Regional Reports - the European External Action Service

6. Regional Report SNNPR
1 General remarks on NSA at territorial level.
1.1. Background about the SNNPR
The Southern Nation, Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR) is the most multi –ethnic
regional state of Ethiopia SNNPR embraces populous nations and nationalities like Sidama,
Wolaita, Kembata, Hadiya, Gurage and Gedeo and also a large number of ethnic groups. It is also
the region representing people from varieties of large nations and numerous small nationalities
with distinct language, tradition, culture and custom. Thus, the SNNPR is unique in that it
represents an extensive geographic area and a large population of high diversity that live in unity.
Like the diversity in the ethnicity, culture of its people, language, etc, the SNNPR also comprises
a very large geographic area with considerable variation in agro – climate, weather pattern and
socio-economic condition. The livelihood of the region’s population is primarily dependent on
sedentary agriculture while a large proportion is also dependent on livestock production
especially in the pastoral and agro-pastoral areas bordering with Kenya. Even though SNNPR is
one of the most fertile regions, it is one of the regions where there is lack of access to basic social
services and hence the coverage of services like education, health, water supply, etc is very low.
Apart from the underdeveloped social and economic infrastructure, there is widespread poverty
resulting to a large proportion of the population that live below the poverty line.
On the basis of the 1995/96 poverty indices, the poverty index (Po) estimated for the SNNPR is
0.56 as compared to the national average of 0.46 1 . According to this study, in 1995/96, more than
50 percent of people living in consumption poverty resided in two regions which are the SNNPR
and Amhara Regional States. Despite improvement in the incidences of poverty, a poverty index
of 0.51 was estimated in 1999/00 indicating still a very high level of poverty incidence in this
region. On top the persistence of high poverty level, there is a rapid population growth, land
degradation and natural resource depletion that lead to the loss of agricultural productivity, food
shortages and the aggravation of food insecurity of the region’s population. Moreover, the
suffering of households and people in the region also results from major shocks and disasters and
shocks that are caused by famine and food shortages due to the lack of rain and crop failure. The
vulnerability and shocks of livelihood is especially more aggravated in the lowland or Kolla areas
where the recurrence of drought and rain shortage results in the scarcity of pasture and water
supply results in the suffering of pastoral population that depend on livestock for livelihood.
Due to the high poverty incidence and livelihood vulnerability, currently there are numerous NSA
of diverse types that operate in the SNNPR. As the problems faced by the people are diverse and
multi-faceted, different project activities are undertaken to address the various problems of the
people. The types of NSA operational in the region, thematic areas, activity sectors and coverage
have been assessed and mapped as described below briefly.
1.2. NSA in SNNPR from the previous mapping
The previous mapping study briefly describes the NSA in SNNPR and the findings include;
1) BoFED is responsible for the registration and supervision of NGO activities while the
responsibility of Civil Association and Public Participation for the registration of mass
and membership based organizations. As noted from the spokesperson, it is the mass and
membership based organizations that have more roles in policy making through public
1 MoFED, Ethiopia: Sustainable Development and Poverty Reduction Program, Addis Ababa, 2002,
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