Addis Ababa, August 19, 2024 (FBC) – Ethiopia’s Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) and the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) today signed the Regional Program on Livestock and Pastoralism for Climate Adaptation in the Eastern/Horn of Africa region.
The program will be implemented in four cross-border cluster areas namely Mandera, Karamoja, Mara-Serengeti and Bahr Al Arab covering seven countries; Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Our Country Ethiopia is represented in the Mandera and Karamoja Clusters.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, this program is funded by the European Union (EU) to the tune of 47 million euros, of which 6.25 million euros is for Ethiopia.
On the occasion, State Minister of Ministry of Agriculture, Fikru Regasa, said, “We fight the impact of climate change; our country is working hard to deal with the effects of climate change, especially in the pastoral area.”
The state minister added that his ministry and partners will work together to implement the program signed today with FAO.
Ms. Farayi Zimudzi, FAO Representative to Ethiopia, on her part, said that this program is in line with FAOs strategic framework of ‘Better Production, Better Nutrition, Better Environment and Better Life.’
She added that the Ministry of Agriculture is the principal implementing partner in this project playing coordination roles at federal, regional, and cluster level.
This program is expected to enhance the resilience to natural and manmade disasters of pastoral and agro-pastoral communities in the target areas.
It was mentioned that livestock in pastoral areas has multiple roles including economic, social and cultural functions. Over centuries, pastoralists have also provided ecosystem service that are difficult to convert into commercial values, which those intangible values comprising of many interrelated environmental benefits.