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Wageningen University Alumni Day reveals the strong Ethio-Netherlands collaboration to increase sustainable food and nutrition security in Ethiopia.

On the occasion of its 100th birthday (1918-2018), the Wageningen University & Research (WUR)in The Netherlands invited its alumni around the world to organize aWorldwide Alumni Day. With the support of Ethiopian WUR alumni, The Netherlands Embassy and theWUR-‘Bilateral Ethiopian-Netherlands Effort for Food, Income and Trade (BENEFIT) Partnership’, the AgriProFocus Network in Ethiopia organized this Alumni Day on Saturday 23 June 2018at ILRI,Addis Ababa. Since WUR has proven to be unique in understanding the entire food chain, the central theme of the Alumni Day was “Access to Healthy Food in Mega Cities’.
Below follows a concise report of the day by the organizer AgriProFocus.
The Dutch-based AgriProFocusNetwork active within the agrofood sector in Ethiopia, ensured that the Alumni Day in Ethiopia consisted of a true multi-stakeholder exchange between the public, private and civil society sector on access to healthy food in Africa’s mega cities, and Ethiopia’s mega city, Addis Ababa, in specific.About 120 people showed up to listen to the keynote speakersand take part in the group discussions around food safety, food waste, urban agricultural activities and private-sector engagement in making healthy food accessible and affordable. Besides, a food fair was organized to provide the alumni and AgriProFocus Ethiopia’s local members, mainly start-ups and young agripreneurs, a chance to showcase their healthy food products. Almost 20 local private-sector actors were given this platform in order to support them in their active contribution to improve the access to healthy food for urban habitants in Ethiopia. Also, five research poster presenters were selected through a call for abstracts prior to the Alumni Day to share their evidence-based research related to the central theme of the day.
Keynote speakers Dr. Jan Willem Nibbering,the Senior Food Security Policy Officer at The Netherlands Embassy in Ethiopia and Dr. Alberto Giani from FAO Ethiopia, spoke about the need for a food system approach in order to effectively increasethe sustainability, accessibility and affordability of healthy food products for urban dwellers. They stressed that by 2030 more people will live in cities, including in Ethiopia, than in rural areas.Keynote speaker Mr. TeferraAbraha, a Wageningen University Alumna himself and currently working for the Urban Agriculture department of the Addis Ababa administration, gave a concise overview of the policy strategy regarding urban agriculture in Addis Ababa. This policy framework encourages the engagement ofgender and youth in urban agricultural activities in Addis Ababa and the need for strong multi-stakeholder collaborations in making urban food systems work for healthy food intake of urban dwellers.
All the ideas exchanged by the participants during the day were used as an input for the online worldwide dialogueorganized to invite prominent alumni and experts from Africa, Asia, South America, the US and Europe, to discuss the challenges and opportunities around access to healthy food in metropolitan cities across the globe and to identify a common ground when discussing scenarios and transitions. The WUR Alumni Day in Ethiopia was selected as one of the venues for the online dialogue, and represented the voice of Africa. The day ended with a networking reception with live music from the environmental protection youth club of Mentesenot Urban Agriculture, a grassroots organization that promotes sustainable urban agriculture and environmental protection within one of the poorest communities in Addis Ababa.
The WUR is one of the world’s leading universities with a strong focus on agriculture and food & nutrition security. With the support of The Netherlands Embassy in Ethiopia, WUR has helped spur the agricultural development in Ethiopia. WUR has invited many Ethiopians for a short course, MSc or PhD study at its university through a scholarship. In 2012 alone, a total of 116 Ethiopian MSc students were registered and an average of 65 PhD students per year were registered between 2012 and 2017. Also, more than 60 research studies from WUR were on-going in 2017 alone. In addition, around 20 WUR projects are on-going of which ‘BENEFIT-partnership’ is the most prominent due to its strong collaborations with different Ethiopian agricultural research centers, Ethiopian universities and the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fishery.
From a nutrition-sensitive agriculture platform with the EU Delegation in Ethiopia to a 3-day workshop with the Food & Business Knowledge Platform (F&BKP) to identify how to make Ethiopia’s agrofood value chains more nutrition-sensitive, AgriProFocus has already built a large reputation and will continue to explore how to use the power of its multi-stakeholder network to support its network members to increase their individual and collective impact to ensure sustainable food & nutrition security in Ethiopia.
For more information about the Wageningen University Alumni Day or the AgriProFocus Network and its partners, please send an e-mail to ethiopia@agriprofocus.com

