Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation supports value creation by Wageningen University & Research strengthening capacities for sustainable development. As the international expertise BENEFIT Partnership – 2019 Annual Report P.O. Box 88 and capacity building institute of Wageningen University & Research we bring 6700 AB Wageningen knowledge into action, with the aim to explore the potential of nature to improve The Netherlands the quality of life. With approximately 30 locations, 5,000 members of staff and T +31 (0)317 48 68 00 12,000 students, Wageningen University & Research is a world leader in its domain. www.wur.eu/cdi An integral way of working, and cooperation between the exact sciences and the Bilateral Ethiopian-Netherlands Eff ort for Food, Income and Trade Partnership technological and social disciplines are key to its approach. Report WCDI-20-094 Dawit Alemu, Irene Koomen & Mirjam Schaap, Amsalu Ayana & Gareth Borman, Eyasu Elias & Eric Smaling, Helen Getaw, Gertjan Becx & Monika Sopov, Geremew Terefe & Ted Schrader, Tewodros Tafere & Remko Vonk BENEFIT Partnership – 2019 Annual Report Bilateral Ethiopian-Netherlands Effort for Food, Income and Trade Partnership (updated version with revised reach data) Dawit Alemu, Irene Koomen & Mirjam Schaap1 Amsalu Ayana & Gareth Borman2 Eyasu Elias & Eric Smaling3 Helen Getaw, Gertjan Becx & Monika Sopov4 Geremew Terefe & Ted Schrader5 Tewodros Tafere & Remko Vonk6 1 PCU 2 ISSD 3 CASCAPE 4 ENTAG 5 SBN 6 REALISE Wageningen University & Research Wageningen, February 2020 (updated version with revised reach data 29/2/2020) Report WCDI-20-094 Dawit Alemu, Irene Koomen & Mirjam Schaap, Amsalu Ayana & Gareth Borman, Eyasu Elias & Eric Smaling, Helen Getaw, Gertjan Becx & Monika Sopov, Geremew Terefe & Ted Schrader, Tewodros Tafere & Remko Vonk, 2020. BENEFIT Partnership – 2020 Annual Report; Bilateral Ethiopian-Netherlands Effort for Food, Income and Trade Partnership. Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation, Wageningen University & Research. Report WCDI-20-094. Wageningen. This report can be downloaded for free at https://doi.org/10.18174/515388 or at www.wur.eu/cdi (under publications). © 2020 Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation, part of the Stichting Wageningen Research. P.O. Box 88, 6700 AB Wageningen, The Netherlands. T + 31 (0)317 48 68 00, E [email protected], www.wur.eu/cdi. The Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation uses a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 (Netherlands) licence for its reports. The user may copy, distribute and transmit the work and create derivative works. Third-party material that has been used in the work and to which intellectual property rights apply may not be used without prior permission of the third party concerned. The user must specify the name as stated by the author or licence holder of the work, but not in such a way as to give the impression that the work of the user or the way in which the work has been used are being endorsed. The user may not use this work for commercial purposes. The Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation accepts no liability for any damage arising from the use of the results of this research or the application of the recommendations. Report WCDI-20-094 Photo cover: Selome Kebede Contents Executive Summary 5 1 Introduction 13 2 Collaborative BENEFIT portfolio 15 2.1 Sesame: value chain development and integration of rotational crops 16 2.2 Malt barley: deploying improved varieties and grain market linkage 17 2.3 Soya bean value chain development 19 2.4 Potato: Strengthening the value chain 20 2.5 Bread wheat: value chain development 21 3 Increased quality and quantity of sustainable agricultural production 23 3.1 Outcomes achieved by BENEFIT programmes 24 4 Improved markets and trade 27 4.1 Outcomes achieved by BENEFIT programmes 27 5 Improved enabling environment for the agricultural sector 31 5.1 Outcomes achieved by BENEFIT and its programmes 31 6 Mainstreaming social inclusion and nutrition 35 6.1 Social inclusion 35 6.2 Nutrition 37 7 Major challenges, opportunities, lessons learnt and way forward 41 7.1 Major challenges 41 7.2 Opportunities 42 7.3 Key lessons learnt and the way forward 42 8 Enhanced partnership for synergy 45 8.1 Alignment of programmes and collaboration 45 8.2 Collaboration and alignment with other projects and programmes 46 8.3 Facilitation of policy engagement 46 8.4 Mainstreaming social inclusion & nutrition 47 8.5 Fostering collaboration in BENEFIT portfolio 48 8.5.1 BENEFIT portfolio management 48 8.5.2 Monitoring and Evaluation 48 8.5.3 Communication 49 8.5.4 Finance and administration 49 Lesson learnt 51 Detailed information key performance indicators 77 ISSD Annual report 2019 83 CASCAPE Annual