An Inauguration ceremony for a project aiming to provide capacity building for the Afar pastoralist society took place on 17 December, 2011. The project was funded by the Japanese government through its Grant in-aid-scheme for Grassroots Human Security Projects (GGP), amounting to USD 93,472, and was implemented by the local NGO called the Afar Pastoralist Development Association.  Mr. Yoshinori Kitamura, First Secretary of the Embassy of Japan in Ethiopia, celebrated the completion of the project, together with Ato Ismael Ali Gardo, Executive Director of the Afar Pastoralist Development Association (APAD), local government representatives of the Dubti Woreda, as well as members of the community.

This project was prepared against the back-drop of the declining economy of the community economy as recurrent droughts have killed many of the Afar pastoralist’s herds.  As a result, the Afar pastoralist households have started drifting towards destitution, leading them to try and seek other sources of income in the nearby towns. 

However, the Afar Region is dominantly pastoralist and there is no industrial development that allows large employment.  The majority of people who moved to towns now engage in daily laboring jobs on construction sites, earning money with which they barely manage to live on.  In addition, traditionally the Afar have not been involved in trading or in the market so they are inherently not market oriented.  Thus, many Afar have no skills to produce goods, provide services and conduct businesses, and there is no institution in the region to train those people to gain various skills. 

In order to ease the above-mentioned problem, APDA, which has been working for the Afar community for 17 years, proposed the project for a new vocational training center to open up opportunities for both Afar men and women by teaching skills and knowledge for alternative livelihoods.

Mr. Yoshinori Kitamura, in his speech at the inauguration ceremony, expressed his profound gratitude to APDA for their deep devotion to the completion of the project.  He said he is most gratified to learn that the new vocational training center will enable nearly 200 Afar men and women every year to acquire skills, such as carpentry, handicraft, weaving, cooking and hospitality, and have the knowledge to initiate small businesses, which eventually will provide regular income and bring stability to their lives.  Also, he mentioned that this then will strengthen the overall economy of the region and promote diversity of income in the Afar pastoralist society so that they will be less vulnerable to drought and other disasters.

Since 1997, the Embassy of Japan in Ethiopia has supported over 287 Grassroots Human Security Projects throughout Ethiopia, in education, water, agriculture, health and other areas of basic human needs.  The Government of Japan will continue to support a variety of projects at the grassroots level for marginalized and vulnerable people.