Atlas Final Web Version 6_14

Introduction
Why an Atlas of Ethiopian Livelihoods?
geography for the whole country seemed to call for an Atlas, as
We begin with some basic geography, showing how
Our understanding of rural livelihoods in Ethiopia has
developed greatly over the last two decades. The challenge has
come from information needs on both the emergency and the
development sides, in the quest for better-founded decisions
on action and investment. One relatively recent government
initiative, assisted by USAID, has been to put livelihoods
analysis at the center of Ethiopia’s official early warning system.
one good way to share the results with interested people both
in and beyond the sphere of early warning. Here we should
pay tribute to the IFPRI Atlas of the Ethiopian Rural Economy 2 ,
which prompted us to think of using the present, separate set
of data to offer a quite different, but we hope complementary,
production.
The problem was how to select and shape data from this
topography, altitude, rainfall, and population density come
together to form the environments in which households
live. The most basic division is between pastoralists,
agropastoralists and the majority population of farmers. But
within each of these general categories, local factors make for
further livelihood distinctions, so that we end up with a mosaic
map of 175 livelihood zones.
As a result, there has been an intensive field effort over a period
of just under five years (2005 - 2009) to gather livelihoods
information from every corner of rural Ethiopia, covering
cultivators and herders in each of the country’s many contrasting
environments 1 . The resulting data is tied to a framework of
analysis which rests on a rounded view of livelihoods, seen
from the point of view of household operations: because in the
huge information resource in order to present as clearly as
possible, in a geographical sense, what drives livelihoods and
what distinguishes them from each other. And included in the
mix, the differences recorded between poorer and wealthier
households had to be presented, because not only are some
areas better-favored than others, but within any community
some households are better off than others.
After this summary of the context of livelihoods, we launch
into what people do to survive in their environments, and
what differences in prosperity and poverty result. We begin
with an account of seasonality, including an original analysis of
USGS data, because the seasons rule rural life and are therefore
fundamental to any system which monitors rural conditions.
And seasonality in Ethiopia has it complications.
Introduction
end, the rural economy functions through the daily decisions
and actions of millions of households.
What is in the atlas?
We then consider people’s assets in land, their production
of both food and cash crops and how much they depend
The other element of the framework is its geographical basis,
which has required a zoning of each region by livelihood
types. Such a unique combination of livelihoods analysis and
1 This effort was carried out under the direction of the Livelihoods Integration Unit,
which operates from within the Disaster Risk Management and Food Security Sector
of the MOARD; and with Save the Children UK in Afar and Somali regions.
As can be seen from the table of contents, we have opted for
what we hope is a logical sequence of presentation. The data is
put together to tell a story in maps.
2 International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington DC. / Central Statistical
Agency / Ethiopian Development Research Institute: Atlas of the Ethiopian Rural Economy.
Published in Addis Ababa 2006
on either. After that comes a separate account of livestock,
because these are so important that nearly every rural
household has some, even if it is only a couple of chickens. The
section on livestock is followed by a closer look at pastoralists
The Livelihoods Atlas for Ethiopia The Livelihoods Integration Unit
v