Ethiopia: Collaboration the heart and pulse of MEDA

More than 30 guests gathered at MEDA’s new Ethiopia office in Addis Ababa on Sept 19 to celebrate the official launch of EDGET – Ethiopians Driving Growth through Entrepreneurship and Trade – a project aimed at helping poor rice farmers and weavers rise out of poverty.

Guests at the open house included MEDA friends and partners, including consultants, local church supporters, other development organizations, Canadian, US and Ethiopian government representatives, project partners and local textile fashion designers/exporters.

MEDA Ethiopia staff also were joined by two visitors from MEDA Waterloo – Nigel Motts, director AgML, and senior consultant/project manager Marcel Koppejan.

Loren Hostetter, Ethiopia country project manager, expressed gratitude to CIDA – Canadian International Development Agency – “for investing in entrepreneurial energy, investing in those who, provided the right support, can muster the means to work their way out of poverty, and that group of poor who don’t make the headline news, but struggle every day to feed their households.”

He noted the challenge of working in market systems in an environment that is suspicious of markets and the private sector, and expressed appreciation to the Ethiopian government steering committee members, “who have also taken a risk in working with a new partner.”

Also critical to the project’s success will be MEDA’s key facilitating partners (KFPs), which provide strong experience, networks, and built relationships of openness and trust within the project’s targeted populations.

“Collaboration is the heart and pulse of MEDA,” said Loren, pointing to outreach to local church leadership and MCC. “MEDA Ethiopia works through local partners, sought counsel from others, reached out to include peer agencies and friends in training and sought to leverage other interventions to increase impact in development, whether it fit our agenda or theirs.

”Local textile designers are grateful for MEDA’s support. “They believe the greatest challenge in the value chain is distrust, manipulative or extorting practices and relationships,” notes Loren. “In a few short months, they have seen new attitudes and emerging dialogue among the value chain enterprises from weavers, traders and marketers.”

MEDA Ethiopia expects to reach more than 10,000 rice farmers and textile artisans over the next five years, helping them to climb out of poverty in one of the world’s poorest countries.