Participatory Rehabilitation of Dry Valleys (Ethiopia)

Participatory rehabilitation and productive use of dry valleys is an approach employed to rehabilitate degraded and degradable land. It is operationalised through the Lowland Soil Rehabilitation Project with local development partners from kebele, district, regional agricultural bureaus, and other relevant stakeholders.

Participatory rehabilitation of degraded and degradable dry valleys engages the community at the grassroots through consultation. It is operationalised through the Lowland Soil Rehabilitation Project with local development partners from kebele, district, regional agricultural bureaus, and other relevant stakeholders.
Technical experts from the district and region are involved in reconnaissance, observation and joint selection of the intervention sites. The team conduct a survey, then profile and design the technologies required, along with the project engineer. The approach optimises the participation of the community and agricultural actors, allowing the development of a sense of ownership and accountability through training and awareness-creation exercises. In turn this encourages them to take care of and maintain the structures.
This approach combines top-down and bottom-up methods. At the grassroots, the local agropastoral communities are mobilized by local extension agents and made aware about the SLM intervention that the project and partners strive to put in place – including the physical structures in the farmers' fields and communal lands. The procedures include a site visit, a survey/ observation, and the identification of the intervention site based on the specific topographic features and drainage system of the catchment. Then, detailed field data is collected and a profile analysis is made to develop the design and get approval after stakeholders’ consultation and review of the details of the implementation design. The approach is complemented by satellite imagery and ground truthing. Following this, the next stage is identification of masonry experts, provision of training, and supply of construction materials and tools. Building the masonry works involves both skilled and unskilled labour.
The woreda NRM expert (focal person) facilitate the process at the grassroots through the development agents. The community gives their consent and support to the objectives of the project implementation. Therefore, they are involved in local decision-making and overseeing the technology that is being put in place.
The agropastoral community is the end user and benefits from the positive consequences of the intervention which is a result of better management of soil and water for productive uses of the dry valley. However, because of a lack of awareness, and the agropastoralists conventional livelihoods practice traveling with their livestock, there is a lack of participation in the day-to-day implementation activities. That limits their active contribution in implementation. Of course, local elders value the consultative experience which confirms a sense of self-worth and acknowledges their role in ownership of the land and as the ultimate decision-maker for development intervention operating in their areas.