Ethiopia has made impressive progress reducing hunger and undernutrition, but “food security and nutrition are still key development issues,” said Dejene Abesha, RED&FS Secretariat, at the conference on The Future of Ethiopia’s Agriculture: Towards a Resilient System to End Hunger and Undernutrition held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on December 15, 2017. IFPRI and Compact2025 co-hosted the event with the Ethiopian Development Research Institute (EDRI) and the Rural Economic Development and Food Security (RED&FS) Sector Working Group.
Dr. Bart Minten, IFPRI Ethiopia Strategy Support Program leader opened the conference, which discussed new research to inform Ethiopia’s agricultural policy. Mr. Abesha also gave opening remarks on the timeliness of IFPRI’s research on the future of Ethiopia’s agriculture. Dr. Shenggen Fan, IFPRI director general and Compact2025 leadership council member, added that agriculture will continue to play a critical role for Ethiopia to achieve its ambitious Seqota Declaration to end child stunting by 2030, among other goals.