ETHIOPIA: Catalyzing the Market for Menstrual Health Products in Ethiopia

Although a universal aspect of women's lives, menstruation, as a phenomenon is shrouded with shame, taboos, ignorance, and secrecy. For Ethiopian women and girls, it means managing pain and discomfort while facing cultural/ religious restrictions.
 
At the same time, both urban and rural poverty translate into problems of affordability of products and lack of access to water. The formal menstrual hygiene product economy is small and dominated by single-use products which are purchased predominantly in the urban sector ­ for use by girls at school and women with regular incomes. 

With AFD funds and support, this project aims to address a major constraint on women and girls, namely the lack of availability, affordability, quality, and sustainability of menstrual hygiene management (MHH) products. The project is focused on the market; input and output manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers.

This project aims to tackle the supply and demand aspects of the market; it includes catalyzing innovation around single-use and reusable biodegradable products, both of which are more compostable.

Research of locally sourced raw materials for biodegradable pads will be key for this. Bahir Dar University via EiTEX (Ethiopian Institute of textile and Fashion Technology) will lead the R&D and production of biodegradable products while CARE Ethiopia will lead awareness raising and communication activities.

This project will lead to the following benefits:

• Development of the local production of biodegradable single-use MHM products.
• Creation of a Public-Private Dialog (PPD) and advocacy platform, through a national structure with strong political support to address bottlenecks and identify solutions together through working groups.
• Increased awareness of MHH, due to campaign mobilization of influencers, communication events and actions to promote best practices for all MH products, fight against stigma and support women empowerment.
• Scaling of local production and commercialization of biodegradable products and development of the distribution of quality Menstrual Hygiene products to the last mile.