Introduction

The Mass Youth Employment in Apiculture (MaYEA) Program is a nationwide Youth Employment Program implemented in three implementation hubs: North and Northwest Hub (Amhara, Afar, Tigray and, Benishangul Gumuz, regions), South and Southwest Hub (Oromia, Sidama, SNNPR, and Southwest, Gambella regions) and National Hub (implementing crosscutting functions across the two hubs).  The implementing partners will collaborate to create a success story in the value chain through a carefully managed consortium approach that demonstrates practice and influences policy in the sector.

The MaYEA program aims to transform Ethiopia’s Apiculture industry to reach 1,860,000 young people and enable 1,050,000 unemployed young people to access wage and self-employment through skilling and access to finance. The program will engage in interventions: 400,000 new beekeepers, 350,000 existing beekeepers, and 400,000 prioritized value chains’ participants.

Goal and Outcomes

The program goal is to enable a million young people (80% women) to find dignified and fulfilling work through strengthened and expanded markets in apiculture-centered agribusiness. The program's long-term outcomes are:

• Increasing national honey and beeswax production
• Improving honey quality to meet International and national standards
• Enhancing market-driven value addition and product diversification
• Enhancing integration of apiculture with other complementary value chains
• Improving the Enabling Environment for the youth and apiculture sector development

Theory of change

To realize a transformed and commercialized apiculture sector that provides dignified and fulfilling work opportunities for young women and men in Ethiopia, interventions must not only focus on short-term results but also on larger systemic factors that influence the sector's growth. As a result, the program's theory of change (ToC) recognizes the complex nature of the sector's constraints and has designed interventions that empower individuals, communities, and systems to effect transformational change. By engaging new beekeepers, strengthening existing beekeepers, improving the product quality assurance and grading, integrating Apiculture with other value chains, and strengthening the enabling environment, we can contribute to creating a transformed apiculture sector in which young enterprise owners flourish and thrive sustainably.

Target group

The MaYEA program targets young Women and Men, Persons with disabilities, Returnees, and Internally Displaced People and/or Refugees. In the five years, the North and Northwest Sub-national hub led by ORDA Ethiopia will directly reach 524,160 young people. As a result, it will enable 436,800 Young people (80 Women, 10% disadvantaged groups) to dignify and fulfill their works through skilling and financial access.

Implementing partners

In the North and Northwest Subnational Hub, the program is being implemented in 63 Woredas of four regions.

• ORDA Ethiopia leads the North–Northwest Sub-National Hub, working with partners: the Population, Health, and Environment Ethiopia Consortium (PHE-EC), Bees for Development Ethiopia (BfDE), and The Well in Action (TWA).
• The International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) acts as the National Hub, overseeing cross-cutting roles across both Sub-National Hubs.
• The International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR) leads the South, Southwest, and Central Sub-National Hub, in collaboration with SOS Sahel Ethiopia and MELCA-Ethiopia.

In the North and Northwest Sub-National Hub, led by ORDA Ethiopia, the implementation of the MaYEA program is carried out across five clusters:

• Debre Birhan Cluster – by PHE-EC, operating in 14 woredas at Zone 1, 2, 3, and 5, in Afar region and South Wollo, North Shewa, and the Oromo Special Zone in Amhara region.
• Bahir Dar Cluster – by BfDE, operating in 15 woredas at North Gojam, East Gojam, West Gojam, and Awi Zones in the Amhara region and Metekel Zone in Beneshangul-Gumuz region.
• Shire Cluster – by TWA, operating in 8 woredas in the Northwest and Central Tigray zones in the Tigray region.
• Meket and Akesta clusters – by ORDA Ethiopia, operating in 26 woredas of South Gondar, North Wollo, South Wollo, and North Shewa zones in the Amhara region.

Stakeholders

The MaYEA program has engaged a diverse range of stakeholders across all areas where it operates. These key stakeholders include: Labor and Skills Bureau, Women, Youth and Social Affairs Bureau, Agriculture Bureau, Livestock and Fish Resource Development Bureau, Cooperative Promotion Commission, Trade and Market Development Bureau, Land Use & Administration, among others.

Program period: O1 November 2024 - 31 October 2028

Budget: The program is supported by the Mastercard Foundation. The five-year’ North and Northwest subnational hub budget is 30,433,585 USD.