Component 3: Climate Resilient and Sustainable Livelihoods (US$91.49 million, including US$71.445 million IDA equivalent, US$16.045 million IFAD, and US$4 million in capital mobilized from community groups)
This component aims to enhance the absorptive and transformative capacities of PAP household by increasing, diversifying, and stabilizing their incomes, including those of households who are moving out of the pastoral system, with a focus on promoting climate-smart technologies and value chains, raising fewer but more productive animals, and increasing productivity while lowering GHG emissions.
Subcomponent 3.1: Crop and Livestock Productivity and Climate Resilience (US$37 million, including US$30 million IDA equivalent and US$7 million IFAD)
This subcomponent will promote the development and adoption of a range of gender-sensitive and climate smart technologies and practices that increase the productivity and output of crop and livestock production systems while simultaneously reducing their carbon intensity. Bundles of adapted, proven, and scalable innovations, technologies, and practices will be identified for different project locations, forming so-called ‘smart packs’. These will be put together in collaboration with the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), regional universities and research centers, and CGIAR institutes such as International Center for Agricultural Research in Dryland Areas (ICARDA) and AICCRA.
To transfer smart packs to PAP households, the subcomponent will work with existing public and private extension and advisory services and build their capacity in targeted ways. It will also consider existing strategies such as the livestock extension strategy developed by the MoA in collaboration with the ATI. By working with multiple extension service providers, including Digital Green Ethiopia, ATI, and private advisory service providers supported by AICCRA such as Lersha35, the project will support the Government’s pluralistic approach to extension. Following a capacity needs assessment, the subcomponent will finance the strengthening of existing PAP training centers, including the rehabilitation, equipping, furnishing of training centers; supply of materials; development and delivery of training modules; and production of printed communication materials on best practices, innovations, and technologies. The subcomponent will also support the demonstration of technologies, supply of inputs for demonstration and training purposes, and peer-to-peer learning events. In carrying out these activities, the project will apply the agropastoral field school approach36 and adopt and pilot ILRI’s Pioneer Positive Deviance (P-PD) approach for PAP-led livestock adaption activities37. The required technical and material supports will be provided by the project for implementation of the agropastoral field school and P-PD approaches. The subcomponent places a specific emphasis on gender, aiming to create technologies and practices grounded in an understanding of the primary obstacles hindering women’s adoption of adaptation strategies in Ethiopia and in similar contexts.
Smart packs will be developed for: (a) nutrition-sensitive agropastoralism, (b) livestock breeds, (c) animal health service and One Health, (d) feed, and (e) husbandry and herd management.
(a) Nutrition-sensitive agropastoralism. Forms of agropastoralism featuring both crop production and transhumance are growing in PAP areas. In this context, the subcomponent will supply seeds of higheryielding, more nutritious, and drought-tolerant crop varieties. It will also finance activities, including trainings and inputs supplies, relating to improved dryland farming practices and conservation agriculture such as crop rotation, intercropping, agroforestry, green manure production, small-scale and household poultry production, apiculture, and aquaculture. The subcomponent will finance the training of agropastoralists and extension workers on conservation agriculture practices and support demonstrations in selected areas. The subcomponent will also support nutrition education with a focus on improving dietary diversity, particularly for women and children. Combined with other interventions addressing key drivers of child undernutrition and demand-driven nutrition-sensitive irrigation (water, sanitation, and hygiene) and human and animal health services, the project’s nutrition-sensitive agropastoral activities, will help accelerate stunting reduction. (b) Livestock breeds. The subcomponent will finance breed improvements by supporting the ICARDA-led Community-Based Climate Resilient Breeding Program, which focuses on the selection of local breeds of small ruminants and cattle with preferred traits. LLRP II will finance the supply of improved local breeds for demonstration activities, the establishment of community ranches, and the training of communities and local technicians on breeding techniques and performance data management.Animals are bred for qualities such as heat and disease tolerance39, feed efficiency, productivity, and reproductivity. Some of these qualities are associated with a lower carbon intensity, including by accelerating animals’ growth and hence reducing the time to slaughter. The subcomponent will work with communities, women, and extension workers to promote and expand Community Based Breeding Program (CBBP) activities across project regions, including through artificial insemination. The project will also facilitate the provision of targeted technical support to the CBBP by ICARDA.
