World Vision Ethiopia and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) launch DGIS Project

“Enhancing Food and Water Security for Improved Rural Commercialization”

Addis Ababa, January, 2014 (WVE & ICRAF): World Vision Ethiopia and ICRAF announced today the official launch the project “Enhancing Food and Water Security for Improved Rural Commercialization" which is funded by The Government of the Netherlands, via the General Directorate of International Cooperation (DGIS).

“The project is all about the most vulnerable communities, it complements WVE work in all program areas,” Said Mrs. Margaret Schuler, National Director of WVE. “We are thrilled with this project because World Vision’s programmes are designed to improve the wellbeing of children and the DGIS project will strengthen household and community resilience and ultimately improve the lives of Ethiopia’s children,” She added.

The project focuses on semi-arid regions of Ethiopia, aiming to transition rural households from subsistence farming and emergency aid to sustainable rural development by increasing food and water security, better access to markets and strengthening of the local economy for different categories of farmers.

This project, designed to increase resilience, will be inclusive and work with all social groups in a village -- from the poorest and most food-insecure to the more prosperous and commercially-oriented. It anticipates devoting abundant resources to ensuring that the voices of women and other marginalized groups are heard and responded to. The programme design will take into account the diversity that exists with regard to access, use and control over resources (land, labour and capital), between households (e.g. poor and food-insecure farmers versus commercially-oriented), and between members of the same household (e.g. men and women; single versus married).

In Ethiopia, this five year project will be implemented in Tigray and the Rift Valley in partnership with NGOs, CBOs and respective Government agencies. The total budget of the project is $15 million (USD).

Prof Dennis Garrity, Drylands Ambassador, ICRAF said that “this regional program will be really fresh and innovative approach to building the resilience of the poorest households in the dry lands of Ethiopia and other countries across the Sahel ”

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For more information please contact: Meron Aberra, World Vision at meron_aberra@wvi.org, 0911-221060 or Kiros Hadgu, at 0930105748

End Note:

World Vision began its first intervention in Ethiopia in 1971 with relief and opened the Ethiopia office in 1975. During the 1984/85 drought, World Vision Ethiopia participated in a massive relief operation that saved the lives of millions of people. After an intensive relief and rehabilitation program, the organization developed a new integrated development approach the objective of which was to ensure empowerment and transformational change.  This approach led to the establishment of Area Development Programs (ADPs) in the 1990s that is still being implemented and continuously strengthened today in over 80 woredas around the country.

ICRAF

The World Agroforestry Centre is an international research organization supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). It works in more than 20 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The Centre's ultimate purpose is to improve human welfare by reducing poverty, increasing cash income, improving food and nutritional security, and enhancing ecosystem resilience in the tropics, through improved agroforestry systems.