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Ethiopia

Project Name

Integrated Landscape Management to Enhance Food Security and Ecosystem Resilience

GEF Implementing Agency

UNDP

Objective

To enhance long-term sustainability and resilience of food production systems by addressing the environmental drivers of food insecurity in Ethiopia.

Contact

Birara Chekol

birara.chekol@undp.org

Project Targets


120,000 ha


land under integrated and sustainable management

TBC MtCO2e


GHG emissions avoided or reduced

240,000


beneficiary households

Rationale

Approach

Impact

Stakeholders engaged

Smallholder farming is the primary economic activity across the six regions in which the RFS Ethiopia project is implemented. Farming takes place in often highly degraded and vulnerable environments where there is substantial loss of vegetation, associated erosion and declining soil fertility. Rapidly growing populations and the associated demand for biomass fuels, water, and agricultural land accelerate environmental degradation and further threaten food production.

Land degradation makes Ethiopia particularly vulnerable to climate change and climate variability. Ethiopia has been experiencing recurrent drought since the El Niño weather event in 2015/2016. Most areas of Ethiopia haven’t experienced normal rainfall in years, leading to widespread hunger, malnutrition, and disease outbreaks.  

The RFS Ethiopia project targets six regions—Amhara, SNNP, Oromia, Tigray, Afar and Somali—across two global biodiversity hotspots, Eastern Afromontane and Horn of Africa. The project approach combines land management choices and Integrated Natural Resources Management (INRM) with water and climate-smart agriculture, value chain support and gender empowerment.

This project is structured around three principal components:

  1. Strengthening institutional frameworks for enhanced biodiversity and ecosystem goods and services within food production systems;
  2. Scaling up the Integrated Landscape Management approach to achieve improved productivity of smallholder food production systems and innovative transformations to non-farm livelihoods; and
  3. Developing and strengthening capacity for knowledge management, learning, monitoring and assessment.

By mainstreaming integrated landscape management through markets and economic production systems, the project works to achieve ecosystem sustainability, increased food security and financial benefits for local communities. 

RFS Ethiopia engages 240,000 households as direct beneficiaries of the project across 6 regions and indirectly engages up to 1.4 million people across all 12 regions.

The project aims to meet the following targets: 

Institutional frameworks established for enhancing biodiversity and ecosystem goods and services within food production systems.

  • Strengthen policies and institutional arrangements to allow stakeholders at national and landscape level to work together towards an INRM approach that fosters sustainability and resilience

Integrated Landscape Management approaches scaled up.

  • Equip 240,000 farm households in 12 pilot sites with improved soil and water management practices.
  • Place 120,000 ha under diversified food production.
  • Place 10,000 ha of agropastoral systems under integrated management.
  • Improve access to food for 240,000 farm households, including through off-farm activities. Knowledge management, learning, and monitoring and assessment processes developed.
  • Build personal and institutional capacity to monitor and assess resilience, food security and global environmental benefits. 

Knowledge management, learning, and monitoring and assessment processes developed.

  • Build personal and institutional capacity to monitor and assess resilience, food security and global environmental benefits. 

At national level, major stakeholders involved in the RFS Ethiopia project include the following ministries: Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change; Ministry of Agriculture; and Ministry of Finance and Economic Development.

Other stakeholders directly engaged throughout the project include: community members and resource users and managers at the local level; NGOs; national and international partners and agencies; universities in the 12 targeted areas; local authorities of Oromia, Amhara, Tigray, Afar and Somali Regional States; and the Woreda Agricultural, Water and Energy and Environment Protection and Land Use Offices. 

Project Activities

Each RFS country project conducts activities that fall under common thematic areas within the programme. Explore each project theme relevant to the RFS Ethiopia country project below to see which activities are being implemented under each theme.

Stories from the Field

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Relevant Resources

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