The rain doesn’t come on time anymore: poverty, vulnerability, and climate variability in Ethiopia

In 2009, Oxfam commissioned research on climate variability in four administrative areas in Ethiopia. This report is based on that research and sets out to answer three fundamental questions:

• Do Ethiopian farmers and pastoralists perceive changes in weather patterns? If so, what are they? What meteorological information is available in the four study areas?
• How have farmers and pastoralists been coping with and adapting to these changes in weather patterns?
• What policy recommendations emerge from these specific case studies that will increase the resilience of poor men and women in Ethiopia?

According to Oxfam these questions are especially important to explore in Ethiopia because it is one of the poorest countries in the world, where 85 percent of the population depends on agriculture.