UNIT 3: RAPID MARKET ASSESSMENTS
MANUAL FOR FIELD ASSESSMENT MISSIONS
|SUMMARY OF THE MANUAL |
|Field assessment missions are teams of experienced individuals who visit selected areas of the country in order to review the current situation. |
|The regular monitoring system of the EWS, which relies on local (woreda) officials to generate and, to some extent, analyse information. In |
|contrast to this grassroots system, outsiders, from the Zone, Region, and Federal level agencies staff Field Assessment Missions. It is a top-down|
|approach. |
| |
|The missions can be seasonal or once off, and may take anything from a few days to over a month. They are not necessarily rapid. Sometimes |
|detailed local evaluations are undertaken, whereas other teams may conduct very rapid and impressionistic assessments. All missions, however, are |
|characterised by a need to make sound, independent judgements in a short space of time. |
| |
|This manual is intended to serve as a reference material for Federal, Regional and Zone EWS staff, providing details of the main procedures and |
|techniques for field assessment. Good field assessment requires common sense and experience. It is not about following the rules. For this reason,|
|the Manual should be seen as a source of guidance, not a strict code of practice. |
| |
|Team leaders should make sure that they are familiar with the contents. The manual may be used as a supporting material for training staff in |
|field assessment. At the time of writing, the EWS is also planning to release a short “Field Handbook for Assessment Teams” which is a pocket book|
|team members. |
|Chapter 1: Planning Field Assessment Missions |
|Effective planning of field assessments is crucial. After an overview of the aims and role of FAMs, this chapter explains how to define the terms |
|of reference so that the objectives of the assessment are focused. Logistics planning and scheduling are also discussed. |
| |
|Teams should be well briefed on the available information on an area before they arrive and suggestions are provided on the possible contents of |
|briefing kits. |
|Chapter 2: Tools for Field Assessment Missions |
|A large number of tools can be used in the context of field assessment. Teams should select the appropriate tools to reflect the Mission’s terms |
|of reference, the time available, and the logistics possibilities for ground assessment. |
| |
|This chapter describes the main tools for food security and eligibility assessment. It does not explain techniques for specialised health, |
|sanitation, or infrastructure assessment. The tools are only pointers towards the appropriate methods. Good field assessment depends on the |
|ability of the assessor to identify the best approaches according to the circumstances. |
|Chapter 3: Disaster Assessment |
|Disaster area assessments are characterised by very limited time and often mobility constraints. The chapter summarises some of the main issues in|
|Disaster Area Assessment and explains how contingency plans should be made to enable teams to be launched quickly. All disaster assessments |
|require specialist team members. There are several important documents on specialist disaster assessment techniques and the chapter provides an |
|annotated bibliography. |
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1: PLANNING FIELD ASSESSMENT MISSIONS 4
UNIT 1: FIELD ASSESSMENT MISSIONS – AN OVERVIEW 4
UNIT 2: DEFINING THE SCOPE OF FAMS 6
UNIT 3: LOGISTICS PLANNING 13
UNIT 4: BRIEFING KITS AND BACKGROUND INFORMATION 17
UNIT 5: PLANNING AN ITINERARY 21
CHAPTER 2: TOOLS FOR FIELD ASSESSMENT 25
UNIT 1: BRIEFING AND DEBRIEFING 26
UNIT 2: HOW TO DO COMMUNITY LEVEL INTERVIEWS 32
UNIT 3: CHECKLIST FOR COMMUNITY INTERVIEWS 35
UNIT 4: HOUSEHOLD AND FARM LEVEL ASSESSMENT 47
UNIT 5: THE HOUSEHOLD INTERVIEW CHECKLIST 49
UNIT 6: WINDSCREEN SURVEYS 56
UNIT 7: RAPID AERIAL ASSESSMENT 58
UNIT 8: BASIC TECHNIQUES FOR MARKET INTERVIEWS 59
UNIT 9: CHECKLIST FOR MARKET INTERVIEWS 61
UNIT 10: PHYSICAL CROP AND LIVESTOCK INSPECTION 64
CHAPTER 3: DISASTER ASSESSMENT 69
UNIT 1: RAPID ASSESSMENT PROCEDURES 69
UNIT 2: FORCED MIGRATION AND RAPID ASSESSMENT 72
UNIT 3: BIBLIOGRAPHY OFASSESSMENT MANUALS 74
APPENDIX 1: ZONE LEVEL REPORT FORMAT 75
APPENDIX 2: WOREDA RELIEF ASSISTANCE APPLICATION FORM 81
APPENDIX 3: DECISION PROCESSES FOR ELIGIBILITY ASSESSMENT 82
APPENDIX 4: DECISION PROCESS FOR LOCAL PURCHASE CAPACITY 83
LIST OF ACRONYMS
|AZ |ALTITUDE ZONE |
|EWC |EARLY WARNING COMMITTEE |
|EWD |EARLY WARNING DEPARTMENT |
|EWS |EARLY WARNING SYSTEM |
|DA |DEVELOPMENT AGENT |
|DPPB |DISASTER PREVENTION AND PREPAREDNESS BUREAU |
|DPPC |DISASTER PREVENTION AND PREPAREDNESS COMMISSION |
|DPPD |DISASTER PREVENTION AND PREPAREDNESS DEPARTMENT |
|FA |FARMERS’ ASSOCIATION |
|FAM |FIELD ASSESSMENT MISSION |
|FAO |FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANISATION OF THE UN |
|FSR |FOOD STRESS RESPONSE |
|MOA |MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE |
|MOE |MINISTRY OF EDUCATION |
|MOH |MINISTRY OF HEALTH |
|NDVI |NORMALISED DIFFERENCE VEGETATION INDEX |
|NMSA |NATIONAL METEOROLOGICAL SERVICES AGENCY |
|RFE |RAINFALL ESTIMATE |
|TOR |TERMS OF REFERENCE |
|WFP |WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME |
CHAPTER 1: PLANNING FIELD ASSESSMENT MISSIONS
UNIT 1: FIELD ASSESSMENT MISSIONS – AN OVERVIEW
1 Introduction
The main aim of field assessment is to improve the reliability of EWS information. Although regular monitoring and analysis of grass-roots field data are the main activities of the System, it is often necessary to dispatch teams or missions to corroborate this information, especially when relief needs are likely. Field assessment is not a “substitute” for the regular monitoring system, but should be seen as a backup, especially when the regular monitoring system is not working properly.
External review of local level information through direct field visits is a necessary part of the EWS. It allows the planners who use the information to be more confident about the quality of the data. Good field assessment can therefore increase the chances that the most appropriate responses will be implemented.
It is especially important to valid information in areas where relief needs have been identified. The more plausible the information, the more likely it is that the appropriate measures will be taken to procure and distribute the relief resources to the needy areas and populations.
This Manual is intended to provide guidelines for assessment in rural areas in Ethiopia in all types of local food economy ranging from pure crop dependent, through mixed farming, to pure pastoral and waged labour dependent systems. The main focus of the missions tends to be food security and relief assistance (eligibility), but teams will sometimes also be required to assess local purchase capacity.
2 What Makes a Good FAM?
For all FAMS the ingredients for success are:
➢ Independence: Field Assessment Missions (FAMS) are dispatched to collect existing information (if communications have broken down) and to conduct an independent evaluation of that information. Independent means that the local pressures that may lead to inaccuracies in the regular reporting do not influence the teams. All information must be checked and re-checked. Never accept information unless there is good supporting evidence.
➢ Efficient use of time: FAMS are characterised by very tight schedules. Much information must be collected and assessed in a short space of time. Reports will be released very shortly after the mission’s return. Effective planning is essential. This means planning routes in a rational and focused fashion.
➢ Focus: FAMs focus on pre-selected geographical areas and population groups. They are also focused on specific questions. The objectives of the FAM should be precisely spelled out so that the team gathers information only on what is strictly necessary. They are not random sample surveys. The methods used are not scientific. FAMs cannot provide statistically representative values for a particular population. It is generally based on a very small sample of interviews at the community and household level and not on a statistically representative sample frame.
➢ Transparency: The results of the FAM will often to be used to assist the mobilisation of resources. For this reason, the mission reports must be clearly structured, explaining exactly how the team has arrived at its conclusions. Representatives from other agencies are often included in field teams, to increase the transparency.
➢ Flexibility: At the field level, expect the unexpected. All planning of FAMs should allow for the fact that things can and often do go wrong. It is never possible to predict exactly how long travel will take. Breakdowns, ill-health of team members and unexpected discoveries mean that you should be flexible enough to revise plans during the assessment.
➢ Sound judgement and experience: Many of the required skills can only be developed through field experience and good assessment depends as much on the personal ability of the assessor as on “following the rules”. Indeed, the best assessors are those who can adjust their methods according to the particular circumstance in which they find themselves.
3 Who Does the FAM?
Staff at national and regional level may perform assessments. The missions usually comprise staff from one or more of these ministries:
➢ Ministry of Agriculture
➢ Ministry of Health
➢ Ministry of Water Resources (NMSA)
➢ Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission
Large-scale assessments, especially when needs estimation is included in the terms of reference, are often conducted in collaboration with the Government of Ethiopia’s food aid partners including NGOs, representatives from bilateral donor agencies, and the UN. (The Manual should also help non-government participants on missions to understand the methods that are employed.)
The Field Assessment process feeds into the regular reporting of the EWS. Often seasonal or once off reports will be dispatched by the regional or national EW secretariat in the form of synoptic reports on:
➢ The livestock and food security situation in pastoral areas
➢ The outcome of the main cropping seasons and impact on food security
➢ The impact of a particular disaster
When a Government sponsored appeal for relief assistance is announced, field assessments will often be used to support the appeal document. The assessment teams submit reports and the secretariat ensures that the reports are edited, computerised, and dispatched with the minimum of delays.
UNIT 2: DEFINING THE SCOPE OF FAMS
1 Introduction
FAMs are carried out by regional or federal level staff and collaborating agencies. There are four basic types of FAM in the Ethiopian EWS:
➢ Pre-Harvest Assessments: In crop growing areas pre-harvest assessments are conducted shortly before or sometimes during the harvest period. The EWS launches pre-harvest assessments during both the meher season and the belg season.
➢ Post-Harvest Assessments: In crop growing areas post-harvest assessments are launched at any time after the main harvest.
➢ Pastoral Area Assessments: In livestock dependent areas, including nomadic areas, pastoral area assessments are usually launched towards the end of the main and short rainy seasons. They may also be conducted during the off-season in response to an unusual outbreak of livestock disease or reports of animal mortality of unusual migration patterns.
➢ Disaster Area Assessments: In any area that has been affected by a major natural or man-made disaster, these assessments will be undertaken. They may be undertaken by road if there is road access. Otherwise aerial assessment is used.
For any type of FAM the scope of the assessment must be carefully defined in advance. There are a large number of questions that might be answered by a FAM. You must be very clear what questions you want to ask before you send a team.
In this Unit, we look at how to define the FAM Terms of Reference. The key considerations are explained in Section 2. Section 3 provides an example of a team Terms of Reference (TOR).
2 How to Define the Scope
Before the Mission departs, all members should be very clear of the mission’s scope of activities or terms of reference. The design of the terms of reference has to consider these questions:
? What do we need to know?
? How much detail do we need?
? What techniques should be used?
? What kind of data should be collected/reviewed?
? What are the reporting requirements?
2.1 What do we need to know?
Before planning a FAM you need to clarify the types of information which will be necessary.
Meteorological assessment is the evaluation of rainfall and temperatures throughout the season. This evaluation is useful for understanding crop and livestock conditions and availability of drinking water for human consumption. This can be useful in all types of assessment
All assessment in crop growing areas will have some element of crop assessment. Crop assessment can look at any of the following subjects:
➢ Planting conditions, whether there have been any changes in area planted, if so, why?
➢ Conditions of crops which are currently in the ground and main reasons for any falls in crop yields or planted area
➢ Needs for emergency crop protection measures
➢ Changes in crop income and food from crop production (this feeds into the general food security and eligibility assessment process)
➢ In surplus producing areas, to identify potential local purchase capacity
➢ Sometimes teams will also evaluate the plausibility of quantitative estimates of crop production for the recent season
Assessing livestock conditions will normally be a part of FAMs in any area where livestock is raised, including pastoral areas and mixed farming areas. Livestock assessment may include:
➢ Evaluation of pasture and drinking water conditions for livestock
➢ Analysis of the patterns of livestock movement in pastoral areas
➢ Identification of changes in the quality and/or numbers of animals and prospects in the near future
➢ To identify the main causes of declines in animal quality or numbers
➢ When applicable, to identify needs for emergency veterinary interventions, like vaccination programmes or resettlement programmes
➢ Identification of changes in income and food from livestock production and the impact of changes on the food security status of the population and relief needs.
All assessments will require some knowledge of market conditions. Market assessments are undertaken for the livestock, food and wage labour market with the following intentions:
➢ To identify major changes in market prices and supply and demand
➢ To assess the consequences of food price changes for income, food consumption
➢ To assess market structure and how this might influence the design of relief interventions, in particular the use of food rations for relief intervention and the possibility of local purchase
All types of FAM for the EWS will have some responsibility to assess the food security of the local population and to review estimates of populations in need of relief assistance. Food security and eligibility assessment seeks to:
➢ Identify areas where there may be a major decline in one or more of the usual sources of income or food (like crop production, livestock or waged labour)
➢ Examine the extent to which people are able to cope with declines in one or more important source of income of food by increasing income from other sources, like waged labour, petty trading or sale of craft, honey, firewood, charcoal and other commodities. Also examine other sources of food, like hunting and gathering
➢ Gather evidence that food shortages are already occurring, such as indications of increases in mortality rates, signs of malnutrition or abnormal behavioural patterns
➢ Identify the areas of the country where relief needs have arisen and to check on the plausibility of grass-roots estimates of needy populations
➢ Identify the main causes of the needs, and determine whether they are related to current problems and/or to structural problems of poverty and food insecurity
➢ Ascertain the appropriate duration of emergency interventions
Specialised assessment missions can also be dispatched in disaster situations to address other issues like:
➢ Assessment of refugee and internally displaced populations
➢ Health and sanitation assessment
➢ Assessment of shelter and habitation
➢ Infrastructure assessment
➢ Environmental impact assessment
➢ Assessment of relief logistics and distribution mechanisms
These types of assessment are not documented in this manual and readers are referred to the Annotated Bibliography at the end of this document.
2.2 How detailed is the assessment?
Assessment can take place at various administrative levels:
➢ Regional level (officials)
➢ Zone level (officials)
➢ Woreda level (officials and NGOs)
➢ FA and community level (community leaders)
➢ Household level: farm and pastoral households
All assessment teams must be provided with a clear idea of the level of detail of the information they should review. In a region, which zones should be visited? In a zone, which woredas should be visited? In a woreda which FAs should be visited? Hints on scheduling FAMs are provided in Unit [] below.
2.3 Which assessment method should be used?
The appropriate choice of assessment method depends on the time available to the team and the mobility constraints.
Certain types of assessment like community and household interviews might not be possible if there are security problems. All forms of ground assessment (that is anything that does not take place in a light aircraft or helicopter) may be impossible if there is no mobility.
There are several rapid assessment tools explained in this manual. Most assessments will include a mixture of various tools. The choice of tools will depend on how much time is available. The table below compares the time requirements of each type:
Table 1: How Long Does Information Gathering Take?
|TYPE OF ASSESSMENT |HOW QUICK? |
|aerial surveys (very rapid) |very rapid |
|windscreen surveys from a moving vehicle |rapid |
|official meetings with regional, Zone and woreda level authorities |rapid |
|trader, buyer and seller interviews in market locations |rapid |
|community interviews at the woreda |quite quick |
|community interviews at FA level |time consuming |
|visual examination of crops (random roadside stops) |time consuming |
|visual examination of livestock |time consuming |
|household health and nutrition inspection |very time-consuming |
|household level interviews |very time-consuming |
Even when you are not conducting interviews or travelling from one place or another you can collect useful information. Some very rapid information can be collected just by talking to people in bars, hotels and restaurants along the way.
2.4 What kind of data should be collected?
It is important to have a clear idea of what kinds of data can and cannot be collected and reviewed in a FAM.
As scientific estimates of agricultural or socio-economic variables cannot be estimated in a field assessment mission, do not expect teams to make quantitative estimates.
For example, we cannot expect a FAM to tell us that crop production in woreda x will be y tons. Nor can we say that exactly 10 percent of livestock have been lost in a pastoral area as a result of diseases.
Similarly, if a team goes to a woreda where 28 percent of the population has been identified as needing relief assistance, it is unlikely that the team will be able to say: “no, the real figure is 28.5 percent of the woreda population..” It is unable to answer these questions because it is based on too little time and information and any quantitative estimates may therefore be very biased or inaccurate.
FAMs cannot generate data, in the sense of conducting a household survey. They provide important qualitative data about “what has happened and how people are dealing with what has happened”. If quantitative data is already available, teams can review it, but most of the analysis is not quantitative.
The table below summarises what rapid assessment can and cannot do in the context of early warning:
In all briefing sessions the team will be expected to explain the objectives of the mission.
2.5 What are the reporting requirements?
The TOR should be clear on what reports should be collected from the field offices and which reports the team should complete.
Woreda and zone level EWS officials can provide:
➢ Woreda Relief Assistance Application Forms: These forms contain FA level information on relief needs and are distributed to woredas where there is a risk of serious food shortages.
➢ Monthly monitoring information: (from the regular EWS). For all non-nomadic areas, this is in the form of a monthly questionnaire on agricultural and socio-economic variables. Most woredas also complete a monthly questionnaire on market conditions.
Sometimes teams will be requested to collect the latest zone and woreda reports. All teams will be expected to submit standard format reports of their own on the zones and woreda which they have visited. The TOR should include precise instructions on where and when the reports should be submitted and by whom.
