Capacity Development for Agricultural Growth - COVID Response

This project supports Agricultural Growth through additional funding of $1.25 Million along with a nine-month cost extension. This funding supports the parent project Agricultural Growth Program (AGP II) in implementing an agricultural COVID-19 response and recovery plan in selected districts across the four main regions of Ethiopia. This project focuses on achieving AGP II’s goals particularly among women farmers. It also helps to implement immediate COVID-19 response activities targeting development agents and farmers and medium-term recovery or resilience activities. The project targets women and men farmers and women-led common interest groups. Project activities include: (1) preparing communication materials related to preventing COVID-19 and dispensing Personal Protective Equipment in environmentally safe ways ; (2) distributing cereal crops and vegetable seeds to farmers in three regions (Amhara Tigray and Southern Nations and Nationalities People); (3) supporting farmers Capacity Development Support Facility (CDSF interns to maintain the gender model family status (sharing labour at household and farm level within the family); (4) supporting farmers in Common Interest Groups to update their business to increase income-generating activities; (5) providing training on zoonotic Animal Health Diseases and developing and distributing training materials in three languages; (6) providing grants to 125 Common Interest Groups impacted by COVID-19; and (7) developing e-learning products to enable development agents and experts to access online training.

The expected outcomes of this project include: (1) increased ability of AGP II Project Coordination Unit(PCU) and key Implementing Agencies (IAs) to strengthen institutional capacity for quality AGP II delivery. It does so by using gender-responsive approaches processes and methodologies; and (2) increased ability of AGP II Project Coordination Unit (PCU) and key Implementing Agencies (IAs) to effectively manage and coordinate AGP II and integrated cross-cutting themes including gender and the environment.