Gendered Roles in Parenting and Family Support in Ethiopia

Editor's Notes

• #4: 4. 1. General Ethiopian Context Population: As the case is in many other developing nations of the world including the Sub Saharan Africa, Ethiopia is a population of young persons with high rate of population growth (2.92 percent per annum). According to CSA (1998), the projected population estimate for 2001 was 63,494,702. The total population of those less than 25 years was 64.36% and young persons between ages 10-24 years constituted 32 % of the population. Obviously, this large population is a potential resource for nation building but it at the same time requires the country to invest on it. Given this population size and the country’s economic situation, Ethiopia’s effort for empowering the population that is going to take care of it tomorrow should be effectively cost-effective. It should be able to address the needs of multitudes with minimum possible cost. Perhaps, life skills training is one such important option. Moreover, it also entails the need to offer even life skills training in a rather cost-effective manner.   Ethiopia’s high rate of population growth has for us to indicate that family planning, and gender issues are important subject matters to be addressed in such training. This is because high rate of population growth is suggestive of women’s longer reproductive life span which in turn implies that this group is still tied up to the traditional maternity mandate and homemaking roles; still excluded from education, labor force. Empowering girls with basic life skills, such training needs, therefore, can become weaponry deconstructing patriarchy.   Culture: Ethiopia is a country of different nations and nationalities. There are in Ethiopia different (about 70 to 80) ethnic groups fulfilling the criteria of ethnicity; thus requiring the young persons to develop skills for living effectively with persons of other ethnic background. Moreover, evidences suggest that the Ethiopian society is basically collectivist-oriented, with interdependent life style, and authoritarian culture:   As in other collectivist societies, group interests preside more than individual ones to an extent that the word right is not even known in the rural areas until perhaps very recently. This would require young people to develop basic skills for an interdependent life; a life skill that enables them to effectively manage life with and beyond the self Communities have quite different age, sex, religion... based social groupings, associations, and institutions (like Idir, Mahiber, Senbete etc) basically structured by and assuming ascribed roles, governed by informal rules, norms, beliefs, and expectations all shaped by the unwritten curriculum that seems to uphold a sense of “we-ness”. This type of group orientation may be extended in the process of life skills training Mediation and arbitration by a third party (elders, relatives, and friends) and accommodation are commonly employed to resolve conflicts and ensure the survival of families in the face of divorce and separation. Family households are composed of extended family system and large family size Large family is highly valued in Ethiopia possibly because there are labor divisions or age-graded responsibilities among family members and every member is expected to contribute to the household implying, then, that, as in other African cultures, interdependence, collective survival, and the value of cooperation seem to pervade cultures in Ethiopia. Some local investigations specifically indicate that dominant are among the Ethiopian cultures are such values, among others, as sharing resources, helping one another   Religion: The Ethiopian society is largely religious in the sense that about 99 % subscribe to religious denomination of one kind or another (CSA, 1994). There are different religious institutions and trained person in religion. This has an important implication for life skills training in terms of getting it done cost-effectively. Whether it is to be kept secular or otherwise, life skills trainings have a lot to benefit from such institutions in terms of, for example, using their spaces. In fact, using the trained personnel in the different religious institutions can also have two benefits. First, it would help filling the gap of trained human power for training. Second, religious leaders in the different institutions are also opinion leaders, influential and credible in the eyes of their followers and, hence, can be used for the purpose of life skills training as well.   Economy: According to UNICEF’s (2002) “The State of the World’s Children 2003 Report”, the Gross National Income (GNI) per capita in 2001was only USD 100 for Ethiopia; which by any standard was lower than not only for the one reported in this same year for developing countries (=USD 1,159) but also for Sub-Saharan Africa (=USD 519) (MoLSA, 2004, P.46). Although there are some slight improvements over the last couple of years, Ethiopia still remains to be one of the poorest countries in the world. In the face of this acute poverty, Ethiopia can exploit its untapped tremendous human resources to fight against poverty. Of particular importance in the accelerated poverty reduction strategy would of course be that of targeting the segment of the society that takes the largest population share, has greater potential for change, and that can be easily trainable. Mobilizing this potential as a catalyst of change entails, as indicated earlier, that empowering the young persons needs to be in the docket of the country’s current accelerated poverty reduction strategy and such empowerment needs, on the other, to make use of life skills training as one amongst a host of other cost effective programs.   Given that poverty reduction requires not only increasing income but also reducing expenses, and that the Ethiopian society is not characteristically a saving society, then this would suggest attempts made to empowering the Ethiopian young persons through life skills training programs needs to include in the LST package the skills for effective use and saving of resources (material, finance, time and others).   Education: Existing statistics indicates that the Ethiopian society is dominantly illiterate. Only 27 % are literate and with a median level of Grade 3 education (CSA, 1998). In fact, the Ethiopian young persons appear more privileged educationally than their parents. And, that there are remarkable expansions today in schooling at all levels-from primary to tertiary. However, secondary school enrollment is as yet at the minimum; suggesting the fact that life skills training would serve for the uneducated larger majority as an opportunity for self-enlightenment. Given that the quality of education in the Country today is not as expected, life skills training would also serve as an added opportunity even for school attendants, too. It would help them a lot not only in improving their lives but also their academic learning. The fact that there are both educated and uneducated groups also implies that a life skills training package should be designed in a manner to address the different needs of these groups.   Health: Ethiopia is a country with rampant health compromising problems. Malaria, infectious diseases, and HIV/AIDS are the most common problems in the Country. Given that the Country is urbanized only 18%, the majority of the Ethiopian population is still living in rural areas with poor infrastructure and limited access to health services. The health situation of the rural people (particularly children, young persons, and women) is equally at risk due in part to the prevailing harmful traditional practices widely practiced. The situation is not any different in the urban areas. Environmental sanitation in the Ethiopian cities has been increasingly declining, particularly, which in a way endanger the health of many people to a comparable extent that rural life is vulnerable in many ways.   In general, the population, economy, education, religion, cultural practices, and health profiles prevailing in Ethiopia today have a number of implications for specifying or defining the nature of life skills training (objectives, principles, contents, methods, resources) to be offered to the young persons. These implications shall be mentioned in appropriate places in our latter discussions. According to Ethiopian Herald (Feb. 15, 2003), over a century has elapsed since the founding of Addis Ababa as an urban center and regrettably its growth does not commensurate with its age. Its poor plan, haphazardly built houses, and the difficulty to maintain cleanliness due to lack of properly built sewerage are some of the major drawbacks observed (cited in Tekahun, 2004, P.20). While Addis Ababa daily generates more than 600 tones of wastes, only about 60 % are tacked by municipality in collecting and disposing at “Koshe”, Reppi dumping center. The rest are causing discomfort and sickness at every corner of the city. Even this Reppi disposal is not sanitary engineered. Open dumping, scavenging, and smelling smoking and ground water pollutions are the major problems of the Koshe (Tekahun, 2004). It is saddening to note that waste management practices and environmental hygiene are in no lesser extent so poor both in rural and urban health centers of the Country that some observers (e.g. Tekahun, 2004) even went to a greater length of saying that “our hospitals need hospitals themselves” (P.48) for treating hospital-born infections called “ Nosocomial Infections”.