(PRIME) Project Funded by the United States Agency for International Development
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Pastoralist Areas Resilience Improvement through Market Expansion (PRIME) Project Funded by the United States Agency for International Development 7th Quarterly Report Year 2 – Quarter 3 Reporting Period: April 1 through June 30, 2014 Submitted to: AOR: Mohamed Abdinoor, USAID/Ethiopia Country Contact HQ contact Program Summary Karri Goeldner Byrne Nate Oetting Award No: AID-663-A-12-00014 Chief of Party Senior Program Officer Box 14319 Mercy Corps Start Date: October 15, 2012 Addis Ababa 45 SW Ankeny Ethiopia Portland, Oregon 97204 End Date: October 14, 2017 Phone:+251-(11) 416-9337 Total Award: $52,972,799 Fax: +251-(11)416-9571 503.896.5000 [email protected] [email protected] Report Date: July 31, 2014 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY PRIME is a five-year, USAID-funded initiative designed to support resilience among pastoralist communities in Ethiopia, and thus enhance prospects for long-term development in Ethiopia‘s dryland landscape where the pastoralist livelihood system prevails. Financed through Feed the Future (FTF) and Global Climate Change (GCC) facilities, PRIME is designed to be transformative, innovative and achieve scale through market-driven approaches to livestock production and livelihood diversification that simultaneously support dryland communities to adapt to a changing climate. In order to achieve its overall goal of Increasing Household Incomes and Enhancing Resilience to Climate Change through Market Linkages, the program works to meet the following five major objectives (intermediate results): 1) Improved productivity and competitiveness of livestock and livestock products; 2) Enhanced pastoralists‘ adaptation to climate change; 3) Strengthened alternative livelihoods for households transitioning out of pastoralism; 4) Ensure enhanced innovation, learning and knowledge management; and 5) Improved nutritional status of targeted households improved through targeted, sustained and evidence- based interventions. This report summarizes the key activities implemented, and the associated accomplishments for PRIME over the period of April 1 to June 30, 2014, which is the seventh quarter (third quarter, second year) of program implementation. The following is a brief summary of the key highlights and achievements by the project‘s objectives: 1. Improved productivity and competitiveness of livestock and livestock products: As part of IR1‘s work to increase productivity in livestock market systems, several business expansion grant recipients have been identified through competitive processes. Milk collector businesses (Southern cluster), Private Vet Pharmacies (Eastern and Southern clusters), milk aggregators (Southern cluster), local traders (Southern cluster) and milk collection centers (Eastern cluster) have all been selected for these grants and during Q8 will implement their expansions. The livestock productivity team also supported the African Livestock Exhibition and conference, where 385 delegates attended to discuss livestock production and marketing topics in Ethiopia. During the zonal livestock fair in Afar cluster, 24 exhibitors participated and sold over 85000 ETB of solar products, agricultural inputs (seed), feed, and storage bags. The IR1 team also organized, along with government agencies, a workshop on the livestock diesease surveillance and reporting system, while also working with LCRDB in 3 woredas of Eastern cluster in a parasite control campaign for small ruminants. In addition, the IBLI products designed with Oromiya Insurance Company have increased in sales to 403 policies with premiums of over 200,000 ETB and 2.4 million ETB ($122,256) of insured assets. PRIME has used cooperatives as intermediaries to offer these products. The National Livestock Market Information System (NLMIS) will be implemented and run by the federal MoT and respective regional agricultural marketing agencies and bureaus with relevant technical and financial support from Mercy Corps under USAID-PRIME Project, Texas A&M University, USAID-LMD 2 and FAO. The Ministry of Trade, PRIME and LMD have signed the memorandum of understanding (MOU) outlining each collaborator‘s responsibility. The main activities as mentioned in the MoU will commence in the coming quarter. 