organization known as the All-Ethiopia
Peasants Association (AEPA) represented local associations. Peasant associations assumed a
27
wide range of responsibilities, including the implementation of government land use
directives; adjudication of land disputes; encouragement of development programs, such as
water and land conservation; construction of schools, clinics and cooperatives; organization of
defense squads; and tax collection (Rahmato, 2004). PAs also became involved in organizing
forestry programs, local service and production cooperatives, road construction and data
collection projects, such as the l984 census (Watson, 2009). In short, the PAs that were
formed took control of local law and order and the administration of public property, which
included land, the most important property of all.

Thus, by the time the Derg regime was overthrown in 1991, PAs had been fully established
and were rooted in the daily lives of rural Ethiopians. Subsequently, the current government
of Ethiopia made use of the solid structure of the PAs for the implementation of much of their
programs, especially in the rural areas. Many researchers believe that much of the electoral
success of the government was due to its strong grass-roots organization (Dessaleng, 2009;
Watson, 2009). Presently, each village community has a peasant association formally known
as Kebele Peasant Association. There are presently almost 3051 Kebele Peasant Associations
in the Amhara region alone. Mitsele Kebele (where Shina is) is one of such kebeles.

Apart from the Wuha Abbat and landlords, another traditional institution that the Pas have
made redundant is the clan. Even the state used clan heads to organize people for communal
labor. These clan heads also served as a social security net for members. Also, the judicial
powers of the clan have been usurped by the PAs. According to Watson, citing Kehano
Kalayta (1999), an old man lamented over the diminishing authority of the clan: The clan
had great authority over its people in the past. They even had the right to kill members and if
they did, no one had the right to question the death. But now, if someone kills his clan
member, the government asks why did the clan kill him? (Watson, 2009, p. 180). Thus, the
local tribunal of the Derge regime and the social courts that were introduced shortly after its
overthrow gave way to the now increasingly important PAs.

2.8 Conceptual framework

We explored the roles of three main agencies involved in various activities aimed at bettering
the lives of the rural poor in an attempt to answer the research question. The first is the
government, through national and regional authorities, which is the main actor and financier
of development projects. The government, in conjunction with these institutions, is usually
responsible for designing developmental projects. Secondly, the kebele officials work in
28
collaboration with development agents and the local peasant associations to implement
projects. These projects are usually designed by the government agencies listed above.
Finally, at the bottom of the ladder are the targeted beneficiary groups. These are smallholder
peasants, including female household heads who are usually believed to benefit the most from
such development projects. Therefore, the roles of the state, development agents as the bridge
between the state and the locals and the locals themselves are here considered the variables to
be analyzed.

Fig4: Conceptual Framework

Goals of Land National and

registration and
Irrigation Regional
Authorities
Community
Participation

Kebele and
Small holder
local Agencies
Peasants and
Female
Target Household
Heads
Groups

Source: Author

Chapter 3: Profile of Shina Community

The study area, the Shina Kebele Peasant Association, hereafter Shina Community, has a total
population of 12610 with 6314 males representing 50.07 percent, while 6296 or 49.93 percent
is female. There are 2684 households across the three village communities in the kebele.
These include Aragawi, Mitsile and Shina. Household headship is predominantly male.

29
Table4: Gender Distribution of Population and Households

1 Population Absolute Numbers Percentage %

2 Male 6314 50.07%
3 Female 6296 49.93%
4 Total 12610 100%
5 Households Absolute Numbers Percentage %
6 Male Headed Households 2505 93.33%
7 Female Headed Households 179 6.67%
8 Total Households 2684 100%
Source: Author, figures from Statistical Office, Dera Woreda

The community is located in the highland district of Dera Woreda of south the Gondar
administrative zone of the Amhara region of Ethiopia. It is about 35km north of Bahir Dar,
the Amhara regional capital, and about 9km northwest of Hamusit, a town on the Bahir Dar
Gondar Highway. Shina lies in the Woyna Dega agro-climatic zone and is characterized by a
uni-modal rainy season called Kiremet. The rains usually start in June and extend through
September and October (see Table 1). With an altitude ranging from 1780-2003m above sea
level, the geographic coordinates of the area lie between longitude 37 25` 52``-37 34` 40`` E
and latitude: 11 45`3A9`` - 11 50` 00`` N (Project feasibility study report, 2002).

30
Fig 5: Map of Ethiopia Showing Shina Close to Lake Tana

Source: ZEF

3.2 Settlement patterns of the Shina community

The village settlements, called Gots, are sparsely dotted all over, drawing closer to each other
towards the irrigation scheme on the highland areas. Homesteads or compounds usually
consist of one small square mud building with a roof made of corrugated iron sheet
surrounded by several round huts that serve as individual domiciles. The building in the
middle is used as a shed or shelter when it rains during the day. It can house all inhabitants,
including cattle.

31
Photograph 3: View of dispersed settlements in Shina from the dam

3.3 Religion and politics

The people of Shina can be described as incurably and notoriously religious. It is visible in all
their daily activities, including how they dress, interact with one another and eat. The main
religion is Ethiopian Orthodoxy, and the priests, either male or female, are not in short supply.
Mostly elderly people, especially women, become priests, or Mulocsi as they are officially
called, when they are very old. There are called Maaza by younger people, meaning mother,
which is the term used to refer to older women in general. In the norm, they are not to have
any physical contact with men. All the woman priests in the community are widowed, and
some have grown up children. Some may, however, give a handshake to a male guest but
only after a considerable amount of interaction and out of public view. Interestingly, most or
all the male priests are married and are not very old. Old age seems to be the only requirement
for female priesthood, which is a relatively profitable enterprise. They are given a share of the
weekly church collection in the form of foodstuffs and sometimes cash from the local parish.
These priests can be defined as the custodians of cultural values. They usually insist on
keeping practices in their current form and would always take the opportunity to admonish
people in order to maintain the status quo. This is despite the fact that some of the priests,
themselves, were victims of patriarchal thinking which cost them their land.

The traditional politics of the community centers on the family or the kinship system, which is
progressively becoming weak and redundant (McCann 1995). Currently, the PAs make most
political decisions with the support of the kebele committee. These are members of the
community elected by the people to represent their interests. The chairman of the kebele is

32
also a member of the woreda, or district assembly. Law and order is maintained by the militia,
which usually carries old AK 47 rifles that are mostly unloaded. The militia works in
collaboration with the district police in Hamusit. Thus, the clan, which used to be a very
influential political institution, has lost it powers and influence to the PAs (see the
significance of Peasant Associations on page 18).

3.4 Market and economic activities

The mainstay of the economy is subsistence agriculture. Aside from farming, there is virtually
no other economic activity in the area. Some women try to sell Teller, or local beer, whenever
there is a gathering of people (i.e., conservation works or even during the construction of the
dam). Also, gathering firewood used to be a fiscal option, but now the wooded land has all
been occupied and cultivated by individuals who will not permit others into their farmland.
Some women also try to gather cow-dung from the fields and sell it to people for plastering
the walls of their compounds.

The main crop cultivated is teff, which is said to contribute about 30 percent of total output. It
is also used for the staple food of the area, called injera. Maize is another common crop, the
productivity of which is said to have doubled since the construction of the dam, as has the
production of teff. Other crops that have seen significant increase in production are potatoes,
millet and pepper. Some perennial crops, such as chat and pawpaw, are becoming common.
While chat is a cash crop and mainly cultivated by the men, pawpaw and onions are mostly
cultivated by the women.

33
Table 5: Types of Crops Cultivated and Changes in Output

No. Type of Crop Produced before the Produced after the

dam? dam?
1 Teff Yes Double as much
2 Maize (Zea mays) Yes More than Before
Tomato (Solanum Minimally More surplus for
3 lycopersicum sale
4 Onion (Allium Cepa) No Mainly for sale
5 Potato (Solanum Yes Double as much
tuberrosum)
6 Pepper (capsicum) Yes More than 100%
increase
7 Chat Little by those at the Increased
river bank significantly
8 Finger millet Yes A little more
9 Cabbage (Lactuca sativa Minimally Much and some for
capitata) sale
Pawpaw (carica papaya) Almost non-existent Very common with
10 women
Source: Author

However, since the start of the project, there has been a significant increase in the Amharans
number of visits to the nearest market in Hamusit (9km away). Due to the surplus from dry
season farming women are seen, especially on Saturdays (the market day for Hamusit),
carrying sacks of farm produce to sell or to take to the grinding-mill. The prominent items the
women buy include coffee, sugar, salt and kerosene, as well as clothes for themselves and the
family. The men often help the women carry the goods to the market on donkey backs and
benefit from the sale of the goods, but the men are conspicuously absent during the selling of
the goods. The men are fully in charge of selling the livestock and they sell them all year
round, but sales peak just before the religious festivals, especially towards the last days of the
fasting period in April. Women are not seen selling animals in the market. Moreover, the
output of tomatoes has increased significantly. Every morning, mostly men carry big baskets
of tomatoes to the highway between Bahir Dar and Gondar. At the highway, market women,
usually from Bahir Dar, come with trucks and buy the tomatoes. It can be seen from the
bargaining that usually takes place that the farmers are mostly not happy with the deals.
Nevertheless, the farmers have almost no one else for their market, because tomatoes are very
perishable and the women from Bahir Dar know that. With the money from the sales of such

34
produce, most of the men talk of having bought or wanting to buy items such as nice
clothes, mobile phones, guns, and if possible, a water-pumping machine for uphill irrigation.

