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Ethiopia: SWEEP -Water for Food Security, Women’s Empowerment and Environmental Protection-ETH923

Ethiopia: SWEEP -Water for Food Security, Women’s Empowerment and Environmental Protection-ETH923

Ethiopia is one of the least developed countries in the world, ranking at 174 out of 188 countries ac-cording to the UNDP Human Development Index 2016. Eighty-four percent of all households are located in rural areas and depend on subsistence farming, which depends on rain fed agriculture. The country faces recurrent drought and severe land degradation in many areas, which exacerbates the extreme poverty. About 7.7 million Ethiopians are chronically food insecure and 42 million people lack potable water for drinking and productive use. Moreover, certain persisting cultural norms and harmful traditional practices for women and girls continue to act as social barriers to achieving gender equality in the country.

Overall objective

To improve the food security and resiliency of chronically food insecure households in East and West Belesa woredas in the Amhara regional state.

Specific objectives

1) To increase household access to water in the targeted woredas by building up capacities to implement sustainable water resource management and environmental conservation practices in the communities.

2) To use water resources as an entry point to engage with and empower women to affect lasting change in the community.

Expected Results

ER 1: Improved and sustainable access to water resources for domestic consumption and productive use and enhanced and sustainable productivity of land for varied uses.
ER 2: Marginalized groups empowered to contribute productively in the household and community.
ER 3: Local government capacitated and community empowered to initiate and lead community development and adaptive measures.

Beneficiaries

The SWEEP project will benefit 131,834 chronically food insecure and drought affected people of East and West Belesa woredas in North Gondar zone of Amhara regional state, – 50% of the project beneficiaries will be women, girls, unemployed youths and people with disabilities. The project will benefit an additional 2,365 government political appointees and woreda experts on capacity development through trainings. Therefore, a total of 134,199 people living in the targeted woredas will benefit from the proposed project.