‘Women instrumental to positive change in Ethiopia’

Haddis Tadesse is the Country Representative of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Ethiopia. In this interview he reveals that the effective deployment of women in all works of life and women-friendly policies contributed to the positive developments in Ethiopia.  You said by 2016, Ethiopia will be featuring some of its successes. What should the […]

Haddis Tadesse is the Country Representative of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Ethiopia. In this interview he reveals that the effective deployment of women in all works of life and women-friendly policies contributed to the positive developments in Ethiopia. 
You said by 2016, Ethiopia will be featuring some of its successes. What should the world be expecting?
 If you look at the work we have done over the last 15 years, it really centres on women. If you look at our health work, it primarily focuses on maternal and child health. We work with mothers to protect them, make sure their children are protected. In nutrition, men are not really the   drivers   of nutrition at family level; it is mostly women who do that. If you look at agriculture, majority of labour provided in the agriculture sector comes from women.  They help on the farm, once the output  is there and most of the processing, getting food on the table is the work of the women. Most of our work is to support  women  in health and agriculture. Women are central to development and health, and they will continue to do that.
Even when we get to family planning, it is all about women. We will continue to work with women as we have done before and in the future. 
 But in reality, much of the decision making in the family is by men, so how does it work?
Correct. That’s true. If a woman has control of how many children she will have and knows about spacing, that actually gives her power, economic power and   decision making power. Decision making happens at different levels. Most home decision making is done by men, but we think by supporting women to make the right decisions for themselves and their children, they will eventually make sound financial decisions. It is not an easy problem to solve but by empowering women and protecting their health, their children, giving them financial freedom in making choices we can achieve that.   
You have trained women to work as health frontline workers. You say they are accountable to the community. How does that work?  
Government’s commitment to pay for this large group of women to be able to supply services is very important. Once the government makes that commitment, that when women graduate from local schools they can apply to be health extension workers, that will help the system.  If they are  chosen, they go through rigorous training programme to be able to do   that. The idea that they are held accountable to their community is because, if you live in a village and come from that village,  everybody   knows everybody in the community. If the person is not performing her duties, they know exactly where she lives, they know her pattern. It makes it difficult for somebody not to show up and work. She also has a responsibility because it is her neighbours, her family, husband’s family,   and she knows the community.  The community she serves is a part  of   her. I think there is motivation for her to perform, improve her family. We   think that has worked  to the advantage of communities.  
Explain the agriculture successes and how women cooperatives are linked?
The cooperative structure is not detrimental to productivity increases. We are saying Ethiopia has been able to increase productivity significantly. Women have a big role to play. At household level, you can increase your productivity and sell to the local market and consume some yourself. You don’t necessarily need a cooperative to do that. But as it gets commercialized, women farmers can come together in a cooperative, aggregate their input and then they can sell to larger players-in which they generate a lot more money. These are some of the next steps of doing this but it doesn’t really affect the productivity of farmers. You can still produce more without necessarily belonging to a cooperative.   
What exactly is Bill & Melinda Gates intervention in agriculture?
Seeds are very important, the quality is also quite important. We invest in   research and dissemination of seeds. We work on fertilizer, general   extension programme to make sure farmers are trained to understand what’s good for them and to increase their productivity. Once they produce, linking them to markets is important. We work on linkage to market as well, so we can help farmers produce and then we go and find buyers for their products. Coffee is an example.
We help large number of farmers in Africa to produce good quality coffee and link them to international buyers. We do that in cocoa, cashew and juices. This is about helping famers produce more and better products while making sure they are linked to sustainable markets they can sell to.
Is girl early marriage a problem in Ethiopia and is it something BMG is interested in doing something about?
It is a problem in Ethiopia; in some parts of the country. There are a few places where this is a problem. The government and other partners have recognized it as a problem and are addressing it. First Lady of the country is a very strong advocate for women and girls, to stop early marriage. It impacts traditions, value systems that have been there for a long time, and to change them for the first time will take time and a lot of interventions. Religious leaders have a big role to play in this. We need to make sure they are galvanized to be able to advocate for ending early marriage.
Legally speaking, I think Ethiopia has done well. The legal age for marriage is 18, now it is working at the community level to make sure these old traditions are no longer applicable to today’s society and early marriage is one of them. There are a few other harmful practices in the society that we just need to get rid of, and I think everybody is working hard to do that. But it is not going to happen very quickly; it just takes time because you have to change the mindsets of the families and the people.