Quarterly Report: Agricultural Growth Program-Livestock Market Development (January-March 2015)

Government's Feed the Future (FtF) Initiative. The project is designed to support the Government of Ethiopia's Agricultural Growth Program (AGP), which aims to end poverty and enhance growth. The AGP-LMD Project focuses on improving the productivity and competitiveness of selected livestock value chains for the benefit of smallholder producers. The project is implemented through four components: Moving from Analytics to Strategy to Learning, Improving the Productivity and Competitiveness of Livestock Value Chains, Spur Investment and Innovation, and Improving the Enabling Environment of Livestock Value Chains. The project's intermediate results (IRs) are designed to achieve specific outcomes, including increased productivity and competitiveness of selected livestock value chains, improved enabling environment for livestock value chains, and improved quality and diversity of household diet through intake of livestock products. The project's strategy for achieving these outcomes involves several key interventions, including linking value chain actors to input and service providers, strengthening input suppliers and service providers, improving livestock management, and improving post-production relationships, efficiencies, and quality. The project also aims to improve the number, quality, and functionality of businesses in the middle of the value chain, market expansion domestic and international, and strengthen governance and collaboration within value chains. In addition, the project focuses on improving the enabling environment for livestock value chains through capacity building for public and private stakeholders, institutional coordination among stakeholders, applied research for development, and linkage creation with other USAID projects. The project also aims to improve the quality and diversity of household diet through intake of livestock products by enhancing the nutritional status of rural households, improving household nutrition-related behavior, and improving availability of livestock-based food. The project's monitoring and evaluation framework is designed to track progress towards achieving the project's intermediate results and outcomes. The framework includes a result tracking table that provides a summary of the project's progress towards achieving its intermediate results. The project's pro-poor and cross-cutting issues, including natural resource and environmental management, information communication technology, finance, and human resources/administration, are also addressed through the project's implementation. The AGP-LMD Project is implemented in collaboration with various stakeholders, including the Government of Ethiopia, private sector companies, and non-governmental organizations. The project's implementing partners include the Ethiopian Livestock Traders Association, the Ethiopian Milk and Dairy Industry Development Institution, and the Organization for Rehabilitation and Development in Amhara. The project's coordination group, known as the AGP Coordination Group, is responsible for ensuring effective coordination and collaboration among stakeholders. Overall, the AGP-LMD Project aims to contribute to the Government of Ethiopia's Agricultural Growth Program by improving the productivity and competitiveness of selected livestock value chains, improving the enabling environment for livestock value chains, and improving the quality and diversity of household diet through intake of livestock products.