Global programmeFood and Nutrition Security, Enhanced Resilience to Food Crisis

Context

The project regions Tigray and Amhara in northern Ethiopia are known for recurring periods of drought, high population growth and associated food insecurity. The barren soil, the little water available and the scarce vegetation are heavily strained, and natural resources are scarce. This leads to existential chal-lenges, especially for the small farmers in the region. Women are particularly affected by this situation. Culturally, their pri-mary role is feeding their families, however, women are limited in their ability to practise a healthy diet of their own, as they lack necessary resources such as land, livestock and financial resources

Activities in Ethiopia

Cross-sectoral Coordination In order to create and strengthen sustainable food security

structures, organisational and technical support is provid-ed to responsible bodies at national, regional, community and village level in the health and agriculture sectors.

Knowledge Transfer Knowledge about healthy nutrition and adequate hygiene

and care practices are essential to improve the nutritional situation. For this reason, household members and multipli-ers in the rural communities are trained, for example in the context of cooking demonstrations and workshops on the processing and preservation of food.

Availability For a secure and well-balanced diet, varied and healthy food

is made available through the project. Women and their families are trained to grow different types of fruit and vegetables in their home gardens. The use of different plants with important ingredients such as vitamin A, iron and zinc is promoted.

Our objective

The nutritional situation at household level of people at risk of malnutrition has improved, especially for women of childbearing age and infants.

As a result, up to 40 percent of the population in the region is chronically under- and malnourished. Malnutrition for new-borns in the first 1,000 days of life leads to serious develop-mental damage. If essential micronutrients such as vitamin A, iron or zinc are missing during this time window, this can have a lifelong effect manifesting itself in reduced growth and a weakened immune system. 93 percent of children between the ages of six months and two years also receive too few and, in addition, insufficiently balanced meals. In many places there is not enough clean drinking water and thus diarrhoea is very common.

Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture Project in Ethiopia

Nutr i t ion Sensi t i ve Agr iculture Projec t in Ethiopi a

Amhara

Addis Ababa

Tigray

EritreaYemen

Djibou�Somalia

Kenya

South Sudan

Sudan

Where we work

E T H I O P I A

RegionsTigray and Amhara

Budget and DurationEUR 19.7 million / March 2015 – March 2023

Commissioned byFederal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)

Implementing PartnersStaff nominated by the respective districts from the authorities responsible for agriculture, health, water, promotion and training of women; Local Nongovernmental Organisations: Women’s Association of Tigray; Relief Society of Tigray; International Potato Center (CIP); Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (EOTC)

Lead Executing AgencyEthiopian Ministry of Agriculture; Ethiopian Ministry of Health

Target Group36.000 women between of childbearing age; 9.225 children between 6 – 23 months.

Sustainable Development Goals

Example of our work

Recognising that diverse nutrition is important requires a change in awareness and with it a behavioural change in the population. The Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture project has al-ready introduced a comprehensive communication and behav-iour change strategy for the Tigray region and is now working on expanding this for the Amhara region with the necessary cultural adjustments. Part of this strategy is a campaign with well-known personalities, which can act as influencers and have a strong positive impact on the population. In the Tigray region, the singer Mahlet Gebregiorgis is the voice and face of the nutri-tion campaign.

In cooperation with the Women’s Association of Tigray, she supports several cooking demonstrations and field visits as a “nutrition ambassador”. A special radio programme, videos and her own song on the subject of nutrition, sung by Mahlet, also raise awareness on the issue of “varied nutrition and food secu-rity”. During the cooking demonstrations, meals are prepared together and the statements of the song are discussed and put into practice. Further discussions and the tasting of the food make the events popular and instructive for women in the pro-ject regions.

Results

In courses and practical cooking demonstrations, 19,500 par-ticipants, 90 percent of whom were women, were trained in nutritionally relevant topics. 78 percent of the target group now have a comprehensive knowledge of how to produce appropriate complementary food. 16,500 women were trained in the area of diversified agricultural production. 87 percent of the target group now run a home garden and expanded food production by one of the foods promoted by the project. Through training, 900 intermediaries were predominantly strengthened in their competence to impart knowledge regarding of nutrition and hygiene issues.

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Contact gabriele.schulz@giz.de

Photos: GIZ / Claudia Ruff

GIZ is responsible for the content of this publication.

September 2020

Editor Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH Sitz der Gesellschaft: Bonn und Eschborn Abteilung Ländliche Entwicklung und Agrarwirtschaft G500 Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 32 + 36 53113 Bonn, Germany