This year’s El Niño effect, on top of a few years of bad rains, means that it’s the worst drought Ethiopians have seen, even worse that the one in 1984 that was so ubiquitous in the news. But Ethiopians are doing much better this year than in 1984—and GRAD families are better off than most of their neighbors.
In the face of the drought, CARE conducted a resilience survey to see how families are coping. The GRAD program, funded through USAID’s Feed the Future investments, is helping families cope with this famine, and come back ready to graduate out of poverty.
What did we accomplish?
- Meals stayed steady: Even in the worst drought they’ve seen, GRAD families still eat 3 meals a day, without compromising their nutrition. Non-GRAD families are eating fewer meals, and less nutritious ones.
- Families leapfrogged ahead of their neighbors: At baseline in 2012, GRAD families were poorer than the control group, but now they have higher savings, better livestock, and better seeds than their neighbors.
- Incomes went up! People who had been in CARE’s Village Economic and Savings Associations (what CARE Ethiopia calls VSLAs) for the life of the project saw their incomes and savings go up, even as families around them depleted their resources.
- Families are ready to face the future: GRAD participants are confident that they can come back from the drought out of poverty. As Bidra Chaltu told the American radio program All Things Considered, “If the drought doesn't return and the rains continue, I can be self-sufficient when the harvest comes.”
How did we get there?
- Provide families with choices: Given the training with CARE, families diversified their income, and bought smaller livestock that could better withstand drought and sell for higher prices in emergencies.
- Focus on planning: More families are planning for the future and prioritizing productive assets and savings. So they have a cushion to fall back on in emergencies, and are ready to take advantage of opportunities post-drought.
- Get couples to work together: Men and women in GRAD families are much more likely to work together than their peers, and plan for all of the household needs to deal with the drought. Men listening to their wives helps them plan for food and business choices that will be most resilient. As one woman told evaluators, “GRAD has encouraged us to think for ourselves and for the men to behave differently towards us, we are now partners in development, and don’t think of waiting on the husband or on PSNP support.”
Want to learn more?
Check out NPR’s story on Resilience in Ethiopia, or read the GRAD resilience report. Or look at the GRAD page on the CARE website.