SOS Sahel Ethiopia (formerly the SOS Sahel UK programme in Ethiopia) was established in 1989 and is dedicated to improve the living standards of smallholder farmers and marginalised pastoralists through better management of their environment and improved access to fair and sustainable agricultural markets.

In the SNNPR*, Oromia and Amhara regional states, SOS Sahel Ethiopia works with smallholder farmers and marginalised pastoralists to eliminate their chronic food insecurity and ensure environmental sustainability. The environment is crucially important to the livelihood security of farmers and pastoralists, and SOS Sahel Ethiopia's work to date supports its view that improved environmental management can reduce community vulnerability and help the rural poor to climb out of poverty. Poverty is not simply an issue of income; it is also about vulnerability, people's exclusion by the state and society and deprivation of their basic rights. Thus, central to SOS Sahel Ethiopia's development interventions is empowering the poor to exercise their environmental, social, civil, cultural and economic rights.

* Southern Nations, Nationalities & People's Region.

SOS Sahel Ethiopia's programmes include:

• Koisha Smallholder Wealth Creation project, SNNPR.
• Food Security Capacity Enhancement Project, SNNPR.
• Smallholder Livelihoods Creation Project, SNNPR.
• Community Initiative Promotion, Kafa Development Programme, SNNPR.
• Borana Collaborative Forest Management Project, SNNPR
• Bale Eco-region Sustainable Management Programme, Oromia.
• Pastoralist Food Security Partnership Project, Oromia.
• Pastoral Livelihood Initiative Drought Cycle Management, Oromia & Somali states.
• Gender and Pastoral Development Action Research, SNNPR, Afar, Somali & South Omo.
• Smallholder Apiculture Development: Bees Products Trade Promotion Programme, Amhara.

Click here to download a Factsheet about SOS Sahel Ethiopia's work.