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Abdulaziz Dino Gidreta
nationally are quite insignificant, while observed locally from within the communities. The
prevailing cases of malaria, TB, typhoid and typhus are still threats to the grassroots in the
HOA. The common reports that the reduction of maternity and infant deaths can also be
challenged by actual contexts of mothers and babies during pregnancy, and after birth.
Lack of adequate sanitation and hygiene education accelerated the already deteriorating
health conditions.
Quantitative narratives of infrastructural distribution can also be contested by specific
break downs and concrete qualities. The actual distribution of schools is completely far
from the number of residents and the distance covered. A single school for one kebele,
in case of Ethiopia for example, is quite far from the average required number. Kids as
young as four and five are forced to walk an hour and more. In short, the quality of the
schools can literally be described by terrible classrooms, awful sitting arrangements, ex-
tremely high-class size and dangerous school latrines. Subsequently, it can be explained
by inadequately trained and highly limited number of teachers and quite insufficient
teaching - learning materials.
Despite the value that governments in the HOA given to agriculture, crop production
and animal husbandry have been suffering from various problems. Farmers have almost
no current idea about crop production, the cattle are devastated by series of diseases,
and nourishment habits and health challenges of farmers themselves negatively affected
productivity. Even in cases of a relatively better crop production, yields are shared by wild
animals like baboons and monkeys.
Global and regional narratives of success about green economy can also be challenged
by prevailing tendencies of deforestation in the region. In the absence of adequate nour-
ishment, the people tend to make money out of forests, and or they clear forests to utilize
the area for extended farming. While the staggering life, the economy and the growing
population contribute to deforestation, there is little effort in educating rural communities
about alternative ways of economic survival in place of deforestation, the further harms
of deforestation and the significance of afforestation.
The sum of health and sanitation complications, lack of access and quality of education,
un-productive agriculture and absence of environmental care can be perceived to cause
a general unease to rural communities in the HOA; and these would become a threat to
the communities’ hopes and survival. Considering the area and population that rural com-
munities cover, the HOA is far from handing prosperous countries to new generations.
This article would like to indicate the need for genuine interventions in form of awareness
creating trainings and infrastructural provisions in the region. Series of health and sanita-
tion skill development trainings
could enhance disease prevention and family health care
trends. NRM trainings should be designed with the direct aim to enable the people pre-
serve the forest, wild life, water, land and mineral resources. Training programs on crop
production and protection could also enhance farmers’ productivity. As part of immediate