Table 2: What FAMs Can and Cannot Achieve
|TYPE OF ASSESSMENT |Field assessments missions |
| |can: |cannot |
|Rainfall assessment |Derive qualitative impressions on rainfall |make quantitative estimates of actual rainfall |
| |distribution. | |
| |Identify droughts | |
|Crop assessment |Examine and possibly revise per hectare crop yield |provide quantitative measures of cropped area |
| |estimates |estimate the extent of pest, disease or weed |
| |Identify pest, disease and weed outbreaks |infestations |
| |Identify the direction of changes in crop production |make an exact estimate of changes in crop production |
| |from normal |estimate the quantitative impact of a variable on |
| |Provide qualitative explanations of changes in crop |crop production |
| |production | |
Table 2: What FAMs Can and Cannot Achieve (continued)
|TYPE OF ASSESSMENT |Field assessments missions |
| |can: |cannot |
|Livestock Assessment |Provide a rating for animal quality |Estimate livestock numbers |
| |Identify major changes in pasture and drinking water |Estimate the number of affected animals |
| |availability |Estimate how many animals have died |
| |Identify major outbreaks of livestock diseases | |
| |Explain reasons for falls in livestock quality or | |
| |numbers | |
| |Verify whether animal deaths have occurred | |
|Market Assessment |Identify changes in market conditions |Estimate the exact magnitude of price changes |
| |Explain what has influenced market prices |Estimate the quantitative effect of supply and demand|
| | |changes on prices |
|Food Security and Eligibility |Ascertain whether requests for assistance are |Work out the precise numbers in need of assistance in|
|Assessment |justified (or not) in a location |a location |
| |Assess the appropriate duration for interventions |Calculate the exact quantity for local purchase |
| |Provide a strong justification for why assistance is | |
| |needed | |
| |Identify potential local purchase areas | |
Example of FAM TORs
Pre-Harvest Meher Assessment in East and West Gojjam Zones
The objectives of the mission are to:
➢ Review information on the prospects for the current meher season crop, including estimates of yields and planted area
➢ Identify the woredas where production is significantly above or below normal and provide explanations for any changes
➢ Identify any emergency requirements for control of plant pests and diseases
➢ Assess the impact of any declines in production for food security
➢ Assess the alternative strategies for generating income and food which people may use to compensate for the fall in crop production
➢ Review any requests for food assistance and revise the estimates on the basis of the team’s findings. Assess both the numbers in need and the proposed duration of assistance.
➢ Identify any woredas which have a large marketable surplus and identify the commodities which are in surplus
To achieve these objectives the mission will:
➢ Visit all woredas in the two zones where a large surplus is expected OR relief assistance has been requested
➢ Conduct interviews with zone EWS officials and the Woreda EWC in selected woredas
➢ Conduct FA level community interviews in woredas and FAs where food assistance has been requested
➢ Assess crop conditions by conducting windscreen surveys and visual inspections in the selected woredas
➢ Conduct household level interviews only in FAs where relief assistance has been requested.
➢ Collect all relevant information from the woreda EWC
On finalisation of the fieldwork and following detailed consultation between Federal, Regional and International team members, the team leader will submit:
1. Woreda Relief Assistance Application Forms for all woredas where relief food assistance has been requested, including the team’s own revisions to the information
2. Standard format Zone level reports for all the zones visited by the team.
In addition, team members will be expected to provide a 10 minute verbal de-briefing in Addis Ababa.
UNIT 3: LOGISTICS PLANNING
1 Introduction
In this Unit we explain the basic principles of logistics planning for FAMs, that is how to prepare the physical and human resources before undertaking a rapid assessment. Section 2 explains when assessments should be undertaken. In Section 3 we describe how to allocate time for rapid assessment (the total duration of the assessment). Teams have to be composed of suitably qualified individuals, as described in Section 4. Section 5 lists the equipment that will be needed by ground field teams.
2 When to Do the Assessment
In food insecure areas (which have a history of emergency intervention and food problems) the assessments can be fixed to specific times of the year and will occur every year. In predominantly crop dependent areas, that is where much of the population depends on crop production for its income and food, the first stage assessment should take place close to harvesting period. The best time is when standing crops are at their biological maximum growth. For cereals crops this is at the beginning of the grain setting or drying stage. In food insecure bi-modal areas the assessment should take place at both meher and belg crop maturity times. For perennial crop producing areas, the peak harvesting period would be the best period.
Pastoral area assessments should take place when pasture and drinking water conditions are at their seasonal best, which is usually shortly after the end of the main rains. Back up missions are recommended whenever there are reports of:
➢ unusual outbreaks of livestock disease
➢ unusual migratory patterns
➢ very low prices for animals
➢ livestock mortality
For all farming systems the optimal time for pre-harvest assessment period will tend to be timed to roughly coincide with the end of the rainy season(s).
For predominantly wage labour-dependent areas (including urban populations) there is no particular time to do the assessment. Urban assessments will generally be undertaken only in response to shocks or rapid onset disasters. As rural labour demand and wages are closely linked to crop and livestock production patterns, the best period is probably the harvest period.
Post-harvest assessments should be undertaken in areas where assistance has been requested or populations have been identified as “in need of close monitoring” on the basis of pre-harvest assessment. The best time to undertake the assessment is about one month before the proposed start of relief intervention. This will allow time for re-distribution of resources. In other words the assessment looks at the selected communities and asks whether there have been any major changes in their food security status and whether emergency assistance is still needed. If it is not, the numbers of beneficiaries are lower than predicted so all or part of the planned resources can be used elsewhere.
For any shocks or rapid onset disasters, which lead to an immediate reduction in food consumption, the eligibility assessment should be undertaken at once. For example, for large natural disasters, such as a major flood, teams should be dispatched immediately.
3 How Long will it Take? - Human Resource Planning
In Unit 5 below we look at time schedules or itineraries for field assessment. Before we can plan an itinerary we have to determine the total duration of the assessment. The main consideration in estimating the total duration of the assessment is “how many staff are available, and for how long?”. It is also important to consider how many field vehicles will be available and for how long.
Although there are some regular assessment staff in DPPC, many team members will come from other government agencies, NGOs and donors and have other regular responsibilities. For inter-agency assessment teams it will rarely be possible to conduct the assessment for more than one month.
A second important consideration when deciding on “how long” is early warning. As most assessments are linked to the relief needs identification and procurement process, there is usually some pressure to get the results out quickly. Planning should therefore bear in mind when reports need to be dispatched in order to make sure that the appeals, pledging and procurement process can go ahead on schedule.
The date of commencement and the duration of the mission as well as the broad terms of reference should be agreed by Regional and Federal officials before departure.
4 Team Composition
FAMs can be staffed at all administrative levels. FAMs will always include staff from the Regional EWS and for large-scale nation-wide assessments, staff of the Federal EWS will also participate. In their operational zones, zone level EWS staff may also participate. Teams may also include local NGOs in their operational areas.
The following types of institution are also invited to participate in large-scale nation-wide assessments:
➢ bilateral donor agencies
➢ UN agencies
➢ International and national NGOs
The technical composition of the team may vary a great deal, but for certain types of assessment, specialised individuals may be required. For all pre-harvest assessments it is recommended that teams include at least one agronomist. In the case of drought emergency assessments, a water engineer should be included. Similarly, for major pest outbreaks, animal or plant health specialists or entomologists may join the mission. In disaster situations health specialists or experts on forced migration should be included.
It is advisable that at least one team member should have detailed prior experience of the area to be visited including a knowledge of the local language(s). Note that at the woreda and household level interviews will normally be undertaken in Amharic or another local language. If the team includes members who do not speak the local language(s) one member should take on the responsibility for translating.
Each team will have a team leader. The team leader may be selected from any institution, provided s/he has knowledge of Amharic and several years’ experience in conducting assessment missions.
Regional, Federal and International team members should be invited to join the mission at least 5 working days prior to its departure.
5 Logistics and Resource Planning
Most ground assessment teams will be expected to cover a large geographical area. Teams may well be staying in areas with limited accommodation and eating facilities, at least for overnight stopovers.
All field vehicles should be well equipped with:
1. working low-ratios and four wheel drive
1. two spare tyres
1. a full maintenance kit[1]
1. jack with accessories
1. fuel sub-tank or fuel containers (per team 2x20 litre and 1xi0 litre)
1. tube for fuel siphoning
1. puncture repair kit for tyres (tip-top kit)
1. tyre pressure gauge
1. tyre air pump equipped with double cylinders
1. wheel rim
1. two-way radios (in areas where there are security problems and in very remote settings)
1. engine lubricants
1. coupons for petrol or diesel
1. fire extinguisher
1. road maps of the areas to be visited
2. first aid kit
3. pocket knife
4. drinking water bottle
Mission itineraries must be planned before departure, and teams should contact the Zone, Regional or Federal office with details of their progress on a regular basis. In most parts of the country, a back-up vehicle should be made available in case of major breakdowns.
Team members must be supplied with sufficient stationary and assessment equipment including:
1. copies of the Field Assessment Handbook
1. copies of Zone and Woreda Report Formats (see appendices 1 and 2)
2. copies of background briefing information
1. notebooks
1. clip-boards
1. solar calculators
1. altimeter (if vehicle is not already equipped)
If the team’s TOR includes anthropometric or crop yield measurement, it should be equipped with:
1. measuring tape (50 meter)
2. measuring sticks and length board for anthropometry
3. portable weighing scale and weighing pans
If over-night stopovers are planned in remote areas for community and household interviews, the following equipment is essential:
1. heavy duty tents
1. sleeping bags or blankets and mats/folding mattress
1. a rucksack or convenient bag
1. solar fluorescent lamp or table lamp
1. torches (flash-lights)
1. insect repellent
1. mosquito net
1. a basic medical kit
1. water filter (5 litres) and water purification tablets
1. portable kerosene cooking stove
1. basic cooking equipment, dishes, cups, knives and forks,
1. water jerry-can (20 litre)
1. money to pay facilitators and/or local translators on the field trips
Team members should have a strong pair of boots and a raincoat.
If teams are visiting kolla areas, especially during the rainy season, malaria prophylactics should be taken by the team, at least a week prior to departure and during the assessment.
UNIT 4: BRIEFING KITS AND BACKGROUND INFORMATION
1 Introduction
Field teams should never visit an area without learning as much as they can about the area first. Much valuable baseline and current year information is available in Ethiopia, but it is not always used effectively for assessment.
If a team is well armed with baseline and current season information before visiting a woreda, this will enable it to get straight to the point and focus on relevant questions. It will also help the team members to spot inaccuracies in the information provided by local officials or key informants.
Baseline information is also called structural or cross-section information. It is information on topology, the structure of the local economy, farming and pastoral systems and food marketing systems. Baseline variables change little over time. Current year data, on the other hand, refers specifically to variables that change over time and includes all information available on current year performance of crops, livestock, markets and other key types of food security variable.
Both the baseline and the current year data can be presented in the form of a zone briefing pack. The zone briefing pack will be gradually updated over time as the data collection, management and storage improves. In this Unit we described the main features of an “ideal” briefing pack. The briefing pack is divided into 9 sections. The first 8 sections contain data in the form of maps, graphs or charts as follows:
1. baseline crop production information
1. current season crop performance
1. baseline livestock information
1. current season livestock performance
1. baseline market information
1. current market conditions
1. baseline information on demography, livelihoods and food security
1. current year food security information
In addition to the data, briefing packs should contain recent reports on the areas to be visited by the teams.
The development of baseline databases is a main priority for the EWS. At the time of writing much of the information described in this Unit is not available in digital form. Methods and procedures for collecting and processing the data are explained in Manual for the EWS at Zone and Woreda Level.
2 Crop Production Information
2.1 Baseline Information
Detailed local knowledge of agricultural conditions can be hard to find at the woreda, especially when there has been a high staff turn-over and woreda officials have not been in their posts for long.
To some extent it is possible to compensate for inadequate local knowledge by equipping field teams with detailed briefing kits for crop assessment.
The following baseline crop related data is available, or could be made available to federal, regional and Zone assessment staff:
➢ average (historic) yields of particular crops by woreda and zone
➢ time-series data on area planted to specific crops by woreda
➢ average crop densities (cropped area in relation to total land mass) for a given agro-ecological zone
➢ crop suitability maps based on altitude, soil types and length of growing season
➢ cropping calendars describing when planting and harvesting usually takes place and what the phenological stage of a particular crop is likely to be at any point in the season
➢ predominant crop husbandry techniques such as land preparation, sowing and weeding methods
➢ classification of farming system type: this is qualitative information on whether the system is labour abundant (scarce), land abundant (scarce) or input intensive (low input)
➢ average farm input use including dependence on fertiliser, improved seeds and pesticides
➢ predominant crop pests, diseases and weeds in a particular woreda
➢ soil maps of predominant soil types and elevations
➢ meher and belg crop specific production shares (what percentage of the total annual crop comes from each season)
Compiling detailed and accurate profiles is part of the long-term process of developing the EWS and policy planning related information systems.
2.2 Current Season Crop Performance
In addition to the baseline agricultural information, teams should also be provided with the following data related to the current season’s performance:
➢ NDVI images by decade for the growing season, compared to mean
➢ rainfall data when available
➢ RFE data (estimated rainfall from Cold Cloud Duration Images) when gauge data is not available
➢ any information on distributed quantities of farm inputs
➢ preliminary area and yield estimates if available
➢ available information on shocks: pests, supplies of farm inputs, floods etc
➢ qualitative information on crop conditions
This information will be provided from the regular Crop Monitoring System in map form. The data is usually available for specific AZs within the woreda.
3 Livestock and Pastoral Area Information
3.1 Baseline Information
Baseline information for use in areas where livestock is raised can include maps of:
➢ average animal carrying capacity (if available)
➢ herd composition if available (main animal types)
➢ classification of animal husbandry system (pastoral/nomadic/semi-nomadic/zero grazing)
➢ prevalent pests and diseases
➢ for pastoral / nomadic areas maps may be produced showing the “normal seasonal” migration patterns
➢ locations of markets and veterinary services
➢ main clan homelands
3.2 Current Year Data
➢ NDVI: cumulative NDVI up to present compared to past and dekad by dekad images compared to mean for corresponding period in previous year
➢ RFE if available, by dekad and comparison to mean
➢ animal price data series from the EWS Price and Market Monitoring System
4 Market and Price Information
4.1 Baseline Data
Baseline data on markets includes:
➢ maps of locations of key markets
➢ pie charts of main commodities produced and sold
➢ pie charts of main commodities purchased and consumed
➢ tables or maps with classifications of types of market giving traditional market status: deficit or surplus, primary supply sources, primary destination of supplies, classification of market structure (remote, integrated, segmented etc.)
➢ graph showing seasonal patterns (when are highest and lowest prices expected)
4.2 Current Year Data
Depending on what data is available, the following current year data may be provided:
➢ graphs of market prices and supply conditions for specific commodities
➢ maps showing current prices compared to the norm and reasons for changes in prices
➢ graphs showing wage rates
5 Livelihoods, Demographic and Food Security Information
5.1 Baseline Data
➢ a good road map showing main urban locations, rivers and lakes and communications links
➢ a population map showing population densities by woreda
➢ an altitude map with woreda and Zone boundaries
➢ tables of population (number of households) by woreda, altitude zone and FA) from the 1994 Population and Housing Census, including estimates of current year population
➢ population density maps
➢ text providing a broad classification of the local food economy (main source of income for majority of population)
➢ pie charts showing the rough break-down of average household income in the area
➢ tables showing historic distribution of food assistance (average per person per year by woreda)
➢ chronic food security ratings
➢ text describing the main risks facing the area and seasonal patterns to food insecurity
➢ table showing which types of behaviour (coping strategies) are indicative of acute food insecurity
➢ table showing prevalence of human diseases
5.2 Current Year Data
When available the following types of data may be provided:
➢ ratings for off farm income and crops, livestock etc
➢ estimated population in need, in need of close monitoring by woreda and FA
➢ evidence of abnormal food stress responses
➢ health and nutrition data
6 Text Files
The data above has all be information that can be presented in map form or as graphs or charts. Much valuable information is in the form of texts. Eventually texts relevant to food security in Ethiopia can be compiled to make a dis-aggregated “history”. That is, if all past texts on an area are organised by geographical unit and year and available in digital form we can develop text with food security histories on the basis of reports from:
➢ DPPC/EWD
➢ NGOs
➢ The UN Emergency Unit For Ethiopia
➢ FAO/WFP Mission Reports
UNIT 5: PLANNING AN ITINERARY
1 Introduction
Successful planning of time is a crucial ingredient of rapid assessment. To plan the best itinerary, the team must set a criterion for where to go. Assessment activities must be highly focused and are very rarely “general food security assessments”. Teams activities should be focused on areas that meet at least one of the following criteria:
crucial data on crop production, livestock or markets is missing
information received from the woredas is contradictory or implausible
food problems are known to have occurred or are expected to occur or where relief needs have already been identified by local officials
a substantial local surplus is expected
Secondary data analysis can be used to identify those woredas where large and disputable requests for food assistance have been made. If the mission’s objective is to assess relief needs there is no point in visiting areas where assistance is clearly not needed. Time will be most efficiently spent in areas where relief food assistance has been requested. Special focus should be on woredas where requests have been made but there is conflicting or ambiguous evidence as to the needs.
Missions will sometimes also be sent to areas where surplus production is expected with the specific aim of identifying potential capacity for local food purchases. In this case the emphasis will be on the high crop potential areas. If teams are also meant to be assessing crop production data, the mission’s schedule should cover the most important growing areas.
2 Regional and Zone Planning
The allocation of time to particular zones will depend on the food situation in that zone. The Regional briefing sessions should give a clear indication of the “problem areas”. Zones that are reported to require food assistance should be allocated more time. Once a schedule has been designed for the region and the amount of time has been allocated by zone, the national and regional assessment team members will proceed to the selected zones. The zone authorities should be given advance notice of the team’s arrival and will be expected to have prepared some briefing materials.
Teams are advised to refer back to the Zone Report Format on a regular basis to ensure that they are on target for collecting all the necessary information. It may be necessary to request Zone officials to compile some data if they have not done so already, and to organise a time to return to the zone capital to pick up the data.
One zone official (an EWC committee member, preferably from the Early Warning Unit or Ministry of Agriculture) should accompany team to affected woredas within the zone. Together with the Zone officials, make a schedule for woreda visits.
3 Selecting Woredas
It is very unlikely that regional and national assessment teams will be able to visit all woredas in a zone. Zone level interviews should give the team guidance on which woredas are likely to need food assistance. The Zone DPPD should have the Woreda Relief Assistance Application Forms ready. The zone briefings should also give an indication of the severity of food problems at the woreda level.
Unless the team is able to go to all woredas (which is unlikely), it will have to select woredas for visits. As a rough target, teams should aim to visit at least one third of all woredas in the zones where relief needs are likely.
The steps for selecting woredas are outlined below:
|( |The first step in the woreda selection process is to define the relevant woredas for visits. In the context of relief needs |
|STEP 1 |related assessment select only woredas where relief needs are likely, have been requested or there is a need for close |
| |monitoring. Focus on areas where the requests for relief assistance are questionable. In the context of a production related |
| |assessment, go only to areas which have significant crop production and for livestock or pastoral area assessments the focus |
| |should clearly only be on areas where populations are partly or mostly dependent on livestock as an income source. |
|( |From the first stage selection, you should identify those woredas which are accessible. If a particular woreda is only |
|STEP 2 |accessible on foot or by mule and will take too much time to reach, it will have to be excluded from the assessment |
| |itinerary. |
| | |
| |Similarly, check that the security conditions in the woreda allow field assessment. |
|( |From the relevant and accessible woredas you will probably still need to select in order to finish the assessment on time. |
|STEP 3 |Hence, you may go only to a selection of representative woredas. |
| | |
| |To find representative woredas, first we have to divide all the woredas into roughly homogenous means that they have similar |
| |characteristics. |
For crop related assessments, this means that the crop production system is similar in terms of:
➢ crop mixes (predominant crops cultivated)
➢ length of growing season, main growing season
➢ crop husbandry and land preparation technique, intensity of fertiliser use
For general agricultural assessments, which look a both crop and animal systems, woredas can be classified into broad farming systems like:
➢ predominantly pastoralist
➢ predominantly food crop farmers
➢ predominantly cash crop farmers
➢ predominantly mixed crop and livestock farmers
➢ predominantly mixed cash and food crop
It is also possible to distinguish between woredas on the basis of the seasonal pattern of rainfall and crop production:
➢ fully meher crop dependent
➢ mainly meher but some belg crop
➢ mainly belg crop dependent
➢ fully belg crop dependent
Since the farming system and weather patterns are likely to be influenced by altitude zone, we can normally distinguish between dega, wena dega and kolla areas.
