MaYEA: Mass Youth Employment in Apiculture

About MaYEA

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

The 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. Interventions engage 400,000 new beekeepers, 350,000 existing beekeepers and 400,000 participants in prioritized value chains.

Goal and Outcomes

The program goal is to enable one million young people (80% women) to find dignified and fulfilling work through strengthened and expanded markets in apiculture-centered agribusiness. The 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 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, interventions must go beyond short-term results to the larger systemic factors that influence the sector's growth. The program's theory of change recognizes the complex nature of the sector's constraints and empowers individuals, communities and systems to effect transformational change: engaging new beekeepers, strengthening existing beekeepers, improving product quality assurance and grading, integrating apiculture with other value chains, and strengthening the enabling environment.

Target Group

MaYEA targets young women and men, persons with disabilities, returnees, and internally displaced people and/or refugees. Over five years, the North and Northwest Sub-national Hub led by ORDA Ethiopia will directly reach 524,160 young people and enable 436,800 young people (80% women, 10% from disadvantaged groups) to find dignified and fulfilling work through skilling and financial access.

Implementing Partners

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

• ORDA Ethiopia leads the North and Northwest Sub-National Hub, working with 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.

Clusters led from the North and Northwest Hub

Stakeholders

MaYEA engages a diverse range of stakeholders across its areas of operation, including the Labor and Skills Bureau, the Women, Youth and Social Affairs Bureau, the Agriculture Bureau, the Livestock and Fish Resource Development Bureau, the Cooperative Promotion Commission, the Trade and Market Development Bureau, and Land Use and Administration offices, among others.

Program Period and Budget

Documents and Stories

Read stories from the field