Photograph 4: Farmers Selling Tomatoes at the Bahir Dar Gondar Highway

Horticulture is not the only farming activity in the community; most of the households we
visited kept cattle and other small animals like goats and sheep. Even though residents do not
keep a ledger of household animals, it is clear to see that FHH kept only smaller livestock
while men kept both. It was also evident that the women of the household are in charge of
keeping of the animals. Two of the FHH interviewed kept the cows of their neighbors. In
return, they were allowed to milk the animals daily for their own needs.

3.5 Sources of water in the community

There are three sources of water for domestic usage. Rainwater is one source but it is not
common for the people to harvest it. It is done only by the few houses with corrugated iron
sheet roofs. There is one community borehole in Shina located not very far from the dam.
This pump, popularly called Finida-Wuha, or Finida water, is the main source of drinking
water for the community. Mostly, young women and sometimes boys come from other
communities on their mules to fetch water from this one pump. A tributary on the Shina River
that passes through the village and empties into Lake Tana is also used for washing clothes.
This was the only source of irrigation for the chat fields of nearby farmers. They would carry
buckets of water from the stream uphill, walking several hundred meters, to water the chat
crops.

35
Photograph 5: Women and Children Washing at the Shina River

2.9 Dam project and managemenet (Serk-Eshet)

When the dam was being considered for the community, most residents did not believe it
would work. Some pugnaciously rejected the idea saying that the state is only interested in
taking their land for some grandiose project that will not benefit them, but rather, some large-
scale commercial farmers from somewhere else.

When the first group of experts from the Ministry of Agriculture and some engineers visited
the area, people refused to cooperate. Soon vigilante groups were formed to deal with
anybody who tried to take their land. It was the timely intervention of local farmer Ato
Mogesh Mabrate, who is now the chairman of Sert-Eshet that saved the situation.

Initially, the people turned on him, calling him all sorts of names. Some even threatened to
kill him because he was considered to be a traitor. But Mogesh tried hard and later convinced
his people to give it a try. He suggested to the officials from the Ministry of Agriculture that
the contractor should use as much local labour as possible to integrate the people into the
project. This idea worked well in the end as the people got seriously involved.

As is usually the case when there is the need for communal labour, announcements were
made at the traditional Sambateh a fortnight get-together by the community in separate
groups, to relax and entertain themselves- and at church service, that there was work to be
36
done and that the people who would work there would be paid some money. After initial
resistance, many people soon joined after the first few people started receiving their money.

Daily, many people from the villages around, under official supervision from the ministry,
started work early in the morning and ended towards late afternoon every day except on
Sundays.

Usually, the men dug the trenches, mixed the concrete and did the building of the canal. The
women on the other hand went round to fetch water and carried the sand and stones needed
for the concrete.

Before the construction was over, the community had started benefiting from the project.
Many young women still talk of how they earned money during the construction works to buy
cattle, help their parents to get the house roofed with iron sheets and many other benefits.
Abaynish a local woman, who worked on the dam, is one of those who think that its
construction has helped them to acquire some wealth which served as marriage capital.

Just two seasons since the irrigation scheme was commissioned, the people of Shina are full
of praises for the ministry for constructing the dam. An elderly farmer sharing the irrigation
scheme for his 0.5 hectares of land has this to say about the dam: "You know, we consider our
land as our wives and what this dam has done to our wives is make them more fertile so that
we can get more children from them. What else can we ask for? Before the dam, our land was
as useless as barren women, good only as a Wushema or mistress. Nobody will marry a
barren woman. This analogy of women to nature and her usefulness only to bearing children
indicates to some degree, how women are seen in this society. Also, the name of the
association that was formed to manage the scheme says volumes about how the people see the
dam. Serk Esert loosely translated in Amharic means evergreen or green all year.
Furthermore there are many who have begun to express their admiration of the beauty of the
landscape since the start of the irrigation project. This is easily seen from the horizon on
approaching the community, especially in the dry season when all the surroundings are dry
and brown.

The Shina-Hamusit Micro-Earth Dam Project is located on the eastern border of Lake Tana,
close to the Mitsile and Wonchet Kebele border. It is found in Dera Woreda of the south
Gondar administrative zone of the Amhara region. The project area is about 35km north of
Bahir Dar, the Amhara regional capital and about 9km north-west of Hamusit town on the

37
Bahir Dar Gondar Highway. It is, however, used especially for irrigation exclusively by the
Shina community, which formed the Shina Kebele Peasant Association.

Photographs 6: Outlets at the Irrigation Scheme. Water is let out from here on to the fields.

The system has one main canal, 15 tertiary canals, 10 catch drains and 11 field drains. All of
these are designed and aligned to the topographic map of the command area. The main canal
has the capacity to carry up to 245l/s with a total length of 2.911km. Technically, the capacity
of the scheme can be extended to include more users. There are some users, especially down-
stream, who are connected by digging their own trenches from the canals linking their fields.
It would be possible, to bring in more users by constructing one or two additional tertiary
canals. Also, due to seepage of water, much is lost to downstream farmers. If the rest of the
tertiary canals could be cemented, this problem would be solved. The problem however, is the
cost involved, which has always been an issue.

As part of the recommendations by the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), a users association

would be formed to manage the dam. Following this, the Serk-Eshet Aragewi Users
Association was formed soon after the dam was completed in early 2008. By the end of
March 2010, the association had a total registered membership of 106, including all 12 female
household heads in the scheme. Other members could not pay their registration fees and
therefore are still not registered. To be a member, landowners with land in the scheme area
must pay a registration fee of 30 E Birr and a capital contribution of at least 120 E Birr. The
38
ETB 120 is a contribution to a capital fund for the association to invest, and the members
share the investments subsequent profit. The association is operating like a co-operate entity,
and its main responsibility, among others, is to manage the irrigation scheme. The members
are lead by a chairman and are responsible for keeping the irrigation canals functionally
running. With the capital contribution from members, the Serk-Eshet Aragewi Users
Association purchases and resells agricultural inputs to members at a significantly lower cost
than the purchase price or even sells the inputs on credit. The association also buys surplus
produce from members, thereby keeping the prices of produce under control, especially
during bumper harvest. And yet this regulation does not seem to be working very well,
because many farmers are still complaining of the lack of a ready market for their produce,
especially tomatoes. According to Ato Banteleh, the irrigation officer for the community, all
the farmers are now using the newly-introduced and improved varieties of seedlings on their
farms that are provided by the ministry through Serk-Eshet. These are usually early-maturing,
pest-resistant and higher-yielding crop varieties.

The management of the irrigation scheme is organized by and centered on the Serk-Eshet
Users Association. As recommended by the project feasibility study reports, management of
the scheme should entirely be the responsibility of the beneficiaries. As a result, a condition
for the operation of the scheme was the formation of the Users Association. Therefore, when
the Serk-Eshet Aragewe Users Association was formed, management was handed over to the
association. Also in Amhara region, it has become a policy, recommended by the Commission
for Sustainable Agricultural and Environmental Rehabilitation in Amhara Region (Co-
SAERAR), that all leadership bodies of any institution established in the region for any
purpose must have a female membership minimum quota of three.

Under a chairman, there are six bodies responsible for the management in different capacities.
The general assembly as the main decision-making body is always presided over by the
chairman of the executive committee, a very influential individual in the community. He
became very useful later for the organization of interviews within the community and even at
the woreda level. Other bodies in the management system are, in no hierarchical order, the
executive committee, the coordinating committee, the purchasing and supply committee, the
credit committee, the tertiary committee-responsible for supervising the tertiary canals, and
the gender committee, which curiously was headed by a man, and only one of the four
members is a woman.

39
The executive committee seems to be the second most powerful body. It has seven members,
including two women. All its members are relatively important people in the community,
including one of the women, Baynat Admas, who has some formal education and keeps part
of the land from her ex-husband. She also has two oxen. She will be the particular focus of
one of the case studies discussed below.

The main responsibility of the executive committee is organizational. They organize

meetings, prepare and submit policy framework, including by-laws for the approval of the
general assembly. It also acts as a disciplinary body on cases, mostly on water disputes, but it
sometimes handles domestic disputes. During one of the general meetings, a member was
asked to leave the place, because he refused to pay a fine imposed on him by the house for
taking part in communal labor to repair a broken canal. He would only be allowed to join the
group if he paid the ETB 15 fine.

