The Joint Ethio-Danish Development Program is implemented in two districts in Northern Ethiopia.

The Joint Programme has three components in Education, Agriculture, and Health sectors and it has been developed and implemented with the objectives of improving the food security/livelihood status, strengthening local capacity to enable the target population to cope with current and future disasters, and to increase knowledge within the field of development-oriented relief programmes in the intervention areas and among participating organizations.

The Joint Programme was started in 1997 in an effort to approach some of the problems in North Wollo in an integrated way. North Wollo has been severely affected by droughts and famines during the last 30 years and almost every year is it necessary to distribute relief food. The Joint Programme is implemented by Danish Red Cross, DanChurchAid, Save the Children-Denmark, and Ethiopian partner organizations.

Shortage of farmland has become still more serious and many households cultivate less than 0.5 ha. The development has resulted in ever increasing poverty. The area has also been greatly affected by civil war especially during the many years of resistance to the Derg-regime during which North Wollo was a major battle zone. Recently the area has seen an influx of families displaced by the border conflict with Eritrea.

Nordeco will lead a mission that will evaluate the results and impact of the past 10 years of support, looking at outcomes, lessons learnt and sustainability elements, both in terms of local administration, community based organizations, individual skills and attitudes as well as programme set-up, for possible replication and learning within the Ethiopian and Danish NGO communities.