Over the next five years in Ethiopia, Feed the Future aims to help an estimated 509,000 vulnerable Ethiopian women, children and family members—mostly smallholder farmers—escape hunger and poverty. More than 434,000 children will be reached with services to improve their nutrition and prevent stunting and child mortality. Significant numbers of additional rural populations will achieve improved income and nutritional status from strategic policy engagement and institutional investments.

Feed the Future activities in Ethiopia develop the capacity of vulnerable and chronically food-insecure households to participate in economic activities. At the same time, the economic activities mobilize market-led agricultural growth to generate relevant economic opportunity and demand for smallholder production, labor, and services.

To help meet its objectives, Feed the Future Ethiopia is making core investments in three key areas: 

1. System-wide Transformation-Agricultural Growth Enabled Food Security. Supports Ethiopian efforts to promote agricultural-led economic growth by strengthening strategically selected value chains, promoting private sector engagement and improving market function. 

• Agricultural Growth Program
• Value Chain Expansion
• Livestock Growth Program
• Systems Change Initiative Fund 
• Directly benefits smallholder farmers or pastoralists
• Promotes innovative approaches
• Incorporates performance metrics that ensure a transition to sustainability
• Outlines a plan for scaling up from a smaller, pilot investment to broader, systemic change
• Leverages investment of other donors or private sector entities

2. Linking the Vulnerable to Markets. First, it will support the development of sustainable livelihoods among chronically food insecure households in targeted woredas, in order to spur their graduation from the Government of Ethiopia Productive Safety-Net Program (PSNP); and second, programming will create economic linkages between the chronically food insecure regions of Ethiopia. These linkages may include joint marketing of input and outputs, and the trade of staple foods from surplus areas to deficit areas.

• Productive Safety Net Program Graduation with Resilience to Achieve Sustainable Development
• Pastoralists Resiliency Improvement and Market Expansion
• Strengthening Government of Ethiopia Efforts to Scale Resiliency and Push Model

3. Policy and Capacity. Focuses on improving the ability of policymakers and selected stakeholders to conduct analyses and influence policy. In order to achieve Feed the Future Ethiopia’s goals, linkages between actors who contribute to strengthening markets and those markets must be improved. 

• Biotechnology
• General Land Policy
• Pastoral Land Policy
• Seed Policy
• World Trade Organization Accession
• Foreign Bank Ownership/Entry

Target Regions 

Ethiopia’s Feed the Future portfolio has a slightly wider geographic scope. Investments cover 83 Agricultural Growth Program woredas plus an additional 17 woredas for greater strategic geographic coverage, representing approximately 13 percent of Ethiopia’s administrative woredas. The Agribusiness and Markets Development and Livestock Growth Program will have a stronger presence and more active engagement in Oromia Region, where there is a confluence of all three of Ethiopia’s major agro-ecological zones. This strengthened presence will be in 10 target woredas for deep investment under these two programs.

Highlights 

Empowering New Generations with Improved Nutrition and Economic Opportunity. ENGINE is a five-year integrated national nutrition program that will have a geographic focus on Feed the Future woredas. Major program focus areas will include the following:

• Advocacy for institutionalization and capacity strengthening of nutrition programs and policy with a strong emphasis of building the capacity and coordination mechanism within the Government of Ethiopia
• Quality and delivery of nutrition and health care services
• Prevention of undernutrition through community-based nutrition care and practices
• Adoption of a rigorous and innovative learning agenda

Regional Integration. The U.S. Government will support activities that improve the standards, quality and efficiency of live animal livestock trade within the Horn of Africa and Gulf States, through the Livestock Growth Program and its allied programs. Focus will be placed on improving joint marketing and lobbying of Horn of Africa states, improvement of veterinary services, improved access to regional markets, and harmonization of regional and national livestock policies. USAID/East Africa is currently developing a new regional activity to support uniform regional application of disease surveillance and control programs, with focus on animal health issues, which is expected to stimulate other investments in regional value chains from initial producers to final purchasers. Pastoralists and other livestock producers, market operators, transporters, feedlots, abattoirs, meat processors, retailers and consumers will all profit from the availability, sale, processing, and consumption of healthy animals. USAID/East Africa will link to Ethiopia’s Feed the Future activities, as well as with organizations working in Kenya and Somalia. Finally, USAID/Ethiopia will look for opportunities to coordinate with USAID/East Africa and USDA on seeds certification; in addition, USAID will collaborate with USDA regional activities to continue to improve Ethiopia’s sanitary and phyto-sanitary standards (SPS) so that it can better participate in regional markets.