Found my Motivation, Passion, Purpose and Commitment in Ethiopia

Today I finally left Ethiopia after my 2-month internship with PHE-Ethiopia, and it was by far the most difficult thing I’ve had to do so far during my trip. Last night Negash organized a good bye dinner for me at a Traditional Cultural Show with my favorite people—Mery, Mesy, Thamar, Teshe, Yemmy and Befekadu, along with an American woman named Anne who was visiting from San Francisco with the Packard Foundation. Again, I found myself looking at each of them with love and affection, so grateful that I’ve met so many amazing people and friends here. Yay for accomplishing my #1 goal of my RTW trip!

To revisit my “what I found in each country I’ve traveled to” theme, there’s no doubt that I found my motivation, passion, purpose and commitment in Ethiopia. Those are the words that most strongly came to my mind during each of my visits to rural areas, or engagements with the reproductive health and environmental movements within the country. Considering the fact that I was there for 2 months and made great friends, I could say a million things about the inner and outer beauty of Ethiopians, whose friendly, gracious and hospitable demeanors touched my life. But when I look inside myself at how this experience changed me, it all comes back to my “pivotal moment for global justice,” and how I’m more focused on my purpose and mission than I’ve ever been before.

Mostly, it was the visits to the rural areas that sent my mind and heart racing with the urgent need to take action for Africa, seeing hundreds of barefoot women walking on the side of the road with 50+ pounds of sticks on their backs. It was also during my visit to Gedeo zone, driving down the road and seeing a person walking or sitting every 10 seconds, and realizing the incredible population growth and density challenges facing the country. Of the country’s 80 million people, 80% or 64 million people live in rural areas, and desperately require more basic social services like education and health care, and better infrastructure like roads and electricity. Without that, how can they ever participate in the economy outside of their subsistence agricultural ways, and get ahead to escape poverty?

Finally, attending the Earth Day events yesterday on “Financing Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation” really shook me, as I learned how $100 billion of aid from developed countries is required to avoid the displacement and death of hundreds of millions of the most poor and vulnerable people who live in the developing world. Here are just some of the facts I learned, many of which I already had a vague idea about, but which resonated much more strongly with me because I’ve been living here and witnessing these challenges first-hand:

-“Africa is a continent that is hit hardest by climate change, with droughts, rising sea levels, desertification and disease. In Africa, climate change is a matter of survival.” –Prime Minister Meles Zenawi

-The African Development Bank said that climate change hinders economic development in Africa, for example the economy is largely dependent on agriculture, 95% of which is rain-fed. Climate change impacts are magnified where poverty is high and social safety net structures are weak. Addressing climate change impacts requires substantial financial resources, since climate change costs Africa 2% of GDP per year by 2040, rising with significant regional variations. All countries in Northern Africa are cost over 10%! “Climate proofing” will add 40% to costs of meeting the MDGs in Africa, but these costs are low compared with the economic benefits of adaptation and mitigation.

-The European Union addressed donors’ commitment for adaption and mitigation financing in Africa, and said that it’s difficult to quantify global financial needs because bottom-up country analyses are not available. (Hello potential MPH project! :)) However, the EU is on track with their 2012 Kyoto commitments, committed to support Africa with 2.4 billion Euros annually from 2010-2012, making up 1/3 of the global commitment. 1/3 of these funds are for adaptation, and 2/3 are for mitigation. They say that additional funds are required to scale up to 100 billion USD per year by 2020, and small-scale projects must be transparent, have effective monitoring, and community ownership in order to receive funding. The EU ended saying they’re very committed, and are ready to do more than what they pledged at Copenhagen if developing and “emerging” countries (i.e. China, India, Brazil) move along. In the end, the international dimension of long-term finance is only part of the picture, and national efforts are of equal importance by engaging in meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation. (Negash would certainly agree with this, since Ethiopian culture is very much about taking actions for themselves!)

-A representative with Oxfam in the U.S. then presented similar information to the EU but giving a U.S. and civil society perspective, posing questions such as whether the agreements made at Copenhagen are legally binding and how we can come up with more innovative small-scale projects worthy of $100 billion/year investment by 2020. Right now countries agreed on “fast-start finance” for “approaching $30 billion” from 2010-2020, and what happens now will set the conditions for being able to scale up these efforts by 2020. Since we don’t want funding to compete with other aid commitments like health clinics and schools, projects need to be really transparent about where funding is going and how it’s classified as climate change mitigation or adaptation. For example, Oxfam released a new report that offered successful coping mechanisms, like drought-resistant seeds, diversifying livelihoods off the farm, diversifying agriculture, and the Ethiopian government subsidizing cook stoves. (Although I spoke with her after the event and she wasn’t familiar with the integrated PHE approach, she seemed really supportive and hopes Oxfam can get more involved—let’s hope so!)

-A representative from the Ministry of Health discussed how health is one of the areas most affected by climate change, since weather extremes like heavy rains, floods, and disasters like hurricanes endanger health (malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea, cholera, meningitis asthma, heart and respiratory disease), and also destroy property and affect livelihoods. For example, rising sea levels could cause coastal flooding and population displacement, affecting unknown of people since over half the world’s population lives 60k from shorelines. In Ethiopia, health risks are grave, since there’s only 2,000 doctors, 1,000 health offices, 30,000 health extension workers and 20,000 nurses for a population of 80 million!! He said we are not at all capable to cope with climate change, since a stronger health system, more and better qualified workers, better medical equipment and drugs, and infrastructure are all needed… and they all require more finance! (I was really moved to hear all this and excited to be going into an MPH to focus my skills and research on these critical issues!)

After these sessions among others, I was in a bit of shock at all I’d heard about what we need to do to help Ethiopia adapt to climate change, and was rambling to Mery and Mesy about it in line for lunch. “Did you know all that before? How do you guys think the PHE approach can help?” They both gravely nodded that they’d heard it, and laughed at how anxious I was to do something about it. Mery told me, “You know what I like about you? You know who you are, and exactly what you want to do in the world. Like you’re always planning out your next steps—what you’re going to do in Kenya, Latin America, and on your campus next year. You’re the most focused person I’ve ever met!” I laughed and told her she just happened to meet me at a time in my life where yes I’m very focused, and realized that this is what Ethiopia has given me—it’s focused my motivation, passion, purpose and commitment like never before. I was really touched when she told me that I inspire her… both of our eyes teared up as we realized we’d have to say good bye for God knows how long the next day. So sweet!

So, as I go to Kenya and Latin America after that, I’m so invigorated knowing that like I said in my “pivotal moment” blog, Ethiopia will always be a part of me.  I’m again so grateful that I did this before my MPH program next year, so that I can look back to all that I learned and continue to fight for sustainable development and reproductive health in Ethiopia. And who knows, hopefully I’ll return sooner than later, ideally for research or work in the next 1-2 years! Ciao, and AMASEGENALLO, Ethiopia!