June 13, 2011
Value Chain Approach Buttresses Ethiopian Government Food Security Program
Productive Value Chain Activities Underlie Food Security Initiative
The Ethiopian government’s innovative new food security program, Household Asset Building Program (HABP), uses a market-oriented approach to graduate chronically food-insecure households out of asset transfer programs and into productive value chain activities.
Government officials and hired consultants, who will be implementing HABP, took part in a major value chain training May 2-6 in Nazareth, Ethiopia, to gain skills and understanding pertaining to value chains to incorporate into the program's implementation.
Value Chain Training Informed by Nearly a Decade of Research
The training curriculum, designed and delivered by USAID and ACDI/VOCA, is built on nearly a decade of work under the Accelerated Microenterprise Advancement Project (AMAP). It reflects new thinking in using the value chain approach to reach the poorest and most food-insecure households.
The value chain approach bases interventions on an understanding of all the participants in a market chain—from input suppliers to final buyers—and the relationships among them, as well as the context within which value chain activities take place and the level and quality of support services available. The approach emphasizes incentives that drive the behavior of value chain participants—an especially important consideration for very poor populations for whom investment in productive activities can represent great economic and social risks.
This comprehensive, market-based approach accounts for opportunities and constraints faced by smallholder farmers, and it provides more sustainable economic development results.
A global leader in the development of the approach, ACDI/VOCA is known for participatory, stakeholder-driven methods that take advantage of opportunities for investment and growth in industries with high levels of micro and small enterprise involvement. Such methods involve a range of actors including poor households in Ethiopia and other developing countries to jumpstart economies and reduce poverty.
Activity Builds Local Government Capacity
The training was attended by 40 Ethiopian government officials and underscores USAID's work to collaborate with and build local partners' capacity to combat food insecurity.
One participant commented at the end of the training that it was “really inspiring and helpful for future activities.” Another said the value chain approach fills a “critical gap for the country.”
Development Project Leads Dissemination of Value Chain Approach Best Practices
AMAP's goal is to increase incomes in poor communities and promote economic growth by enhancing the performance and competitiveness of micro and small enterprises (MSEs).
As the prime contractor for the USAID-funded AMAP, ACDI/VOCA leads a consortium of implementers in providing training, technical assistance, financial and evaluative services to increase the capacity of business development service providers. ACDI/VOCA also researches key issues in the microenterprise development field and disseminates best practices to USAID missions and others in the field.
For more information on AMAP and to access publications.
Pictured at top left: ACDI/VOCA value chain expert Hannah Schiff (on far right) conducts training for Ethiopian government officials implementing the Household Asset Building Program.
