Gender Transformative Socio-Technical Innovation Bundles (GTSTIBs) scaling roadmap - Ejere, Ethiopia

Ejere is a high-potential vegetable-producing woreda in Oromia, supported by favourable agro-ecology, proximity to major urban markets, strong community institutions, and a large base of women and youth engaged in farming and agribusiness. Despite these strengths, agricultural productivity, profitability, and resilience remain constrained by fragmented service delivery, delayed and inflexible financial services, weak market organization, uneven access to digital tools, persistent gender inequalities, and increasing exposure to climate shocks. Evidence from the Gender Transformative Socio-Technical Innovation Bundles (GTSTIBs) Learning Lab indicates that farmers are more willing to adopt innovations when agronomy, quality inputs, finance, digital advisory, and market access are delivered as an integrated bundle rather than through isolated interventions. This roadmap presents a four-year pathway to scale GTSTIBs across Ejere, moving from project-based pilots toward a woreda-owned system of inclusive agricultural service delivery. The overarching goal is to support the development of a resilient, market-oriented vegetable production ecosystem in which women and youth exercise meaningful agency, farmers access timely and bundled services, and institutions coordinate more effectively. Core objectives include strengthening woreda-level coordination, expanding access to integrated digital, financial, and agronomic services, reducing gender-based barriers to leadership and resources, engaging youth as digital and service intermediaries, and establishing more predictable and profitable market linkages. The scaling strategy adopts a systems-based approach that integrates digital platforms, local agent networks, inclusive finance, value chain strengthening, and deliberate social and gender transformation. Rather than scaling technologies alone, the roadmap promotes a “phygital” ecosystem that links digital tools with physical institutions such as extension services, cooperatives, Vegetable Business Networks (VBNs), financial institutions, and private agribusinesses. By 2030, Ejere is envisioned as a woreda where women-led and youth-enabled enterprises are active, digital advisory and seasonal finance are routinely accessible, markets function through aggregation and off-take arrangements, and climate-smart practices are embedded in everyday farming decisions. Implementation is organised into four sequential phases over a 48-month period: foundation strengthening; pilot expansion and service integration; wider-scale scaling with market and financial integration; and long-term sustainability and innovation renewal. Each phase is underpinned by governance structures, accountability mechanisms, and a learning-oriented monitoring system. By anchoring GTSTIBs within woreda institutions, strengthening community ownership, and aligning public, private, and community actors around a shared vision, the roadmap provides a practical and scalable pathway for Ejere to achieve inclusive, resilient, and gender-transformative agricultural growth. We will be piloting and institutionalising the GTSTIBs across multiple value chains like common beans, fruit trees, insect for food and feed, as well as honeybees through the Building Equitable Climate-Resilient African Bean and Insect Sectors (BRAINS) project.