BENEFIT-REALISE Project Overview
The ‘Realising Sustainable Agricultural Livelihood Security in Ethiopia’ (REALISE) programme is established in 2018 with the aims to contribute to sustainable livelihoods through the introduction of improved farming practices, innovations and social experiments to strengthen the current Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) in Ethiopia. REALISE is a new Bilateral Ethiopia Netherlands Effort for Food Income and Trade (BENEFIT) programme so as to take the achievements of CASCAPE (Capacity building for Scaling up of evidence-based best Practices in Agricultural Production’ (CASCAPE) programme and the ‘Integrated Seed Sector Development’ (ISSD) Ethiopia programme to new areas and target groups.
BENEFIT-REALISE Project Oda Bultum University Cluster will operate in four woredas (Chiro, Doba, Habro and Oda Bultum) of West Hararghe zone of Oromia Region with an initial implementing period of three years (2018-2020). It is funded by the Directorate-General for International Cooperation (DGIS) of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is implemented with support from Wageningen University and Research (WUR).

Programme Goal

Increasing agricultural productivity and improving sustainable livelihoods of smallholders in chronically food insecure high potential PSNP woredas’ through enhanced human, organizational and institutional capacities for validating, adapting and scaling best fit practices and innovations.
BENEFIT-REALISE Oda Bultum University Cluster Implementation Areas

Core Values
  1. Team spirit                              6. Inclusiveness
  2. Output oriented                      7. Commitment
  3. Integrity                                  8.   Transparency
  4. Accountability                         9. Responsiveness
  5. Honesty                                  10.Valuing indigenous knowledge
REALISE Four Pathways
  1. Practice
  2. Seed
  3. Capacity
  4. System Innovation
REALISE Approach
  1. Demand Driven and Context Specific Interventions
  2. Layering and Sequencing
  3. Matching CASCAPE/ISSD Ethiopia and Others Research Organizations Intervention with PSNP clients
  4. Scaling
  5. University as Knowledge Brokers in the Agriculture Knowledge System
  6. Evidence Based Policy Dialogue
  7. Training of Trainer Approach
  8. Innovative Extension Messages and Approach
  9. A Clear Story Line
REALISE Guiding Principles
PSNP Principles
  1. PSNP Principles
  2. Resilience
  3. Climate Smart Principles
  4. Mainstreaming Gender
  5. Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture
  6. Youth