Second Exchange Visit, Ethiopia
The Spanish Cooperation Agency (AECID) Ethiopia, in collaboration with partners from Ethiopia, Colombia, and Honduras, is implementing the Women, Coffee and Climate project aimed at empowering women in the coffee value chain against the backdrop of climate change.
The project, funded by the EU DeSIRA program, is being jointly executed with the Ethiopian Coffee Tea Authority, Ethiopia Forestry Development, Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research/Jimma Agricultural Research Center, Ethiopian Women in Coffee (EWiC), and Organisation for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (OSSREA), among other partners from Colombia and Honduras.
As part of the project’s second international learning exchange visit, partners from Colombia’s Technicafe and Spanish Cooperation-Colombia, as well as Honduras’ CONACAFE and ICAFE, recently visited Ethiopia from December 5th to December 11th, 2022. The six-day visit aimed at facilitating knowledge sharing and collaboration among the participating institutions.
During the exchange visit, various institutions expressed their interests in specific areas. The Ethiopian Forestry Development was keen on non-timber forest products research and development, while Ethiopian Women in Coffee were interested in coffee farming and post-harvest practices, research findings, and interventions to enhance productivity. EWiC also sought to explore ways to engage with other institutions to promote the participation of women in decision-making processes within the coffee value chain. The Ethiopian Coffee Tea Authority (ECTA) expressed eagerness to learn from the Jimma Agricultural Research Center’s coffee research expertise to improve coordination between the two organizations. The OTC-Colombia showed interest in triangular cooperation projects to enhance visibility of work across different OTCs and address joint challenges through knowledge exchange and best practices.