On one occasion, a committee was set within minutes after a man reported to the chairman
that somebody had secretly opened the canals the previous night and flooded his field. The
man did not need the water because he had just planted his field and with the flooded field,
birds would swoop on his field for water and devour the seeds he had sown. Interestingly, this
was later said to be a problem caused by those who could not finish their field preparation
work on time to coincide with the opening of the canal. When these people need some water
for their fields, they will open the canal during the night, but in order to disguise their acts,
they will let the water into other fields. This makes it difficult for anybody to detect who was
responsible, since many other fields are watered.

Photograph 7: A field Flooded by an Unknown Illegal Irrigator

40
Listening to the woreda officials talk about the dam gives us the impression that the
association was an imposition on the community. In fact, forming the association was a
condition for the state to hand the scheme over to the community, as stated earlier. Also, the
requirement of a minimum female quota in the executive is an indication of formal influence.
It can also be realized from the peoples initial objection to the dam that they were not
consulted. The community members may not have considered the dam a development priority
if they had been consulted. This is not to say the dam is not important to the people and will
definitely help the development efforts of the government, but it certainly shows the oft talked
about top-down approach to development initiatives.

4.10 Soil and water conservation

Soil and Water Conservation (SWC) is not uncommon in this community. There are signs of
terracing in some parts of the fields, especially the more undulating parts of the hilly areas.
However, when asked, most people seem to know very little about SWC. Gullies are abound
in the area, serving as drains for the torrential rains into the Shina river. It was therefore seen
by the people as a timely intervention when the first ever SWC project was started towards
the last weeks of this field work.

The project, i.e. soil and water conservation around the dam, is sponsored by the Ethiopian
government under the Agricultural sector development project. Within the project the people
are expected to appropriately conserve the soil and water of the dams that they use.

Photograph 8: Serk-Eshet Members working on Soil and Water Conservation.

41
The amount of money earmarked for the project is ETB 37,975. It is expected to cover a total
of 23.734km of the catchment area of the Dam.

A government delegation visited the area and the project was to start immediately, however,
things did not commence until after a weeklong negotiation between the peasants and the
extension agents. According to the peasants, the amount of money offered by the agents as
wages for their work was not enough. For a days work, constructing a seven-metre-long
dry masonry stone bunds they were to receive ETB10. They wanted at least ETB 15, that is
roughly one US Dollar. The offices refused and finally the peasants gave in because some of
them agreed to do the work for ETB10.

Observation:

Few days after start of work, it was clear how this project would change the landscape. Before
the SWC, the landscape looks dry and the dam, according to the irrigation officer was already
silting up. It was easy to see how the terraces changed the topography and by the next rain,
the whole place started to rejuvenate with green again. Even the people themselves started
showing some appreciation of their work. Many of the workers consider the work important
not just because of the wonderful change in landscape, but also the monetary benefits
involved. By the end of the project, some people took home about Birr 150, which is enough
to buy a young cow or even hire two-man labour for the whole season.

Much part of the field is being laid with stone bunds filled with sand (see pictures), the fields
are uphill not within the irrigation area. Mostly young men and some elderly who took over
the leadership of working groups do the digging and fixing the stones carried and brought
mostly by women. Usually the stones are brought from a farther-hill behind the site but some
of the younger women started fetching them from neighbouring fields. All this is witnessed
and supervised by Mogesh Maberat, a very important community leader. He is being
accompanied by a man with a Kalashnikov that seemed unloaded. He always carries a lot of
papers in his bag.

In an interview with Ato Mogesh, things became clearer. The SWC project is organised by the
Woreda Ministry of Agriculture funded by the Ethiopian government under the Agricultural
Sector Support Programme (ASSP). The project was announced in the church, as was the case
of the dam construction, and local people were informed that there would be paid work for
those who are interested. The project took about three weeks (Monday to Friday, usually until
42
afternoon) to complete. There are about 150 people involved. The wage is ten E Birr per day
for each person, regardless of how much work is done. There is some division of work.
Groups work together, mostly people in the same Sambeteh group. They try to finish up to
5 meters of stone bunds a day, which is usually finished by mid-day. If they did not finish the
target, they continue until afternoon. At the end of the day, a role is called to get those who
are present for the day.

As to why he needs somebody with fire arms around he said it was for keeping order. Because
there are so many people, order may sometimes break and this fellow is there to keep the
order. Some farmers can even be violent when they see the workers fetching sand or stones
from their fields.

There is also selling of Teller or the local beer and Injera by a woman. Most of the workers
could not buy it, but were usually happy when somebody (mostly the DAs) bought it for
them. According to the woman (see the case of Abaynish), she always sells something to the
people when such opportunities avail themselves.

Chapter 5: Findings and Interpretations

As stated earlier, a three stage level of bureaucracy is employed to answer the research
question. These are the national regional authority, the kebel as government agents and the
targeted local communities. Their role and responsibilities as well as their expectations are
assessed.

5.1.1 National and regional authorities

The 1995 constitution clearly delineates the role of the national government in landed
resource management. This constitution gave real ownership of land to the state on behalf of
the people.
Every Ethiopian citizen has the right to the ownership of private propert, unless
prescribed otherwise by law. Sub-section (3) states that, The right to ownership of
rural and urban land, as well as of all natural resources, is exclusively vested in the
State and in the peoples of Ethiopia. Land is a common property [...], of the Peoples
of Ethiopia and shall not be subject to sale or to other means of exchange. Sub-
section (4) continues that the Ethiopian peasants have right to obtain land without
payment and the protection against eviction from their possession. (Ethiopian
Constitution, 1995)

43
This gives the national authority the responsibility of designing land policies for the
development of the country. Even though most of these policy decisions affect the rural poor
the most, the rural peasant poor have little or no say. Overall, the peasants believe the last
land registration exercise in Ethiopia is a success, and the registration was a welcome idea to
the majority of the peasants. Also, the benefits of constructing the dams are considerably
enormous, as shall be shown later in this study. However, the fact that the government
agencies never consulted the beneficiaries says volumes about the role of the national
authority. According to Rahmato (2008), governments in Ethiopia do not usually consult the
rural peasants when they initiate a development project.
The common practice under this government and previous governments have been for new
programmes to be imposed from above, frequently without even the local authorities
concerned being informed about it or adequately prepared. Peasants are almost always the last
to know and they are informed only when implementation is to be undertaken. (p. 220)
Most of the people interviewed in the field said they did not know anything about the dam
until construction work had started.
Currently, land management administration in the Amhara region is entrusted to the kebele
land administration committee (LAC), whose activities are supervised by the woreda officials.
This is because each kilil in Ethiopia is, by law, autonomous and can form and implement
land and water policies consistent with the national goal. As a result, elected LACs are formed
by each kebele to administer land on behalf of farmers. Also, the Water Users Associations
often form shortly after a dam is provided, as in the current case (see peasant associations on
page 16 and Serk-Eshet on page 37).
Since the study has already delineated the main aims of the irrigation facility, it is accurate to
continue with the land registration exercise. According to Rahmato (2008), the Ethiopian land
registration exercise is informed by a common belief propagated strongly by De Soto (2000)
that economic pursuits and relationship require an effective and inclusive legal system with
clearly defined rules securing rights to property, determining the obligation of state and
individuals and governing commercial and contractual relations (De Soto, 2000 in Rahmato,
2008). Accordingly, when this massive wealth of the poor, which constitutes land, buildings
and small businesses, is formalized and codified into law in such contracts as land titles, this
wealth will produce more efficiently and encourage more farmers investments and
entrepreneurial drive, thus propelling them out of poverty. Therefore, it may be safe to
suggest here that poverty reduction is the main goal of the land registration in Ethiopia. The

44
government also thought that land registration would solve the problem of tenure insecurity
among the countrys rural poor by giving all rightful holders of land land certificates.
Other reasons given for land registration include reduction of land disputes and litigations at
the local level, increasing investment in land by the peasants and better land management
practices, the possibility of using land as collateral for loans and, above all, for the interest of
this paper, empowering of women (Deininger et al., 2007; Rahmato, 2008). Yet it is worth
mentioning that there were other unofficial reasons that are not usually discussed. After losing
its absolute majority in the parliamentary election of 2005 to the opposition, who promised
the peasants land reforms, the government became alarmed, fearing that it may lose the
presidential election if it did not make substantial changes. As a result, the government fast
tracked land registration laws and passed them before the national election that was to follow
the same year.
This study considers and analyzes three of the above aims which include; Tenure security,
Reduction of land disputes, and particularly and Gender empowerment.
However, before this thesis can conduct a detailed analysis of these goals, it must explain the
other two stages of project design and implementation.