To select representative woredas for assessment, the team should follow these steps:
|( |Calculate how many woredas in the zone the team can visit, given the time constraints. When making this decision, bear in |
|STEP 1 |mind that you need to get the right balance between detailed local assessment and getting a balanced and reasonably |
| |representative picture. If, for example, you have 6 days allocated to a zone, don’t plan to spend all the time doing detailed|
| |field work in just one woreda. |
|( |Make a list of all the needy woredas in the zone by type of woreda, for example: largely crop dependent, largely mixed |
|STEP 2 |farming and largely livestock dependent and predominant AZ. Make sure that these categories neatly describe all the needy |
| |woredas in the zone. Needy woredas are all those where relief assistance has been requested or where it is suspected that |
| |relief will be required. |
|( |Try to select at least one needy woreda from each class of woreda. For example if you have time for six woredas, you could |
|STEP 3 |select two livestock dependent woredas, two mainly crop dependent woredas and two mixed farming dependent woredas. |
| | |
The findings from the representative needy woredas should roughly reflect the situation in the needy woredas that the team was unable to visit. It should therefore be possible to get a fair picture of the needy woredas in zone as a whole, including non-visited woredas.
The team should try not to focus only on woredas that Zone officials have identified as being most needy or particularly badly affected and requesting food assistance. There is little point in spending time in areas where all evidence points to clear need for relief operations. It is more efficient to focus on the grey areas. Special preference should be given to woredas where large-scale relief assistance has been requested but there is reason to doubt the validity of the requests and those where there appears to be a need for relief assistance, but none has been requested.
Take care not to draw strong conclusions about the entire zone if you have only been able to visit the areas where relief needs have been identified. The situation in these woredas will not give a representative picture of the non-needy woredas, but will provide the team with a worst case scenario. It is worthwhile to plan brief visits to non-needy woredas, if you want a broader picture of the overall situation. Do not conduct detailed assessments in these areas. It is not worth it.
For selected woredas, it is best to decide in advance the method of data collection. The method of data collection depends on the time available. Allowing for travelling time and lunch breaks, calculate the time available for assessment. All woreda assessment entails briefing and de-briefing with the woreda officials which will take a total of at least 2 hours. From the time remaining, there are numerous options. Here they are listed in terms of how much time they will take once you have arrived in the woreda capital:
Table 1: Indicative Times for Different Types of Interview
|ASSESSMENT METHOD |APPROXIMATE TIME ALLOWANCE |
|market interviews in the woreda capital |1 ½ hours |
|woreda level community interviews |2 hours |
|sub-woreda community interviews + travel |5 hours (2 for interview, 3 for travel) |
|household interviews |¾ to 1 hour |
Very quick woreda assessments will therefore include only the official woreda level briefings and woreda level community interviews.
4 Example of a Mission Schedule
The table below gives an example of how the first week of a Regional/Federal FAM schedule might look:
Table 2: Illustrative Mission Schedule
|DATE |TIME |ACTIVITIES |
| Sunday, October 3rd |morning |Travel from AA to Regional Capital |
| |afternoon | |
|Monday October 4th |morning |Briefings with Regional Officials |
| |afternoon |review regional information |
| |afternoon |Planning of detailed schedule |
|Tuesday October 5th |morning |Proceed to first zone |
| |afternoon |briefing with Zone officials |
| |afternoon |planning Zone level assessment |
| |afternoon |review of Zone level information |
|Wednesday, October 6th |morning |proceed to first woreda |
| |afternoon |briefing with woreda officials |
| |afternoon |first woreda community interview |
|Thursday, October 7th |morning |first woreda market interview |
| |afternoon |1 sub-woreda community interview |
| |afternoon |de-briefing with woreda officials |
|Friday, October 8th |morning |proceed to second sample woreda |
| |afternoon |briefing with 2nd woreda officials |
|Saturday, October 9th |morning |community interview 2nd woreda |
| |morning |travel to FA Community Interview |
| |afternoon |return to woreda 2, official debriefing |
| |afternoon |drive to zone capital |
|Sunday, October 10th |morning |prepare and discuss findings so far |
| |afternoon |break |
|Monday, October 11th |morning |zone level official debriefing |
Allow at least half a day of break per week. Rapid assessment requires high levels of concentration and a break is always necessary.
You should always be flexible. As long as you meet your deadlines for reporting, you can readjust the schedule at the field level. Whenever there are adjustments, make sure you contact the Federal and Regional DPPC to let them know.
CHAPTER 2: TOOLS FOR FIELD ASSESSMENT
|CHAPTER SUMMARY |
|There are a large number of tools for field assessment. Most of them require a detailed subject knowledge and this Chapter is only intended to|
|give an outline of methods that can be used by generalists. It focuses on simple qualitative methods for household, community and officials |
|interviews |
|UNIT 1: BRIEFING AND DEBRIEFING |
|For all field assessments, interviews with local officials will be a major source of information. This Unit provides details on which |
|officials to speak to, when and what to ask |
|UNIT 2: HOW TO DO COMMUNITY LEVEL INTERVIEWS |
|Community level interviews are with non-official members of the local community, at woreda level or below. They are a quick way of getting |
|information to cross check official information. |
|UNIT 3: CHECKLIST FOR COMMUNITY INTERVIEWS |
|This Unit provides an annotated checklist for interviews at the community level and gives hints on how to get the most out of the interviews. |
|UNIT 4: HOUSEHOLD AND FARM LEVEL ASSESSMENT |
|If time permits, interviews at household level can provide a useful and independent view. The unit explains how to select households and |
|approach the interview. |
|UNIT 5: THE HOUSEHOLD INTERVIEW CHECKLIST |
|Household interviews are usually combined with physical crop and/or livestock inspection. This Unit is an annotated checklist for household |
|interviews. |
|UNIT 6: WINDSCREEN SURVEYS |
|Much time is spent travelling from location to location during FAMs. This Unit explains how the time can be spent profitably, observing |
|through the car window |
|UNIT 7: RAPID AERIAL ASSESSMENT |
|This Unit gives hints on what can and cannot be achieved from aeroplane of helicopter assessments. More sophisticated techniques of aerial |
|photography are not discussed here. |
|UNIT 8: BASIC TECHNIQUES FOR MARKET INTERVIEWS |
|The local (woreda) marketplace is a useful and often neglected source of valuable information. The Unit explains the basic techniques for |
|handling traders, often a difficult bunch. |
|UNIT 9: CHECKLIST FOR MARKET INTERVIEWS |
|A wide range of questions can be asked at the marketplace to backup other information available to the team. This is an annotated checklist of|
|the important ones. |
|UNIT 10: PHYSICAL CROP AND LIVESTOCK INSPECTION |
|Physical crop and livestock inspection, usually combined with household interviews are a very useful tool, if the team comprises suitably |
|qualified professionals. Although it cannot be used for making quantitative production or herd size estimates, it can provide an indication of|
|crop yields. It also helps in the analysis of the causes of poor crop production or livestock conditions. |
UNIT 1: BRIEFING AND DEBRIEFING
1 Introduction
The first tool of FAMs is interviews with local Government experts. It is of utmost importance that assessment teams are fully briefed and debriefed by the relevant officials. Briefing takes place at all administrative levels. Before teams are dispatched, they must have an initial team briefing. The objective of initial team briefing is to ensure that all members have a clear idea of:
➢ the purpose of the mission
➢ the geographical and thematic focus of the assessment
➢ reporting requirements (what they must produce and when)
➢ the methodology to be used
➢ all the relevant background information on the areas to be visited
At the same time, field teams must brief the relevant local officials on the purpose of the assessment so that they can assist the field team and provide the required information. Local level briefing sessions can also be used to settle the team’s schedule for fieldwork as discussed in Unit 3 below. Field teams should always be provided with a letter of introduction and all relevant officials in the assessment area should be notified of the team’s provisional schedule before departure. Briefing will be given to the DPPC Committee or Early Warning Committee (EWC). The EWC includes:
➢ the DPPC (at regional and Zone level)
➢ the Ministry of Agriculture
➢ the Ministry of Health
➢ the administration
➢ local NGOs
De-briefing is advisable at woreda, zone and regional level. Woreda and zone level debriefing may not be possible in the context of rapid assessments (one to two weeks). All field teams conducting lengthy assessment teams, like the meher pre-harvest assessment, should debrief at zone level, especially when major revisions have been made to needs estimates. Regional officials should make sure that they have an agreed final version of the report before returning to their Regional capitals, if they are participating in joint Regional/Federal assessment teams. De-briefing sessions will include:
➢ a review of the teams main findings
➢ if the team disagrees with any of the local findings, you should provide a clear explanation of why
➢ an indication of when the final results of the assessment will be released
➢ an opportunity for officials to provide substantial comment on the team’s findings
2 Regional Level Discussions
Before commencing the assessment all federal level teams will be expected to go to the Regional level offices for initial briefings. Allow half a day for initial briefings at the Regional level At the regional level teams should speak to members of the Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Bureau (DPPB) which is the secretariat of regional early warning system, and with representatives from all relevant line ministries.
Also try to organise briefings with any food aid or agriculture NGOs which have representation in the Regional capital.
During the discussions, teams should try to collect the following items:
➢ data on rainfall, crop and livestock performance during the current season
➢ impressions on the above
➢ information on crop pests, diseases and weed infestations and animal health problems
➢ information on the zones where food problems have occurred and impressions on the food security situation
➢ any reports of signs of food shortages in the region
➢ any recent reports on agricultural production or food security which have been released
➢ information on on-going or planned emergency interventions, distribution figures
At the regional capital and in collaboration with regional experts, the team should modify the time schedule for each zone on the itinerary if necessary, allowing more time for zones where food problems are known to have occurred.
At the end of the field trips, teams are required to provide a short de-briefing with regional offices. The de-briefing will outline the team’s findings:
➢ explaining where the teams have gone (which zones and woredas)
➢ giving a general overview of the current season crop and livestock performance,
➢ highlighting areas (woredas and zones) where food assistance is likely to be needed
➢ explaining why food assistance will be needed in these areas
The de-briefing session can be used to incorporate comments and suggestions from the regional officials, and to pick up any additional information which was not available for the initial briefings.
All national team findings will be analysed in Addis Ababa and will be checked for errors and verified against census data and other information available at the national level. The teams are unlikely to have time to thoroughly scrutinise its figures. It is possible that there will be modifications to estimates of crop production and of beneficiary numbers.
For this reason, teams are urged to make it very clear that their estimates are provisional and subject to modifications at the national level. All later revision will be discussed with Regional officials.
4 Zone Level Briefing
When regional and national level teams reach a zone, the first points of contact at the Zone capital level are the members of Early Warning Committee and the Zone Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Department (DPPD) as well as all the relevant government line ministries. Try to contact any relevant NGOs based in Zone capital.
The Zone level briefings will focus on:
➢ explaining the purpose of the assessment to the Zone officials
➢ requesting and/or obtaining any relevant data from the Zone officials (the team may return later to pick up copies)
➢ requesting copies of the Woreda Relief Assistance Application Forms for all woreda requiring relief assistance or close monitoring
➢ finalising the team’s schedule: deciding which woredas to visit within the zone
➢ a full briefing on the agricultural production and food security situation in the zone, focusing on the woredas facing falls in agricultural production or food shortages.
5 Woreda Level Briefing
Teams will be expected to brief the woreda level experts in the woredas that they visit. Ideally the team should provide a full briefing to all members of the woreda Early Warning Committee, that is:
➢ the Ministry of Agriculture (Bureau of Agriculture)
➢ the woreda administration
➢ the Ministry of Health
If members of the woreda EWC are not available, do not waste time waiting for them. You can start the fieldwork and then return to the woreda capital.
During the briefing the team should:
➢ clearly explain the purpose of the mission
➢ obtain a briefing on the current crop situation in the woreda
➢ obtain information on livestock situation
➢ obtain information on market situation and wage labour
➢ request and obtain all the relevant data collected by the woreda officials including crop data
➢ where applicable, collect information on estimated numbers of relief beneficiaries through the Woreda Relief Assistance Application Form
➢ discuss, with the woreda officials the best locations for conducting community and household interview
While the interviewers should always be polite, woreda officials may not give reliable and honest answers. They will often think that the bleaker the picture they paint, the more food aid the woreda will get. They sometimes believe that their popularity with the local population depends on how much aid they can secure.
For this reason you have to constantly push the officials for information. Look for inconsistencies in their responses. Do not accept any tales of disaster without very intensive questioning. You should feel satisfied that the answers are consistent and accurate. Is the picture they are painting a credible one? If you are not satisfied, keep pushing for more information. You may remind the officials that the less credible the information the less likely it is that there will be a response. Stress that field visits will be used to check up on their reports.
At the woreda level, you will generally use a checklist. The interview will be semi-structured. The key questions to be posed during interviews with woreda officials are summarised here. Feel free to go back to previous questions when you find inconsistencies. At every stage in the interview, ask why and where? You must insist to know the reason for any abnormalities. Don’t just accept that “crop production has failed” or “animals have been dying from disease”. Always find out how extensive the problem is. Which FAs? Which altitude zones (dega, high wena-dega, low wena-dega, kolla)
RAINFALL PATTERNS
➢ description of rainfall during the latest season
➢ dry spells, when they happened, how long they lasted
➢ other unusual weather events such as excessive rains, hailstorms
CROPS, AREA AND PERFORMANCE
➢ background questions: find out the important cash and food crops and how important the current season is in relation to annual production
➢ changes in planted area compared to “normal”:- for which crops has area increased or decreased
➢ if planted area decreased, find the main reasons for the decrease
➢ crop germination - early season crop performance and re-plantings
➢ weather conditions and how they influenced crop yields
➢ input supplies: were there any major changes in input supplies or utilisation. If so, what was the impact on crop yields
➢ unusual outbreaks of crop pests and diseases. Which pests and/or diseases? Which crops affected? When? Were control measures taken and, if so, did they work? Roughly what proportion of farms were affected by the pests or diseases?
➢ make sure you have a good idea of per hectare yield prospects (or outcomes) for all the main crops (both food and cash crops)
➢ If any below normal production is expected (has happened) make sure you know which crops and where
LIVESTOCK NUMBERS AND QUALITY
In all rural woredas, whether they are pastoral or not, you should get a detailed picture of the livestock situation. Livestock may be a very important income, even in areas that are primarily crop-producing.
Background questions on the role of livestock in the local economy
➢ Current livestock quality
➢ Availability of pasture and drinking water compared to normal for this time of year
➢ Access to pasture and drinking water compared to normal for this time of year
➢ unusual livestock disease prevalence compared to normal for this time of year
➢ evidence of unusual herd movements into or out of the woreda
➢ changes in herd age and sex composition, breeding rates compared to normal for this time of year
➢ evidence of unusual animal mortality compared to normal for this time of year
OTHER INCOME AND MARKET CONDITIONS
If you don’t have the baseline information, find out for each altitude zone what the major sources of income are and get an idea of their relative importance. Then turn to the analysis of the current period:
➢ Current opportunities and prospects for waged labour compared to normal for this time of year
➢ Changes in daily wage rates for manual labour compared to normal for this time of year
➢ Current market prices and market conditions for animals and livestock products, future prospects compared to normal for this time of year
➢ Type of animals being sold, condition of animals for sale and volume of animal sales compared to normal for this time of year. Are animals being brought to market but not sold?
➢ Prices and market conditions for petty commodity production, especially firewood and charcoal compared to normal for this time of year
➢ Farmer prices of the major cash crops produced in the area: better or worse than normal?
➢ prices of the major staple foods: higher, lower or around seasonal norms, market conditions and prospects
ELIGIBILITY FOR FOOD ASSISTANCE
Ask these questions only if the woreda is requesting food assistance and you are convinced that there has been a major decline in one or more sources of income or food and that alternative sources will not/have not compensated for the decline. Also ask these questions in woredas requesting relief assistance.
➢ Evidence of unusual behavioural patterns which might indicate acute food insecurity. What are the “food stress responses” (FSRs) ?
➢ Is there any evidence of FSRs at present? Where? What proportion of households? How do you know?
➢ Are FSRs expected in the near future?
➢ Signs of malnutrition or unusual prevalence of human diseases Where? What proportion of households? How do you know?
➢ Evidence of malnutrition related mortality Where? What proportion of households? How do you know?
➢ How did you conduct your eligibility assessment? When? Where?
➢ Where are the most needy groups located within the woreda?
➢ In the vulnerable areas, which types of household are most affected?
INTERVENTION DURATION
➢ When should relief intervention begin if it is needed? Where? Why?
➢ When is it safe to end relief intervention? Where? Why?
SURPLUS PRODUCTION
➢ Which crops are in surplus? Why?
➢ Are storage facilities adequate? Describe post harvest loss rates compared to normal and account for any changes.
➢ What are the signs of surplus production? Where?
➢ Is it likely to be moved by the private trade, or is there a need for intervention through local purchases?
If time permits you may also to provide a short de-briefing at the woreda level. The team should focus on:
➢ Explaining the main findings of the assessment
➢ Collecting any additional information requested in the briefing
➢ Outlining the areas where the team has had reason to question the official findings
UNIT 2: HOW TO DO COMMUNITY LEVEL INTERVIEWS
1 Introduction
Community interviews will normally take place in a local meeting place. It is best to conduct them away from the woreda capital where there is less risk that local officials will dominate the interview.
Community interviews are group discussions. The group may include
➢ key informants (knowledgeable local people)
➢ a small sample of local households
➢ both of the above
Community interviews are very quick ways of getting plenty of information. As the interviews are semi-structured, meaning that they do not follow a strict questionnaire, respondents are given some liberty to provide there own opinions and it is therefore possible to “catch” information that might be forgotten in a more formal questionnaire. More important, community interviews can give a very different perspective from the official woreda interviews. It is a valuable independent source of information and for this reason woreda officials should not be present for community interviews.
There are some potential problems with community interviews, which imply that it would be best, if time allows, to combine them with household level interviews. The main problems with the community interviews are as follows:
➢ it is possible for the interview to drift away from the subject and for the important questions to go unanswered
➢ it is sometimes difficult to avoid the influence of local officials
➢ without prior warning and organisation is it quite possible that the composition of the interview group will not be ideal
In this Unit we discuss the methods for selecting interviewees for community interviews with key informants and or householders. We then explain how to introduce and “kick-off” the discussions and how to conduct the interview so that the most reliable information can be gained. In Unit 3 below we present a more detailed explanation of the types of question which can be asked.
