Infrastructure & Social Services

Expand, improve, and develop modest housing and public service infrastructure in Alitena and Dawhan towns and the vicinities like Kallassa, Gibidawo, and Daya villages. This will be an excellent incentive for local resettlement of the internally displaced and young families who are encroaching into semi-wilderness regions in search of land for residence and agricultural needs. It will create an opportunity free the mountainous region for restoration and ecotourism.

IAA recommends investing in modest housing infrastructure and public services development in Alitena and Dawhan towns and the surrounding areas like Daya and Kallassa villages. The goal of this project is to improve the efficiency and affordability of public services (electricity, housing, water, communication, and health) provision.

 The housing shortage is the main challenge for local resettlement and youth opportunity creation. This will be a great incentive for the young generation to abandon the dispersed settlement on mountains and steep slopes and move to the towns. It will also make the delivery of public services (electricity, housing, water, communication, and health) more efficient and affordable. In addition, the success of this program will have a positive spillover effect on the upland restoration program by releasing steep highland slopes for ecological restoration and environmental research.

The success of this program would also release more than 50,000ha of the agriculturally unsustainable rugged mountainous region of Irobland for nature restoration and environmentally friendly livelihood practices like beekeeping, ecotourism, biodiversity restoration, and research of the extremely diverse and unique native flora. Thus, the successful implementation of this program will have a ripple effect towards the success of mountain ecosystem restoration as it will halt the encroachment of young families into remote areas in search of residence and cultivable land in the Irob mountains.

The Irob and Saho people have a long history of linguistic and cultural affinity, but they have been cut off from each other by the border dispute and armed conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea that lasted more than half a century. The main obstacle to their communication and cooperation is the absence of a road link between their respective regions. 

A feasible and cost-effective solution is to build a road network that connects Alitena, the administrative center of Irob with Hirgo or Arafali, the coastal towns of Saho people, through Saho territory. This would enable them to restore and enhance their social and cultural relations, as well as to access new economic opportunities and markets. This would also create sea access for the landlocked Irob region.

Irob population's original settlement pattern is scattered hamlets following the mountainous regions. As goat herds dominated pastoralists originally, this pattern was feasible as the open lands in between the hamlets served as communal grazing land. They chose to settle in the higher elevations following the mountain chains because as a dryland region in the tropics climate at higher elevations was more conducive. 

However, in recent decades subsistent rainfed crop farming was also innovated in Irob to make up for the declining livestock productivity due to worsening droughts and degradation, increasing livestock population beyond the carrying capacity of the land as Irob population grew. As a result, young families encroached into even less feasible semi-wilderness regions in search of lands for residential, agricultural, and livestock needs. This further worsened the land degradation and now they must go through other transitions. rainfed agriculture is no more sustainable. They need to move towards irrigation-based crop farming and modernize livestock systems. Besides, the accessibility to the current hamlets is a serious challenge to provide any public services.

 To solve these problems local resettlement of young families and the IDPs to Urban centers around Alietan and Dawhan is a key priority here. It is important to facilitate and incentivize the resettlement of young families and internally displaced persons (IDPs) to resettle in their local communities. This can include providing housing, food, and other resources to help them rebuild their lives.

 In their new destination towns, introduce the provision of social services such as counseling and mental health support to help the community recover from the trauma of war. Improve access to basic public services such as clean water, education, and healthcare. This can include building new schools and hospitals, improving water infrastructure, and providing training for healthcare workers.

Irob, as a minority, is facing social capital decline related to identity loss and its language. To address this issue, it is important to integrate cultural, historical, and heritage resources into training and academics. This can help restore the Irob identity and promote social capital. Introducing language development is also crucial, particularly,  the development of its written form as the Saho language is still a spoken language. Research and development of written forms, and school materials and integrating them into the curriculum will help the restoration and further development of the language and the associated history and cultural capital of the Irob minority.

In addition, provide Saho language classes for both children and adults in the community. This will help to ensure that the Saho language is passed down to future generations and that it remains an integral part of Irob culture.