General, News & Events

icipe-Ethiopia Office head visits MOYESH apiculture site in Guagusa Shikudad

by Desalegne Tadesse

On 26 January 2022, a team led by Dr. Tadele Tefera, icipe-Ethiopia Office Head tribute a field visit to the MOYESH programme apiculture sites in Guagusa Shikudad district of Amhara Region of Ethiopia. In the spirit of creating job opportunities for the youth, icipe has engaged with a total of 42,000 youth over two years in three regions (Amhara, Oromia, and SNNP). The purpose of the visit was to motivate the youth partners, observe the current work progress in the field, and examine and identify areas where the programme requirements were not being met to their full extent.

On arriving at the sites, the team had a meeting with organized youth groups, local government administration representatives, and community leaders and discussed different points related to the programme provisions. The visit started with a briefing by Yigerma Fente, Research Assistant, of the programme who presented a brief account of activities that have been taking place in the field and issues being faced in the process.
“Before joining the MOYESH programme we were not engaged in any income-generating activities. Now, we are grateful and feel secure because of the support we received; if the programme was not here, you may not find most of us at this place; either we were migrated to the towns or outside the country.” Alemitu Fente, member of the youth beekeeping enterprise.
The youth and public partners as well as the community were quite vocal and enthusiastic about the contribution of icipe’s interventions that have been most useful and impactful. For instance, the district office head mentioned the activities carried out so far by the icipe as the most important development in the district. He said, “The MOYESH support has made a big difference in dropping the unemployment rate in the district. The technology, capacity building and input support have helped the youth to strengthen their economic benefits. Now they are busy, less idle, engaged in beekeeping and complementary business. The programme’s impact goes beyond this, long years back, families were not allowing girls to engage in beekeeping practices. Now people are aware, and they no longer block young women from engaging in such activities.”
The youth partners knew that the effects of the MOYESH programme had significant impacts on their livelihoods and the entire community. They appreciate the icipe’s concern and the help that has poured in since 2020, and they recognize improvements in the creation of jobs and decent income. They could all meet on a regular basis and discuss both their personal and communal issues with each other. Also, they were aware of making savings regularly and the advantages of the concept, which was one of the major reasons why they became part of the programme.
 
Dr. Tadele Tefera, acknowledged the discussions, explanations, and a decent level of understanding of the functions and benefits of the programme shown up by the partners. He expressed that all the achievements and the resulting report would not have been possible without the dedication and hard work of the icipe staff and partners. He further underlined the critical importance of continuing documentation of all activities. In the end, he thanked all the participants for their time and efforts in facilitating conversations on what was heard and helping us understand how these reflections fit into the much larger picture of the icipe programme implementation.