Impact evaluation of the creation of a durum wheat supply chain in Ethiopia

Location Ethiopia

Framework The impact evaluation was conducted within the project “Agricultural Value Chains Project in Oromia (AVCPO)”

Funding The project was funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the German Development Institute.

The key challenge the “Agricultural Value Chains Project in Oromia (AVCPO)” has addressed is the opportunity to rely on – and upgrade – poor farmers and smallholders to produce high-quality food commodities on a large scale, in order to meet the quantity and quality demand of agro-industries within ‘‘buyer-driven’’ value chains.

General objective

The project aimed at increasing the well-being of durum wheat local small farmers in the Bale Mountains Region by establishing and strengthening their role within the agricultural value chain of durum wheat.

Our contribution

The main goal of the study conducted by ARCO Researchers was to evaluate the degree of compliance of the project with respect to the Paris Declaration for Aid Effectiveness and the Accra Agenda for Action.

The impact evaluation adopted a tailored and innovative methodology able to flexibly embrace the multilevel complexity of the Value Chain Development strategy adopted by the project, assessing its coherence with the Paris Declarations and the Accra Agenda by involving stakeholders at different levels. Focus groups and a field survey involving 800 small-scale farmers were carried out.

All in all, AVCPO is recognized to have boosted a process of self-expansion of the value chain, by enhancing pro-poor market and multilevel governance mechanisms, moving from a top-down agricultural extension approach to local empowerment of farmers, cooperatives and institutions.

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