5.1.2 Kebele and local agencies

To understand community participation in Shina, it is relevant to say a few words on the
administrative structure leading the community.

Woredas, or districts, are subdivided into several kebeles, or peasant associations. There are
3051 kebeles in the Amhara region. Because the focus of this study is at the local level, a
description of the local formal and informal institutions may be appropriate here. The kebele
administration, led by a chairman and a number of council members (Vice Chair, House
Speaker, Agriculture and Rural Development Wing, Education, Health, Women affairs, Youth
and Sport and Security and Militia), is the lowest official unit of governance in Ethiopia
(Descheemaeker, 2008). It is responsible for civil/public administration affairs. These are land
reallocation and land use, and rural development including, rural credit and collective and
community action. The kebele judiciary committee has the authority over civil cases not
exceeding 500 Birr and over minor conflicts (ibid). The social court, which was introduced
under the Derg regime to replace the public tribunals of the imperial era, comprises usually
four members. It is a conflict resolving institution that can fine up to ETB 300 or can give
presion sentence up to but not exceeding one month. Key informants claim that a social court
does not exist in the Shina community. The kebele level rural development coordinating
45
committee (RDCC) is headed by the chairman and is active in different community
development activities. Theoretically, the kebele chairman post is nonpartisan, but most are
sponsored by the ruling government, effectively making them the mouthpiece of the
government (Pausewang, 2002).

There are other institutions that may be considered safety nets. Even though they did not seem
to be very active, some of these include women, youth and elders associations, and they do
play a few important roles in the community. The youth association was not investigated due
to time constraints and also due to the fact that the youth associations chairman was not
available at the time of the field-stay. The only women association in the community is the
Weavers Association. Members meet on rotation, once in a month in the house or at the farm
of one member. The host is usually responsible for the food and drinks, but other members
may help with the food preparations. The aim of this meeting is to sit together and spin or
weave. It also serves as an opportunity to, as one member puts it, talk woman talk. They
also help each other financially. But this is not part of their aims, as the leader of the group
observes, money always brings problems. If a member is in serious need of money,
members contribute help. Interestingly, the member is not expected to pay back, but must also
be ready to help should another member need help later. Members think it is not possible for
anyone to lie about his or her need for help, for everyone in the community is aware of
anyones problems. There is very little information on the activities of non-governmental
organizations (NGOs). The FINIDA has a prominent presence in governing the drinking
water supply, since they provide the only source of drinking water in the community.

5.1.3 Targeted groups

Based on the aims of irrigation provision and the land registration exercise (i.e., tenure
security for small holders and increasing food supply to DPA), it will not be out of place to
opine that poor rural peasants and especially female household heads are the targeted groups.
In Shina, as in many parts of rural Amhara, female household heads are the most vulnerable
to food insecurity and land deprivation (Frank, 2009). As mentioned earlier, poverty is most
chronic with FHH, but the membership of state institutions responsible for helping the rural
poor is not gender sensitive, to say the least.

Therefore, the above three groups the state, kebele and beneficiary groups are not always
actively involved, even though their contributions are crucial. The state decides what is good
for the people by using its agencies and sympathizers to force its policies on the targeted

46
beneficiary. This apparent top-down approach to development more often than not misses the
needs of the targeted beneficiary due to lack of consultation in all stages of the development
cycle.

The next three sections consider the three main aims: security of tenure, reduction of land
disputes and gender empowerment. This is going to show that the land registration program,
as far as its aims are concerned, is not as successful as we are made to believe. However, with
regards to the dam, significant positive changes have been noted and as such can be
contingently considered a success.

5.2 Land registration and tenure security

As noted earlier, the Ethiopian peasants do not have ownership rights in the correct sense of
the term. The right they have is, at best, use rights (Rahmato, 2008). An absolute right entails
the right to exclude others from the use and the ability to keep it for good or for a long enough
time to make investment worthwhile. It should also be possible to dispose of it if and when
one likes without the interference of anybody, including the state. The situation in Shina is far
from this. The reasons for this state of affairs are lack of adequate compensation, lack of
institutions to help protect rights and demography.

Most of the farmers interviewed seem to be aware that the state should compensate them if it
were to confiscate their land; however, close to 54 percent of the people studied know
someone else who had land problems, usually with the state, which have not been resolved.
About 40 percent of the respondents think that the government has the right to take away the
land away from them for limit. Furthermore, under the name of good management practice, a
farmer may loss his or her land if some members of the LAC think that the land is not being
properly managed. Under such accusations, farmers have no way to challenge confiscation,
since there are no specific, written criteria of good management practices. This loophole may
results in some people using the law to settle personal grudges with others. In addition, one
forfeits his or her use right on if he or she is absent from the kebele for a minimum of three
consecutive seasons. The government may be enforcing this law to prevent people from
keeping multiple lands in other parts of the country, thereby monopolizing unfair amounts of
land, but the law results in the negative effect of tying people to one rural area, thereby
increasing the population density in small areas.

The level of awareness of these various issues is very low in Shina. Because of the lack of
consultation from the government, the people are usually not informed at all on many issues.
47
Some informants think that land redistribution is possible in the near future. Also, the social
court is not functioning, and the journey to the nearest court in Ambasame is very difficult
and expensive for most people in Shina.

Finally, demographic pressure is an increasing problem. It is causing a lot of tension among

families and between neighbors as well as highland degradation in Shina. The population
density in Shina is about 250 persons per km, which is significantly above the regional
average of 180 persons per km.

5.3 Land registration and disputes reduction

Another reason often cited by the Ethiopian authorities to justify land registration is the need
to reduce conflicts and land litigation cases, especially between and among peasants. To
understand the issue of land related conflicts in Shina, it is important to categorize conflicts
into two types. One type of conflict is between and among peasants and the other equally
significant type is between peasants and the state. After the field research, the study realized
that most of the respondents did not consider land cases between a peasant and the state as
land dispute or conflict. Many could not identify the role of the state, here referring to the
kebele LAC in creating the conflict between plot neighbors. For example, during the land
registration, officials used crude demarcation methods such as ropes, stones, sand bunds or
even just using a finger to point to the end of one plot and the beginning of another (Rahmato,
2008). Neighbors then have to struggle among themselves to keep their plots clearly
demarcated. This is bound to create tension and conflicts between neighbors.

The law that confiscates land unoccupied for three consecutive seasons is also causing an
immense number of problems between farmers. When such land is taken away and given to
another person, the former and new owners become automatic enemies. Geshaw told me that
if everybody in the community were to be honest and God fearing, then he would not have
lost his land because everybody will refuse to accept it and the LAC would have no option but
to give it back to the original owner. Related to this is the good management practice law
mentioned earlier. The PAs also confiscate and redistribute mismanaged land allotments

Most of the land disputes discussed in the field have to do with somebody taking another
persons land either because the fellow refused to accept it as compensation from LAC or
because the land is given to the family and the stronger member of the family, usually a man
rather than a woman, keeps it for himself. An interesting case is that of the woman priest,
which shall be cited later, and the brother of her late husband who happened to be the
48
chairman of Serk-Eshet. The authorities gave the land as compensation to her and her late
husbands brother because their land was consumed during the construction of the dam. In
fact, the land belonged to her late husband, but the family gave half of it to her brother-in-law.
According to Maaza, the man took the land and refused to give it to her. She did not want
anybody to know that she revealed to the research assistants that he took her land, because she
said that if her comment was discovered, she would not have peace, for that man is very
powerful and everybody knows him, she whispered.

A case in point is Geshaw, who lived in Shina, but had to migrate in order to earn a living
after the death of his wife, who used to help him in the field. The only land he owned he gave
out on rent to somebody and left. After three years of being away, he came back to claim the
land to farm. He made this decision when some friends from Shina told him that it is now
very profitable to farm, especially for those with farm plots close to the dam.

But when he arrived, his tenant informed him that the land now belongs to him and that he
had registered it in his name. He had the certificate of registration to prove it, which he
acquired during the land registration exercise. Geshaw, on the other hand, had no evidence to
prove his ownership of the land, except that everybody in the community knows that I
inherited the land from my late father.

Feeling cheated, Geshaw sent the case to the kebele chairman, who referred Geshaw to the
district land administration officer. After a prolonged deliberation, both with the kebele
chairman and the district lands administration officer, the case was sent to the regional land
administration office.

The irrigation officer in charge of the scheme could not help, either. He said that Geshaw
came to him first with his problem and he directed him to go to the woreda land officer, who
directed him to go to the regional land bureau. At the regional land bureau, he was asked to go
back to the kebele chairman and ask the chairman for a plot of land. The kebele chairman
could not persuade Geshaw to take any land because the available land was not fertile enough
and was far away from the scheme. Therefore, Geshaw did not accept such a plot of land in
place of his lost land, which is in the irrigation scheme.

