USAID Allots $55m to Support Food Security Responses in Ethiopia
ADDIS ABABA – The U.S. government aid agency, USAID on Tuesday announced a nearly $55 million fund to support food security response in Ethiopia.
For the first time in four months, Ethiopia’s Food-price growth in June slowed to 38.1% from 43.9% in May, according to data from the Central Statistics Agency of Ethiopia.
Still, consumer-price growth remains near the highest level in at least nine-and-a-half years. Reports say the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which caused higher food and fertilizer prices on the global market, are still posing challenges for food security in the country.
In a statement today, USAID said it will use the $55 million fund “to reach over two million Ethiopians most affected by the Ukraine crisis.”
“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,” the statement reads.
The agency also said the fund also supports efforts to build food production resilience in the country and the government’s Productive Safety Net Program, which directly bolsters the food security of over eight million people per year.
The additional $55 million fund is a part of President Joe Biden’s pledge – made in late June during the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Germany – to provide an additional $2.76 billion to ease the escalating global food security crisis.
