Program Details: 
Moving Towards Peace and Prosperity

Situated on Africa's eastern peninsula, Ethiopia — with a history that dates back 3,000 years — is one of the world's oldest civilizations. It is one of only two African nations that were never colonized (the other is Liberia). Today, it is the continent's second-most populous nation and home to the headquarters of the African Union.

Ethiopia's agricultural economy is vulnerable to frequent drought and poor cultivation practices. Scarce resources, religious conflict and disputed tribal boundaries threaten peaceful progress in the south.

Mercy Corps is helping the people of Ethiopia defuse conflicts before they turn violent. We're providing training in such skills as conflict mediation, facilitation and negotiation to help hundreds of Ethiopians peacefully negotiate their differences. In rural areas, we are helping herders build better lives. We're showing herders how to improve the resilience of their livestock to drought and disease and helping them develop new sources of income from small-scale business and agricultural ventures, such as dairy and leather products.

Agricultural and Pastoral Preservation
Pastoralism and agro-pastoralism — farming mixed with livestock raising — are primary livelihoods throughout Ethiopia. In those regions where pastoralism dominates, livestock often represent the entire assets and capital of a household. In many cases, the animals also are a family's only source of income.

After the 2003 drought and subsequent years of inadequate rainfall, many families lost livestock to disease that resulted from poor animal nutrition and failed harvests. Mercy Corps' goal in Ethiopia is to help family farmers and pastoralists rebuild their herds and recover their economic livelihoods — a strategy that takes into account local cultural and historical mores.

Since 2005, Mercy Corps has administered 1.2 million vaccinations to 500,000 animals — mostly cattle and camels — to protect against three prevalent bovine diseases. While neighboring regions have reported disease outbreaks, there have been no such reports in the areas where Mercy Corps works. As a direct result of our vaccination campaign, an estimated 2,000 animals have been saved from death, and another 12,000 saved from sickness and deterioration.

Through this program, Mercy Corps has directly benefited 60,000 households by protecting their essential livelihood assets and keeping their animals productive — which also means they are producing the milk essential for the nutrition of rural children. Our project also helps ensure that Ethiopian families can sell their livestock at a premium price when they need to.

Conflict Prevention and Resolution
In Ethiopia's relatively new political system, ethnicity can be the most important determining factor in the process of state formation. Internal conflicts between the country's more than six dozen ethnic groups can arise quickly over such matters as disputed borders and competition for scarce resources.

The country's limited resources are being further stretched as 200,000 Ethiopian refugees who were displaced by violence and had been residing in Sudan gradually repatriate. It is essential to stabilize conditions for these people as they return home. Mercy Corps is distributing non-food essentials such as blankets, seeds and agricultural tools to help 15,000 people successfully re-establish their lives in Ethiopia. We continue to equip influential locals, including village elders and government leaders, with the training, tools and forums they need — such as negotiation, dialogue and mediation skills and public outreach campaigns — to better address and defuse disagreements over resource allocation.

Urban Renewal

The 2003 drought caused many of Ethiopia's rural citizens to migrate to large urban centers including the capital, Addis Ababa. This influx has increased urban unemployment and helped spawn mega-slums surrounding the central city. People living in these slums lack all or most essentials of daily life, and spend their time eking out the poorest imaginable existence.

Through a new community-driven microfinance program, Mercy Corps will undertake to address a major concern identified by poverty- stricken residents of the capital city: unemployment.

We have launched a pilot economic development program that is already helping more than 1,300 citizens move above the poverty line. In the process, they acquire a better understanding of how to access various types of microcredit so as to continue improving their families' economic status. They also learn how to play an active role in acquiring shelter.

Urban and Rural Health
Mercy Corps recognizes the stigma and marginalization of Addis Ababa residents living with HIV/AIDS. We are working to reduce the incidence of the disease, and the stigma attached to it, while helping those afflicted to develop livelihoods.

We're also working to combat malnutrition. We have identified 700 severely malnourished children and 7,000 moderately malnourished children and pregnant and lactating mothers within the largely pastoral region of Degehbur Zone, where ongoing drought has severely reduced the availability of food. These people will receive nutritional supplements through a Mercy Corps feeding program designed to help them regain their health.