Alemtsehay Abebe was living on beer. Having studied catering, the Ethiopian mother of one turned to brewing after she had difficulty finding work. But making a living selling “Tella” — a traditional local brew made from barley –—didn’t turn out the way she hoped.

“I felt I was unfortunate, and couldn’t bear it,” says Alemtsehay. “I feared alcohol, that people might drink and fight — it wasn’t positive.”

Selling beer, however, allowed her to save enough to move from Addis Ababa to a rural village in the north where she planned to raise her daughter.

There, Alemtsehay explored new opportunities and joined a women’s group connected to an economic empowerment program run by American nonprofit iDE, and attended workshops on credit, investing, and growing vegetable cash crops.

Photo by Nahom Tesfaye.

She also became involved in a pioneering nutrition project designed to provide women with livelihood opportunities while assisting families with young children learn about the importance of nutritious diets and gain access to healthy foods.

With funding from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, iDE has trained some 20 entrepreneurial women including Alemtsehay to become “nutrition sales agents” who work to prepare, promote, and sell a traditional food called mitin.

A simple porridge, mitin is a highly nutritious mixture of cereals and beans, which are locally sourced. To become an agent, the women must have a space to dry the ingredients, own a shop to sell the product, be trusted in the community and believe in nutrition work.

iDE has trained some 20 entrepreneurial women including Alemtsehay to become “nutrition sales agents” who work to prepare, promote, and sell a traditional food called mitin.

Using her catering skills, Alemtsehay says she learned to prepare and market mitin from iDE project staff and government-assigned nutrition experts, before selling it to people in her community.

She says villagers asked her to “‘give us this [mitin] for free, and let’s try it’. I said, ‘No, I don’t give. I spent money on it — but this is a very fair price’. Now people see the benefit, and the whole village comes frequently to buy [from me]”.

Mitin is now being sold widely by sales agents who use word-of-mouth, posters, and banners to advertise the product. They also hold cooking demonstrations where they teach households how to prepare the porridge with additional vegetables and animal source foods to further boost the nutritional value.

Encouraging women entrepreneurs to sell nutritious foods had an exponential impact on communities.

Almost 3,000 customers in three Ethiopian regions have purchased mitin from the agents, and iDE now plans to recruit more women to prepare and sell it in other parts of the country.

Alemtsehay Abebe. Photo by Nahom Tesfaye.

Dana Camp Smith, iDE senior director of global nutrition, said encouraging women entrepreneurs to sell nutritious foods had an exponential impact on communities.

“When women are empowered with greater access to income, we see more investment in family health, nutrition, and education,” says Camp Smith.

She said sales agents not only earned a livelihood from selling mitin, but also became a trusted source of nutrition knowledge within their communities, and ensured nutritious foods were readily available.

iDE now plans to expand the sales of mitin across Ethiopia. The organization believes in catalyzing the power of local markets to reduce poverty. The organization works with local entrepreneurs who connect underserved, last-mile markets with products and services that enable people to move up the economic ladder.

iDE utilizes this market-based approach to improve nutritional outcomes by focusing on the food systems environment, meaning the production, processing, and distribution of nutritious foods.

By focusing on systems that will ultimately be owned and run by local entrepreneurs, iDE is creating sustainable impacts in improving access, availability, and desirability of nutritious foods and products.

In Ethiopia, drought conditions, conflict, and climate change are contributing to food insecurity and malnutrition, putting many communities at risk. According to USAID, Ethiopia has made remarkable progress in improving child nutrition in the last two decades but is not on track to meet international targets.

“Malnutrition in young children can lead to lasting cognitive and health impairments that last for the duration of their lives and can trap them in poverty. We seek to upend this cycle and provide opportunities for health and growth for all,” says Camp Smith.