By AgriProFocus Ethiopia

Wubetu Abate front runner for national team coach

Sports

July 2, 2018

Ethiopian Premier League former champion Wubetu Abate is said to be the front runner to be the latest national team head coach. Criticisms are already coming in saying the vacancy announcement is a readymade dinner jacket for Wubetu who is currently in charge of Hawassa.
The vacancy announcement itself is much criticized for being as usual full of jargons that really need not be included to select the right professional for the right place. One of the requirements is having ten years of experience as a Premier League side coach. This is said to be unnecessary for the individual could be successful in five years yet be short of fulfilling the minimum requirements. “If the vacancy is for England national team Guardiola is not fit to be appointed for he is in his second year with the team,” A sport commentator suggested. “Even with former national coach Sewnet Bishaw member of EFF Executive body, the announcement is an exact copy of the past three or four executive bodies,” he added.
Though Hawassa is currently seventh in the league table with 34 points not far from relegation zone, many appreciate Wubetu for building an entertaining football playing team. A Premier League title champion with Ethiopia Bunna, the former Adama and Ethiopia NegedBank Head Coach Wubetu has two years experience with a Sudanese side thus he is said to fulfill the requirements to win the appointment ahead of any other contenders. Premier League leader Gebremedin Haile, strong title contender Mekele boss Yohanes Sahle and relegation threatened Arbaminch head coach Tsegaye K/Mariam are the other expected applicants for the vacancy.

Ethiopian Super League’s Time Crunch

Sports

July 2, 2018

The rainy season is getting stronger, yet the Super League fixtures are just past half way, speculations are flying that the championship might be postponed to next year. However, most of the footballers’ contracts are to be terminated at the end of this month and the annual budget closing is underway.
Though the rainy season started earlier and the down pours are getting momentum, June is critical in the Ethiopian calendar for it is the annual budget closing as well contract termination month. Ten matches means at least another two months which the federation is in no position to enjoy those eight weeks for the heavy rain turns the green pitches in to mud filled ditches. Let alone postponement of the season, the two month extension means huge financial and administration setbacks for clubs and players especially on those teams that aspired and worked hard to earn promotion.
Super League group “B” leaders Baherdar needs to raise additional finance to cover the running cost for the extended season as well to sit and negotiate with the footballers whose contract to comes to an end this month. It is business as usual thus the club is under pressure to comply with the demand of the players’. Does Baherdar have any option rather than going for it and trying to achieve its dream? The new administration needs to find a way to bring all stake holders and discuss a way out from the nightmare of postponement of the season. Early cries of foul are already underway therefore the federation better fasten its belt in good time to tackle potential problems.

Ethiopian muddy cup championship reaches third round

Sports

July 2, 2018

Reigning premier League champions Saint George and league leaders Jimma AbaJifar booked a place in the 2018 Knock Out championship third round fixtures while strong side Mekele was booted out after a penalty shoot-out defeat at the hands of relegation threatened Ethio-Electric.
A muddy knock-out championship at Addis Ababa stadium, Saint George defeated visitors Wolayta Dicha to 1-0 score line. With number of star players absent Saint George returned home with an important victory thanks to Mentesenot Adane’s first half winning goal. Though Wolayta Dicha twice missed golden chances at the final minutes of the first half, it was all about the home side dominating the show. The winner of Hawassa and Sidama Bunna match faces Saint George in the next phase.
A braid from Fitsum G/Mariam including a penalty, Mekelakya trashed out visitors Diredawa after a 3-2 home victory. Though man of the match Dagnachew Bekele grabbed two goals, the muddy field was more to the advantage of “The Army Side” that went through. Mekelakya faces Fasil in the next round.
A goal less away draw against in poor form Ethio-Electric, Mekele’s dream of a semifinal stage turned in to a nightmare after a 4-2 penalty shootout defeat. The two foreign players Nuhu Fuseiny and Achempong Amos missed from the spot therefore Electric made it in to the last six. Electric’s next meeting is against league leaders Jimma AbaJifar.
Ethiopia Bunna returned with a penalty shootout away victory against home side Arbaminch. Baptist Faye gave the visitors an early lead after a defensive blunder only to be cancelled out after just after seventeen minutes through Fekadu Mekonen’s equalizer. “We are battling for a trophy after six years,” Ethiopia Bunna head coach Didier Gomes told reporters.