(c) Animal health service and One Health. The subcomponent will strengthen public and community based animal health and veterinary services to control the burden of animal disease. This is expected to increase livestock productivity and reproductivity, reduce livestock (and especially calf) mortality, and mitigate the sector’s carbon intensity. The subcomponent will (i) expand community-based ]animal health service delivery capacity by upskilling community animal health workers (CAHWs) to become community agro-vet entrepreneurs (CAVEs); training new CAVEs40, with a focus on women; and providing CAVEs and CAHWs with ‘Kickstarter’ veterinary drugs and equipment; (ii) build the capacity of public livestock health services, including by rehabilitating and equipping their facilities (veterinary clinics, laboratories, and research centers), providing targeted technical training for veterinarians and technicians at the woreda and community levels, and establishing and equipping mobile veterinary clinics; (iii) combat the spread of zoonotic disease, including trypanosomiasis, which is spread by tsetse flies41; and (iv) better control transboundary livestock diseases and invasive plants in Ethiopia—with a focus on the lowlands, livestock trade corridors, and the cross-border movement of livestock—by advancing the One Health approach. This will be done by financing platforms for the coordination of environmental, human, and animal (livestock and wildlife) health policies and measures at the woreda and regional levels, supporting the existing One Health Steering Committee (at the federal and regional levels), and facilitating its downscaling to the woreda level and financing South-South exchange on One Health topics and experience. To promote the One Health approach, the project will partner with the MoA, Ethiopian Public Health Institute, Wildlife Conservation Authority, Environmental Protection Authority, Forest and Climate Change Commission, and Veterinarians without Borders Switzerland (Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Suisse, VSF-Suisse) and draw on the practical experiences generated by the VSF-Suisse and ILRI One Health for Humans Environment, Animals, and Livelihoods Project.
(d) Feed. The subcomponent will increase PAP households’ and MSEs’ access to compound feed and forage resources including seeds (in coordination with Subcomponent 2.2). This is expected to improve animal nutrition, increase animals’ feed conversion rate, and reduce the sector’s carbon intensity. The subcomponent will: (i) supply and demonstrate highly digestible, higher-yielding, and heat-tolerant seeds of forage species42; (ii) conduct demonstrations and facilitate PAP-to-PAP learning events; (iii) pilot and demonstrate innovative and climate-smart feed and fodder production and management practices43 (at times in coordination with irrigation infrastructure built under subcomponent 1.2); (iv) in partnership with VSF-Suisse, demonstrate and offer trainings on hydroponics44 and supply-related inputs; and (v) supply small-scale feed processing machinery for demonstration purposes.
(e) Husbandry and herd management. The subcomponent will identify and demonstrate good animal husbandry practices with a focus on selecting animals, getting them to market faster (that is, when they have attained a marketable weight), and removing nonproductive animals from the herd. These practices will enhance herd productivity and reduce herd and sector-level carbon intensity. The subcomponent will also train PAP households on animal welfare as well as the handling, herding, housing, and transportation of animals; sanitation techniques to ensure animal health; food safety and public health; and other practices such as the dehorning of cattle to reduce injury in the herd, management of calves, lambs, and kids to increase their survival and fasten weaning, and branding and castrating. The subcomponent will collaborate with Subcomponent 3.2 in promoting the Ethiopian Livestock Identification and Traceability System (ET-LITS) for animals of targeted households. The proposed husbandry activities will directly contribute to building adaptive capacity to floods and droughts.
Subcomponent 3.2: Commercialization and Livelihood Diversification (US$55 million, including US$42 million IDA equivalent, US$9 million IFAD and US$4 million from community contributions)
This subcomponent will foster the commercialization of PAP production systems and the diversification of PAP household incomes by supporting the development of crop and livestock value chains and reducing exposure
to and dependency on drought vulnerable livelihoods. Focus value chains will include those for live animals (including camels), red meat, milk, hide and skin, fodder, fish, honey, gums and resins, horticulture, and potentially others.
