Ethiopia

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.