The Innovation for Development (I4D) project contributed to national efforts to strengthen Ethiopia’s innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem between 2020 and 2025, supporting inclusive economic growth and job creation, particularly for women and youth. The project was implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in partnership with the Ministry of Innovation and Technology (MInT), the Ministry of Labor and Skills (MoLS), with funding from the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), and UNDP Core Partners. 

The project applied a system level approach to address interconnected ecosystem constraints across policy and regulation, institutional capacity, coordination among ecosystem actors, entrepreneurial development, and access to finance.

The project also generated important insights for future programming. These include the need for sustained, long term investment in innovation ecosystems, the importance of integrated approaches that combine finance, policy, and capacity development, and the value of targeted measures to ensure inclusive participation, particularly for female entrepreneurs. Future support should maintain the link between policy reform, institutional coordination, enterprise capacity development, and access to finance, while building stronger pipelines for women and youth and embedding flexibility to respond to changing operating conditions.

Building on these reflections, this report presents an overview of the project’s implementation approach, key results, cross-cutting contributions, and challenges, before drawing out lessons, sustainability pathways, and future considerations to inform the next generation of innovation ecosystem interventions in Ethiopia.