(a) Producer and marketing groups. The subcomponent will support a range of private sector initiatives driving sector commercialization and income diversification. The project will establish 3,280 new MSEs and help 1,000 existing common interest groups (CIGs) become MSEs, with a focus on women-led groups and businesses (at least 35 percent of the MSEs will be women-only MSEs). These groups and businesses will be involved in the production, aggregation, trading, and processing of crops, livestock, and other commodities. The subcomponent will support the following activities:
(i) Offer all 4,280 groups with needs-based and results-oriented training on leadership and group
dynamics, business development skills, value chains, innovations, technologies, and improved practices, along with technical assistance, accessing finance, including to identify and pursue new income- and resilience-enhancing skills and business activities (for example, weaving, livestock fattening, exporting of live animals, beekeeping, poultry, hide and skin processing, milk processing, gum and resins production, aquaculture, horticulture, and community tourism). It is through this activity that the project will support businesses producing tsetse fly traps (see
Subcomponent 3.1).
(ii) Provide matching grants of up to US$10,000 per group (for new ones) based on pre-established criteria (notably, being a registered business entity and having a strong business development plan and having mobilized at least 10 percent of the required capital from own sources, adequate internal control system, and external auditing). The design of these activities will be informed by empirical evidence generated by the Africa Gender Innovation Lab. This includes learnings from an impact evaluation on life skills and leadership training aimed to help women diversify away from traditional roles and strengthen their economic participation in pastoral communities, which is part of the first phase of the LLRP. The PIM includes detailed guidelines on grantee selection and grant management including financial management (FM) arrangements (planning, controls, accounting, fund flow, reporting, oversight, and audit).
(iii) Provide technical and material support (for a value of up to US$500 per CIG) for the ‘graduation’ of existing CIGs into MSEs. With technical support from International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), the project will integrate beekeeping as a means of diversifying livelihoods within lowland PAP systems. The project will collaborate with the Ministry of Labor and Skills (MLSs) regarding the establishment, technical support, and monitoring of MSEs. In addition, technical support for value chain development may be sought from Heifer International.
(b) Access to finance (support for Pastoral and Agropastoral Saving and Credit Cooperatives
(PASACCOs) and Unions of PASACCOs). Improving access to finance among PAP communities will help them improve their livelihood opportunities and household incomes to better cope up and adapt to the impacts of climate change. The subcomponent will expand access to finance for alternative onfarm and nonfarm activities, materials, equipment, and inputs in three main ways. It will support the following activities:
- Help establish and financially and technically support 550 new PAP savings and credit cooperatives (PASACCOs), of which half will be women-only groups. The qualifying ones will be given saving leverage grants (up to US$10,000 each). In addition, up to 500 existing PASACCOs supported under LLRP I will receive technical and advisory support, but no saving leverage grants. The project will guide PASSACOs, existing and new, to mobilize savings from their members leveraging grants from the project, and potentially, other financing from commercial banks and microfinance institutions (MFIs) and provide small loans and other financial services to their members to engage in income generating business activities. Customized training programs will be developed for these groups covering skills such as leadership, conflict management, business development, marketing, FM, and veterinary care. In addition, the project will build the capacity of the Ethiopian Cooperative Commission (ECC) to support PASSACCOs and unions thereof, including with auditing. Wherever there is geographic overlap with the DRIVE Project, LLRP II will encourage project beneficiaries to buy index-based livestock insurance policies.
- In collaboration with the ECC, finance technical support, trainings, and advisory services to establish and or strengthen PASACCO unions to improve their access to financial services provided by MFIs, the Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE), and commercial banks.
- Promote interest-free (Islamic) finance and mobile banking, in partnership with ATI, Digital Ethiopia, and private sector service providers like Lersha.
(c) Market access and links. Subcomponent 1.2, under which market facility and transportation (road) upgrades will be financed, and Component 4, under which national standards for market facilities will be updated. Complementing these actions, the subcomponent will: (i) finance the establishment and strengthening of productive alliances between producers (including PAP marketing cooperatives and small and medium enterprises [SMEs] and downstream actors such as off takers, processors, traders, and abattoirs); (ii) pilot a public-private livestock market co-management model through coordination and financing platforms; (iii) based on a gap assessment, link newly constructed or upgraded livestock markets facilities to the livestock market information system (LMIS) supported by the DRIVE Project (P176517) wherever the projects overlap and finance activities to strength the LMIS in the project regions and woredas including through provision of materials, IT equipment, trainings, and so on; (iv) finance the implementation of the ET-LITS in the lowlands in collaboration with the MoA47; and (v) finance trade fairs and buyer-seller meetings and, in coordination with Subcomponent 4.2, develop communication materials (printed and documentary films) that attract traders and exporters to markets by calling their attention to road and market upgrades.