RTI to help improve nutrition and resilience in Ethiopia through new USAID project

The partnership will lay the groundwork to make food more available and affordable
 

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — RTI International, a nonprofit research and leading international development institute, will partner with the local private sector in Ethiopia to increase access to healthy diets, particularly for women and children, by improving the competitiveness, inclusiveness and resilience of the country’s food and agriculture system. Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Feed the Future Ethiopia Transforming Agriculture is a five-year, $67 million activity that will aim to increase incomes by as much as 40 percent as part of Feed the Future, the U.S. Government’s global hunger and food security initiative.

“RTI is privileged to continue and build upon our decades-long partnerships across the health, education, energy and agriculture sectors in Ethiopia to sustainably improve the diets of millions of men, women and children,” said Tracy Mitchell, director of resilience at RTI. “Taking a consumer-focused, nutrition-led approach, Feed the Future Ethiopia Transforming Agriculture will work with the private sector to make nutritious foods more available and affordable, particularly for women, through transformed market systems.”

Leveraging RTI’s Food Environment Toolkit as well as an innovative grants fund to catalyze local private sector growth, Feed the Future Ethiopia Transforming Agriculture will partner with the range of market actors – from farmers to transporters to processors – and will influence and incentivize new behaviors, expanded networks and norms to re-orient the agriculture and food system.

To implement the project, RTI will partner with local Ethiopian small- and medium-sized businesses active in the agriculture sector. RTI is leading the project with a consortium that includes First Consult, an Ethiopian business advisory services firm; Venture37, the nonprofit international development arm of Land O’Lakes; and Women Influencing Health, Education, and Rule of Law (WI-HER), a women-owned small business and a leader in gender equity and social inclusion.

Learn more about RTI’s work in food security, agriculture, and nutrition

Learn more about RTI’s Food Environment Toolkit