Flashback 2015 : Training: sharing to ensure sustainability- an example from Ethiopia

Source : HORIZONS Magazine n°4

“With the development of value chains, many professional associations and organisations are building up experience and diversifying the services they offer to their members, in particular training and the popularisation of improved agronomic practices. COLEACP needs to take this development into account. Firstly, to make sure it does not find itself in the position of competing, despite its best intentions, by offering support that these organisations already provide to companies. Secondly, because, unlike aid programmes such as the PIP (Pesticides Initiative Programme) and EDES, these farming organisations were created for posterity and could be precious allies in ensuring the sustainability of future support for supply chains.

Ethiopia: delegation of basic training

With this in mind, COLEACP is working with the Ethiopian Horticulture Producer Exporters Association (EHPEA). This association groups together 85  horticultural businesses representing 70% of fresh produce production in that country. It was created in 2002 to support flower exports, which were then booming. On its creation, the EHPEA drew up a code of conduct establishing minimum standards of good practices for agriculture and environmental protection, and for working conditions, to satisfy the demands of international buyers and even to anticipate those demands.

To help farmers to apply this code, the EHPEA set up a training department, with Dutch cooperation. The 11  trainers in this department provide support to member and non-member companies to ensure they know about safe pesticide use, quality control, first aid and environmental protection, among other issues. Those courses were originally tailored to flower growing. With the global economic crisis, there was a drop in demand for flowers.

Ethiopian horticultural companies diversified into market gardening, primarily fresh herbs such as chives, dill, basil and tarragon. The EHPEA therefore expanded its range of training courses to provide support to the ‘vegetable, herbs and fruits’ subsector, and also to develop corporate social responsibility. With a view to this expansion, the EHPEA asked for support from the PIP programme. After meticulous examination of the needs of the department and the sector, COLEACP drew up an ambitious action plan in September 2013, to share with the EHPEA some of the know-how and teaching tools developed by PIP over the past 13 years. (…)”

The Pesticides Initiative Programme (PIP) was financed by the European Development Fund. The ACP Group of States and the European Commission entrusted responsibility for its implementation to COLEACP (today COLEAD).