Purpose Today the number of women entrepreneurs is increasing. However, their power in use and control over the household and business-related resource are still limited. The purpose of this paper is to assess women’s economic empowerment in terms of their use and control over resources after participating in micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in Mekelle city. Design/methodology/approach A survey on 162 women-owned enterprises from two sectors, namely, manufacturing and service sectors belonging to three sub-cities of the study area was taken for this study. Questionnaire and interview data collection tools were employed, and the systematic random sampling technique was used to select respondents of questionnaires. Findings The results of the study revealed that MSEs in Mekelle city are found to have a profound effect on empowering women economically in terms of access to use and control of resources in business and at household, participation in social network and community undertakings. However, limited access to credit, high interest rate, complicated loan application procedures of bank, lack of work place, poor information and technology and basic infrastructure were still found the bottlenecks for women working in MSEs. Research limitations/implications MSEs are vital to empower women economically, but they should be accompanied by the improved and fast delivery of services such as credit, enabling work place and technology, which plays a decisive role in economic empowerment of women working in MSEs. Originality/value This paper fills the gap in the literature, as there is limited evidence on the role of MSEs in women’s economic empowerment and the challenges faced especially in developing countries in general and Mekelle city in particular.

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Cross-sectional data was used that was collected from 181 households in 2011/2012, to estimate households' willingness to pay for improved water service in Nebelet. The probit model was used to identify socioeconomic factors that affect the willingness to pay (WTP) of households. Interruption, delay in maintenance, irregular/erratic availability of the public water supply, the price charged per unit, the unequal treatment households face while collecting water at the public supply were found to be the pressing water problem existing in the study area. The descriptive analysis result showed that 96% of the sample households were willing to pay for the provision of improved water service. The Probit model showed that income, distance, water expense, bid, education, level of existing water satisfaction, marital status and sex were associated with households' willingness to pay for the provision of improved water services. Indicating, in designing water project/policy socioeconomic factors (such as age, monthly income, educational level) should be considered for successful water project/policy at household level.

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The study examined the adoption levels and economic benefits of IPM among rice farmers in South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. The research was conducted in two main rice producing areas of the province, Soppeng and Maros Regencies. Simple random sampling was employed in selecting 20% of the total populations, resulting in sample sizes of 69 repondents in Soppeng and 52 respondents in Maros. A structured questionnaire was used in direct interview with the selected respondents to obtain data on their socio-economic profile, IPM implementation, and profit gained from IPM. Percentage was used to present the data. In both regencies, overall IPM adoption rates were high with most respondents were categorized as medium and high IPM adopters with adoption rates of 85.1% in Soppeng and 88.5% in Maros. The medium and high IPM adopters gained more economic profits of 26.9% in Soppeng and 16%% in Maros in comparison to the low IPM adopters. The high adoption rates indicated that although the nationwide IPM Program has ended in late 1990’s, there was a continuous technological transfer from older farmers who participated in IPM-FFS to younger farmer generation. In order to improve IPM implementation by the younger farmers, they need to be provided with intensive extension support for IPM innovations. Keywords: Integrated pest management, rice farmers, adoption, economic benefit