USAID has launched a new five-year program to improve food safety in Ethiopia. EatSafe: Evidence and Action Towards Safe Nutritious Food is a new program of United States Agency for International Development’s Feed The Future Initiative. EatSafe is part of a groundswell effort for greater investment in food safety for Ethiopian consumers at USAID. The activity was launched in Hawassa, capital of Siddama region, with both USAID and Government of Ethiopia representatives in attendance.
The new EatSafe program will focus improving the lives of Ethiopians by ensuring the food they purchase at local markets are fresh, nutritious, and safer to eat. In particular, the activity will work with market vendors to improve the safety of nutritious foods sold in traditional Ethiopian markets, and make sure consumers have the knowledge they need about the importance of safe food.
At the launch event, USAID representatives, government representatives, national food safety experts and stakeholders, and the EatSafe consortium (led by Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and including International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Pierce Mill Entertainment and Education, and Busara Center for Behavioral Economics), discussed the importance of this valuable program. Part of the program will include conducting much-needed research, to better understand Ethiopia’s food safety-related risks, attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors among consumers and food vendors, as well as the governing bodies in traditional markets in Ethiopia.
Valued at $5.9 million,
EatSafe was launched to ensure food becomes safer for everyone. Regrouping key stakeholders in one room will enable us to create the right conditions to increase collaboration and give the project the best start possible.
- Richard Pluke, the lead of the transformative new program.
Feed The Future’s EatSafe program is a part of USAID’s ongoing work to ensure the people of Ethiopia lead healthier, prosperous, and more resilient lives. In 2021 alone, USAID devoted $1.27 billion to the wellbeing of all Ethiopians, in every part of the country.
Find out more about the EatSafe program here: www.gainhealth.org/EatSafe.
EatSafe (Evidence and Action Towards Safe, Nutritious Food) is a five-year, multi-country project which seeks to enable lasting improvements in the safety of nutritious foods in informal markets by focusing on the consumer. EatSafe is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Feed the Future activity. The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) leads a consortium of partners including International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Pierce Mill Entertainment and Education (PME), and Busara Center for Behavioral Economics.