2 Selecting Interviewees
There are two basic types of community interviewee. The first type we can call a key informant. Key informants are any individuals who are likely to have a detailed “insider” knowledge of the food security of the local community. The following types of individual can be gathered together for a community interview:
➢ tribal or religious leaders
➢ school teachers
➢ local NGO staff
➢ local food traders
➢ famers
It is best to try to get a “a cross-section” of households, which includes poor farmers, small landowners, larger landowners and richer households. If possible it would also be good to get some female heads of households.
It is rarely possible to plan the community interviews in advance. So the composition of the interviews will depend on luck. The FA chairperson can be assigned the task of assembling people in advance of the team’s arrival although it is likely that this will not be possible, given the logistics and communications constraints at the FA level. FA chairpersons might expect to be paid for their services as “facilitators”.
In the interests of independent evaluation it is best to keep local officials, like FA Chairpersons, development agents (DAs) and woreda official OUT of community interviews and to question them separately.
If, as is usually the case, it is not possible to forewarn the local community, a community elder or local official could be asked to gather a group of “key informants” and householders. You then just hope for the best. There is no reason why the resultant group should be regarded as a random. It is most likely that more literate householders will be selected.
3 How to Conduct a Key Informant or Community Interview
The community interviews are semi-structured group discussions in which several community members are encouraged to contribute their opinions. Semi-structured means that although the interview does not follow a strict question-and-answer format, the team members try to make sure that the discussion stays relevant and that all the main topics are covered. The advantages of a semi-structured approach are that:
➢ it tends to put people at their ease - they are less suspicious than more formal questionnaire approaches
➢ explanations and opinions may emerge from a semi-structured interview which would have been missed by a formal questionnaire
➢ the community setting allows a larger number of people to be interviewed in a shorter space of time than farm interviews
KEEP IT INFORMAL: All individual key informant or community interviews should be semi-structured and informal. “Semi-structured” means that the interview does not follow a strict questionnaire but tries to follow a much looser checklist. Give your names but do not ask the names of the interviewees, as they might be less willing to respond honestly. Try to avoid meeting rooms where you are behind a desk. It would be much better to sit down under a tree. Refer to the checklist discretely. Better still, try to memorise it.
INCLUDE WOMEN: One common shortcoming of community interviews is that women, the poor or the socially marginal are rarely well represented, although their views are crucial for gaining insight into the structure of food insecurity or vulnerability.
AVOID DOMINATION: The educated (especially local officials) will usually dominate the discussion. When this happens, steer the conversation towards other people by directing questions at specific individuals. There are always likely to be one or two individuals who “like the sound of their own voice” and, if the team is not careful, they will find that other group members have no say. Although it is better to avoid dictating who should answer questions, if this happens try to ask the same question to different individuals or politely ask the main talkers to let somebody else have a chance to respond.
GIVE A CAREFUL INTRODUCTION: A clear introduction of the team is fundamental. The purpose of the mission should be phrased “a study to assess food production and consumption”. You should not say directly that the mission is “to assess food assistance needs”. If you introduce it in this way, it will ruin your chances of you getting objective answers. Do not make any promises of relief assistance. It will probably be evident to the interviewees that the assessment has something to do with relief needs, especially if there are “farangi” donor or NGO team members.
In areas with a long history of relief assistance, point out that requests for relief assistance are evaluated on a number of considerations, not just the responses during the interview. Stress that there is no benefit to exaggerating the problems. The more accurate the information, the more likely it is that there will be a response. You might also mention that food aid resources are scarce, and must be allocated strictly on the basis of need.
KEEP IT RELEVANT: The semi-structured approach allows open-ended questions, that is questions which do not have a limited number of possible responses, such as a yes/no answer or a choice of a limited number of options. At the same time, questions should not be too open. If you ask a question like “describe the food situation in the area” it will be difficult for the respondents to know where to start. They may make a lot of irrelevant comments. Politely interrupt when respondents stretch too far from the subject and refer back to the checklist (Unit 3 below), to make sure you have covered all the important topics.
AVOID LEADING QUESTIONS: In any questions which are directly or indirectly related to food assistance, the team must take extreme care not to ask leading questions: questions which seem to require a specific answer and, in this case encourage people to paint a very pessimistic picture. Examples of such questions are “has anyone died of famine in this area?” or “how many households need food assistance?” or “what have been the main problems with crop production this year?”
HAVE RELIABLE TRANSLATORS: If possible translators should be chosen from the team rather than from the community - and they should have some experience with interview techniques. Translators from the community may be “selective” about what they choose to translate, and can distort the truth.
TAKE NOTES DISCRETELY: It is sometimes off-putting for the interviewees if people are busy taking notes while asking the questions. It is better for at least two team members to conduct the interviews together, with one taking notes. A detailed interview could take as long as one-and-a-half hours, which is tiring for all concerned. It is recommended that a ten-minute break be taken in the middle (after the crop and livestock sections of the checklist below). The team should use this time to compare notes on the interview so far and possibly suggest modifications to interview approach.
KNOW WHEN TO GIVE UP: Keep a regular check on progress. If you sense that the interview is not providing useful, accurate and credible information, politely bring the interview to a close and go elsewhere.
UNIT 3: CHECKLIST FOR COMMUNITY INTERVIEWS
1 Introduction
In Unit 2 above we suggested that community interviews should follow a semi-structured approach and not stick to a strict questionnaire. At the same time the assessment team should make sure that the main issues are discussed. In this Unit we provide notes on the main issues and suggest possible ways of asking questions.
The community interview should start with a general characterisation of the local food economy for the woreda or sub-woreda community under consideration. This background information will help the team to focus the rest of the interview on the important food security variables.
Starting the interview with general questions, not those relating specifically to the current period, helps to ensure that the interview does not simply start with a list of complaints and appeals for assistance.
In section 3, we discuss how crop related questions can be phrased in the context of a community interview. Obviously, these questions will not be necessary for pure pastoral area assessment.
Section 4 explains how questions on livestock numbers and conditions can be asked. This section is relevant both for assessment in pastoral areas and in mixed farming systems (where both crops and livestock are produced). In the next section we ask questions related to the performance of food and labour markets. Section 6 then turns to “food security related questions”.
2 Background Questions
2.1 Livelihoods and Income Shares
It is necessary to find out about the main economic activities in the woreda or part of the woreda under examination Understanding this will help to put the current situation in perspective. Based on these answers, you can focus the rest of the interview on the “most important” food security variables.
If, for example, only a small proportion of households are involved in petty commodity production and it is not a major source of income, you don’t have to ask many questions on this.
? In a normal year what are the important economic activities in the area?
? Which activities provide the household with the most food or cash on average?
If you do not have the information already, find out the rank of importance (first most important, second most important, third most important etc.) Then try to get a rough breakdown of the percentage of household resources that comes from different sources.
Table 1: Composition of Household Income
|SOURCE OF INCOME OR FOOD |RANK |% |
|food crop production | | |
|cash crop production? | | |
|sales of live animals | | |
|milk or blood from animals | | |
|waged labour? | | |
|petty trading | | |
|petty commodity production like honey, clothing, earthenware etc. | | |
|firewood and charcoal production | | |
|fishing, hunting and gathering of wild foods | | |
|food aid | | |
|loans and remittances or food gifts from friends and relatives | | |
It is unlikely that respondents will be able to answer exactly “what proportion”. You can use the example of an injera (if this injera represents the total cash and food coming into the household, how much comes from each source)
? Which are the most important crops in the area?
By important we mean the crops that contribute the most food or cash income to the household. Try to get a list of the crops in order of importance. Include both cash and food crops.
? How much of crop production of these crops comes from the meher season: all, more than half, less than half, none
2.2 Food Consumption Patterns
To try to understand the current food market situation you should first get an idea of what foods are commonly consumed in the area and which foods are marketed.
? What are the main staple food commodities consumed in the woreda in a “normal year”?
Try to discover the first, second and third main commodities consumed by most families in a normal year, in order of importance.
? What are the first, second and third most important commodities consumed by a poor family?
? What do families consume in hard times? Are there any toxic, foul tasting or taboo foods which people will consume in hard times?
2.3 Classification of Coping Strategies
The purpose of this question is to get a good idea of which types of behaviour are indicative of food problems. It is especially useful for disaster area assessments, where major food problems are already occurring. Don’t ask directly what people do in a famine year as this will bias answers later on.
? During the lean season, when do people do these types of things?
Table 2: Famine Responses
| |How often do people do it? |
| |never |some years |most years |every year |only famine |
| | | | | |years |
|TYPE OF BEHAVIOUR | | | | | |
|sell draught oxen: | | | | | |
|sell bridal wealth | | | | | |
|consume wild foods | | | | | |
|consume toxic or taboo foods | | | | | |
|reduce number of meals* | | | | | |
|withdraw children from school | | | | | |
|borrow food/ cash from neighbours/relatives | | | | | |
|reduced the size of meals | | | | | |
|migrate long distances to find work | | | | | |
|send female members to work as prostitutes | | | | | |
* Find out how many meals people normally consume in a day
2.4 Classification of Chronic Food Insecurity Status
From this part of the interview you should get an impression of whether the area is a chronically food insecure (regularly experiences food problems) or not.
To get any idea of the chronic food insecurity in the woreda we can try to understand the frequency of hunger, that is, how often hunger is experienced. The higher the frequency the more chronically food insecure the area. Equally the frequency of food aid distribution in the area is a reasonably good indicator. So, the team can ask:
? In how many years has relief assistance been distributed in the last 5 years?
? In how many years in the last five years has hunger been experienced in the kerempt season?
? In how many times in the last five years has hunger been experienced in the belg season?
? In how many times in the last five years has hunger been experienced in the bega season?
? In how many times in the last five years has hunger been experienced in the tsadai season?
(You can now try to calculate the average frequency for all seasons. The frequency is the proportion of years in which hunger is experienced. The average proportion is the final indicator. If this is close to one it means that the area is very highly food insecure, in most years and therefore suffers from very high chronic food insecurity)
3 Rainfall and Meteorology
This section focuses on the performance of the current season rains and temperatures. The respondents can be asked to give a month by month summary of rainfall and temperatures. Were they: normal? low? excessive? In months where rainfall and temperature patterns were unusual ask for a more detailed explanation.
Respondents should also be asked to identify the timing of any other adversities such as:
➢ hailstorms
➢ flooding and landslides
➢ very high winds
Try to get an idea of how extensive these events were in the area.
4 Crop Related Questions in Community Interviews
The main objectives of this part of the interview is to:
➢ get a good qualitative idea of the conditions of current season crops compared to “normal”
➢ if crop conditions are worse than normal find out why
However, the team should avoid general questions like “how is crop performance this year?” or “what problems have farmers faced this year?”. This type of leading question will encourage people to give a list of complaints. Rather, respondents should be encouraged simply to describe the current season crop performance. The best approach is to get the respondents to trace out the progress of the season, from planting to harvesting. Throughout this part of the interview, try to keep the focus on the main food and cash crops and avoid over-emphasis on the minor crops.
4.1 Planted Area
The first part of the section will focus on the planting period. While it will not be possible to assess the actual volume of plantings, it will be possible to spot abnormalities. Ask first when planting took place. If you do not have information on normal crop specific planting times, ask when the normal times are. If delays have occurred, find out why.
To prompt the interviewees, if necessary, ask: what was the main cause of delays in planting:
? Low rainfall at planting time?
? Were there unusual shortages of draft oxen? Or any other draft animal? If so why?
? Were farm gate price encouraging to farmers at planting time?
? Were there shortages of seeds? Why?
If problems are identified at planting time you can now ask whether most farmers cultivated more or less land than usual and whether there were any major changes in the crop mix.
Use the responses to get a very general rating of plantings. Were they:
5 = much lower than normal;
4 =somewhat lower than normal;
3 = about normal
2 = somewhat higher than normal
1 = much higher than normal
4.2 Crop Yields and Crop Performance
Then we turn to the crop-growing season. We can start with an assessment of germination of annual crops. Rather than asking; “how was crop germination” (the answer will be “poor”) we can ask indirectly:
? Was it necessary to replant any crops? If so which crops and why? In which altitude zones? Roughly how much of the land was replanted? When did replanting take place
The group should then be encouraged to describe the progress of the season up to the current period. If dry spells occurred, find out how long they lasted and at what stage crops were. Did it affect all crops? How did it affect crops?
Then ask about farm input supplies. Again don’t ask whether there were any problems getting inputs. Rather, ask whether fertiliser is usually used and for which crops.
? Was fertiliser used this year in normal quantities?
If not, press for reasons: - do not accept “we could not afford it”.
With crop pests and diseases evidence of prevalence is not evidence that yields will be below normal as a result of those pests. Find out which pests and diseases have been prevalent, and then whether they are usually found in that area. You might ask for a rough idea of the proportion of farmers affected. At what stage were crops at when the pest infestation or diseases took place? What control measures were taken? Do not directly ask how pests and diseases have affected production.
If weed competition is mentioned as a factor influencing yields this should be taken with caution. Many endemic weeds are controllable through regular weeding and are therefore not an external risk to crop production. So find out which weeds were causing the problem. Some weeds like Striga are very difficult to control and can slash sorghum yields.
At the end of the crop part of the interview try to make a rating for the main crops in that area based on the interview:
5 = well below normal
4 = below normal
3 = normal
2 = above normal
1 = well above normal
Make a note as to whether the main changes were in planted area or per hectare yields and note down what happened. You can then go on to the livestock section.
5 Livestock Related Questions in Community Interviews
This section is relevant for both pastoral area assessment and for understanding livestock in cropping areas. There are very few parts of the country where livestock do not contribute to the household income. Try to find out what the important animals are. It would also be useful to know what they are used for. Are cattle used primarily for ploughing or are they also reared for milk production and other by-products? Are animals reared for sales in a normal year? Or are they not traditionally sold on the market in normal years? If they are not regularly sold, how important is milk or blood in the local diet? How important are pack animals? Do many people use them for petty trading?
Once you have a good idea of the role of livestock in the local economy, turn to the current situation and prospects, but don’t ask very general leading questions like “how are livestock conditions?”. Try to focus on specific issues like:
? How does access to communal grazing compare to normal?
? How do conditions of pasture in communal grazing lands compare to normal?
? Are usual watering holes being used? If not why?
Breeding behaviour is often a good indirect indicator of livestock conditions. If there are more (less) new births than usual the conclusion is usually that conditions are better (worse) than usual. So you can ask whether animal recent animal breeding has been normal and if not, why not.
Ask whether there have been any unusual outbreaks of livestock diseases. Do not focus on endemic livestock diseases, but only those which might have had a marked impact in the current season. Ask how far they were controlled and try to get a rough idea of the extent of the infection.
Don’t ask directly about livestock mortality. Ask indirectly. Have animal numbers increased, remained the same or declined in recent weeks? If the answer is: “declined” find out why. If unplanned animal mortality is reported, try to find out the exact location and, if possible the numbers of animals. Teams should try to corroborate these claims, especially if large numbers of animals are reported to have died. If more drought resistant animals like small goats and camels are reported to have died, this claim should be assessed.
From the information on breeding conditions and mortality, try to get an idea of changes in livestock numbers compared to normal. Try to make a rating for livestock numbers where 5 would indicate a very large decrease. 1 a large increase and 3 “about normal - no significant changes”. Where does the information fall on the table below?
Table 3: Prospects for animal herd sizes
|RATING FOR CURRENT |CURRENT PATTERNS IN HERD SIZE |
|HERD SIZE | |
| |INCREASING |NO CHANGE |DECREASING |
|VERY GOOD |1 |EXCELLENT |VERY GOOD |GOOD |
|GOOD |2 |VERY GOOD |GOOD |NORMAL |
|ABOUT NORMAL |3 |GOOD |NORMAL |POOR |
|POOR |4 |NORMAL |POOR |VERY POOR |
|VERY POOR |5 |POOR |VERY POOR |EXTREMELY POOR |
For pastoral areas, or kolla mixed farming areas, try to find out whether there have been any major and unusual movements in herds. Are animals being taken out of the area? Where to? Why? Have animals been brought into the area from elsewhere? Where from? Has there been any local resistance to the in-migration? If there has you can usually take this as a sign that pasture or drinking water resources are being pressured. From the interview try to judge whether there have there been any major changes in livestock quality. If so, which animals? Which altitude zones? (dega, wena-dega, kolla). Why? Try to find out whether changes have been up or down and to give a one to five rank where 5 is well below normal, 3 is normal and 1 is well above normal.
Community level reports of livestock conditions can be corroborated using visual animal inspections, which are briefly described in Unit 10 of this Chapter.
6 Other Income Sources
In this section of the interview, you should try to get an idea of market conditions for commodities which households in the area commonly sell and those that are bought as food. Try to cover these markets:
➢ food: commodities which are purchased for food consumption
➢ livestock (animals and products)
➢ petty commodities which are produced by households (if important) including firewood and charcoal
➢ labour market: for daily unskilled or manual labour
Then turn to the livestock market.
Have there been any major recent changes in livestock prices? Why?
? Are milk cows or draft oxen are being sold.
? Are the animals being sold much younger than usual?
These are often a sign of trouble.
In areas where wage labour is important you should try to get a rating for wage rates and labour opportunities.
? What is the daily wage rate for unskilled labour? How does it compare to normal?
? If the wage rate has declined, are people looking for waged labour or are fewer people hiring?
Try to find out whether changes have been up or down and to give a one to five rank where 5 is well below normal, 3 is normal and 1 is well above normal. Consider both off-farm labour opportunities (changes in employment levels and the level of economic activity and changes in off-farm labour wages) and casual on-farm labour.
Non-agricultural household produced should also be assessed if it is locally important, especially firewood, charcoal and fodder.
? How do prices of petty commodities compare to normal?
? Are fewer or more people selling than usual? Why?
Poor crop or livestock performance tends to lead more people to selling petty commodities.
? Are more people engaged in petty trade than usual? Why?
7 The Food Market
Do not ask directly whether food prices have increased for consumers. Respondents are always likely to say that they have increased. It is best to ask first what farmers receive for a quintal of common food commodities, and whether they are happy with the prices.
? Have been any major increases compared to the normal prices for that time of year. If so, why?
? How many quintals of grain would normal trade for one healthy ox?
? About how many quintals of grain would you get for one healthy ox now?
? Do any farmers bringing animals to the market have difficulty finding a buyer?
In areas that have been affected by insecurity or by a major flood, physical access to markets may be difficult. This, in turn, could lead to food insecurity problems. In these areas ask whether there been any changes in people’s physical access to food markets, caused by, for example, insecurity, the destruction of a bridge? How long is this likely to last?
8 Food Security and Eligibility Related Questions
Now think very hard about what you have heard. You should already have an idea of where food problems have occurred. Focus on these areas (altitude zones and FAs).
