RAYEE II

Ethiopia,

ongoing

A smiling woman in a floral dress holds fresh greens, standing in a lush field under a clear blue sky.

RAYEE aims to build resilient and empowered young women across Ethiopia through rural agri-preneurship.

Building on the success of its first phase, RAYEE II (Resilient and Empowered Young Women via Rural Agri-preneurship) is a five-year program (2025–2030) designed to create dignified and fulfilling employment for 800,000 rural young women in Ethiopia. Reflecting a commitment to inclusion, the program targets 10% persons with disabilities (PWD), returnees and internally displaced people.

The program operates across 200 woredas in seven regions—Tigray, Amhara, Oromia, Sidama, Southern Ethiopia, Southwest Ethiopia, and Central Ethiopia—focusing on high-growth value chains including Poultry, Dairy, and Horticulture. RAYEE II is supported by MasterCard Foundation and is being implemented as a consortium, with SNV as the lead, in collaboration with DEC, MCS, NMWEO and PADet.

By combining skills training, financial inclusion, market opportunities, women’s empowerment and influencing the enabling environment, RAYEE II aims to reach 1,000,000 youth, ensuring resilient livelihoods through micro-enterprise incubation, acceleration, and employment within lead firms

The challenge

Ethiopia’s population of approximately 135.5 million, is comprised of a large young demographic with nearly 39% of the population being under the age of 15 (UNFPA, 2025). While two million young people enter the workforce annually (World Bank, 2024), the current economy struggles to generate enough jobs to meet this demand. This widening gap leaves a significant portion of the youth population at risk of unemployment.

To address this challenge, the agricultural sector offers a promising pathway for employment and poverty alleviation. However, according to the Ethiopia Country Roadmap, rural young women and persons with disabilities face unique systemic barriers that hinder their entrepreneurial potential. These key obstacles include limited technical and business skills, insufficient household and community support, and restricted access to financial services and profitable markets.

In response, RAYEE II is designed to enhance the resilience and amplify the voices of rural young women by promoting agri-preneurship within the dairy, poultry, and horticultural value chains. The program designs interventions to address the root causes of exclusion, specifically limited entrepreneurial skills and weak access to markets and business development services (BDS), to ensure rural young women can thrive as leaders in the agricultural sector.

The approach

RAYEE-II aims to transition 80% of one million young people (10% men) to work through the execution of the following innovative and impactful five core interventions that support the entrepreneurial journey of financially disadvantaged rural young women. The program prioritizes a proactive safeguarding culture by integrating the Mastercard Foundation guidelines and SNV’s ethical standards across all operations. All staff and partners will vigilantly adhere to these policies to ensure a safe, accountable environment for everyone involved.

Skills to grow: Equipping rural young women with entrepreneurial and technical skills to start and run an agribusiness as well as be able to navigate the social-cultural and gendered barriers through delivery of appropriate content in collaboration with local government institutions in proximate locations, such as one-stop centres, A/TVETs, and youth centres.

Improving young women's agency and voice: Strengthening rural young women's ability to make decisions by the providing of life skills training, supporting their access information and network, as well as engaging with community leaders to get their buy-in to reshape power relations.

Facilitating inclusive financial services: Providing financial education and improving the financial literacy of young women. It also involves supporting the establishment of (youth saving and lending associations (YSLAs), and saving and credit cooperatives (SACCOs), linking the program participants to financial service providers. Additionally, RAYEE II will strengthen the capacity of partner financial institutions to design and deliver tailored financial products and services to rural young women and agribusinesses.

Making the market work for rural young women: Supporting sustainability and inclusivity of markets, enabling rural young women to actively engage and thrive as agri-preneurs. The young rural women will be enabled to access climate-smart agri-inputs, technologies and advisories, and digital platforms to actively engage in market opportunities.

Influencing the agri-preneurship ecosystem: Coordinating with grassroot implementers and youth-led organizations to engage with relevant public and private actors to voice and address the challenges of rural young women. Organizing multi-stakeholder forums of public and private sector actors and a network of youth advisory groups, RAYEE II will influence the agribusiness ecosystem through evidence-based learning and advocacy