BENEFIT The Bilateral Ethiopian Netherlands Effort for Food, Income and Trade (BENEFIT) unites four major programmes led by Wageningen UR in Ethiopia:
--(1)-- the Ethiopian-Netherlands Trade Facility for Agribusiness (ENTAG) supports private sector development and trade in Ethiopia; ENTAG seeks to increase agribusiness productivity, trade and foreign direct investment in Ethiopia by strengthening the private sector in working more effectively with smallholders in applying new technologies and accessing finance for investment purposes.
--(2)-- The Capacity building for Scaling up of evidence-based best Practices in agricultural production (CASCAPE) project improving agricultural productivity through promoting evidence-based best agricultural practices; it supports the Ethiopian Agricultural Growth Programme in its ambition to improve the livelihoods of the rural population in high potential areas of Ethiopia, with the specific impact of delivering increased agricultural productivity and commercialization of smallholder farmers targeted by the AGP project. CASCAPE seeks to enhance the capacity of the research and extension system to generate demand-driven best fit technologies and practices, to put in place conditions for uptake, and to deliver these technologies and practices to farmers.
--(3)-- The Integrated Seed Sector Development (ISSD) Ethiopia project supports the development of a vibrant, pluralistic and market oriented seed sector; 
--(4)-- The Sesame Business Network support project (SBN) working on competitive, sustainable and inclusive sesame value chain development. Sesame Business Network (SBN) supports the Ethiopian Sesame Business Network in northwest Ethiopia. SBN strives for competitive, sustainable and inclusive sesame sector development. This mainly refers to the sesame production and marketing systems prevailing in the lowlands of Northwest Ethiopia, which are selected as priority zones both for the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) and the Agricultural Growth Programme (AGP)

The partnership of the four programmes is coordinated and facilitated by the Programme Coordination Unit based in Addis Abeba. The BENEFIT partnership has the following goals: increased quantity and quality of sustainable agricultural production; improved markets and trade; and strengthened enabling institutional environment for the agricultural sector. 
The programmes under the BENEFIT partnership have the following goals:
--(1)-- The goal of ENTAG is to strengthen agribusinesses operating in Ethiopia by supporting them to overcome challenges and solve bottlenecks in poultry, aquaculture, legumes, spices, sesame, potato, and dairy subsectors
--(2)--The goal of CASCAPE is to enhance the capacity of the research and extension system to generate demand-driven best fit technologies and practices, to put in place conditions for uptake, and to deliver these technologies and practices to farmers. 
--(3)-- The goal of ISSD Ethiopia is to improve female and male smallholder farmer access to and use of quality seed of new, improved, and/or farmer preferred varieties to sustainably increase agricultural productivity.
--(4)-- The goal of BENEFIT SBN is to support competitive, sustainable and inclusive sesame sector development. The focus is on farmers income improvement, which requires a strong position of the Ethiopian sesame sector in the world market, based on competition on price and quality. Further, it requires a well-functioning market system in which value chain operators, supporters and enablers play their respective roles and collaborate. Inclusive sector development refers to the sensitivity of BENEFIT-SBN for the opportunities for - and effects of - sector development for smallholder farmers, labourers, women and youth.

The BENEFIT Programme Coordination Unit has a fourth goal to stimulate and promote partnership synergy in order to contribute to greater effectivity, higher scale and impact, and demonstrate improved stakeholder collaboration. By 2019, the BENEFIT partnership will have achieved the following target groups: farmers and their cooperatives, unions and associations; small-medium enterprises; entrepreneurs; knowledge institutes including Agricultural Research Centres and Universities; and policy makers.
Specific target groups of the BENEFIT programmes are:
--(1)-- ENTAG focuses on the poultry, aquaculture, legumes, spices, sesame, potato, and dairy sectors. Through its interventions, ENTAG aims to reach the following groups and targets: entrepreneurs (will be supported to better identify and exploit business opportunities for both Ethiopian and foreign private investors); potential investors (will receive relevant information to help them evaluate and pursue investment opportunities); Sub-Sector Platforms (will be organised to identify and address value chain bottlenecks, find interested partners to implement innovation projects, report back on the outcome, create Business2Business connections) and private sector associations (will increase their capacity and demonstrate membership increases each year) 
--(2)-- CASCAPE supports Ethiopian farmers and agriculture stakeholders (Ethiopian Institute for Agricultural Research, Regional Agricultural Research Institutes and Universities) in testing and availing of technologies & practices that increase agricultural production and productivity which are based on farmer needs. Government Regional Bureaus of Agriculture is supported to implement methodologies and train woreda staff in the implementation. CASCAPE will work in 65 woredas with different levels of intensity from the Agricultural Growth Program 2 (AGP2) intervention woredas: 10 high intensity woredas, 55 medium intensity woredas and 90 low intensity woredas.
--(3)-- ISSD Ethiopia works across four regions of Ethiopia: Amhara, Oromia, SNNPR and Tigray. ISSD Ethiopia aims to reach the following groups: informal seed systems (working in 30 districts, with 720 farmer groups, each comprising 50 members (50% female)), working directly with 36,000 farmers; intermediary seed systems (working with at least 150 Local Seed Businesses and their supporting partners); formal seed systems (25 private seed companies (SMEs) and five public seed companies as well as the Ethiopian Seed Association are targeted in strengthening their business capacities and organizational development); five Dutch/international companies are targeted in facilitating linkages (Business 2 Business and business to research) and in forming PPPs (with companies and other seed value chain actors); and finally key seed sector stakeholders and seed sector decision-makers.
--(4)-- The SBN support project operates in the lowlands of five woredas of North Gondar zone in Amhara region and in three woredas of Western Tigray zone of Tigray region. The Sesame Business Network (SBN) support project seeks an approach to combine both stakeholder and value chain dynamics. Stakeholder dynamics occur at both the local, sesame business cluster (SBC), and at the strategic level, sesame business network (SBN). BENEFIT SBN works with smallholder farmers; investor farmers; farmer organisations; small/medium enterprises/entrepreneurs; regional and national trade platforms; Dutch and international sesame companies; knowledge institutes; and government extension staff.