The strongest El Niño weather episode in the last several decades has caused repeated crop failure, decimated livestock herds and driven some 10.2 million people across Ethiopia into food insecurity, FAO reported as it presented its emergency response plan to urgently protect livestock and rebuild crop production in the Horn...

El Niño has had an extremely heavy impact on livestock and agriculture in Ethiopia. Shukri Ahmed gives dramatic figures on the consequences of the drought. He also illustrates FAO Response Plan 2016, underlining the need for urgent action and the importance of building resilience.

Soil loss in Ethiopia is an expensive problem, adding up to more than US$100 million every year. The country is locked in a cycle of land degradation and poverty, costing it not just money, but soil and crop harvests as well.

The aims of this paper are to share experiences and lessons learned from advocating pastoralism and improving the voice of pastoralists in policy-making processes in Ethiopia through a specific activity and process – namely the Ethiopian Pastoralist Day. The paper has been developed through a self- and peer-reflective process by...

As countries design climate change adaptation policies, it is important to understand how workers alter behavior in response to changes in temperature. Nonetheless, the impact of temperature on labor markets is poorly documented, especially in Africa. We address this gap by analyzing panel surveys of labor choices by sector, contractual...

Ethiopia lacks knowledge and skills pertaining to CSA and conservation agriculture in particular. For purposes of knowledge dissemination, a comprehensive capacity development approach that builds on the sound assessment of the needs of all stakeholders is required. Within diversified extension service delivery there is a need to build the capacity...

The economic contributions of forests in Eastern African countries have not received the desired attention in terms of policy and budgetary allocation needed for sustained growth of these forests. This, among other reasons, has led to the reduction of forest zones and an increase in the import of forest-related products,...

Close to 12 million people across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are in need of food assistance, as farming families struggle with the knock-on effects of multiple droughts that hit the region. Shukri Ahmed, FAO Senior Economist, illustrates the food insecurity situation, most affected sectors, the support needed and FAO’s response....

The Regional Initiative seeks to strengthen the programmes, mechanisms, capacity and delivery of actions needed to operationalize commitments to end hunger by 2025, and to support mapping exercises that identify gaps and determine requisite interventions to enhance policy dialogue on food security and nutrition, both at regional and country levels....

The Africa Solidarity Trust Fund (ASTF) is an innovative Africa-led fund to support Africa for African development initiatives. Its main goal is to strengthen food security across the continent by assisting countries and their regional organizations to eradicate hunger and malnutrition, eliminate rural poverty and manage natural resources in a...

The FAO Youth Mobility, Food Security and Rural Poverty Reduction (RYM) project aims at mitigating distress economic mobility in Tunisia and Ethiopia. With the support of the Italian Development Cooperation, the project will promote innovative mechanisms and rural development strategies with the objective of mitigating distress migration for rural youth...

Populations in Africa are increasingly exposed to the negative impact of natural and human-induced disasters such as drought, floods, disease epidemics and conflicts which threaten the agriculture production systems and livelihoods of vulnerable communities. The initiative on “Building Resilience in Africa’s Drylands” was developed to enhance the capacity of these...

This policy brief discusses ways to scale up agroecological approaches and suggests actionable advice tailored for various stakeholders, including policy-makers, private sector, financial partners, research and development community and civil society. The brief focuses on how to design scaling up initiatives and provides success as well as failure stories.

This video showcases FAO’s resilience works in Ethiopia’s Afar region in the last few years. 

2015 was a landmark year for the future of the planet and therefore for the future of every woman, man, girl and boy, in all four corners of the world. Two important events - the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit 2015 and COP21 on development and climate change, led to...

About 60 million people across Southern Africa and the Horn, Central America, and the Pacific face worsening hunger and poverty due to droughts and crop failures in 2014/5 that have been exacerbated by the El Niño weather system in 2015/6. This number is likely to rise. This short report gives...

This article presents findings on the local economy impacts of seven African country SCT programmes evaluated as part of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) “From Protection to Production” (PtoP) project. The countries are Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The PtoP project has facilitated expansion of...

One of the key questions in food policy debates in the last decades has been the role of cash cropping for achieving food security in low income countries. We revisit this question in the context of smallholder coffee production in Ethiopia. Using unique data collected by the authors on about...

The study had the major objective of identifying and documenting climate-smart agriculture initiatives, technologies, practices and stakeholders in the Eastern Africa Sub-region with a special focus on Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, so as to produce a report that would enable stakeholders to understand the opportunities and constraints associated with adopting...

In Africa, small-scale agriculture – including post-production activities such as handling, processing and marketing – is a major source of income in rural areas. In recent years, women have increased their role in the rural sector significantly, and their contribution to household and commercial agriculture is fundamental. Empowering and investing...