The United States, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), announced nearly $55 million in additional food-security assistance to Ethiopia.
Ethiopia is currently experiencing increased food insecurity due to higher food and fertilizer prices, which have been exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to the USAID press statement. ” “USAID will utilize this new funding to help Ethiopians overcome the current food crisis and to build further resilience to prevent and respond to food-related shocks in the future.”
“This new investment in the people of Ethiopia is part of President Joe Biden’s pledge—made in late June during the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Germany—to provide $2.76 billion in additional U.S. government resources to protect the world’s most vulnerable populations from the escalating global food security crisis,” it said.
“In Ethiopia, USAID will use this new funding to reach over two million Ethiopians most affected by the Ukraine crisis. This population includes farmers whose water and supply systems were destroyed by the conflict in northern Ethiopia. USAID will help them boost Ethiopia’s current food production supply by rebuilding water supply systems, granting agribusiness loans, training farmers unions, bolstering seed and fertilizer distribution networks, and helping farmers purchase vital farming equipment.”
Secondly, USAID will help build the resiliency of Ethiopia’s food production with over 3,500 agribusiness and the hardest hit populations – such as pastoralists and communities suffering from the drought in the Horn of Africa.
“Some funding will support beneficiaries of Ethiopia’s own Productive Safety Net Program which directly bolsters the food security of over eight million people per year. Other funding will help pastoralists identify and attain alternate livelihoods through grants, expand a credit guarantee fund for loans in rural areas, and improve cross-border agricultural trade through new activities like livestock health screening,” according to the statement.
“The United States Government is a longstanding partner in supporting the success and wellbeing of the people of Ethiopia. Over the last year, the United States has invested nearly $1.3 billion dollars in projects in development and humanitarian work to improve the lives of Ethiopians across the country and we will continue to work together towards the brighter future we all want to see,” the statement said.