In this part of the interview the team should try to an idea of whether relief assistance needed or likely to be needed and, if so, where. Which population groups are most likely to need it? If relief assistance is needed, when should distribution start and when would it be safe to end distribution? None of these questions should be asked directly in the context of a community interview. DON’T ASK:
← How is the food situation likely to be in the next few months? (it’s going to get much worse)
← Do you expect famine to occur in this area? (of course)
← What proportion of the population is going to need food assistance (nearly everybody)
← What food problems are you facing? (list of everything that could possible go wrong)
7.1 Evidence of Acute Food Insecurity
To get an idea of the gravity of the situation (without asking directly) we can try to find out about indicators of the prospects or reality of acute food insecurity or famine:
If a disaster has already affected people’s food consumption, there could be signs of abnormal food stress responses. This will help to support the application for food assistance. From the background information section of the interview and any other baseline information, you should already have an idea of “what people do in hard times”. Now you can see whether the community has been behaving in a way that is indicative of famine:
Ask whether there have there been any noticeable changes in what people are doing recently. Are there any signs of abnormal behaviour? If no response is forthcoming prompt:
Have there been:
? Fewer or more households gathering firewood or making charcoal? Where?
? More or less prostitution? Where?
? More or fewer people migrating long distances to find work? Where?
? Fewer or more households moving out of the area? Where?
? People reducing the number of meals? Where?
? More or fewer people consuming toxic or taboo foods? Where?
? Withdrawing kids from schools (was school enrolment higher or lower that usual this year?) ? Where?
? Slaughtering animals when celebrating festivals? Where?
? Postponement of wedding ceremonies? Where?
? More or less sales of bride wealth than usual? Where?
? More or less sales of water pots or other household cooking utensils? Where?
? sales of draught oxen or plough shares? Where?
? Reductions in the size of meals? Where?
You may be able to check with local teachers and education officials on school enrolment rates.
If food problems are expected, but have not yet occurred, the same questions can be asked but instead of focusing on what people are actually doing, you can ask what they are likely to be doing in the coming months. For example:
? In this area, do you expect households to sell farm equipment, draught oxen or cooking equipment in the coming months? Where?
While it is unwise to ask nutritional status related questions directly, if health workers are present at the interview you could also ask whether the number of people seeking medical attention has increased or decreased recently and what the main complaints have been. Try to identify the main health risks in the area and to find out whether there have been any major increases in infectious disease that might affect mortality rates and food security. Do not rely on local diagnosis if it is not supported by information provided by qualified health officials.
For more information on anthropometric and health indicators see Guidelines on Nutritional Status Data and Food Relief.
If at this stage in the interview it appears that there is already a major food problem in the area, you should ask:
? Has there been a rise in the number of funerals in the area? If so, Why? Where?
Don’t ask about famine related mortality directly as this is a leading question. The respondents should know the localities where famine related mortality has occurred or even the affected households. Do not except “hearsay” like: “yes, I think that some people are already dying from starvation”. Push the matter further. How do you know? Where exactly? Which families? How many families? Can you give the names of the household heads?
As cases of famine-related mortality mean that immediate and large-scale intervention is needed, the team should follow up on all such reports and visit the FAs and households where famine mortality is reported to have occurred.
7.2 Where are the Needy Located?
If the team is convinced that the food security situation is grave and that without assistance there will be large scale suffering, the next step is to try to identify which types of household might be most affected.
? If we could not find enough resources to support all needy FAs, which should be given priority?
In which are the problems greatest? - don’t accept “all FAs” - if there is a need to prompt - ask them to give the FA numbers or to specify the altitude zone:
1. dega FAs
1. wena-dega FAs
1. kolla FAs
It may be possible to be even more specific and to get more detailed information. Within the most affected FAs, which types of families should be given the most immediate attention? If no answer is forthcoming you could try to prompt by asking:
➢ only those with no livestock?
➢ only the unemployed?
➢ only female headed households?
➢ only the poorest?
If the woreda level key informants are unable to identify which groups within the affected FAs put “not known” in your notes
7.3 Community Support Mechanisms
In this section you should try to find out whether there is a realistic chance that some of the needy households will be provided for by community support mechanisms. If there are no community support mechanisms, skip this section and go to the next.
? Which traditional local institutions are helping out needy households?
Discover whether there are any local community support mechanisms such as food loan systems, free gifts or assistance from local religious institutions.
? If community mechanisms exist, what are they doing or planning to do this year?
Find out whether these mechanisms are expected to continue, increase or decrease in importance this year
? Approximately how many needy people will they be able to assist this year?
Do they have sufficient resources to help:
➢ none of the needy population
➢ 25 of the needy population
➢ 50 of the needy population
➢ All the needy population
From the answer to question 4.3 it may be possible to “factor in” community support mechanisms. If, for example, an estimated 25 percent of needy families are likely to be assisted, your estimate of the total beneficiary number for the woreda (those requiring outside relief food assistance) may be reduced by 25 percent.
7.4 Intervention Duration
The interview now turns to the question of intervention duration. As with all the questions, the direct question should be avoided. Don’t ask “how long do you think people should be assisted for?”.
In areas where relief assistance is likely to be need you need to ascertain the duration of the probable intervention and its start date. It is simply not worth asking “for how long will food aid be needed?” As will all questions relating to food assistance, they must be indirect. For example:
Once you have completed harvesting, for how many months do you expect your food stocks to last?
Apart from your food stocks, how long do you expect other sources of food to last? What is the longest we could wait before intervening? In this woreda, when is the lean season expected to begin this year? For needy households? For non needy households? (Give date) Why?
When can an improvement be expected to the extent that the majority of households will be able to obtain their own food? When do you expect to harvest your next crops? Check against crop calendars. In livestock areas - the intervention end date will be the end of the next rainy season, when pastures have recovered.
Remember that the official harvest time of mature long-cycle stalk crops is not always indicative. You should consider the availability of green maize, short maturing crops and varieties of crop, and root crops.
From the answers above you should be able to calculate the appropriate duration of interventions. As soon as you have finished the community interview, refer to the Woreda Relief Assistance Application Form. Check that the requests are consistent with you findings. If food assistance has been requested in areas where you have no evidence to support the claim and you do not expect people to face starvation, put the FAs down for close monitoring. Also check that the duration figures are consistent.
|EXAMPLE|WOREDA NAME |start date |end date |total duration (months) |
| |1 |1/5/97 |30/8/97 |4 |
| |2 |1/6/97 |31/9/97 |4 |
| |3 |1/3/97 |30/7/97 |5 |
Appendix 3 of this document provides a brief summary of the process of evaluating requests for relief assistance.
8 Community Interviews in Surplus Areas
This section of the interview is relevant for assessment in surplus areas. In surplus food producing areas (that is areas that traditionally trade food to other areas) rapid assessment teams may be asked to provide an initial idea of potential areas for local purchases. The report would include details of the commodities that may be in “exceptional surplus”. Exceptional surplus means that there is a major potential for increasing outward trade of those commodities.
Although market interviews are the most appropriate tools for this kind of assessment, community interviews can also be useful.
Don’t ask whether there is local surplus capacity - nobody will know. You need to find out some details of the current supply conditions and whether they are conducive for trade and whether trade is actually occurring.
? Will the current crop and price situation discourage farmers from planting next year?
If the answer is “yes” it is indicative that profits are very low and there could be a case for local purchase.
? Have any crops been left un-harvested? Which crops? Have any crops been rotting in the stores?
This will happen when incentives are very low as a result of lack of trade and large surplus production.
If there is a large surplus which is not being purchased or moved by the trade, try to find out why not. What constraints do the private traders face?
In Appendix 4 you can see the basic steps in the process of determining whether there may be a surplus for local purchase.
UNIT 4: HOUSEHOLD AND FARM LEVEL ASSESSMENT
1 Introduction
In the context of rapid field assessments, household interviews are conducted directly with individual household members in their homes or on their farms. Household level interviews can be combined with visual inspections of crop conditions, livestock and with rapid health and anthropometric assessment.
Conducting household level interviews is time-consuming and in most assessments will only be done in some pocket areas where time permits. If the information gained from community interviews and provided by woreda officials is considered to be incomplete or unreliable, household interviews should be considered. In most cases there will not be time to conduct household interviews in areas (zones or woredas) which are not likely to be in need of food assistance.
Their main purpose is to confirm or validate the accuracy of woreda level interviews with key informants. You can not expect to be able to interview a representative sample of households. It is important to be realistic about the usefulness of household interviews. They can only give a broad indication of the likely accuracy of key informant interviews. They cannot tell you whether a group is definitely in need of food assistance.
We can summarise therefore: “household interviews should be undertaken in areas where food assistance will probably or definitely be required and where woreda data and community interviews are not convincing”. In this Chapter we describe the basic methods for selecting and interviewing households. Then in Unit 5 below we provide an explanation of the types of question to be asked.
2 Selecting Households
The household interviews are mainly focused on woredas, altitude zones (AZs) within a woreda, and FAs which have been identified as needing food assistance. As a control test, it is advisable also to conduct some interviews in non-selected areas to ensure that they are indeed not in need. There is no strict rule for how many households to visit. This depends on the time available for the assessment and the logistics possibilities. In general, however, at least one household should be visited from the FAs identified as needing close monitoring and at least two from FAs reported to need food assistance.
Ideally, if woreda officials are given enough advance warning they could be requested to identify “representative” households. The households are selected because, in general, they represent (or “share the same broad characteristics of) a group that has been marked “eligible” or “needing close monitoring”. Households are selected on the based on one or more of these characteristics:
➢ what their main sources of income are
➢ how wealthy they are
➢ whether they are male or female headed
This is called purposive sampling. Unfortunately, purposive sampling is rarely going to be practical. Given the time constraints farmers will usually be selected by stopping at intervals along a road and seeing “who is around”. The selection criterion is therefore according to where people live. The team in this case will take a small sample of householders living in geographical areas that are likely to be earmarked for relief assistance.
It would be best to try to get a sample of each altitude zone or farming system in the woreda, focusing on those areas within the woreda which have been identified as needing relief assistance.
There is no sense in which farmers can be selected for interviews on a scientific basis in the context of a rapid field assessment. The interviews are unlikely to give a representative picture of all households in the geographical area. In fact, it is not correct to say that farmers are randomly sampled as the team will tend to have more contact with farmers living near to a road.
The proximity to a road improves the farmer’s chances of getting extension advice and may also mean better access to input supplies and output markets. The result is that crop stands may be much healthier near to a road. Livestock dependent households in close proximity to the road are also likely to have better access to markets and veterinary facilities.
It is generally best to interview householders in their homes, rather than in a communal setting such as a locality meeting place. This allows the interviewer to examine the children, living conditions and sometimes the food and animal stocks of the household.
As the team is driving through an affected area of a woreda, it can drive off the main road at regular intervals to speak to householders. At the harvest time of year it is usually easy to spot farmers in the fields. During pre-harvest assessments, farmers will be unwilling to spend much time away from the field. For this reason farm interviews should be highly focused and should be kept to a maximum of 45 minutes each. They can be combined with a walk through the farmers’ fields.
3 How to Do the Interview
Household interviews will normally be with the household head (or whoever is available). It is best to conduct the interview in the presence of the wife of the head in male-headed households as women may have a different perspective on the food security situation. In this case, questions can be directed to both the male and female interviewees. There is considerable flexibility in how to approach household interviews. The key ingredients to successful household interviewing are:
➢ A polite and non-intrusive approach and a clear introduction explaining the motives of the interview, without mentioning the provision of food assistance. The team should make absolutely clear that the assessment is not for tax evaluation purposes or land redistribution. Don’t ask the householders’ names. In areas with a recent history of food aid distribution, make it clear that the household’s eligibility for relief assistance will not depend on the answers given but on a number of other types of information.
➢ Appropriate translation where necessary, including appropriate methods for explaining concepts (like proportions or percentages) which may not be familiar to the interviewee
➢ Flexibility and informality: Interviewees may provide very useful information that falls outside a checklist. The team introductions should be informal so that the household members are put at their ease. This will help to make the answers more open. In the interests of time, household interviews will tend to be more structured than community interviews. However, the structure of the interview should allow for householders to make comments that stray from the questionnaire as long as they are relevant. The questions should not therefore be open-ended. At the same time, leading questions should be avoided.
➢ Discrete note taking: It is better if two team members conduct the interview with one person taking notes. The notes should summarise the answers. It is not necessary to record the full answers to each question.
UNIT 5: THE HOUSEHOLD INTERVIEW CHECKLIST
1 Introduction
In general, household interviews should be brief and highly focused. The following types of information should be sought:
? What are the household’s main sources of food and cash income?
? Has there been a major change in any of these sources of food or cash income?
? If so, why?
? Does the household exhibit any of the signs which suggest that it might face acute food insecurity in the coming months?
? If so, when is the lean period likely to start and when is it likely to end?
The household interviews should focus on identifying major changes in the key food security variables from previous or normal years, specifically changes in:
➢ area and production of food and cash crops
➢ farm-gate prices of food and cash crops
➢ livestock numbers, quality and prices
➢ off-farm income
Try to find out the reasons for any major changes in any of the food security variables this season.
2 Classifying the Household
Household interviews must begin with group identification, by whatever group classification is being considered for emergency interventions. When it comes to the interpretation of results, it will be important to be able to exactly locate the household type. Classification questions might include:
? Identify the location of the household: woreda, PA, altitude zone (dega, wena-dega, kolla)
? Is the head of household male or female?
? Does most of the food you consume come from your own farm or from the market?
? What are the main food crops produced?
? What are the main livestock kept?
? What are your first, second and third main sources of food and cash income?
? Is the household mainly dependent on belg or on meher production?
If you are able to conduct several household interviews in an area, it is worth trying to get an idea of their relative wealth.
It is not possible to ask wealth questions directly in a rapid assessment. If local officials are present they might have an idea of whether the household is better or worse off than the norm in the area. Otherwise, the team can look for signs or “proxy indicators” of wealth.
The quality of the construction household’s residence compared to other houses in the area can be a good indicator. Is the floor made of concrete or mud? Are the inside walls painted? Are there any curtains? Are animals living in the same room as the household? Are the beds raised or do household members sleep on mats on the floor?
Alternatively and impression can be gained by assessing the household’s visible possessions.
Does the household head have a watch? Do adults or children have shoes? What types of shoes: leather, canvass or rubber?
In very poor crop-dependent areas, possession or non-possession of draft oxen is sometimes a good indicator of wealth. The size of grain storage facilities may also be indicative.
3 Crop Assessment Questions
The interview will generally be combined with visual crop inspections in the presence of the farmer. The main purpose of household interviews and crop inspections is to derive a qualitative impression of yields and production. If evaluation of quantitative yield estimates is included as a mission objective, the team can also use the interview to get an idea of the plausible ranges of per hectare yields.
The basic method for interviewing is farmer recall. Unit 10 of this manual explains how to corroborate farmer recall using crop inspection techniques.
3.1 Planted Area
The purpose of this section is not to make sample estimates of total planted area in a woreda. Rather we try to understand roughly how much the farmer has under each crop so that per hectare yield estimates can be derived (if official yield estimates are being evaluated) and to gain insight into the factors which have affected planted area in that year.
? Has the total area you planted this year increased, remained the same or decreased?
Ask the farmer to provide an explanation of any changes in planted area this season. For quantitative evaluations you can try to evaluate the total area planted to 3 main crops grown by the farmer. Have local unit conversion tables to hand so that you can work out the area in metric units (hectares). If the farmer does not know the area, you may ask him or her how much time was spent ploughing. You can then find out from local officials how much time it takes to plough one hectare using the local methods and given the local soil types.
If it is still difficult to get an idea, pacing methods (described in Unit 10 of this Manual) can be applied.
3.2 Per Hectare Yield
The main purpose of this section is to gain a qualitative impression of crop yields (per hectare) compared to normal and to identify the main reasons for any significant changes in crop yields. The best approach is not to ask farmers directly to compare crop performance with past years but to try to build up a picture of the season which will allow the team to make the comparison. Farmers tend to prefer to compare current crop conditions with what they would like to get (in ideal conditions) rather than what they do get “in normal conditions”.
If crop experts are included on the team, use visual crop inspection to find out which crops are in a poor condition and why they are. For the three main crops, ask the following questions:
? When was the crop planted?
? When do you normally plant this crop?
If planting was late, find out why.
? How many plantings took place?
If replanting took place, find out why. Then look at the crop densities. If crop density is low, find out whether it was low because of poor seed quality or inadequate soil moisture, or early pest infestations.
Then assess the vegetative conditions of crops. If stunting has occurred, focus your questions on the vegetative period of the season.
? Why are the crops stunted?
Identify periods of excessive, adequate or inadequate rainfall. Find out whether low rainfall or other factors such as poor soil fertility caused stunting.
For cereals and pulses, if grain development is poor focus on the flowering and filling stages. Try to spot any evident signs of crop damage, from weather events, such as lodging or shattering. Assess leaves, stems and grains for insect or disease damage. Find out when it occurred and identify the disease / pests.
? What caused this damage and when?
If grains are still at the early filling stage you can also check the existing soil moisture to see what the prospects are.
For roots and tubers it will be necessary to ask questions directly to the interviewee, without using the visual inspection as a reference, unless there are examples of recently harvested produce on the farm. Ask directly:
? How do prospects compare to normal? If prospects are poor, Why?
If quantitative yield estimation is included in the team’s objectives, you should ask how many bags the farmer is expecting to harvest. Be ready to convert the local measurement into kilograms from conversion tables.
If a short cycle cereals crop has already been harvested but has not been bagged, a rough production estimate can be derived from the threshing time. Find out how long the threshing took and then, from local MoA officials, get an estimate of the rough amount of produce that can be threshed in one day.
If the farmer cannot remember or the resultant yield estimate seems implausible, try to make a rapid yield estimate using the techniques explained in Chapter 10.
For crops that are sold in the market, you could ask some qualitative questions about market conditions and marketing, which can be used to corroborate market, community and woreda interviews. Ask whether the farmer is expecting to get a good price for the produce.
4 Livestock Assessment Questions
Livestock assessment questions should be asked in the context of both pastoral area assessments and in cropping areas.
The main purposes of the section is to get idea of
➢ the quality and herd sizes compared to normal
➢ the main causes changes in livestock quality or numbers
➢ market behaviour and the probability of “distress sales”
Note that the interview cannot be used to make quantitative sample estimates of livestock numbers. In pastoral areas it is most unlikely that accurate information on herd sizes will be provided during an interview. It is usually only possible to ascertain which animals the household possesses.
To assess whether there have been any changes in the herd size, first ask whether there has been any recent animal breeding and whether it is more, less or about the same as usual. Then find out why any changes have occurred.
? Have any animals been sold recently?
? Are you planning to sell animals in the next six months?
? Do you normally sell animals?
? Will you be selling more / less / about the same as usual at this time of year?
If more animals have been sold or are likely to be sold, find out why.
In nomadic pastoral assessment, ask whether this is the usual location of the herd for this time of year. Unusual patterns in migration usually indicate abnormal pasture and drinking water availability.
? Has the herd moved more or less than usual in the last 6 months? Are you expecting to move more or less than usual in the next six months?
