Ethiopia
Programme Summary
Inspired by the news of successful partnership working during 2009 in the Guraghe zone, 102,950 coffee growers, processors and exporters from the Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union in the southern and western part of Ethiopia were targeted for partnership working. A further 250,000 community members will be involved in tree planting and the implementation of systems to restore productivity to counter abject poverty in three more communities in the northern part of Ethiopia.
Partner Network
Greener Ethiopia - Ethiopian Airlines
Background
It is difficult to escape the cycle of poverty in Ethiopia. A country that has been plagued with land degradation, overgrazing, deforestation, agricultural expansion, the scavenging of wood fuel, ruined soil, rainfall, and political factors link the continuous vicious circle of human and environmental accelerated degradation. The natural resources are long gone and the replacement is beyond natural and sustainable capacity. This has been caused by the increasing population, poor education and reduced agricultural productivity and fodder production for livestock, forcing people to farm and graze the land even more intensively to sustain them, thereby contributing to the poverty that lays a heavy burden on this impoverished, desperate country.
The Response
The goal is to rehabilitate and improve productive potential of degraded and marginal lands, to improve the socio economic conditions of those communities that are involved. Tree planting in Ethiopia is focused on implementing multipurpose systems that restore degraded lands to productivity, while yielding edible fruits, livestock forage, medicinal plants and wood for fuel and construction purposes.
The work began in Ethiopia with partnering organisations that focused on the Guraghe Zone. The challenges faced by rural communities were addressed from a realistic point of view and the projects community driven. The work is primarily with farmers and community groups in marginalized areas, and full participation and ownership of the projects by those participants is considered crucial to the sustainability and success of our approach.
Partnering organisations have made several trips to Ethiopia over the past few years, combining to provide 160 days of on-site technical assistance. This has been important to the success of the program, but there is an even greater presence needed. Due to the positive response from the communities it is working, the need for more on-site training and support, the plan is for partnering organisations to open an office in Ethiopia. By the end of 2009, the plan is to have a permanent on-site coordinator in Ethiopia in order to better assist other partners and expand further afield and assist even more.