When contacted, Geshaw apathetically said that he is fed up and may as well do something
that he thinks will make him happy. He thinks that the authorities are useless and cannot
help anybody but the rich. The only thing they were good for was to tell him to go to another

49
bureaucracy. For now, he is earning his living, or something of the sort, by helping drivers to
load their cars in the next town, Hamusit.

He has not given in yet because he thinks he is strong enough to do something that will make
him happy. Geshaw may opt for violence if nothing is done, and this is not uncommon,
especially with men. Women under such circumstances are unable to do much, except to hope
that one day a male relative will come to their rescue.

The other side of the problem is conflicts between the government and the peasants. Usually
in the name of limit, the state expropriates land without adequate compensation. Under such
situations, the peasant poor have nothing to say and have nowhere to bring their grievances.
The majority do not even know that it is possible to take the state to court. Some found it
funny when we told them that they can sue the mengist. During a focus group discussion, they
incredulously and unanimously asked, And at which court?

There are a number of people in this community, both male and female, who are still not
happy with the way land compensation was handled during the construction of the dam.
Information gathered from the field indicates that a total of 36 people from the community
lost their land to the project. Out of those 36 farmers, 12 are women. Out of the 11 people
fully or partially compensated, only two are women, one fully and the other half compensated.
The rest 25 people were not compensated at all. The information from the field did not
correspond with the information at the woreda office. According to the land administration
officer, 34 people lost their land, which does not match the 36 we counted from the field.
According to the official records, 18 were compensated when, in fact, only 11 were
compensated, as indicated in the field. Some, according to the officer, refused to accept the
land that the state offered to them. Most of the men especially are still trying in whatever way
they can to get compensation. The women recognize that they are disadvantaged and may not
get compensated without the physical presence of a male member in the household. Two
people, when contacted to substantiate the point from the woreda office, agreed that the land
offered to them was not in any way comparable to the land lost, which is why they refused to
accept it.

50
Table 6: Number of People who Lost their Land during the Construction of the Dam and those
Compensated
People who lost land Official figures Field report Percentage %
Male + 24 66.67
Female + 12 33.33
Total 34 36 100%

People Compensated 18 11 Percentage %

Male + 9 81.81
Female + 2 18.18
Total 18 11 100%
Source: Author

5.4 Gender and access to land

Gender equity and land are two very political issues. The struggles for land and gender
equity are related to power and the process of empowerment, (Lasterria-Cornhiel, 2005, p.
1). Generally, the three ways through which individuals obtain land rights are inheritance,
allocation by the state or outright purchase (Rahmato, 2004; Lasterria-Cornhiel, 2005).

In Shina, the most common way to acquire land is through the family. More than 82% of the
respondents said they got their land from the father of the family. This is because land
allocation by the state had previously targeted the family heads on behalf of the whole family.
Therefore, all members, including girls, had equal rights to a portion of the plot since the size
of a plot given to a household depended on the number of members. A small portion of the
respondents, or 10.34%, got their land during the land registration exercise. Inheritance is the
third most common way of acquiring land, at 6.25%. Usually after the death of the father, his
male children share the land, who may already have some plots. The difference between
family and inheritance is noted by the fact that pre-mortem inheritance is the norm. Therefore,
male children may have already inherited land from the family even before the death of their
father. This, however, is not the case for women, since girls do not inherit from their fathers.
They may inherit land from their husbands if they have children or are willing to re-marry
within the family, (i.e., a relative of the late husband).

Buying land was also mentioned (6.25%) as a way of acquiring land. All those who bought
land had more than one plot of land. This means that the purchased land was an additional
acquisition through personal effort. All of these buyers, including one woman, appear to be
51
very influential in the community in one way or another. For instance, they are all members of
at least one committee. Interesting also is the fact that all of them have mobile phones, and the
woman has the reputation of being the only woman in the community with a mobile phone.
This is despite the fact that outright sale of land was outlawed shortly before the land
registration in 1997. A significant proportion of respondents think that it would be better if
they could sell their land if and when they wished. According to the Amhara kilil law, the
peasants can lease for a short period without the consent of the woreda officials. Yet the
officials must give consent if the lease stretches over a long period of time say, 25 years,
which is the maximum single time period.

When the researcher asked who is the owner of the land in the household, an overwhelming
majority replied that it was the household head. Because most households are headed by men,
it can be concluded with a high degree of certainty that men have more control over land, not
just because they are household heads, but because they are likely to get more land registered
in their name from the state in case of land appropriation. They are also more likely to inherit
from the family, as stated earlier, and may keep it for life. Women, on the other hand, have
less land (smaller plots) and are more likely to lose it in case of disputes, especially if no male
relative is around to help. With regards to the legal documents of landed property, the men
always hold onto them. The photos of both husband and wife are usually pasted on the
booklet, especially in Shina, but some women would rather not have their photos on it. Some
of the few title booklets I was privileged to see did not have photos of women but only that of
the men.

Table 7: Methods of Acquiring Land in Shina

Method No. of Households Percentage (%)

Family 25 78.12 %
Land registration 3 9.38 %
Inheritance 2 6.25
Buying 2 6.25 %
Total 32 100 %
Source: (Fieldwork, 2010)

5.5 Gender and labor arrangement

A household is a person or a kinship of persons living under the same roof and sharing the
most basic of life necessities, including land and labor. Any person in the household, man or

52
woman, who is considered the owner of the plot of land, is the household head in this case.
There are 2684 households in Shina. Over 93 percent (2505) are male-headed while the rest
(179 0r 6.7 percent) are female-headed. The average number of household members is six,
with some as many as nine, while the few female headed households usually consist of a
woman and her one or two children. On average, a household consists of a man and his wife,
their children, and often an elder son with his wife living nearby in the homestead. It is
important to note that the word for a household head Abaura is synonymous to man. A
homestead, on the other hand, is an amalgamation of households under a leader who may or
may not be the father. Homesteads usually own a plot of land collectively, and all members
contribute their labor to till that land. The members also share the produce. In fact, balanced
reciprocity is the norm in a homestead. Apart from the family land, individual members also
have land that is usually away from the compound, and these individuals may keep the
produce exclusively to themselves. Most of the fields in the scheme are owned by conjugal
families and not by extended families. Usually, the father or the oldest male member is the
head of the homestead, and he expects labor contribution from all members for the cultivation
of the familys land. This used to be the organizational structure of the homestead, which is
gradually changing towards conjugal bonds or nuclear family relations. Part of the reason for
this social shift could be due to the increase in individual ownership of property, especially
since the land registration exercise, as opposed to the previous family and communal land
ownership.

Forty years is the median age of a household head. Some, however, are older and aged about
seventy years. The youngest male household head (MHH) that was interviewed was 23 years
old and was still living in his fathers homestead with his wife. All the MHH are married, and
those below 40 did not have their own homesteads, even though they are qualified to own
one, according to the definition of household head used in this study. Apart from two
household heads, one a carpenter and the other a mason, all the MHH work only on the farm
and do not have any other professions.

With regard to the female household heads, only two were above 50 years old with the rest
below 30. The youngest is about 19 years old. The latter woman, however, is an exceptional
case, because her parents are very old and sick, and she escaped a forced-arranged marriage
abroad and came back to her community. She now takes care of her old, sick parents. Out of
the eight FHH interviewed, five are widowed, two are divorced and one is single. None of the
FHH had formal educations with the exception of one, who attended primary school but
53
dropped out very early. Coincidentally, she is one of the only two female members of the
management committee of the association. The majority of women do some other activities
apart from farming. The most common female economic activity is daily wage labor on other
peoples farms and gathering wood for fuel and cow dung for plastering walls.

Apart from laboring on the family plot, some of the women are helping friends and in some
instances, they are helping their paternal relatives. Women who usually help each other are
from the same Sambateh group. If somebody is not able to reciprocate the help, any amount
of farm produce she can obtain she will use to pay for the labor.

It may be true that most of the FHHs in this community are among the poorest of the poor, but
there are a few who are doing well and can compare favorably with the MHHs. The case
below of a young woman struggling to make it amidst all the odds needs citing.

The case of Abaynish

Abaynish the Savior, or the mighty-one, is the name given to her by her father because he
wished she would save the family one day, just as the Abay River saved the Ethiopian
people centuries ago. At 18, Abaynish has seen and known many of lifes uncertainties. She
and her elder brother are the only surviving children out of nine siblings. The other seven
died before their third birthdays.

At a very early age, Abaynatas she is sometimes calledwas betrothed to a man she had
never met. They met for the first time when she was about 13 years old and the man was
about 30. Days later, she was eloped and sent to his house with the help of his friends.