The more mobile the herd, in general, the more likelihood of pasture scarcity.
? Have diseases affected any animals? Which animals? Which diseases?
In cropping areas, ask whether any draft oxen have been bought or sold by the household in the last six months or whether the household plans to buy or sell draft oxen in the next six months.
5 Food Security Questions
5.1 Other Income Sources
From the previous sections you should have a clear idea of the major changes in crop and livestock production and income this season. Now find out whether the household is engaged in any other form of economic activity. This section can be used to corroborate information provided by woreda officials or community interviews on off-farm and non-agricultural income.
? Are any household members engaged in waged labour or looking for work?
? If so, how do prospects compare with the past? Are there more / fewer / about the same opportunities at the moment compared to normal?
? Are wages higher / about the same / lower than normal for this time of year?
? Is the household expecting to supply more / the same / less labour than usual for non-farm waged labour or labour on other farms?
Try to get a general impression of the current prospects for waged labour income and income from any other sources which were recorded by the household in the first section of the interview.
5.2 Evaluation of Household Food Security Status
This section is relevant only if a household has shown signs of a significant fall in income or food production. If households have already been affected by a fall in food consumption there are a number of ways of identifying it.
The household interviews now focus on identifying the food security status of the household This is not sufficient for drawing conclusions as a very small sample of households will be covered, but, provided the household is reasonably representative, the information can be used to support other sources.
It is not possible to measure food consumption directly or to assess changes in food consumption. This is very time-consuming and requires repeated household visits. Furthermore people are likely to give very unreliable responses if asked whether food consumption has fallen. They will always say it has.
Note that physical food stock is a very poor indicator of food security status. The household’s current resources may well be in cash form. In any case it is unlikely that household’s will be willing to show you their food stocks. Asking them to do so will probably cause unnecessary antagonism.
Never ask household members directly whether they are in need of food assistance. All questions should be indirect. You are more likely to get honest answers if the household cannot see the direct link between the question and food aid eligibility. The household interview can be supported by rapid anthropometric and health assessment.
At the household level, the following questions could be used for assessing current status:
? Which of the following government policies would be your priority for this year?
➢ only a project to increase crop production
➢ only a project to increase livestock production
➢ only a labour intensive food-for-work project
People in a desperate situation will tend to favour immediate relief rather than longer term development.
? If you were given a gift of 100 birr, how would you spend it?
➢ none on food
➢ partly on food
➢ all on food
The more desperate the household, the higher proportion of a “windfall” it would spend on food.
? Do you normally slaughter a chicken / goat / ox for (recent religious festival)? Did you slaughter one this year?
OR
? Did you eat yedoro wet for (recent religious festival)?
There may be strong social obligations to slaughter animals for the main religious festivals. If households do not it could be a sign of hard times.
? What food commodities have you consumed in the last two weeks?
Some food commodities may be particularly associated with extreme poverty or hard times. Ask about wild food consumption. There may be some semi-toxic, unpleasant or taboo local foods which people eat when they are facing a major food problem. From community interviews you should have identified the foods which fall into these categories.
5.4 Assessment of Behaviour
In this section we will try to identify any types of household behaviour which might be indicative of acute food insecurity. For the area of the assessment you should already have a good idea of which activities are associated with famine / acute food insecurity. Focus on these activities. For instance, you may ask:
? Has the household recently sold any bridal jewellery or are you planning to sell any in the coming six months?
For types of behaviour which may or not be associated with acute food insecurity, you should preface the question with “does the household normally do it at this time of year?”, for example:
? Do any household members usually migrate to find labour?
? Are they planning to do it in the next six months?
5.5 When Will the Household Be Needy?
By now you should have a reasonably good idea of the food security status and prospects for the household. If you think that the household belongs to a group that is eligible for relief assistance, continue with this section. Otherwise the interview can now end.
When assessing the probable start date of an intervention it is necessary to avoid direct questions like: “when are you likely to start needing assistance?
One possible way of finding out when it will be necessary to start intervention is:
? If you were to be provided with a quintal of grain, in which of the coming months would you prefer to receive it?
To determine the possible end of the intervention for crop dependent households:
? When do you normally harvest?
For livestock dependent households:
? How long will it take for your livestock to recover?
7 Household Questions in Surplus Areas
This section is only relevant for assessment in high potential cropping areas. The best tools for assessing local surpluses and the possibility for local purchases are community and market interviews. For surplus farm households there are a few questions which might be informative however. The answers should indicate whether there are any crops that are very undervalued on the market and are not being effectively handled by the private trade:
Are you expecting to harvest all your standing crop this year? Which crops? Why
Are you intending to use any grain as animal feed this year? Which crops? Why?
Do you think that any grain will rot in store this year? Which crops? Why?
UNIT 6: WINDSCREEN SURVEYS
1 Introduction
Although household and community level interviews are likely to be the most informative techniques for rapid assessment, time spent in the vehicle travelling from location to location should not be wasted. There are many things to be learnt from windscreen surveys - which is the jargon for “looking out of the window”. In this Chapter we discuss what can and cannot be achieved by “looking out of the window”.
A windscreen survey is any examination of crops from a (relatively) slow moving vehicle, that is one moving at less than 65 kilometres per hour. On most dirt roads windscreen surveys will be possible.
It should be noted that, while windscreen surveys are a useful activity, their limitations should be fully recognised. It is not possible to make even rough estimates of per hectare yields or planted area from a moving vehicle. Windscreen surveys can be used to assess vegetative crop conditions and to spot a major reduction in planted area. Ideally windscreen surveys should be combined with spot interviews with householders along the way.
If possible, road trips should be planned to get a good cross-section of the terrain including different altitude zones. It helps to have a good road map that includes elevation and woreda/zone boundaries.
2 Planted Area and Planting Conditions
Using crop calendars the team should know which crops should be planted at the time of assessment. For early season assessment windscreen surveys will tell you whether planting has been delayed and for which crops. For light soils it is also possible to get a reasonable idea of soil moisture from the vehicle.
For pre-harvest assessments it is not possible to make any quantitative judgement on total planted area. In densely cropped areas, however, it is possible to spot large tracts of un-cultivated but cultivable land: This may be indicative of a fall in planted area.
If the planting window has passed for all crops in the area, the rains have ended and soil moisture reserves are evidently low at yet there is still ploughed but uncultivated area - this is usually an indication that planting has been constrained.
3 Vegetative Conditions
Windscreen surveys are useful for assessing the vegetative condition of crops. Provided the team has some knowledge of the growth potential of the local varieties of cereal crops, stunting and wilting should be evident from a slow moving vehicle. The problem is that stunting can be confused with late planting. Check when crops were planted and then compare the current crop growth with the theoretical growth for that stage in the season. Severe cases of crop blanching or scorching can also be spotted from a moving vehicle. Pest damage to vegetative crops cannot generally be ascertained from a moving vehicle although very severe migratory pest infestations such as army-worm or locust can generally be observed. For tubers, it is possible to gain only a very general idea of vegetative conditions from a moving vehicle.
4 Yield Prospects
It is not possible to make any quantitative estimates of crop yields from a moving vehicle. The reason is that in the grain filling and ripening stages it is not possible to judge ear or cob sizes and weights from a moving vehicle, except, perhaps for sorghum varieties.
Grain sizes cannot be seen. This can make windscreen surveys deceptive. If a crop is stressed at the flowering stage or early filling, grain sizes may be very small although the vegetative growth suggests a healthy crop development. However, if a team member has an idea of normal plant densities, windscreen assessment can be used to compare current season plant densities (for all annual crops) with the past. Low plant densities are associated with poor germination. This in turn could be a result of early season drought or of an exceptional decline in seed quality. The former explanation is more likely, except in areas which were affected by a major fall in production in the previous season.
Damage to standing crops from excessive rains or hailstorms (lodging) can usually be identified from a moving vehicle although shattering cannot. One sign of very poor yield prospects is when livestock are allowed to graze on un-harvested crops. If this is sighted it is a clear sign of near-total crop failure at or before the flowering stage.
Major weed infestations can usually be spotted from a moving vehicle. This is a useful indicator in areas where crop husbandry has been disrupted by insecurity and out-migration after the planting period. It is possible to get a rough idea of the number of deserted farms.
5 Livestock and Pastoral Areas
In pastoral areas windscreen surveys are an essential part of assessment, partly because interviews tend to be rather unrewarding. It is easy to get a good impression of pasture conditions from the road and road trips should be planned, whenever possible to bisect large grazing areas. Water supplies will be less evident. It is best to drive to watering points and conduct household interviews there.
There should be plenty of herds crossing the road or being moved along the road causing frequent stoppages and allowing the team to get quite a good look at the condition of animals. This can be misleading however. Some varieties of sheep, goat and cattle in pastoral areas are natural slight of build and this may be confused with malnutrition.
Evidently, herd composition can be assessed, at least qualitatively, from a moving vehicle. One can make a rough “seat of the pants” estimate of the number of young animals. The higher the proportion of animals in the 1 - 3 month age range, the better the pasture situation is. It is possible to get a rough idea of the direction of herd movements when large-scale migration is occurring although, unless a team member knows what the usual pattern of herd migration is, it is hard to draw conclusions. Large numbers of poor quality animals being taken into the market towns is a bad sign.
6 Food Security and Eligibility
There are a few possibilities for FS&E assessment from a moving vehicle, although its usefulness should not be exaggerated. In a famine area, there will often be higher than usual concentrations of people begging by the roads. Extreme cases of malnutrition can be spotted with ease from a moving vehicle as well as listlessness and low energy caused by lack of food. It is useful to watch what people on the roadside are carrying and or selling. A large increase in the numbers of people selling firewood or charcoal along the roadside could be a sign of hard times. Further, if people are bringing certain items like ploughshares or cooking pots to the market, this could be an indication of food stress.
In the case of mass-migration caused by a major natural disaster or insecurity, windscreen assessment is useful for assessing the direction and rough magnitude of migration. Further, it will be possible to see what types of possession the migrants are carrying. If individuals are carrying large numbers of household items the implication is that they have had time to prepare their departure and may be marginally less vulnerable than migrants who have been forced to abandon their homes and all their possessions.
UNIT 7: RAPID AERIAL ASSESSMENT
1 Introduction
Aerial assessment is used primarily in parts of the country which are not accessible by road or where it is unsafe to travel. The usefulness is extremely limited but in some situations it is the only option. It has the advantage of being quick but is clearly also expensive. The main applications are in major disaster assessments and for assessing conditions in remote pastoral areas. Most aerial assessment is simply windscreen assessment. Aerial photography can be used in certain situations but has numerous complexities that are not discussed in this manual.
Aerial assessment is conducted from a low flying light aircraft or helicopter. It is important that the team keeps a close track on the exact location of the aircraft, through regular communication with the pilot or navigator. Helicopters surveys can be combined with on the spot community interviews if landing is safe. For this reason, helicopters are generally more useful than aircraft.
2 Aerial Crop Assessment
In areas where ground travel is not possible, aerial crop assessment may have some use. It cannot be used to assess crop yields with any accuracy. Only very widespread pest or drought damage to crops can be spotted from an aircraft.
If there has been significant out-migration from a crop growing area, aerial assessment can be used to get a rough qualitative idea of the proportion of land that has been left fallow because of shortages of labour. It is difficult to assess whether there has been a major increase in the amount of fallow land unless you know what proportion of the land is usually cultivated. Another approach is to try to estimate the rough proportion of farm dwellings that have been deserted (where there are no signs of human habitation or agricultural activity. If flooding has destroyed crops, aerial assessment is often the quickest way of getting an idea of the geographical extent of the damage if the floodwaters have not receded.
5 Aerial Livestock and Pastoral Area Assessment
In mixed farming areas it is almost impossible to gain any useful information on livestock conditions for sedentary herds. You can get an impression of pasture availability at least in the immediate post rains period when grasses should be green. Ground water availability (excluding wells) can also be assessed.
The availability of browse for camels and goats is less easy to assess. Provided the team knows what the usual migratory patterns of animals are, you should be able to spot major changes in the direction and density of herds in particular locations. It is not possible to assess whether there have been any changes in herd age or sex composition. High densities of animal mortality for large stock, such as camels and cattle, can be spotted from a low flying aircraft.
6 Aerial FS&E Assessment
It is impossible to gain any insight into the food security or eligibility status of settled communities. Aerial assessment can only be used to spot whether mass out-migration and in-migration if it is underway. You can normally tell whether an area has been depopulated through migration. If migrant communities are settled in temporary camps aerial photography can be used to make an estimate of the numbers of temporary habitations and to get a rough idea of the size of the displaced population. The only accurate method for assessing the size is through ground based head counts and registration schemes.
UNIT 8: BASIC TECHNIQUES FOR MARKET INTERVIEWS
1 Introduction
Market interviews normally take place in main market towns in a woreda on the market day. They could also be undertaken in remote sub-woreda markets (FA or kebele level) in areas where relief assistance needs have been identified. It is useful to carry the latest market reports from the EWS if the market is being monitored through the regular EWS.
The main purpose of the interviews to understand current market conditions and prospects for prices, supply and demand for:
➢ commonly consumed foods (staple foods)
➢ producer prices for commonly produced and sold commodities including cash crops, animals and livestock products
➢ wage labour market conditions and wage rates for daily unskilled labour
➢ petty commodity prices including firewood and charcoal
Understanding these markets will help the team to identify changes in household income and in access to food from market purchases. It is most useful in areas where rural households are commercialised, meaning that a significant proportion of the community is part or largely dependent on market transactions.
In addition to analysing current market conditions and trends in supply and demand, market interviews can also be used to get an idea of how the market works. For food commodity markets, understanding whether and why the market is not working is important in surplus areas for deciding whether there is local purchase capacity.
Interviews will be conducted with a small sample of traders, buyers and sellers. Section 2 explains the basic methods for selecting interviewees. Market information can be sensitive and there are some methods for ensuring that correct information is obtained. These techniques are explained in Section 3, which focuses on interview technique.
2 Selecting Traders, Buyers and Sellers
The most important element of the market interviews is food commodities. Get an idea of what is being sold and by whom by walking through the market.
In deficit areas where relief assistance may be needed the objective of the interview is to ascertain farm-gate and retail prices, that is the price received by farmers and the prices paid by consumers respectively. For this reason the interviews should focus on traders who are buying direct from the farmers and those selling direct to consumers.
If the market interview takes place in a surplus area it will focus on a larger sample of traders, including wholesalers - that is, traders who are buying in large quantities, probably with a view to transporting the produce to other destinations.
Traders may or may not trade more than one commodity. Try to get a sample of all the main food commodities that are commonly produced or sold in the area. In addition to interviews in the market place, you might also try to interview a sample of small-scale millers who will often have a good idea of current supply and demand conditions.
Do not rely on the information given by one trader only. To get a balanced picture helps to spread out the interviews. Try to include a balanced mix of very small trader (selling less than a quintal of produce) and traders selling a quintal or more.
For animal traders, also try to interview a mixture of sellers of different animals (including pack animals), and with different levels of stock. Include farmers who are selling direct on the market and middlemen.
For information on local daily unskilled wage rates, you can find out how much a loader/porter in the market receives by asking the traders or the porters themselves.
3 Interview Approach
Traders are often very unwilling to give information to strangers, especially if they do not have a license or are not paying taxes. When you introduce yourself, make sure the trader knows that you are not there to check on licenses or for tax collection purposes. It is best not to approach market in a four-wheel drive car with Government, UN or NGO plates.
You could try to pose as a buyer or seller but this may go wrong if the trader suspects you are lying.
Try to remember what you are told and do not take notes as this tends to make traders can get anxious. Remember that you are disturbing their work, so keep it quick. The interview approach will generally be informal and semi-structured. A checklist is provided in the next unit.
UNIT 9: CHECKLIST FOR MARKET INTERVIEWS
1 Introduction
A market interview should answer these questions:
? What type of market is it?
? How do price and supply conditions compare to normal?
? Is there any capacity for local grain purchases?
Section 2 of this Chapter explains the basic techniques for classifying the type of market. Then in Sections 3 to 5 we described methods for assessing market conditions. Section 6 outlines the techniques for local purchase capacity assessment.
2 Market Classification
In order to assess the impact of price changes in a market we first need to know how important the market is. To gather this information, ask what area the market serves. Do farmers come from all over the woreda to sell on the market, or do they sell elsewhere? The market in the woreda capital is not necessarily the most important in the woreda. If the market serves most or all of the woreda, then you can be fairly sure that the market conditions in the woreda market reflect conditions elsewhere in the woreda.
You should also try to get an idea of whether the market is normally a surplus or deficit one. A surplus market is one were produce is normally (in a normal year) traded out, meaning that traders buy produce on that market for sale on other markets. A deficit market is one in which, in a normal year, traders bring produce in from other markets.
It is also useful to know whether the market is competitive which means that there are large numbers of traders competing with one another. If there are only a small number of traders it is possible that an oligopoly will develop and traders will set prices. So try to find out roughly how many traders are operating, whether traders meet on a regular basis or whether they all belong to the same family. Have they organised a co-operative?
3 Current Food Market Conditions
For food security and eligibility related assessment, the main focus of the interview will be on the prices of food commodities. Find out the current prices for one quintal of the main staple foods and ask how these prices compare to the “normal” prices at this time of year. If they are judged to be significantly higher, find out why. The reasons may be supply side such as:
➢ poor harvest prospects for this season
➢ poor harvest outcomes last season
➢ traders cannot get commodities into the market because of road conditions or lack of transport
➢ traders are holding on to grain in order to increase prices
They could also be demand side such as:
➢ more local people are purchasing grain than usual
➢ traders are coming in to purchase large quantities
➢ in-migration has lead to an increase in the numbers of people purchasing food
Food market behaviour can be an indication of food insecurity. If people are purchasing less of higher cost products (like white teff) and relatively more of lower value foods (like maize and sorghum) this could be an indication that they are trying to cope with a fall in income. So ask whether there have been any notable changes in what people are buying.
4 Current Livestock Market Conditions
In areas where livestock plays a major part in the local economy, don’t fail to find out about livestock market conditions. Start by asking how the prices for a health animal compare to the normal for this time of year and if prices are different from normal find out why.
Ask about the conditions of animals that are brought for sale. Are they healthier/less healthy than usual at this time of year? Are they fatter or thinner? Then find out about the age and sex of animals compared to normal. Are more/fewer young animals being sold? Are more/fewer female animals being sold? Are more/fewer draught oxen being sold?
You can try to ask a small sample of sellers why they brought the animal to the market, to get an idea of whether there are distress sales in the area.
5 Current Waged Labour Market Conditions
Find out what the daily spot market wage is for unskilled manual labour. The spot market wage is the wage for people who “turn up on the day” not for people who are already contracted for several days. This is sometimes called the “wage rate for casual labour”. How does this compare to the normal at this time of year? If the wage rate is significantly higher or lower than normal, find out why.
The reason will be either supply side (more/fewer people are looking for work) or demand side (more/fewer people are hiring).
