Oxfam's work in Ethiopia in depth
In Ethiopia, Oxfam's focus is on sustainable livelihoods, water and sanitation, agriculture, climate research, gender and humanitarian responses.
The context
Oxfam has been working in Ethiopia since 1974, and was one of the first non–governmental organisations (NGOs) to work in the country. Ethiopia is one of Africa's poorest nations with half of the 77 million-population living below the poverty line. Child malnutrition is reported to be the highest in the world.
Suffering from over three decades of civil war and external aggression, Ethiopia has been drained of its scarce resources, been interrupted in its agricultural production and seen sizeable internal displacements. Drought, environmental degradation, and conflict has been some of the major characteristics of the country since the mid-80s.
How Oxfam is helping
Oxfam's programme in Ethiopia focuses on the following areas:
Agriculture scale-up
Oxfam’s Agriculture Scale-Up programme targets 1 million smallholder farmers in Amhara, Oromiya, and Benishangul Gumuz regions. The programme works with over 100,000 direct and 200,000 indirect beneficiaries.
We provide support to rural smallholder farmers with an emphasis on the advancement of women. We also facilitate private and public sector engagement to open up access to markets and high value commodity opportunities as well as creating an enabling environment in which change can happen.
The Agricultural programme focuses on commodities such as soybean, sesame, coffee, bee-products, malt barley and horticultural crops. We work with local and international NGOs, national and regional level government institutions, research and academic institutions, co-operatives and marketing offices. We also work with the private sector, existing service institutions, training and research agencies as well as informal self-help groups of men and women.
Pastoral programme
Ethiopian pastoralists represent 9 to 10 million people (12-13%) of the population. Marginalisation, harsh climatic conditions, poor basic services, and conflict over pasture and water resources, coupled with recurrent droughts means that these communities are particularly vulnerable. To help address this situation, Oxfam has a 15-year pastoral programme in place.
Working with partners, we focus on education, health, market development, and small business co-operatives in the major pastoral areas of the country, namely Somali, Afar, South Omo zone in SNNPR and Borena zone in Oromia regions.
Humanitarian programme
About 85% of the population in Ethiopia live in rural areas and are dependent on agriculture to produce enough food to survive. Recurrent droughts, floods and conflicts have exacerbated their vulnerability, affecting large numbers of people each year.
Oxfam's work includes helping communities become resilient, prepared for and able to cope with the recurrent drought through projects such as land rehabilitation, water development, animal restocking and providing basic animal health service trainings to community members. We also have programmes containing and preventing the spread of Acute Watery Diarrhoea.
Last updated: February 2011
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