Nutrition-Sensitive Agricultural Education in Ethiopia: From Non-existence to Existence

Despite significant efforts by the U.S. Government to address malnutrition with nutrition-sensitive agricultural practices, agriculture graduates from the Ethiopian Agricultural Colleges did not have the competencies to address the issue because the education curriculum did not include these basic skills. Therefore, knowledge of nutrition-sensitive agricultural practices at the local level was non-existent, resulting in the current state of malnutrition. 

Jhpiego-Ethiopia’s ENGINE (Empowering New Generation to Improve Nutrition and Economic Opportunity) project, funded by USAID, has been working on the pre-service nutrition education in three Ethiopian Agriculture Technical and Vocational Education Training Colleges since 2011. The project identified core nutrition competencies for mid-level agriculture cadres which were integrated into their syllabi. After completing their education, the agriculture students taught by the revised syllabi were assessed for their nutrition-sensitive agriculture knowledge, skills, and attitudes competencies. The results indicated a significant improvement in the student's potential to address malnutrition with nutrition-sensitive agricultural practices.

This case study was submitted as part of USAID's CLA Case Competition, held in August 2015. Taken together, this collection of submissions illustrates the diversity of ways collaborating, learning, and adapting approaches are being operationalized in the field. Stringent judging criteria was used to determine official CLA Case Competition winners, so not all submissions should be considered an official USAID endorsement of best practice. To view all entries, visit the CLA Case Competition page.