Customarily, her parents sent their part of the unions contribution immediately, in the form of
oxen. As tradition demands, she was to stay for one week with the man and return home for
the man to come and formally ask her hand in marriage. When she returned home after the
usual seven daysalthough it was after only five days, her mother correctedshe decided
that she was never going back to that man and no amount of persuasion or even cursing of
her parents would make her go back. Both families came together to beg her but without
success. The parents, especially her father, would be happy if she went back to the man, but
according to Abaynish, that man is just a lazy person and will never make a woman happy.
I just dont like him and he is even a thief, you see he is keeping my oxen even though it is
obvious that I will never go back; he claims they have been stolen by thieves, she lamented.

According to Abaynish, she will be happy to meet a man responsible enough to marry her.
Some men do come but none is good enough, and those that can be trusted are married.
So all they want is to take you as their Wushema, this is the last I am looking for, she said
while smiling. I can bet you I am still a virgin, but nobody will believe me just because I was
a few days in a mans house; this hurts so much. She thinks that in this community, few
men will go for a woman her age, and it is even worse if she is perceived not to be a virgin.

As to why she did not go to school, Abaynish had this to say: If you ask my father, she
points to the frail old man lying on the wooden bed in the unfinished thatch hut, he will weep,
54
because for him, the wisest decision was to use the little resources he had to educate my
brother, who dropped very early from school and is now living in a far away foreign place with
his wife and does not know what is going on in this place. So please dont even ask him or
he may die of sorrow and regret.

The case of Abaynish is one of many in this society who are disadvantaged just because of
societal norms. Worse still, many are not able to challenge the status quo like Abaynish and
may just resign to faith.

5.6 Socio-cultural practices

In rural Shina, as in most rural societies, access to and even ownership of landed property by
women as well as men is constitutionally guaranteed. The Public Ownership of Rural Land
Proclamation of 1975 also gave equal rights to both men and women and placed emphasis on
the need for women to have equal rights. Article 4(1) of the Act states, Without
differentiation of the sexes, any person who is willing to personally cultivate land shall be
allotted rural land sufficient for his maintenance and that of his family (GID 2008):
(authorss emphasis). This article reflects land policy in Ethiopia to date. During the 1997
land redistribution and registration exercise carried out in the Amhara region, land allocation
mostly targeted household heads. In this respect, the exercise automatically took care of
female-headed households. Problems arise in instances where a woman is living with a man
who is almost always the household head or in instances of divorced or widowed women. In
spite of this seemingly guaranteed legal right, land owning rights to women other than
female household heads seems partial or theoretical (Abate, 1994 in Rahmato 1994, p. 109).
Access to irrigated land for women in Shina is besieged with socio-cultural hindrances.

This makes it legitimate to question whether legal provisions are enough to secure land rights
for women in rural Shina. The role of the state may be important for identifying local
practices, and sometimes the role of the state itself determines the discriminatory practices
that affect womens secure access to land and water for agricultural activities. The state of
Ethiopia is untouchable and any land taken by the state for limit cannot be questioned
(Rahmato, 2008). The farmers perception on the power of the state shows that they recognize
that real tenure security for the peasant poor is not a guarantee.

A close examination of intra-household relations on property rights revealed that peasants

wives had marginal access to land (Abate, 1994). To understand this access, a probe into post-
land redistribution developmental cycle of a household in Shina is relevant. Ideally, a
household is formed with a marriage endowment from the parents of both couples. A parcel

55
of land comes from the grooms family (not longer from the PA, as it used to be) and cooking
utensils comes from the brides family as well as an ox in many cases. This arrangement
entrenches the idea that land belongs to the man and the other things in the house, such as the
animals, grains and utensils, belong to the woman. In fact, women are responsible for the
barns (McCann, 1996) and can usually do whatever they see fit with the content, providing
that the family has something to eat each evening. In a harmonious situation, this works very
well and most of the women, especially the elderly ones, think it defines peoples roles and
responsibilities according to their capabilities. Problems start when marriages break or in the
cases of widowhood.

Theoretically, an outgoing wife may be able to obtain all the rights due to her by law.
However, as in most cases, boys bring their spouses from neighboring PAs. Thus, in the case
of a divorce, the woman usually has two alternatives: remain in the community or go back to
her natal home. Due to socio-cultural reasons, the former option is usually not practicable,
even though it would help her to hold on to her land for some time. Firstly, she becomes an
outsider in the ex-husbands community, and her ex-husbands people ensure that she feels
that alienation (Abate, 1994). Everybody in her husbands community, even her friends, will
turn against her and may not even help her when she needs help, for fear of being accused of
taking her side against her ex-husband. As a result, it becomes impossible for her to mobilize
labor, especially male labor, which is indispensible for the cultivation of her plot since she
cannot plough herself. Secondly, she cannot remarry another man in the community, since
this would be considered disrespectful to the ex-husband and his family. Also, no man from
another community would want to marry a divorcee, much less marry into a strange and
hostile community. The possibility of using her brothers help is not feasible due to
geographical distance, and most brothers would rather have their sisters close to them for
protection and not in a different community.

At any rate, even if she chooses to stay in her husbands community despite all the odds, she
will soon become landless, because the PA leaders would designate her land as vacant land
and allocate it to somebody from the community according to the provision of the 1975 land
reforms bill. This bill makes owning land in a community other than ones birth community
illegal. Also, she could not sell the land, since selling or even mortgaging land is prohibited.
Thus, a womans access rights to land is dependent on her being a wife, mother or a daughter
and not on her own right, as stipulated by law.

56
Also, the socially constructed perception that women should not and cannot use the plough is
entrenched in the Shina community. The use of the plough by women in some cases is
considered an abomination and some people, mostly elderly men and women, cannot imagine
a woman ploughing. This is despite the fact that some women (albeit few) would like to
plough, because they think the activity has nothing to do with their physical strength. Their
assumption is proven by boys use of the plough, who are physically not stronger than grown
women. Even though they should not plough, women are responsible for many other activities
both at the home and in the field. They will tie their children on their backs while doing all
sorts of work in the field, but the sight of a man carrying a baby is as detestable as a woman
using a plough.

Almost all the women interviewed believed in the mediocrity of women. Many women still
think that it is okay for a man to beat his wife. According to a World Bank survey in 2008,
over 80% of rural Ethiopian women think their husbands have the right to beat them (GID,
2008). About 90% of those asked preferred giving birth to a baby boy. A boy is not only a
source of social security but also a sure source of labor (see the case of the woman priest).
This is likely because it is only boys who are allowed to use the plough in this community,
which is a vital aspect of the communitys only source of livelihood. The importance of men
over women is also shown in the number of ululations when a child is born in this
community. While baby girls get nine ululations, baby boys get ten. The reason for this is that
ten is considered whole and because boys are whole, they get ten ululations, while girls get
nine ululations, because the community appears to believe they are not full human beings.

Generally, the people in this study claimed that everybody can get land to farm and that every
family has some land for its members. Over 90% of the respondents answered Yes to the
question, Can everybody in this community get land to farm? Customarily, women are free
to own land, and they can and do, on rare occasions, inherit land from the fathers or the
husbands. However, in this society, women are not considered farmers, and, given that land is
the most basic important factor of production, especially in agriculture, the ability to own land
indicates how successful a farmer can be. The word farmer, Gaebare in Amharic, is
synonymous to man. Therefore, it is unimaginable for some farmers to see women as equal
landowners. To view women as farmers and to provide them resources that would allow them
to engage in farming activities on a level equal to men is considered a threat to the social
fabric of rural communities (Frank, 1999).

57
5.7 Summary and Conclusion
The pertinent research question to be answered was, what are the socio-cultural practices that
affect womens efforts to access land and water for agricultural activities and how these affect
their livelihood? In trying to answer the question, three main factors were considered, these
are the methods through which people acquire land, the practices in the society that influence
womens access to land and water and the perception of the women on their own livelihood
situations.

This study is done in the historical context of several attempts by various governments to
transform the land tenure system in Ethiopia which is still faced with a myriad of problems.
Irrigation facility provision is also seen as a good way out of the countrys food shortage
problem. Therefore land reforms, with particular emphasis on land registration to give poor
peasants tenure security, and the provision of irrigation facilities to increase access to water
for agriculture production, are the main focus of the study.

It is true that the overall aims of land registrations and irrigation provisions are very laudable,
as shown by the enthusiastic acceptance of these by the majority of peasants and the general
approval and support of these reforms by the international community. While the majority of
commentators consider the land and water policies of the present Ethiopian government to be
pro-poor, there is a significant minority that thinks otherwise. Unlike the former, who are
mostly international organisations or individuals working for them, the later comprises mainly
of private Ethiopian academics. It is therefore important not to jump onto the wagon of either,
because the reality on the ground at least in Shina shows a mixture of success and
disappointments especially when gender is added to the equation.

A three level imagined development agency in Ethiopia is used to assess the aims of land
registration and irrigation provision engineered by the government as against the perceptions
of the beneficiaries in Shina community.

