CARE Canada

Purpose

This project aims to help 200,000 women, men, girls and boys feed themselves by increasing their incomes so that they can purchase more food, or by increasing their ability to grow more food. The project targets farm-based families in eight districts in the West and East Hararge and South Gondar zones of rural Ethiopia who are traditionally dependent on food aid for several months a year. It provides training to adults and youth, both women and men, to help them develop the skills needed to increase their agricultural productivity or start small businesses, and to help them secure the necessary loans to fund these initiatives. The project also establishes or strengthens community-level groups, such as Production and Marketing Associations, to help farmers improve their access to the private sector and commercial markets, thereby enhancing their potential to increase their incomes. The project assists communities in working together to develop and implement community plans to address common challenges such as climate change and barriers to gender equality, which are both important factors that prevent families from being able to feed themselves. In addition, the project seeks to assist local government partners, including agricultural extension workers and food security officers, to obtain the knowledge, skills, and experience they need to more effectively plan, manage, and deliver agriculture and other food security programming which is gender inclusive and environmentally sustainable. The Food Self-Sufficiency for Farmers project is implemented jointly by CARE Canada and CARE Ethiopia.