Labour market conditions can be assessed in a number of ways. One option is to find out where labourers are coming from. If they are coming from more distant locations than usual, this could be an indication that there is a larger supply of labour and more people are looking for work.
While conducting interviews in food insecure areas, always try to find out whether there have been any recent price-changes for petty commodities, firewood, and charcoal.
6 Assessing Local Purchase Capacity
If woreda and community interviews have indicated that there will be surplus production from the current season, it is worth checking the information on the local market. Already you should have an idea of whether the current grain prices are very low compared to the normal for this time of year, and this could be an indication of a surplus.
Now try to find out whether food is being transported out of the area and in what kind of volumes. Where is the food being taken? Is it being taken long distances or just to nearby markets? The further the food is moving the more likely it is that there is a significant surplus.
Also find out how the food is being transported. Are large capacity trucks (more than three tons) being used? Or donkeys? You might be able to get a rough idea of the average number of trucks that are being loaded each day.
Local purchases can be particularly effective when the private traders are unable to move the stock themselves. Ask whether there are any major constraints to moving food out of the area and what they are. Some signs that food is in surplus but is not being moved out are:
➢ food stocks which are beginning to rot or are heavily infested as a result of low stock turnover
➢ very over-stocked granaries, food commodities being stored in the open
➢ complaints of shortages of bags
UNIT 10: PHYSICAL CROP AND LIVESTOCK INSPECTION
1 Introduction
Farm level crop inspections are physical examinations of standing or recently harvested crops. For any assessments launched to crop growing areas in or around the harvest season, it is possible to gain some rapid insights into crop conditions from physical examination. In areas where livestock make an important contribution to the local economy, stop off in markets, grazing areas or on the road, to have a look at some of the animals.
Visual crop and livestock inspection is used to cross check information provided by woreda officials, community, and household interviews. They are usually combined with household interviews as described in Unit 4 of this Chapter. Livestock and standing crops should be examined in the presence of the farmer.
Crop inspections can be used to collect qualitative information on crop conditions and on the factors which have affected crop yields in the current season. They can also be used to make rough yield estimates. This is useful for teams intending to evaluate the plausibility of official yield estimates.
Data collection for the EWS also includes formal survey methods for estimating national and local level cropped area and per hectare yields. FAMs are not a substitute for sample surveys but should be seen as complementary to the formal more scientific methods of agricultural data collection. Rather they provide “ball-park” yield estimates or upper and lower plausible limits. They can be used to spot major discrepancies or inaccuracies in yield estimates. They have the advantage over the formal methods of being quick and requiring relatively low formal statistical training on the part of the team members.
If an area is reasonable homogeneous in terms of soil types, altitude, crop choice and cultivation method and weather patterns, a small number of crop inspections can give a reasonable idea of likely yields in that area. It is not possible to estimate total planted area using these methods. Combined with the household and community interviews the methods can also be used to make a qualitative rating of crop conditions. Experienced assessors can also use physical examination to reveal the causes of any falls in crop yields.
Similarly, livestock herd sizes cannot be calculated from a small number of examinations, but can be used to detect trends in the herd structure, the physical condition (quality of animals) and the reasons for poor animal conditions.
For farm level yield estimation it is important to have an idea of total area within the farm under a specific crop. Section 2 explains how rapid area estimates can be made at the farm level. Section 3 looks at methods for per hectare yield estimation. in the context of a pre-harvest assessment when crops are still standing.
We then turn to the estimation of per hectare yields during the harvesting and post harvesting period in section 4. Section 5 explains how crop examinations (of standing crops) can be used to determine the causes of falls in yields for cereals, pulses and oilseeds. Assessment techniques for roots and tubers are discussed in section 6. Livestock inspection is discussed briefly in Section 7.
2 Rapid Area Measurement: Pacing
If the team is expected to provide an evaluation of official per hectare yield estimate it must first get an idea of total area in the farm planted to specific crops. The main rapid assessment tools for doing this is farmer recall. Farmers are asked to provide direct estimates of the area they have planted to specific crops. An alternative method is to make an indirect estimate of area based on the reported time spent ploughing each plot.
Sometimes farmers will not be willing or able to give accurate information on planted area. In this case rapid measurement techniques can be used although these are prone to inaccuracies. The method is called “pacing”.
As most plots are not rectangular the first step in rapid area measurement is to divide the plot into roughly rectangular units.
Then each unit is measured using pacing. Pacing means simply counting the number of strides taken to walk the length and width of each rectangle. These are the steps in the calculation:
1. Walk the length and width of the rectangle, counting the number of strides taken
1. Using a tape measure the enumerator measure your average length of stride when walking
1. Multiply by the numbers of strides to calculate the total length and width of the rectangle
1. Calculate the total area of each rectangle as the length times the width
1. Estimate the total area by summing the area of each rectangle
Problems may be encountered for mixed crop stands (inter-cropped fields). You will need to get an idea of the total area planted to each inter-crop. The simplest way to do this is:
➢ Make a rough visual estimate of the proportion of the plot which is occupied by each different crop
➢ Multiply the total plot area estimate by the fraction for each crop to get a rough estimate of each crop’s area.
A rather more formal method is to calculate individual crop areas using “pure stand equivalents”. To do this, follow these steps:
➢ estimate the crop density of each crop on the mixed stand plot
➢ find a local estimates of the average plant density that crop on pure stands
➢ dividing the actual density by the average pure stand density gives us a conversion factor
➢ to calculate the pure stand equivalent area, multiply the conversion factor for each crop by the total plot area
If you note during crop inspections that area has been left unplanted in the later stages of the growing season, find out why. The reason may be that the land has been fallowed, but it could be that there was some constraint to planting, like shortages of draft oxen or seed, or inadequate early season rainfall.
3 Pre-Harvest Yield Assessment
If crops are still un-harvested and farmers are not able to provide an estimate of their expected total production, or if the farmer’s estimate appears to be inaccurate, the team may attempt to make a rough estimate of per hectare yields. This section is relevant for cereals, pulses and oilseeds.
The method entails a purposive sampling of a plot. More formal techniques take random samples of quadrants on a plot. For rapid yield assessment, only a small number of purposively selected quadrants is taken. There are two basic approaches to sampling.
The quickest approach is to identify a part of the plot which appears to be representative of the plot as a whole, based on:
➢ the quality of the plants
➢ plant density
➢ location : not on the fringes of the plot (where densities are generally lower) nor in the midst
From the selected part of the plot you will draw conclusions on the total plot yields.
➢ demarcate an area of 1 meter squared
➢ count the number of plants in that area (or cobs in the case of maize)
➢ with the farmer’s permission weigh the de-husked grains of a small sample of plants (for stem crops). For maize de-hull a sample of cobs
➢ estimate the average per plant weight of the sample plants or cobs
➢ multiply the average weight by the total number of plants (or cobs) to estimate the total yield in the 1m2 area
➢ multiply the result by 10 000 to estimate the per hectare yield
If rains have ceased and crops have not reached full maturity, you should check the soil moisture reserves by digging a small hole and rubbing the soil in your hand to test the dampness and assess the implications for ultimate yields.
4 Post-Harvest Yield Estimates
In the immediate post harvest period, farmers may be able to estimate the total harvested quantity and, provided the land has not been re-ploughed it will also be possible to measure the cropped area. However, if farmers cannot recall or provide implausible information it may be possible to make a rough post harvest yield estimate prior to threshing. The method is called “bunch measurement”. Stem cereals, pulses and oilseeds may be bunched or tied into roughly equal sized bundles prior to threshing. In this case, to make a rough production estimate:
➢ make a rough estimate of the total number of bunches
➢ estimate the total grain weight of a sample of bunches
➢ multiply the average (per bunch) sample grain weight by the total estimated number of bunches to arrive at a total production estimate
➢ divide this estimate by the estimated area in hectares to estimate per hectare yield
If maize cobs have been bagged, to make a rough production and per hectare yield estimate:
1. count the number of bags and estimate the number of cobs per bag
1. from a small sample of de-hulled cobs estimate the average grain weight per cob
1. multiply the per cob grain weight by the number of cobs per bag to estimate the per bag grain weight
1. multiply the product by the number of bags to estimate total grain production
1. divide by the total estimated planted area to get the per hectare yield estimate
If grains have already be cleaned and bagged in store, production estimation is simple. Count the bags and multiply by the average bag weight (don’t assume that all the bags have a standard weight).
If threshing is complete but produce is not bagged, find out how long it took to thresh (this is an indicator of the quantity). Find out from local officials how long it takes to thresh 1 quintal of grain, then ask the farmer how long the threshing took.
Otherwise, make a visual assessment of the quantity of grain piled by the threshing floor. How many 1quintal sacks could it fill?
5 Assessing the Causes of Low Yields
To corroborate information provided by farmers in the course of farm interviews, physical crop inspections can also be used to help explain why crop yields have been low. Physical crop inspection, conducted by experienced agricultural experts, can be used to identify the causes of low yields from these factors:
➢ Low/inadequate rainfall
➢ Water-logging
➢ Excessive rains
➢ Hail and frost damage
➢ Pest damage
➢ Disease damage
➢ Mineral deficiency
➢ Lack of husbandry
The evaluation of causality requires an assessment of these aspects of the crop stand:
➢ plant density (patchy stands)
➢ leaf colour, size and vigour
➢ stem/stalk length and vigour
➢ grain/tuber size and quality
➢ cob/ear length and weight for cereals
There is not space in this document to cover all the possible diagnoses. It is a specialist activity. For stem/stalk, leaf or grain damage caused by pests, users are referred to the EWS Glossary of Common Crop Pests and Diseases. Find out when the pest infestation occurred and what measures were taken to combat it.
6 Yields of Roots and Tubers
The focus of this Unit has been on cereals and pulse crops. Visual crop inspection is less useful for roots and tubers. For cassava, sweet potato, irish potato and yams the vegetative conditions are a weak indicator of yield performance. Root crops tend to be heavily inter-cropped making it difficult to make even rough estimates of total area.
Although it is generally possible to detect moisture stress and wilting of tubers from the vegetative conditions, it will be impossible to determine whether pests or diseases have affected the tubers.
For enset crops it will be necessary to ask directly in the course of household interviews what the yield performance is compared to normal. It will usually not be evident from the vegetative condition of the crop although major parasitic infestations and leaf fungi will be evident.
In enset areas, ask to see a recently harvested root. Compare this to the size under normal growing conditions. If in doubt, ask the local crop experts what for the normal measurements of the local varieties. The size of the root (length and diameter) should be indicative, but do not base conclusions on a very small sample of roots. You should also look in the local market place. Shorter or less bulky roots could be indicative of either early harvesting necessitated by food shortages or of poor crop development. Try to ascertain which is correct.
Assessing pests and diseases for roots and tubers will require both external and internal examination.
7 Livestock Inspection
Inspections cannot tell you anything about herd sizes, unless you take a large sample of owners. Visual examinations of herds can provide a reasonable idea of whether the herd is recovering (or not). This is important in areas that have recently been hit by high mortality rates. Evidence of a large proportion of young animals compared to the total herd sizes suggests that recovery is underway. This is important for determining the duration of relief assistance in livestock-dependent areas. The sooner the recovery, the early the intervention can be ended.
The main purpose of livestock, however, is to get an idea of whether there have been any major changes in livestock conditions compared to normal
➢ Size (growth)
➢ Weight and fleshiness
➢ Skin/hide quality, shininess
➢ Lethargy/listlessness
Milk productivity (litre yields per day per cow) is also a reasonable indicator of quality, and questions on yield should be included in the inspection.
Poor quality is related either to animal health or to nutrition. Livestock experts should be able to make a rough diagnosis of the cause of poor quality. The techniques are too numerous to cover in this document. Note that it is not always straightforward to identify the cause of low quality without detailed interviews and scientific diagnosis. Many livestock diseases, like tripanasomiasis or intestinal parasites, lead to wasting or stunting, so it may be wrong to assume that low weights are related to malnutrition.
CHAPTER 3: DISASTER ASSESSMENT
UNIT 1: RAPID ASSESSMENT PROCEDURES
1 Introduction
Disaster Area Assessments take place in response to unexpected and catastrophic events. In this Unit we describe some of the types of disaster which may threaten Ethiopia. We then provide a brief summary of the main tools for disaster area assessment.
In most disaster situations there is a need for immediate assistance and the assistance usually extends well beyond relief food needs. The assessment activities wide ranging and it is not possible to provide guidelines on all aspects of disaster assessment. Fortunately there are plenty of other sources of information and Unit 3 provides an annotated bibliography.
2 Types of Disaster
It is hard to make a clear distinction between what is a disaster and what is just normal bad year. In the Awash valley or parts of Gambella, floods are very common, but are they disasters? Locusts are a disaster in most parts of Africa, but seen as a gift from God in other areas, where they arrive after harvesting and are consumed as a delicacy. So we always have to say that a disaster depends on the context.
We can compare a risk, which is a regular process, with a disaster, which is an unusual one. The main difference between the two is that people develop mechanisms for dealing with expected events but are not prepared for the unexpected. Consider as an example flooding. People can benefit from floods through recession agriculture and spate irrigation but in areas where floods are unexpected and irrigation systems have not been designed to cope with them, crops can be submerged and destroyed.
Another important feature of disasters is that they are generally sudden, with an immediate impact on the affected populations. Many disasters force people to leave their homes, crops, livestock and jobs. In such conditions, we talk of forced migration. Force migration is a special case in assessment. At least in the early stages of migration people are destitute, meaning that they have no means of supporting themselves. Any type of disaster that makes an are uninhabitable carries the risk of destitution. Unit 2 below explains the causes and consequences of forced migration in more detail.
Examples of disasters that may occur in Ethiopia are:
➢ Flooding in areas which do not usually flood or unusually extensive flooding in prone areas
➢ A major human health epidemic
➢ Severe drought related water shortages
➢ The impact of civil or international warfare
➢ A Desert Locust infestation
➢ Landslides
➢ Fire damage
3 Tools for Disaster Assessment
As destitute people will starve without assistance, so they are automatically eligible for relief assistance. This means that the standard assessment techniques that are explained in Chapter 2 are largely unnecessary. There is no point in assessing crops that have been abandoned by their owners. Equally, we don’t need to bother with detailed explorations of market conditions and alternative sources of income, if people have no income at all at their disposal.
If relief assistance is provided and efforts are made to ensure that people can support themselves, disasters do not have to have a long impact. As people begin to cope, returning to the land, breeding animals or finding jobs, they may cease to be eligible for relief assistance. Thus in the late stages of a disaster, when there are signs of some return to “normality”, full FAMs, including the techniques described in Chapter 2 will be necessary.
Floods and civil or international conflict imply mobility constraints. This has major implications for FAM techniques. At least in the early stages situations aerial assessment will usually be the only option.
For all disaster situations resulting in destitution, immediate relief assistance will be required. For this reason there is also a time constraint. Resources have to be mobilised immediately so leisurely one-month assessments are out of the question.
Finally, disasters often require specialist assessment and non-food relief requirements. The table below provides some guidelines on the types of specialist assessment which disasters might entail:
Table 1: Types of Disaster and Specialists Required
|TYPE OF DISASTER |TYPES OF SPECIALIST ASSESSMENT REQUIRED |
|major flood |habitation / housing |
| |health |
| |infrastructure |
| |sanitation and water supply |
|major human disease epidemic |medical |
|major livestock disease outbreak |veterinarian |
|major drought |sanitation and water supply |
| |medical |
|civil or international warfare |forced migration, registration and repatriation |
| |medical |
| |infrastructure |
| |sanitation and water supply |
| |habitation / housing |
| |environmental impact |
|Major migratory pest outbreak |pest control |
In most disaster area assessments, rapid nutritional surveillance will be undertaken as soon as ground assessment is possible. Recommended guidelines for nutritional assessment are listed in Chapter 3.
Disasters will always require relief intervention and very quick preparations, so logistics experts should accompany all teams and aerial assessments.
3 Steps in the Disaster Area Assessment Process
Although it is not possible to define exactly what needs to be done during a disaster assessment, all disaster assessment should follow these general procedures.
|( |Launch a rapid aerial assessment (whenever ground assessment is not possible) to identify the Zones, woredas and FAs where the |
|STEP 1 |disaster has struck. Estimate the total population in the disaster-affected areas. Aerial assessments should continue at |
| |regular intervals unless ground assessment is possible. |
|( |Warn all line ministries which may involved and request immediate provision of names of available sector specialists (water, |
|STEP 2 |medicine, civil engineering etc.) |
|( |Design a plan of action for field assessment when ground assessment becomes possible. Draw up a full terms of reference and |
|STEP 3 |identify the areas to be visited. |
|( |Identify fully equipped vehicles to be kept on full and permanent standby until ground assessment is possible. Make sure all |
|STEP 4 |specialist team members are on permanent standby and are suitably equipped. |
|( |Await the first safe opportunity to launch the ground field assessment and then quickly devise an assessment schedule and brief|
|STEP 5 |all team members. Dispatch the field teams. |
It is not possible to be 100 percent prepared for any disaster. Nevertheless, the following measures are recommended:
➢ Roster of field vehicles: A roster of vehicles with two-way radios should be maintained, which may be used for disaster assessment. Ensure that at least three field worthy vehicles are on the roster at all times.
➢ Updated collection of rapid assessment manuals: The bibliography in Unit 3 provides details of useful assessment manuals for use on specialist disaster assessments. Extra copies of the relevant manuals should be made available for all disaster area assessment teams.
➢ Roster of specialists: The names, contact telephone numbers and addresses of experienced health, water and sanitation, civil engineering, logistics, nutrition, veterinarians and entomologists should be kept in a computer and hard copy. Their availability and details should be checked on a regular basis and the roster updated. All relevant ministries, NGOs, donor and UN agencies should provide a list of suitably qualified individuals.
➢ Disaster assessment fund: A cash reserve should be kept in a quick withdrawal interest earning bank account. The cash reserve should be sufficient to pay for rental of helicopters for 3 – 4 days or of field vehicles and for immediate disbursement of per diems for team members. Quick drawing procedures should be designed for same-day release of funds.
➢ Management: Ensure that the Regional and Federal Early Warning Departments always have an officer in charge, capable of taking immediate decisions to launch teams or helicopter surveys and with signatory rights for the emergency disaster assessment fund.
UNIT 2: FORCED MIGRATION AND RAPID ASSESSMENT
1 Introduction
Internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees require special attention during rapid assessment, as they are often among the most vulnerable. In one way the assessment is more straightforward than for settled populations. If forced migrants have no crops, income sources or access to food, they clearly need assistance. The question then is “how many are there?” Rapid techniques for making rough estimates of migrant population sizes are presented in Section 2. It is wrong to assume that all forced migrants are in need of immediate food assistance. Section 3 describes some of the complications arising when refugees or IDPs start to look after themselves.
Food assistance is rarely the only type of required relief. Nutrition, health, water and sanitation, housing, infrastructure and environmental impact assessment is usually required for refugees and IDPs. These topics are not covered in this manual (see Unit 3).