Under level one, which is the national government, it was shown that, beneficial policies with
limited or no inputs from the regional bureaus are designed (Rahmato, 2008). Land
registration and irrigation provision, were enthusiastically welcomed by the generality of the
peasants. This is due to lack of tenure security and the serious problem of food shortage.
However, while agricultural production has increase significantly, land tenure security is not a
certainty for many of the rural poor especially women and female headed households. This is
due partly to the culture of non-consultation of the rural poor by the Ethiopian government
58
(ibid). Various cultural practices such as the inheritance system also made womens land
ownership either impossible or impracticable.

The situation in Shina, according many respondents, is drastically and positively changing.
Most of the women with whom the study conversed think that the men have changed the way
they treat them, especially when it comes to decisions that concern the household. The men
now consult the women more on many issues, and sometimes the men accept and implement
their suggestions for the entire household. For example, most of the women interviewed said
that they have full control over the barns and that they are solely responsible for the amount of
grains used to feed the family or to be sold. The majority of the men also believed that women
have the right to sell whatever amount of produce they want and that they should use the
money in whatever ways they want.

Another important development is the behavior of men towards their wives. It was noted by
many women that the practice of wife beating is dying out and that men no longer demand
that women wash their feet. Some years back, it was standard practice for men to demand that
their wives wash their feet after a hard days work. He would place his feet on a raised object
and the woman would squat and wash them. According to a female priest this request
honoured womanhood as servants and protectors of men. She therefore fears its increasing
unpopularity and laments, women these days want to be like men and I fear where we are
going to end (Woman Priest, March 2010). Interesting also is that men now go out less for
drinking, and, if they do, they often come back home to sleep. They did not behave in this
manner before the dam, especially during the dry seasons when there was virtually less work
in the farm to do and relatively more cash in their pockets. At this time of the year, men
would traditionally go out to the neighboring big towns (Woreta or Hamusit), drink and have
fun with the teaming sex workers for days on end. When they finally returned home with
nothing more in their pockets, the women dared not complain or they would face a beating.

Another significant change in recent times is that family members see each other more often
than before the dam. A good number (30%) of the women said that time spent together as a
family is on the rise, whether on the farm or at home. Both men and women regarded this as
an improvement in their life situations about 56 percent and 30 percent, respectively.
However, while most of the men see this as a positive development, they nevertheless find a
connecting link between this bonding and the increasing assertiveness of the women. Also

59
related to this is the mens widely held view that women these days spend a lot of time trying
to look more attractive.

The reasons for the above-mentioned changes in gendered attitudes can be deduced from
factors such as higher workload, higher yields resulting in surplus and the presence of the few
female community workers in the area.

The amount of work has tremendously increased since the construction of the dam, especially
for dry season farming. As such, farmers need more working hands in the fields. Wives are
ultimately the first source of such labor, thus increasing the amount of time that couples spend
together on the farm. In addition, the cordial relationship between couples is supreme,
because others are ready to pay these women for their service, which is necessary, especially
during harvesting and thrashing. The increasing demand for female labor determines to some
degree how men behave towards their wives, especially if they desperately need their help.
All the extra work brings about increase in productivity, which means there is now more
surplus to sell. With the money earned from the surplus, women can now afford to buy basic
needs and sometimes products for their own personal use - like dresses to look decent in the
now more frequent presence of the men.

Moreover, the sight of female community workers in recent times is a motivational factor for
many of the young women. In a focus group discussion, a young woman named Tegist said,
Anytime I see that teacher standing in front of the men and talk, I feel these men are not as
big as they always want us to believe. (15th March 2010) This statement indicates the
importance of role models among the women in the community. Additionally, some women
work as farm laborers or rent land from others to farm. As explained earlier, these labor
dynamics and the womens ability to earn their own money without having to always depend
on the men are changing the social ties in this community.

The success or otherwise of an irrigation scheme is highly linked to the motivation of the
holders. It doesnt have to be the right of ownership, but an important motivation. When
people take up irrigation, there is bound to be intensification of all farm activities, including
more labour for preparation of fields, weeding and harvesting among others. The returns to
this added work-load must be seen to be at least commensurate to the additional labour
invested. This is the motivational factor of the women in Shina who are now better off than
ever before, notwithstanding lack of adequate access to land.

60
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Glossary
BALABAT Community leader during the imperial rule

EBOURA Male household head

EMAURA Female household head
GAEBARE Farmer (in Amharic)
GOT Village
INJERA or NJERA Traditional Ethiopian pancake
KEBELE Lowest administrative unit
KILIL One of nine regional administrative units; plural is Kiloch
LIMIT Development or government development initiative
MAAZA Old women
MENGIST State or Government
MULOCSI Orthodox priest
SAMBATEH Social support system
SERK-ESHET Name of the Irrigation Association
WUHA ABAT Father of water
WOREDA Second lowest administrative unit

Acronyms and Abbreviations

ADLI Agricultural Development Led Industrialization
AEPA All-Ethiopia Peasants' Association
ASSP Agriculture Sector Support Programme
BMZ German Ministry for Development Cooperation
CEDAW Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
Against Women
Co-SAERAR Commission for Sustainable Agricultural and Environmental
Rehabilitation in Amhara Region
CSA Central Statistical Authority
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DPAs Drought-Prone Areas
EARO Ethiopian Agricultural Research Organization
EEA Ethiopian Economic Association
ETB Ethiopian Birr (Currency of Ethiopia)
FAO Food and Agriculture Organization
FHH Female headed household or Female Household Head
FINIDA Finnish International Development Agency
GDP Gross Domestic Product
GID Gender in Development
GTZ German Technical Corparation (Deutsche Gesellschaft fr
Technische Zusammenarbeit)

IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development

IWMI International Water Management Institute
LUMA Land Use and Management Association
MHH Male headed household or Male Household Head
MoA Ministry of Agriculture
MoWR Ministry of Water Resources
SERA Strengthening Emergency Response Abilities
SIDA Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency
SWHISA Sustainable Water Harvesting and Institutional Strengthening in
Amhara
SWC Soil and Water Conservation
WUA Water Users Association
ZEF Bonn Centre for Development Research (Zentrum fr
Entwicklungsforschung)

Appendices

Appendix 1: Questionnaires and focus group discussion guide

RE-THINKING WATER STORAGE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION IN

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAN ZEF BONN

QUESTIONNAIRES FOR HOUSEHOLD HEADS

66
 GENDER AND UNEQUAL ACCESS TO AGRICULTURAL LAND AND WATER
RESOURCES

INTRODUCTION

My name is Saeed Seidu Billa a student of university of Cologne and a Ghanaian. As part of
my studies Master Culture and Environment in Africa, I am doing a research with, Centre
for Development Research Bonn, Germany.

My aim of being here is to learn about the differences in how men and women acquired and
use land and water for agricultural activities.

All the information given will be treated confidentially for the purpose of this research only.
No names of individuals will be mentioned in the report unless he or she wished to be
mentioned.

I am therefore very grateful that you are here and hope we have a lively discussion together.
Please do stop me anytime during the discussion if you do not want us to continue.

IDENTITY:

I. Interview Number II. Interview Date.........................

III. Place of Interview.................... IV. Name

V. Marital Status: Married. Divorced Widowed Single Separated
VI. Sex: Male. Female
VII. Educational Status: Educated. Not Educated. Dropped None of the
above
OCCUPATION

1. Apart from farming what else do you do? .

2. Which one is more important, farming or business? .
3. What did you do before the construction of the dam? .
4. What are you doing now, that you could not do before the Dam
5. What can you say is the role of the Household head?
6. Do you think there are difference between the roles of a Female household head and a
male household head? Yes. No.

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7. If Yes? What do you think are the difference?

ACCESS TO LAND

8. Do you own the plot of land on which you farm? Yes. No.
9. How many farm plots do you have?
10. Can you tell me the size of your farm
11. How did you acquire your land? -------------------------------------------------------------------
12. Do you think in this community everybody has access to land? YES. NO.
13. Why do you think so?
14. Have you ever faced any problem concerning land, conflict or misunderstanding between
you and somebody? Yes. No. Dont Remember.
15. Do you know somebody who had problem concerning land? Yes. No.
If yes how did it happened?
16.Is the average land holding between men and women in this community the same?
Yes. No. No idea.
17.Who has usually larger plots, men or women? Men. Women. Both.
Dont know.

ACCESS TO WATER
18. How far is your plot of land to the dam? Close. Very close. Far. Very
far. . Other.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
19. How often do you get water to water your farm in the dry season?
20. Is the water you get enough for your crops? Yes. No. If Not Why?
21. Can you say that productivity has increase since the dam was introduced into this
community? YES. NO. NO Idea. If Yes, by How Much.
22. In your mind, do you think the people in this community are happy with the Dam?
Yes. No. Dont know. Give Reasons.

GENDER ISSUES

23. Do you think the productivity of women, has increased? Yes. No. Dont
know. Others. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What do you think is the reason? --------------------------------------------------------------------
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24. How do you think this dam is helping the women in this community?
25. What can women do now, that they could not do before the dam?

