Programme for Sustainable Ethiopian Agro-industrial Development (PROSEAD) reviewed activity implementation status in the presence of international development partners, coordination agencies, and implementers on 22nd September at the Hyatt Regency in Addis Ababa.
In support of Ethiopia’s effort to transform the economy from agriculturally-driven growth to a more industrially-oriented economy, the PROSEAD initiative supports Integrated Agro-industrial Parks (IAIPs) by establishing industrial facilities that enhance local smallholder farmers and SME linkages to global value chains.
In her brief opening remarks of the review meeting, H.E. Mercedes Marin Nortes, Programme Officer for European Union Green Deal Team, thanked all stakeholders for convening to review the progress of PROSEAD. She underlined the need to take concrete actions to address the bottlenecks in cooperation with government counterparts.
The Initiative supports the IAIPs in key components that include coordination and governance, infrastructure development, agricultural value chains, access to rural finance, and sustainable training and education programmes in three operating agro-industrial parks in Amhara, Oromia and Sidama Regional States.
Coordination and governance
UNIDO spearheads the coordination and governance component of the PROSEAD Initiative. Highlighting the overall coordination status, Dr. Michael Borish, UNIDO Chief Technical Advisor for PROSEAD, said that the overall supports are progressing despite challenges with power supply, network enhancement for value chains, credit constraints, inflation and instability.
As a way forward, it was underlined to maintain dialogue and engagement with the Ministry of industry, regions and RSCs to sustain confidence and implementation. In addition, new approaches will be implemented to improve park and RTC management, promote investment, and increase partnerships.
Infrastructure
This EU/AfDB-funded component carries out infrastructure facilities in and around the target areas of IAIPs. At Bure IAIP, the installation of electro-mechanical parts of the Water Treatment Plant have reached near completion at 82.7 percent execution despite challenges with reliable electricity supply.
For the Meki RTC Waste Water Treatment Plant, the civil work and installation are completed, and installation of water supply facilities will be executed by the end of October 2023.
Yirgalem IAIP Water Treatment Plant civil work construction and related activities are 65 percent completed. Testing and commissioning will be taking place before the end of December 2023.
Agricultural value chain
The initiative led by ATI supports input provision and market linkages for farmers and actors along the agricultural value chain for the production of selected cereal, fruit and vegetable types. Of the 35,000 registered Farmers Production Clusters (FPC), 4606 clusters have been supported to enter IAIP/RTC agro-industrial value chains selling surplus produce through contractual agreements.
Access to rural financial services
About 45 rural micro-finance institutions have benefited from the 1.26 billion Birr disbursed from the revolving fund, Development Bank of Ethiopia and IFAD. In addition, the initiative has supported MFIs and cooperatives with capacity building as well as improving regulation, supervision and institutional discipline of MFIs.
Sustainable training and education
The initiative led by GIZ with the Ministry of Labor and Skills Development aims to enhance skills of youth and women in IAIP catchment areas. Targeting 400 beneficiaries from MSMEs or recent graduates benefitting from self-employment relevant trainings/services, nearly 200 received training from entrepreneurship training and 60 of them were selected for incubation support; they participated in the regional Agro-Business Ideas Competition (ABIC 2022) conducted across 4 Universities.
From the 1200 beneficiaries targeted for career and employment, over 900 have been given training on life-skills. Six Vocational Guidance & Counselling (VGC) career service centers work in tandem with TVTs.
In conclusion, the Chief Technical Advisor highlighted Ethiopia’s current account deficit and structure, and how these tangible economic and financial effects provide context and motivation for PROSEAD and other agro-industrial initiatives.