report 2019 107 ENTAG Annual report 2019 131 SBN Annual report 2019 151 REALISE Annual report 2019 181 List of abbreviations and acronyms 207 Executive Summary 1. Introduction The bilateral project entitled “Bilateral Ethiopian Netherlands Effort for Food, Income and Trade Partnership (BENEFIT Partnership) supported by the Dutch Government through the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands has, since 2016, been implementing four agricultural development programmes: ISSD – Integrated Seed Sector Development, CASCAPE - Capacity building for Scaling up of evidence based Practices in agricultural production in Ethiopia, ENTAG - Ethiopia-Netherlands Trade for Agricultural Growth and SBN – Sesame Business network. In 2018 a fifth programme, REALISE - Realising Sustainable Agricultural Livelihood Security in Ethiopia, joined the BENEFIT partnership. The Partnership aims at increasing food and nutrition security, brokering Dutch expertise, and stimulating trade. The focus of the 2019 activities have been (i) further demonstration of evidences for the agricultural transformation agenda and enhancing the engagement to communicate the evidences for effective embedment in development and policy; (ii) strengthening the alignment with relevant initiatives including the Agricultural Transformation Agency, the Agricultural Growth Programme, the Productive Safety Net Programme and other public programmes for synergy but also sustainability; (iii) creating evidences for scaling of product & place and thematic collaborative activities; and (iv) strengthening of the mainstreaming of crosscutting issues mainly gender and nutrition in all BENEFIT programmes. The activities have been carried out together with regional partners, the Universities of Addis Ababa, Arba Minch, Arsi, Bahir Dar, Haramaya, Hawassa, Jimma, Mekelle, Oda Bultum, and Woldia, and the Regional Agricultural Research Institutes in Amhara, Oromia, Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Region and Tigray, and the Oromia Seed Enterprise. Mainstreaming evidence and engagement to ensure embedment and institutionalization were performed mainly through four channels: (i) regular engagement with Ministry of Agriculture through the monthly meetings with the state minsters, (ii) active engagement in the different technical committees and taskforces of the RED&FS, (iii) active utilization of opportunities that emerge from invitations to events and policy dialogues, and to be a member in different committees and taskforces in recognition of BENEFIT staff expertise and demonstrated evidences at ground level, and (iv) the engagement and communication of evidences by the BENEFIT seconded experts within the Ministry of Agriculture through their day-to-day engagement. The 2019 annual report presents the major achievements under each of the BENEFIT outcome indicators followed by the major challenges faced, opportunities, key lessons learnt and the way forward. 2. Major achievements in 2019 The major achievements of the BENEFIT partnership are summarized based on the result chain outputs (Figure 1), which are related with (i) enhancing portfolio collaboration among BENEFIT programmes, (ii) increasing quality and quantity of agricultural production, (iii) improving markets and trade, (iv) improving the enabling environment for the agricultural sector, and (v) enhancing partnership for synergy. Report WCDI-20-094 | 5 Improved sustainable food, income, trade and nutrition security of rural households in Ethiopia Impact Pillar 1: Increased quantity and quality of Pillar 2: Market Dynamics Pillar 3: Improved sustainable agricultural production enabling outcome environment # of farmers reached with # of hectares of farm # of companies with supported # of substantial policy increased productivity land used more eco- plan to invest, trade or provide changes/ reforms (ISSD, CASCAPE, SBN, efficiently services contributed to ENTAG, REALISE) (ISSD, CASCAPE, SBN, (ISSD, SBN, ENTAG) (ISSD, CASCAPE, SBN, REALISE) ENTAG) (2019) 2,029,894 (2019) 341,338 (2019) 60 (2019) 25 (2018) 1.813.946 (2018) 114.998 (2018) 1.048 (2018) 19 (2017) 1.740.820 (2017) 564.858 (2017) 260 (2017) 7 (2016) 910.745 (2016) 285.452 (2016) 5 outcome outcome indicators # of farmers reached with # of farmers reached with improved access to input improved access to output markets markets (ISSD, SBN, REALISE) (SBN, ENTAG) (2019) 972,482 (2019) 35,094 (2018) 1.388.861 (2018) 32,363 (2017) 1.340.439 (2017) 11,914 (2016) 62.613 (2016) 5,046 output Improved stakeholders capacity in agricultural practices (knowledge and skills) # of persons reached/ trained with improved technology and # of trained farmers in sustainable agricultural production and skills practices (ISSD, CASCAPE, SBN, ENTAG, REALISE) (ISSD, CASCAPE, SBN, REALISE) (2019)