We leverage partnerships to implement innovative, market-based solutions that improve incomes for smallholder farmers.
With 123 million people, Ethiopia is Africa’s second-most populous country after Nigeria and boasts a rapidly growing economy. According to the World Bank, gross domestic product growth reached an impressive 7.2 percent in fiscal year 2022–23; however, Ethiopia remains one of the lowest-income countries in the world. Rising inequality, conflict and climate change threaten social and economic development progress.
To address these issues, the government implemented a 10-year development plan — from 2020 to 2030 — to sustain the high growth rate while shifting to an economy driven by the private sector. Despite 75 percent of Ethiopia’s population being employed in agriculture, roughly 20 million people require food assistance. Ethiopia’s agricultural sector has untapped potential, with opportunities to commercialize fruit, vegetable, plant, and livestock products and localize food production.
Heifer Ethiopia aims to support 1 million smallholder farmers — 70 percent of whom will be youth — to achieve financial stability and prosperity by 2030. We focus on innovative market-based solutions to address market failures by identifying and partnering with private companies and public institutions that can drive change.
Through technical capacity building, mentoring and coaching, co-implementing projects and sharing knowledge, we leverage a market systems approach to build competitive and inclusive value chains in which women and youth can thrive. To achieve scale, we collaborate with partners at all levels to deliver change and foster solutions that can end hunger and poverty in Ethiopia.
Our primary objective is helping families achieve a sustainable living income, our measure for the amount of money required for a decent life — including safe shelter, nutritious food, clothing, education and health care — while also reaching additional benchmarks for economic and climate resilience.
Beef Cattle
Beekeeping
Dairy
Fish
Poultry
Small Ruminants
Year Heifer launched in Ethiopia
Household participants in 2024
Household participants to date
Heifer International’s work is organized at the country level into Signature Programs focused on large-scale and measurable impact achieved by building partnerships at all levels. Each program supports farmers through time-bound projects designed to increase their household income.
Heifer’s Signature Program in Ethiopia, Restore+, supports 1 million smallholders in the dairy, poultry, small ruminants and horticulture value chains to attain a sustainable living income by partnering with market actors to address systemic constraints that limit performance.
The AYuTe Africa Challenge Ethiopia is an annual national competition that awards cash grants to Ethiopian agritech innovators with ideas to transform farming and food production. The national competition is part of a regional program, AYuTe Africa NextGen, which supports young African entrepreneurs in developing solutions to address smallholder farmers’ challenges, providing necessary incubation and financing to drive agribusiness innovation across the continent.
Between 2022 and 2024, Heifer Ethiopia launched three successful competitions as part of the venture and awarded prizes to 12 young women and men to advance their original agricultural technology innovations. The awards combined cash grants, mentorship and business development support to help translate the energy and ideas of young innovators into meaningful impact for smallholder farmers across the country.
Implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture, the Enhancing Livelihoods of Smallholders through Improved Poultry Business project aims to transform traditional smallholder poultry production while supporting 70,000 rural households to achieve sustainable living income. The project prioritizes engaging women and youth smallholders, aiming to increase income from egg production by 35 percent and improve the efficiency of poultry venture capital through improved partnerships between smallholder egg producers, the private sector and the public. Heifer Ethiopia provides technical assistance to drive effective implementation and build capacity to optimize poultry production and market integration.
Aiming to support 2.5 million people — 50 percent women and 20 percent youth — the Lowlands Livelihoods Resilience Project (LLRP) works in partnership with the Government of Ethiopia to strengthen the livelihoods of pastoral and agropastoral communities working in livestock production, beekeeping and fisheries. Heifer Ethiopia provides technical assistance for the project, which is implemented by the government and co-financed by the World Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
Focused on generating knowledge, implementing strategic interventions and fostering innovation, Heifer Ethiopia has developed 57 documents about innovative approaches, such as the public-private-producer-partnership (4P) model, livestock auction market and community animal health worker models. We have provided additional support by mentoring and coaching regional field staff, conducting feasibility studies and assessments for sustainable and commercially viable solutions and facilitating impactful initiatives in value chains, feed systems and animal health.
