• Locally Led Technical Assistance Model: Through IGNITE+, Fair & Sustainable (F&S) serves as a Local Service Provider, shifting technical assistance from externally driven support to a locally rooted, institution-owned model that strengthens long-term sustainability in Ethiopia’s agrifood system.
• Institution-Driven Systems Change: Collaborative diagnostic assessments and phased co-delivery approaches are enabling agricultural institutions to embed gender and nutrition into their core policies, programs, and operational systems, not just as add-ons, but as integral components of their way of doing business.
• Beyond Training: Sustainable Capacity Strengthening: IGNITE+ goes beyond one-off trainings by combining coaching, follow-ups, and MEL systems development, ensuring that gender and nutrition integration becomes embedded in institutional practices and decision-making processes.

Sustainable transformation in Africa’s food systems requires more than technical expertise, it demands locally rooted leadership, institutional ownership, and long-term capacity. In Ethiopia, this shift is taking shape through the Impacting Gender and Nutrition through Innovative Technical Exchange in Agriculture Plus (IGNITE+) project, where Fair & Sustainable (F&S) serves as Tanager’s Local Service Provider (LSP). Since 2021, this partnership has been redefining how gender and nutrition technical assistance is delivered moving from externally driven support towards a model that builds enduring institutional systems and local capacity.

Local Service Providers (LSPs) offer a strategic pathway to scale IGNITE+ gender and nutrition technical assistance while ensuring long-term sustainability of outcomes within African Agricultural Institutions beyond the project lifecycle. Through a phased co-delivery approach, Tanager and F&S continue to support several agricultural institutions in Ethiopia to design, implement, and evaluate gender-responsive and nutrition-sensitive interventions. These institutions include: as Hailemariam and Roman Foundation, Ethiopian Agricultural transformation Agency, Bopinc, and the Ethiopian Poultry Production and Processing Association

These partnerships have been grounded in transparency, accountability, and consistent engagement, building trust and embedding sustainable gender and nutrition integration within institutional systems and practices.

F&S journey in technical assistance delivery highlights three key lessons:

1. Institution-driven diagnostic assessments that generate actionable outcomes: These assessments go beyond analysis by serving as practical roadmaps for institutional change. By identifying strengths and gaps, they support the co-creation of tailored workplans that promote ownership, relevance, and measurable progress.
2. Capacity strengthening beyond trainings: IGNITE+ goes beyond one-off trainings by combining institutional capacity building with coaching, follow-ups, and MEL systems development, embedding gender and nutrition into organisational systems and practices.
3. Cultural fluency in translating technical concepts into locally relevant, sustainable practices: F&S ability to navigate cultural and organisational differences enhances collaboration, translating technical concepts into local realities, and transforms technical assistance into meaningful, long-term partnerships.

Ultimately, by building trust, ownership, and long-term capacity of African agricultural institutions, F&S and Tanager are strengthening a resilient, locally led ecosystem capable of sustaining gender and nutrition integration across Ethiopia’s agrifood system

Read the full blog: https://bit.ly/4rTdNZA