The project is implemented in four rural communities in the Dendi and Ambo districts of the West Shewa Zone of Oromia, Ethiopia. The area is highly disadvantaged and marginalised due to poor road and market infrastructure, absence of electricity and potable water supply, weak education and health services, and inadequate extension and advisory services. The people’s livelihood is based on mixed highland crop and livestock farming characterised by small farm size, declining yields of crops and livestock, subsistence-oriented production, and increasing vulnerability to the impacts of climate change and other agricultural risks because of poverty, marginalisation and degradation of natural resources. A wealth ranking undertaken in 2019 revealed that more than 75% of the families were ranked as poor or very poor based on their asset endowments like cultivated land size, oxen, sheep, number of enset, eucalyptus plantation, and family size. Women farmers’ access to and participation in extension services are limited, it is much lower for married women. Culturally women face constraints in operating and going far outside the home, have low literacy, and have heavy domestic responsibilities. The public extension and advisory services are not delivered in a way that women’s needs and situations are addressed.