2. Natural resource management and climate change adaptation: To improve science and information for decision-making, CARE signed a MoU with the National Meteorological Agency to support and upgrade agency‘s equipment and data collection methods in pastoralist areas. Moreover, CARE and Haramaya University designed a user-based survey to examine perception of current meteorological services and their information needs – results for which will be shared during Q8. Meanwhile, eight additional dialogues with communities to raise awareness of forecasting tools and their use in decision making took place in the 3 clusters with participation from traditional weather forecasters, clan leaders, youth and women representatives, as well as meteorologists and government representatives. Based on field verification exercises, a final version of seven rangeland system maps in Borena and Guji have been released during the quarter, and will be used by other USG-funded projects working on land tenure. PRIME continued its partnership with the USFS to support remote sensing analysis of PRIME rangeland systems. A four-member USFS team visited Ethiopia to present the results of their land use/land cover analysis in four pilot PRIME areas, demonstrating the expansion of farmlands on or next to grasslands. To increase capacity for effective governance for climate resilience, PRIME continued its partnership with LAND project, supporting the formation of the Zonal Oromiya Pastoral Advisory Committee, and providing inputs to LAND‘s impact evaluation. PRIME has also establihed a partnership with the Pastoral Directorate of the State Ministry of Livestock to coordinate a learning and harmonization platform for natural resource management in pastoral areas, providing a space for development practictioners and researchers to share best practices and take collective action. The first meeting of the platform took place during this quarter around the theme of Prosopis juliflora, and as a result, the State Ministry put forth a statement to incorporate the recommendations from the platform members into forthcoming national strategies the Minister is spearheading. Along the same topic, a workshop took place for high-ranking government officials in Awash Arba where PRIME provided technical and financial support, to take the recommendations from the rangeland management platform as well as field visits where prosopis removal with PRIME support is taking place. PRIME also conducted a series of map validation exercises involving digitized versions of community maps, across the three clusters to better delineate resource management responsibilities, and evaluate the role of traditional leaders to do these effectively. PRIME supported the multi-stakeholder Regional Seasonal Assessment to track and monitor early warning indicators and performance of the Sugum rain in Afar region. Disaster Risk Management dialogues were also conducted in Babile Somali in two rangeland systems. Participatory Scenario planning workshops took place in Babile, Amibara and Awash (female PSP) and monitoring of the PSP methodology is ongoing. PRIME has also adopted the social action and analysis approach to address behavioral and socio-institutional barriers to climate change adaptation among pastoral households. To enhance water access through water point rehabilitation and development, PRIME is working to expand the Haro Bake (SC) dam to hold 1.6 million m3, as well as preserve its funtionality for another 20 3 years, build the Birkile Pond, Mullu, EC (capacity of 7,000 m3), and the Fatuma Delaytu pond in Afar (cpacity of 7,000 m3). 3. Strengthened alternative livelihoods for households transitioning out of pastoralism: During the quarter, PRIME continued to provide technical and financial assistance to the Somali MFI to rollout a Sharia-compliant loan product for livestock traders in the region. SMFI has to date disbursed 5,000,000 ETB ($250,000) for 25 large and medium sized livestock traders in the region. The injection of this loan in the livestock market will enable traders to buy and export from 18,000-20,000 livestock from approximately 7500 households. The increased income from these sales is approximately 2500ETB ($128) per household. PRIME and Amasis signed a FOG agreement in June 2014 for the Hellojobs/‗(Hellosira)‘ service. The software adjustment has been completed, and the service has been launched in all areas of PRIME (and nationally). This mobile-based service registers job seekers via phone and internet, in order to match job seekers with open positions. Employers get free access to the data on potential employees; job seekers pay approximately 10ETB to register with the service. During the quarter, PRIME organized successful trade fairs in Afar Zone 3 and Borena zone. PRIME partners CARE, AISDA, SOS and Mercy Corps IR1, IR3, IR4 and IR5 teams supported the organizing of the trade fair for two days in each zone. During the trade fair, PRIME introduced discount vouchers were introduced to encourage the purchase of inputs, and stimulate demand for new technologies and agricultural inputs. The trade fair also helped agricultural input dealers and micro-solar suppliers to conduct market research on their products. During the quarter, PRIME commissioned a labor market assessment conducted in all clusters.