Value chain opportunities for women and young people in livestock production in Ethiopia: Lessons learned

Abstract

Both young people and women contribute significantly to agricultural production in the African continent, although
these contributions are not usually explicitly recognized in official statistics and documents. In Ethiopia, women
traditionally have been subject to sociocultural and economic discrimination that resulted in fewer economic,
educational and social opportunities than men. The traditional development approaches that view the household as
a unitary decision-making entity and the assumption that interventions targeted at the household head would trickle
down to household members is the foundation of the exclusion of women and young people. In particular, women
in married households are usually excluded from development interventions. Many governments in Africa have now
started to take policy measures to recognize and enhance the contributions of young people and women in economic
growth on the continent. Similarly, there seems to be strong political commitment in Ethiopia to ensure inclusive
economic growth that will result in better gender equality and benefit young people. This working paper summarizes
the lessons from the experiences of the Improving productivity and market success for Ethiopian smallholders and
Livestock and irrigation value chains for Ethiopian smallholders projects in inclusive value chain development aimed
at benefiting women and young people. It mainly focuses on the trajectories of the two projects in reaching out to
women and young people in order to increase their access to resources, innovation, technologies and knowledge
which could consequently improve their inclusion in and benefits from value chain development and governance.
Experiences from innovative extension methods for inclusion are discussed. The paper makes recommendations for
policy and development practice to improve benefits to women and young people from development interventions.