A large influx of refugees or IDPs can have a dramatic affect on the resident population of the area where they arrive, the host community. If refugee or IDP communities are large in relation to the host community, the well-being and food security status of the host community must be assessed. Assessment of the food security status if the host community is essential and is explained in section 4.
The basic methods for rapid assessment of IDPs, refugee communities and host communities are the same as for resident populations:
➢ interviews with migrant/host community leaders and key informants
➢ interviews with migrant/host households
➢ market interviews in camp markets and markets in the host area
➢ aerial assessment
➢ windscreen assessment
➢ rapid health and nutrition assessment
2 Rapid Population Assessment
In the early stages of mass-migration, when the migrants are all likely to need assistance, the first priority is to get an idea of the total numbers of migrants. Most forced migrants, especially those who have fled without any possessions will be automatically eligible for relief assistance as they are destitute, meaning that they have no sources of income and food. There are several ways of getting rough estimates, but the only accurate method is through registration (or head-counts) which are not feasible in the context of a rapid assessment. Registration is not possible when the migrants are still on the move and are not encamped. So rapid assessment can be useful at the beginning of a major influx.
For refugees who cross a border it is useful to consult with border officials. You can make a rough calculation by finding out for how many days refugees have been crossing and roughly how many, on average have crossed each day.
If whole communities have fled together, community leaders might have a good idea of how many households have come with them, so ask them. Aerial assessment can be used to make a rough estimate of the numbers of encamped refugees or IDPs (see Chapter 2, Unit 9).
3 Food Security and Forced Migration
Should we assume that all refugees and IDPs should automatically get food assistance? The answer is no. After a number of weeks, months or years refugee or IDP communities can become self-supporting as they are integrated into the local community. Further, even newcomers to an area might be carrying enough possessions (including herds of animals) or cash to look after themselves, at least for a short period.
The first question to ask in the context of key informant, community or household interviews is; How much was brought from the place of origin? You can also ask a related question: Did the migrants have time to plan before they fled? The more time they had, the more likely it is that they were able to gather their possessions before fleeing.
If refugees or IDPs have been settled in one place for over one month, they may already have started to “integrate” with the host community, and become economically active. First find out whether the migrant community has any tribal or kinship links with the host community. The closer the link, the more likely it is that they will become integrated. Is the host community providing shelter to any of the migrants? Is it providing food? Is casual employment being offered to the migrants? In some cases host communities might even provide some plots of land to their guests.
When the migrant community is large with respect to the host community, integration is less likely. If the migrant community is more than one third the size of the host population, it is unlikely that there will be sufficient resources to absorb them (see Section 5). Hence, while you should consider the possibility that migrants will have some resources from the local community, keep this in perspective.
In many IDP and refugee situations the migrants have some access to their place of origin. It may be that they reside in the host area, but return to their homes on a regular basis and are not totally isolated from their place of origin. Check how far the origin is from the host area. Is it safe to return? Always? Sometimes? Find out whether there is any two-way movement.
You will have to assess the probable length of duration of assistance. Open-ended assistance is only for refugees/IDPs who are not expected to return home and who are not capable of supporting themselves through economic activity in the host area. Most migration caused by conflict is open-ended. When the migration is caused by a natural disaster, like flooding, find out when it is likely to be safe to return home. This should be the end-date for emergency intervention.
4 Assessing Host Communities
Assessment of the impact of the migrant influx on the host community is crucial. The methods are basically the same as those for all types of resident population assessment. Note that if the migrants have strong kinship links with the host community there is more likely to be sharing of resources, shelter, labour and possibly land. In other words the stronger the ties the more the impact on the local population. You can use the community and household checklists (see Chapter 2, Units 2 - 4) to carry out interviews.
As well as finding out how the migrants have integrated with the host community, be sure to ask whether they are well disciplined. Ill-disciplined migrants can lead to crop damage from trampling or may steal from the local population, especially if they are not linked through kinship. Major migrant influxes can lead to poor sanitation and a high prevalence of infectious diseases. However, do not assume that a migrant influx will always be damaging to the host community. Sometimes influxes lead to an increase in demand for local produce, so farmers get better prices. In areas where labour is scarce, an influx of (cheap) labour could also be beneficial to the host community. Further, when large refugee or IDP relief operations are underway they will often increase the supply of cheap foods on the local market.
UNIT 3: BIBLIOGRAPHY OFASSESSMENT MANUALS
|TITLE |
|“GUIDE TO SANITATION IN NATURAL DISASTERS” |
|AUTHOR |
|M.ASSAR |
|PUBLISHED |
|World Health Organisation, Geneva, 1971 |
|DESCRIPTION |
|Includes detailed explanation of planning and logistics for sanitation assessments. The guide is mainly aimed at relief intervention planning |
|rather than on assessment methods. It is clearly written and is rather non-technical |
| |
| |
|136 Pages ½ A4 |
|AVAILABILITY |
|Federal Early Warning Department |
|TITLE |
|“GUIDELINES ON NUTRITIONAL STATUS DATA AND FOOD RELIEF” |
|AUTHOR |
|Early Warning and Planning Services |
|PUBLISHED |
|People’s Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, RRC, 1990 |
|DESCRIPTION |
|Explains the basic principles and techniques for implementing nutritional surveys and analysing the results. It is applicable in post-disaster |
|situations when there is time to conduct the surveys. The manual does not explain the logistics and management aspects of conducting nutrition |
|surveys. |
| |
|60 pages A4 format |
|AVAILABILITY |
|Federal Early Warning Department |
APPENDIX 1:
ZONE LEVEL REPORT FORMAT
This is an annotated copy of a Zone Level Report Format. It may be modified according to the type of assessment. Copies of the revised Woreda Relief Assistance Application Forms should be attached to the Zone report, for all woredas where relief needs have been identified or where populations are in need of close monitoring.
Each team will be expected to make a Zone level report on all zones visited. Staff should try to complete the report in the zone, for de-briefing Zone officials - before proceeding to the next zone. The team should also check on the figures used. Keep it brief! Whenever possible, information should be presented in tables and not in lengthy text form.
NAME OF ZONE_____________________DATE OF REPORT COMPLETION____________
1 INTRODUCTION
In the space provided below list the team members (including participants from Regional and Zone EWS).
|1 |4 |
|2 |5 |
|3 |6 |
Which woredas were visited by the team? Use this space to summarise the schedule.
| |
| |
| |
What are the main conclusions of the assessment? Very briefly explain the current prospects for food security in the zone. Is relief assistance needed in the zone? If so, what are the main reasons for the need? How many people are in need in the zone as a whole? How do needs compare with the past? Highlight any areas in need of immediate relief assistance.
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
2 CROP REPORT
This section is relevant for crop producing areas only. Answers should be given for all the important food and cash crops in the zone, including roots and tubers, coffee, chat and vegetables where appropriate.
2.1 Planted Area
In this section write down information you have collected on crop planting times and total planted area. Provide details only of the major food and cash crops. Ratings are as follows: 1=much above normal; 2=above normal 3=about normal; 4 = below normal; 5 = much below normal
| |dega areas |wena dega areas |kolla areas |
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|crop name | | | |
| |usual |current |area |usual |current |area |usual |current |area |
| |planting |season date |compared to |planting |season date |compared to |planting |season date |compared to |
| |month | |normal |month | |normal |month | |normal |
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Give the main reason for any fall in planted area or significant delays in planting. Was there any replanting? If there was a major decline in area, explain which woredas were most affected.
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2.2 Weather Conditions
Please provide a brief overview of weather conditions for food and cash crop production in the zone during the current season. Give details of weather conditions including the quantity, distribution, and duration of the rains. If there were any weather-related problems, explain which crops were affected, in which woredas or AZ zones and explain at what stage they were in the phenological cycle. Focus on the main crops.
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In the space provided below, record any unusual pest infestations that have affected crop conditions. Identify the pests or diseases. Are they newcomers to the area? Which woredas were affected? Which crops? Were control measures undertaken? If so, how effective were they? Include any quantitative estimates that might be available for total number of affected households or total hectares infested.
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2.3 Agricultural Input Supply Situation at the Zone and Woreda level
Which farm inputs are usually used for crop production in which woredas? How do supplies and utilisation this season compare with the past? Highlight any areas where there has been a major decline in farm input supplies or utilisation. Explain why these changes have happened and describe the likely impact on crop yields.
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2.4 Crop Production Ratings
Consider the main food and cash crops in the zone. Make a judgement on the prospects for overall crop production or the main food and cash crops this season, compared to normal (1 = very good; 2 = good ; 3 = about normal ; 4 = below normal, poor ; 5 = well below normal, very poor. If rating is 4 or 5, use the space provided to give the main reasons for the poor crop prospects. Then highlight the woredas which have been most affected by poor production.
|CROP NAME |CROP RATING (1to5) |REASON FOR POOR RATING |MOST AFFECTED WOREDAS |
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2.5 Quantitative Crop Estimates
Complete this section only if the team has been requested to collect and review quantitative estimates of crop production. Check that all the production figures are in metric tons and have been calculated correctly. Check that all yield figures fall in a plausible range. Include at least the five main cash and food crops produced in the zone.
| |Crop Name |Season /Year |planted area in |mission yield |official yield |Production (in |
|Woreda | | |hectares |estimate (kg) |estimate (kg) |tonnes) |
| | |e.g. belg 1998 | | | | |
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3 LIVESTOCK CONDITIONS
Provide a brief summary on the importance of livestock in the zone, by altitude zone. Which animals are most important? What is the primary use of animals? For ploughing? For sale? For milk? For transport? Are animal sales an important source of income?
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In the table below, give a summary of livestock conditions in the zone. (see notes below for ratings)
| |quality rating |numbers rating |price rating |Is there |has there been |Main Reasons for falls in animal |
| | | | |evidence of |unusual |quality or numbers |
|Animal Type | | | |distress sales?|mortality? | |
|sheep/goats | | | | | | |
|equines | | | | | | |
|cattle | | | | | | |
|camels | | | | | | |
NOTES:
|livestock quality rating |numbers rating |price rating |
|code/meaning |code/meaning |code/meaning |
|1 |much better than normal |1 |large increase in herds |1 |prices much higher than usual |
|2 |better than normal |2 |increase in herds |2 |prices higher than usual |
|3 |about normal |3 |herd size about usual |3 |prices about usual |
|4 |worse than normal |4 |decrease in herds |4 |prices lower than usual |
|5 |much worse than normal |5 |large decrease in herds |5 |prices much lower than usual |
If there has been any animal mortality, say whether they have been high and whether or not the mission has confirmed the reports of mortality.
In the space below, comment on the current availability of pasture and drinking water. How does it compare to the normal for this time of year? Have there been any restrictions to access to communal grazing land? If so, why? Mention the areas which have been most affected by any shortages of pasture and drinking water (woredas, AZs).
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Have there been any unusual and uncontrolled outbreaks of livestock diseases? Which diseases? Where have the outbreaks been concentrated? If data exist on disease-related animal mortality (number of cases), include it here.
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4 OTHER INCOME AND FOOD SOURCES
Comment on the wage labour market situation in the zone. Where is wage labour an important part of household income? What type of activities are typically practised? Are current wage rates abnormally high or low? Why? Are more/fewer people looking for work than at this time of year? Make a note of areas where daily wage labour rates are particularly low.
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If there are any important sources of income from petty commodity production, such as sales of firewood, charcoal, earthenware pots or local clothing, comment on any changes in prices or market conditions which have been reported or observed by the team. Also comment on any factors which might affect petty trade and petty commodity production in the coming months.
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5 MARKET FOOD PRICES
How do current prices of staple foods compare to the usual prices at this time of year? Are supplies unusually high or low? In which woredas are prices particularly high? Are there any factors that might restrict people’s physical access to food markets? Is food being traded into or out of the zone? If traded in from which zones/woredas? If traded out to which zones/woredas?
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6 ZONE ELIGIBILITY REPORT
In the space below summarise the above information by explaining which the important sources of food and income are and how the changes in the current period might have affected the food consumption of populations of the zone for better or worse in the coming months.
Comment on the food situation in the past few months. Have things improved in recent weeks or resulted in a further deterioration? Highlight the areas which are likely to suffer the largest falls in food consumption in the coming months. Which woredas? Which altitude zones? Which types of household?
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Are there already signs of major food related problems in the zone? Include evidence of abnormal food stress responses, malnutrition or famine related mortality. Where are the signs most notable? Make sure that you say whether the signs have been reported to the team or have been confirmed by the team. Where have the signs been noted?
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In the space provided below, note any major outbreaks of human diseases in the zone, specifying the affected woredas.
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Summarise the Woreda level relief assistance forms in the table below for each altitude zone. Enter the numbers of individuals estimated to be in need of relief assistance or of close monitoring. Indicate any revisions made by the team. Do not include woredas where the team feels that the local population will not experience acute food shortages in the coming months. In the column on comments, mention any particular types of household that have been identified as being needy like “the very poor” or “households with no livestock” and the main reasons for the requirements.
|Woreda Name |Altitude Zone |Population in need of: |Duration |Comments |
| | | Relief Assistance |Close Monitoring |From Month |To Month | |
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For all woreda and altitude zones needing close monitoring or relief assistance
Now check that all the calculations are correct. Make sure that the estimates for needy populations plus population requiring close monitoring do not exceed the total population of the woreda (if you have information on the woreda population).
7 POTENTIAL FOR LOCAL PURCHASES
Consider this section only for areas where local surpluses are likely to be harvested.
Is any significant surplus production expected from the current crop in the zone? If so, identify the woredas in which surplus production is available, the main commodities which are in surplus and the approximate volumes if this information is or is likely to be available.
|WOREDA NAME |First Surplus Crop |2nd Surplus Crop |3rd Surplus Crop |
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Is the surplus likely to be moved out by local traders? Or is there evidence that the surplus is not going to be traded out? Explain the main constraints to the private trade on the basis of interviews you have conducted, or other information received.
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ADDITIONAL NOTES
In the space provided, make any additional comments which you feel are relevant but have not been included in the report above. You may comment on the quality of the information provided by the Zone and woreda officials and highlight any areas where you feel that the information was weak or incomplete. If you think there is a need for a back-up mission to get more information, say so here.
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APPENDIX 2:
WOREDA RELIEF ASSISTANCE APPLICATION FORM
The Woreda Relief Assistance Application Form (WRAAF) is distributed to all woredas where there is reason to suspect that relief assistance will be required. Under the guidance of the Zone level DPPD, woreda EWC officials, in consultation with local community leaders and FA chairpersons complete the form. The form contains information on relief needs by FA. This data can be summarised manually or using a computer, by altitude zone within the woreda, which is the basic unit of aggregation used by the EWS in settled areas of the country.
Ideally, WRAAFs should be available to teams before departure to the field, so that they can be used for mission planning. If not, the teams should collect them from the Zone DPPD.
|Name of Woreda/ZONE: |
|Date of report submission: |
|The members of the woreda EWC confirm that the information contained in this form is correct to the best of their knowledge. |
|NAME |POSITION |MINISTRY |SIGNATURE |
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|FA DETAILS |Population in households |Intervention Duration |Main reason for needing |
| | | |relief assistance |
|NAME |AZ |total |close monitoring |Relief assistance |Start-date |End-date | |
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|This information on this form has been checked and is judged to be accurate by the Head or Officer in charge of the Zone DPPD |
|NAME |POSITION |NAME OF ZONE |SIGNATURE |
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An explanation of how the form is filled in, and how the information is generated, is provided in the Manual for the EWS at Zone and Woreda Level.
APPENDIX 3:
DECISION PROCESSES FOR ELIGIBILITY ASSESSMENT
Field assessment missions are used to assess requests for relief assistance. For any woreda or sub-woreda Unit, you should be able to make a judgement on the requests for relief assistance. The judgements are not based on a scientific model, but on drawing sensible conclusions from what you have seen and heard. The critical question is; how strong is the case for relief assistance? We can give any unit a status:
STATUS A: Confirmed needing relief assistance
STATUS B: Unconfirmed needs – Requiring close monitoring
STATUS C: No need for relief assistance
The decision process for reaching these classifications can be summarised thus:
|Collect and review all Woreda Relief Assistance Application Forms. Has the woreda/sub-woreda unit made a request for relief assistance? |
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| |YES | |NO | |
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|Are you convinced that it is needed | |Are you convinced it is not needed? |
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|YES | |NO | |NO | |YES |
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|STATUS A | |STATUS B | |STATUS B | |STATUS C |
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|Now assess the proposed duration of relief assistance. Is it reasonable? |
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| |NO | |YES | |
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|Revise intervention start- and end-dates according to your | | |
|assessment and judgement | | |
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|Carefully record all the requests for relief assistance, including your revisions to the status/ duration /reasons for need. Discuss your |
|finding with the relevant Zone and Regional officials. |
The critical question is how to determine whether a unit is in need or not. These decision processes are explained in more detail in the Manual on Local Food Security Monitoring and Manual for the EWS at Zone and Woreda Level. FAMs must make their best judgement on whether a group (woreda or sub-woreda) fits the criteria for receiving relief assistance (described in these manuals). The basic criteria for eligibility are that, without relief assistance, households in a group are:
1. Expected to experience a major fall in household income AND
2. Unable to cope with the fall in income from gifts, other transfers, hunting and gathering AND
3. Likely to face a significant fall in food consumption to a level where there is a risk of starvation OR
4. Likely to have to take drastic measures, such as sale of essential assets, to avoid starvation
APPENDIX 4:
DECISION-MAKING PROCESS FOR LOCAL PURCHASE
In surplus areas, teams may be required to assess the possibility for local purchases. The principles for determining when local purchases are appropriate are explained in the Manual on Price and Market Monitoring, Chapter 4, Units 6 – 8. The basic criteria for local purchase in an area are as follows:
1. There is a large surplus: Large amounts of a food aid product (wheat, barley, sorghum, or maize) are available on the market at very low prices AND
2. The private trade cannot deal with the surplus: Credit, logistics, or other capacity constraints limit private sector purchases of the product. The private sector capacity is expected to remain limited AND
3. Prices are unacceptably low: As a result of 1 and 2, farmers are expected to receive prices that do not cover their costs AND/OR
4. There is no incentive for proper storage: Grains are being stored uncovered and high losses are expected
The decision process can be presented as:
|From your analysis of production, market supplies, storage conditions, and market prices in the area, do you detect a sizeable surplus of any |
|of the food aid commodities? |
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| |YES | | |NO | |
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| | | | |Local purchase is not possible, no surplus exists |
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|Are private traders likely to be able to transport the surplus elsewhere? |
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| |YES | |NO | |
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|Local purchase is not desirable as it will disturb the | |There may be a potential for local purchases |
|private trade | | |
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|Identify the commodities that may be available for local purchase and indicate the woredas and surplus markets where they are available. |
|Indicate any logistics constraints that may make local purchase operations difficult. |
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[1] Maintenance kit includes: Adjustable spanner, ring spanners, wheel spanner, 12 mm diameter cable wire (tow wire), pliers, hammer, screw drivers, fan belt, sockets (short, medium and long extension)
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