Feed the Future Ethiopia Livelihoods for Resilience - Oromia Cooperative Agreement No. AID-663-A-17-00005

The activity aims to support the livelihood options of chronically food insecure households in Oromia region. The goal is to improve the sustainable economic well-being of Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) households in Arsi Zone, West Arsi, and East Shoa. The activity will assist 24,500 households with a goal to successfully graduate 18,375 households. The activity's first strategic objective (SO 1) focuses on increasing income and diversification through on-farm opportunities, including crop and livestock market systems. Key achievements under this objective include the training of 3,205 households on marketing basics, business skills, and natural resource management topics. Additionally, 109 livelihood group members selected a livelihood pathway in the third quarter, with 56 of them being female. The activity also provided orientations to beneficiaries on livelihood pathway selection through its field staff. The activity's second strategic objective (SO 2) aims to increase income and diversification through off-farm livelihood options. Key achievements under this objective include the engagement of men, women, and youth in off-farm livelihood activities. The activity also provided financial and business development services to these groups, resulting in increased diversification of off-farm income-generating activities and non-farm enterprises. The activity's third strategic objective (SO 3) focuses on increasing income through gainful employment. Key achievements under this objective include the adoption of increased use of employment knowledge, skills, and information for job-seeking by jobseekers. The activity also linked job seekers with prospective employers, resulting in improved employment outcomes. The activity's fourth strategic objective (SO 4) aims to increase innovation, scaling, and sustainability of livelihood pathways. Key achievements under this objective include the improvement of layering, sequencing, and cost-effectiveness of interventions. The activity also continuously identifies and addresses knowledge gaps, successes, and failures important to the project. In the reporting quarter, the activity supported 14 agro-dealers in developing proposals and released funds to 13 of them, with an average funding of $4,000 per agro-dealer. The activity also conducted crop and livestock value-chain multi-stakeholder meetings, which brought together value-chain actors and supporters from private and public sectors. Additionally, the activity provided technical trainings on wheat, onion, haricot bean, red pepper, and potato to 6,435 clients, with 2,574 of them being female. The activity also scaled up homestead gardening training to all woredas, meeting the FY's target for nutrition-sensitive agriculture, homestead gardening, and dietary diversity trainings. The activity rolled out the Household Debt Management Training Curriculum, training 76 Field Agents/Community Animators and their supervisors, and cascading the curriculum to 10,485 livelihood group members. Clients' access to external, higher loan size improved in the quarter, with 707 clients accessing 4,143,160 ETB in loans. The activity also provided a conditional capacity fund of 592,089 ETB to four financial service providers in the form of equipment provision and training.