SELAMAWIT FIRDISSA DURESA
My name is Selamawit Firdissa. I'm currently working as gender and nutrition expert for Bilateral Ethiopian Netherlands Effort for Food, Income and Trade (BENEFIT). BENEFIT (2016-2019) is emplemented by Wagningen University in partnership with Ethiopian Universities and Ethiopian Agriculture Research Institutes. There are five programs under BENEFIT: Integrated Seed Sector Development (ISSD), Capacity Building and Scaling Up Evidence Based Practices (CASCAPE), Sesame Business Network (SBN), Ethiopian Netherlands Trade for Agriculture Growth (ENTAG) and Realising Sustainable Agricultural Livelihood Security in Ethiopia (REALISE). All the programs test and validate different approaches and agricultural technologies and recommend to policy makers. I have been providing technical support to all program to mainsteam gender and nutrition sensitive agriculture (NSA) since 2016. NSA includes crop diversification like home gardening and pulses as well as addressing food safety issues through multi-sectoral approach. Therefore, I can share the experience I have in this forum and learn from others too.