The Ethiopia Strategy Support Program (ESSP) is a collaborative program undertaken by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and Policy Studies Institute (PSI). In order to support inclusive and sustainable growth and transformation in Ethiopia, the program works closely with local partners to assure that relevant research evidence is available for improved decision making and that local capacity is gradually formed so that the increasingly complex questions in Ethiopia can be tackled in a meaningful way by the relevant government institutions and other concerned local partners. This is achieved by doing analysis on important topics in the country, focusing on four major issues:
- Transforming agriculture sustainably;
- Reducing malnutrition;
- Improving markets, value chains, and trade;
- Building resilience to climate change – drought induced crisis situations.
ESSP is guided by a National Advisory Committee (NAC) which plays a key role in identifying research topics and addressing development challenges. Through this collaboration, the NAC and IFPRI/ESSP concentrate on four key activities:
- Collaborative research with the Policy Studies Institute (PSI), the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA), and the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) to promote poverty reduction and economic development in Ethiopia.
- Robust knowledge-management to contribute to policy dialogue, strategic priority setting, and evidence-based policy analysis.
- Capacity strengthening and increased knowledge dissemination within the academic and policy research community.
- Enhancing communications and institutional linkages between policy makers, policy analysts, civil society, and other policy and research actors through joint seminars and other dissemination events.
