Impact Assessment:

The aid arrived in Arbore just on time in order to provide the people with food while they were busy securing the next harvest. Accordingly, it was possible to avoid victims of s tarvation, continued sale of livestock, epidemic diseases and the threat of also losing the next harvest.

We would like to emphasise that only the great personal effort of the Arbore themselves made this project possible. The local infrastructure for buying the maize was developed through the efforts and the continual presence of the communally selected Arbore helpers in the ongoing negotiations with drivers, traders and farmers, displaying a high degree of personal responsibility. This adaptation to locally existing structures also helped keeping the cost for logistics very low. Since the travel expenses of Ms. Gabbert and Mr. Girke were covered by the SFB (Sonderforschungsbereich 295, Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz), in Phase 2 as little as € 2, - spent per person out of the donated funds was enough to provide the necessary help.

The mediation in the discussions with the administration was facilitated by Ms. Gabbert’ s long-time experience as an anthropological researcher in Arbore and Jinka. She is also known to the officials as a representative of the South Omo Museum And Research Center (SORC). For the future, both the local administration and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development explicitly expressed their interest in consultancy for further projects, as the governmental institutions often lack familiarity with language and culture of the local ethnic groups.

For the prevention of further total failures of harvests caused by flooding, and as an attempt to protect the fields, Mrs. Gabbert and Mr. Surra of Arbore have developed an irrigation project. The local system in place at the moment already provides an important moment in securing the harvests. This specific agricultural knowledge of the Arbore is basically unknown outside the area, and normally allows regular and sufficient subsistence in a clim atically very difficult area. We already mentioned in our project outline (March 2003) that more often than not the Arbore are even able to ease the food shortages of their neighbours through a complex trade network, and Arbore may well be considered the “bread basket” of the region. The planned irrigation system is based on the local knowledge and complements the existing channels.

The Arbore are very grateful towards all helpers and donors. When Mrs. Gabbert arrived in June, the people were eating some leftover maize from the first distribution, supplemented by tree leafs and the ripe but mouldy sorghum from the flooded fields. The most gruelling time, when the new fields had to be broken up with the digging sticks, could not have been managed without the food provided. The emotional relief at the time of the distributions cannot be expressed in words.

The river Woito coming down from the Konso mountains in May 2003		The flooding in May destroyed fields and harvest for the second time

Only mouldy maize could be saved and was put out to dry in the sun in May 2003 - the picture shows the entire harvest of a household of 9 people for four months

Elderly people especially widows were mostly effected by the hunger