| Sumario: | In 2020, the World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) and the Netherlands Development Organization (SNV) launched the Veggies 4 Planet & People (V4P&P) project to strengthen Ethiopia’s vegetable sector. The project aimed to empower women and youth by increasing their participation in business networks, promoting regenerative agriculture, strengthening value chains and market linkages, and building technical and entrepreneurial capacity. Targeted outcomes included job creation and income growth, improved food security and nutrition through increased production and consumption of local vegetables, and enhanced environmental and human health through safer vegetable production.
To deepen and sustain these impacts, the CGIAR Gender Equality Initiative—Harnessing Equality for Resilience in Agrifood Systems (HER+)—partnered with Green Agro Solution PLC, WorldVeg, and SNV to co-design and integrate Gender-Transformative Socio-Technical Innovation Bundles (GTSTIBs) into V4P&P. This integration embedded gender transformation into technical solutions by combining gender-responsive and nutrition-sensitive training with digital, market-driven, and social innovations delivered through the Lersha digital platform, including access to inputs, advisory services, markets, and finance.
GTSTIBs were piloted in Welmera and Ejere woredas in Oromia Region, which served as HER+ learning labs. These participatory platforms enabled stakeholders to diagnose gendered constraints, test and refine solutions, and document impacts on empowerment, climate resilience, nutrition, and intra-household decision-making. Early evidence indicates that co-designed, bundled innovations significantly enhance adoption and impact.
Building on these results, the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, WorldVeg, SNV, and Green Agro Solution are convening woreda- and national-level workshops to consolidate learning and advance pathways for scaling GTSTIBs within broader Food, Land, and Water Systems innovation agendas.
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