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By Kalkidan Lakew YihunProgram Coordinator, Women (in VSLAs) Respond, CARE USA There are few certainties in life, but one I have come to recognize, is that women in crisis will always take incredible action – whether there is outside intervention or not. 

Safe food supports national economies and global trade, in addition to contributing to food security, nutrition, and sustainable development. Governments can facilitate a culture of food safety by creating clear food safety regulations, policies and an enabling environment where small and medium-sized enterprises can thrive. Ethiopia’s government has been continuously upgrading its food safety laws and regulations to meet the requirements of both international buyers and its fast-growing food retail and wholesale establishments.

This blog was authored by Jody Delichte, Ben Taylor, Solyana Amsalu. For any new technology, the early adopters are unlikely to be those at the bottom of the pyramid. This is even less likely where adopting that technology requires infrastructure, asset ownership, skills, and other preconditions. For programs that explicitly aim to benefit the poor, there is often a question of whether to support business models that do not immediately appear to benefit them.

Amakelech Lulu is no stranger to winning. Founder of Gishen Pharmacy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, she won the 2019 Invest2Impact East Africa competition, which included 100 women-led businesses selected based on their potential to achieve growth and contribute to women’s economic empowerment. In July 2022, she also was awarded a certificate of merit in recognition of her exemplary professional service for best Community Pharmacy Practices by the Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Association. Despite her success, even her business was not immune to the economic impact of COVID-19.

This post was originally published on the Global Waters website and written by Lisa Schechtman, Senior Policy and Partnerships Advisor, USAID Center for Water Security, Sanitation and Hygiene; and Kathrin Tegenfeldt, Climate and WASH Advisor, Economic Growth and Transformation Office, USAID/Ethiopia.

Agriculture sustains the Ethiopian economy, and access to irrigation here is critical for food security. Now, in the wake of COVID-19, the World Food Programme estimates acute hunger will double worldwide, with concern particularly high for Africa.

The Feed the Future team aims to foster the breeding of high-yielding, climate-resilient chickpea within the context of user-preferred traits. Their upstream activities are predicated on the need to facilitate downstream phenotyping and breeding activities.

Nine projects are funded by NWO-WOTRO to strengthen the Netherlands-CGIAR research partnership on generating insights that contribute to improving seed systems in focus regions within Asia and Sub-Sahara Africa.

Learn more about the importance of strengthening input market systems in the lead up to the 2017 SEEP Annual Conference.

Even in a good year, when the weather cooperates and pests are held at bay, the world’s farmers face another threat: prices.

Presenters from the joint Microlinks-Agrilinks conference held in September, Sustainable Poverty Escapes, answer questions regarding their work on resilience and risk factors in poverty escapes.

Learn how the Government of Ethiopia moved away from annual emergency responses and took decisive action to tackle food insecurity in a systematic manner by launching the Productive Safety Net Program.

Two more vignettes are ready to roll. Pull up around the fire and listen close!

Why are there such stark discrepancies between official statistics and specialized market research on wage labor? FAO's Bernd Mueller explains.

In this post, Dr. Samson Radeny reviews where we are today with caregiver community-based microfinance.

To find solutions for reductions in global poverty and hunger, it is important to check assumptions and ensure we learn and adapt. The SEEP 2014 conference provided a space for people to reflect and ask the difficult questions.

Interview with Jason Wolfe, Senior Household Economic Strengthening Advisor with USAID's Office of HIV/AIDS, where he supports PEPFAR programs to improve the economic circumstances of households affected by HIV/AIDS.

Interview with Meaza Ashenafi, Chairperson of Enat Bank.

Understanding value chains, and how to make them work for smallholder farmers, is a central theme in research that seeks to find solutions to poverty and malnutrition.

This MPEP seminar follows a discussion on lessons learned from two USAID-sponsored programs as well as five key considerations that inform CARE’s practice.

To learn more about how USAID is unlocking private financing for development priorities around the world, you can watch an animated infographic featuring Ethiopian farmer Abebaw Gessese.