26.What do you remember women were doing that they could not do now because of the
construction of the Dam? List:

27. In your opinion, has the dam project improved life in general for the people in this
community? Yes. No. Dont know.

If yes, explain

28. Can you say the same for women? YES. NO. No Idea.
29. Why do you think so?

30. Do you think female household heads have different problems as male household heads?
Yes. No. Dont Know? What can these problems be?

31. Do you think Female Household Heads are seen differently in this society? Yes. No.
Dont Know. How?

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR TIME

Appendix 2: Interview Guide for Focus Group Discussion

1. Do you get enough water from the dam for your agricultural activities? Explain?

2. Who do you think get more? The men or the women.

3. What do you think are the reasons for the unequal access to water in this community?
Enumerate.

4. What do you think about the mens access? Do they also have enough access? If yes
jump to question

5. How did you get your land to farm?

69
 a) .
b)
c)
6. How is the distribution of water and land for agricultural activities done in this place?
7. Do you like how it is being done? Why?
8. In this community do you think men and women have equal say in the way things are
done?
9. Who is in a position to take decision single handedly in the household man or woman?
10. Who is more likely to lose land, man or woman?
11. Men sometimes lose land. Why or to whom?
12. To whom do women usually lose land?
13. Who is the one to help if a woman loses her land?
14. Do you think men and women are seen to be the same in this community?
15. If someone is pregnant what type of child do they wish to have, boy or girl? Why?
16. Why is it at birth they are different number of ululation for boys and girls?
17. Women do not plough in this community, why?

Appendix 3: Data collection sheet

Type of data
Code collection Format of dataset Source of information Index of content

filled data sheets

FGD, (hard copy), audio 4 female farmers, elderly, access to water,
FGD 1 10/03/2010 files from Aregawi access to land

filled data sheets

FGD, (hard copy), audio 5 elderly male land access to water,
FGD 2 21/02/2010 files owners access to land

filled data sheets

FGD, (hard copy), audio 5 male and female access to water,
FGD 3 08/03/2010 files farmers access to land

filled data sheets

FGD, (hard copy), audio access to water,
FGD 4 09/03/2010 files 5 young female farmers access to land

filled data sheets

FGD, (hard copy), audio 8 male and female access to water,
FGD 5 11/03/2010 files elderly land owners access to land

70
 filled data sheets access to water,
FGD 6 FGD,11/03/2010 (hard copy) 5 female farmers access to land

access to water,
FGD, filled data sheets land and difference
FGD 7 08/03/2010 (hard copy) 4 elderly male farmers in livelyhood pattern

FGD, filled data sheets 7 farmers and land access to water,

FGD 8 07/03/2010 (hard copy) owners access to land

filled data sheets

FGD, (hard copy), audio 6 farmers and land access to water,
FGD 9 21/02/2010 files owners access to land

filled data sheets

FGD FGD, (hard copy), audio 4 male and female access to water,
10 08/03/2010 files farmers and land owners access to land

Mr. Belehna Adamitie,

Women Representative
of Serkshet Aregawie
Interview, Irrigation Users female
INT 1 08/03/2010 filled data sheet Association representation

INT 2 Interview questionnaires Household heads

Expert Interview Land laws and

INT 3 12/02/2010 audio files Dr Safu GTZ Bahir Dar Gender

Mr. Mogesh Mebret, Personal perception

Expert interview, audio file, chairman of Mitsele on the benefits of
INT 4 15/02/2010 transcription kebele the dam

Project info,
Mr. Hailu Ngidayhu Management, farm
Expert interview, Worede Irrigation size, conservation
INT 5 17/02/2010 audio file Engineer work

Irrigation
Expert interview, Mr. Mogesh Zawdu development, soil
INT 6 19/03/2010 audio file conservation official conservation

Mr. Hailu Ngidayhu Follow up on

Expert interview, Worede Irrigation general issues
INT 7 23/03/2010 field note Engineer raised.

forced to marry to a
Informal stranger but she
INT 8 interviews refused to stay Abaynish the Wushema Personal stories

Informal Geshaw lost his land

INT 9 interviews and the litigation case Geshaw Personal stories

Informal
INT 10 interviews Old woman priest lost Old woman priest Personal stories
his land because he
71
 has no male child

Informal Female Executive

INT 11 interviews committee member Admas Bayat Personal stories

Expert interview
personal Mogesh Chairman water Management,
INT 12 conversation field notes users association committee

23 male household
SUR 1 Survey filled data sheets heads of Shina

Minutes of General
Assembly meeting,
OBS 1 21/2/10 Management

Shina community, Mr.

Observation, Asmamu Shina
OBS 2 interview field notes commuity mobilizer SWC

Feasibility study report

DOC 1 1 Co-SAERAR Project info

Feasibility study report

DOC 2 2 Co-SAERAR Project info

Register of members Chairman of Shina

DOC 3 of Association Association Membership

FD 1 field notes Field diary Saeed Billa

FD 2 field notes Field notes Jibril Alemayehu

VIDEO woman as a
1 video video file self recorded carpenter

VIDEO
2 video video file self recorded a boy ploughing

PHO 1 photographs file folder Shina community Shina dam

Shina irrigation
PHO 2 photographs file folder Shina community scheme

PHO 3 photographs file folder Shina community FGD meeting

PHO 4 photographs file folder Shina community General meeting

women only FGD

PHO 5 photographs file folder Shina community meeting

PHO 6 photographs file folder Shina community SWC

Flyer, Woman
PHO 7 photographs file folder Hamusit Musician

72
Appendix 4: List of contacted persons (Govt. official, development agents,
field assistants and NGO staff)
NO Name and position Office/ Location Address/ phone NO. Contacted by

Water Res. Dev. Water

1 Fasekau Atanaw Bureau. Bahir Dar Bureau.0582200853 Saeed

2 Dr Zerfu GTZ Bahir Dar 582222094 Saeed

Jibril Alemayehu
3 Research Assistant Woreta Other: +251918027797 Saeed

Ato Mekusiaw Land

Administrator Dera Land Administration office
4 Woreda Anbesami Anbesami. 0582580153 Saeed

Ato Mogesh Maberat

5 Kebele Chairma Mitsele/Shina Saeed

Extension officer/ Soil

6 Banteleh Abraraw Mitsele/Shina Expert Saeed

extension officer/
7 Mogesh Zawdu Mitsele/Shina Irrigation Hamusit Saeed

Genet Gender and Dev. saeeed and

8 Officer Gonder Jibriel

Hailu Ngidayhu Worede Woreda office

9 Irrigation Engineer Anbesami +251918092490 Saeed and Jibril

10 Asmamu Ambey shina Hamusit Saeed

Bahir Dar.
11 Dev. N. Sharma SWHISA Bahir Dar +251582222011 Saeed

Appendix 5: List of index words

List of index words
(project level)

provides basic information on the history, statistics, setting of the

Project info water storage project, location

Management provides basic information on the management of the water facility

provides information on the maintenance (practical & finaincial) of

Maintenance the water facility

73
 describes social dynamics, impact, which are perceiveid/
Social cost communicated as negative consequence of the water project

describes social dynamics, impact, which are perceiveid/

Social benefits communicated as positive consequence of the water project

gives infomation of how access to water is regulated and practically

Access to water realized

gives infomation of how access to agricultural land is regulated and

Access to land practically realized

provides information on how people have changed their livelihood

activities, as well as on their percception of their possible livelihood
options, tells about how decisions over leivelihood activities were
Options to adapt taken within thehousehold or at individual level

List of Figures
Figure 1: Linkage between economic growth and rainfall in Ethiopia 10

Figure 2: Contribution of women in economic activities in Africa 19

Figure 3: Conceptual framework 29

Figure 4: Map of Ethiopia showing Shina close to Lake Tana 31

List of Photographs
Photograph 1: View of Shina landscape 7

Photograph 2: Focus group discussion with female respondents 15

Photograph 3: View of dispersed settlements in Shina from the dam 32

Photograph 4: Farmers selling Tomatoes at the Bahir Dar Gondar highway 35

Photograph 5: Women and children washing at the Shina River 36

Photograph 6: Outlets at the irrigation scheme 38

74
Photograph 7: A field flooded by an unknown illegal irrigator 40

Photograph 8: Serk-Eshet members working on Soil and water conservation 41

Photograph 9:

List of Tables
Table 1: Mean-monthly temperatures and rainfall and mean
dependable rainfall for shina 9

Table2: Table on research methods used 17

Table 3: Historical timeline of land administration in Ethiopia 26

Table 4: Gender distribution of population and households 30

Table 5: Types of crops cultivated and changes in output 33

Table 6: Number of people who lost their land during

the construction of the dam and those compensated 51

Table 7: Methods of acquiring land in Shina 52

75