Ethiopia is one of the least developed countries in the world, ranking at 174 out of 188 countries according 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.

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.

Participants

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 participants 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.