The USAID Ethiopia team, led by its Mission Director Mr. Scott Hocklander, recently visited the
Biodiversity and Community Resilience in the Omo Valley/BIOM/ project in the Lower Omo. The
BIOM project aims to improve biodiversity, livelihood security, and human rights and peace in
the Lower Omo Valley through community-based conservation, ecotourism, regenerative
agriculture, and capacity building for political advocacy. One of the components of the BIOM
project is the conflict prevention and peace building initiative which the Ethiopian Institute of
Peace is implementing.
The BIOM Alliance is composed of the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR),
Ethiopian Institute of Peace (EIP), Cool Ground and the Omo Turkana Research Network
(OTuRN), represented by the University of Leeds (UoL). African Canvas Ltd. and Hess Travel
Ethiopia are among the private sector actors with whom BIOM works.
Assessing the overall progress of the project activities and take corrective measures and discussing
on the way forward was the objective of the USAID Ethiopia team visit. The visit was a great
opportunity for the BIOM alliance to engage with the indigenous community in general and for
EIP to show its efforts exerted to mitigate conflicts and build peace.
