USAID’s Administrator visits Save the Children’s ENGINE plus program

Monday 23 October 2017

U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator, Mark Green, visited Save the Children’s ENGINE plus project in Jijiga town during his latest stay in Ethiopia, according to news sources of the US Embassy in Ethiopia, he has announced that Ethiopia is one of the 12 target countries for the next phase in America’s global hunger and food security initiative.   

The ‘Milk Matters’ component of ENGINE plus Program that Green visited is designed to increase milk availability at household level and reduce malnutrition rates during drought. The program is working with three new and two existing cooperatives on fodder production and marketing since 2015. The cooperatives used to produce maize using irrigation system. ENGINE plus has provided a solar water pump to the cooperatives so they can produce livestock fodder in large plots of land to ensure sustainable access of target beneficiaries to fodder for their animals throughout the year.   

Quman Cooperative near Jigjiga town that Green visited is one of the beneficiaries of such interventions. ENGINE program has trained all the 15 members of Quman Cooperative on improved techniques of framing. Chronically food insecure target household beneficiaries are systematically linked with such cooperatives to access fodder.