Institutional Profile: Consortium of Christian Relief and Development Association (CCRDA)

The Consortium of Christian Relief and Development Association (CCRDA) is a legally registered non-profit membership organization of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society organizations (CSOs) operating in Ethiopia. Established in 1973 by 13 pioneering organizations, CCRDA has provided tested and proven service to the nation for more than half a century, steadily expanding its institutional membership, regional representation, and strategic engagement.

Infrastructure and Regional Presence

The consortium maintains its primary physical headquarters in Addis Ababa within a large, dedicated complex that houses administrative offices, comprehensive training and conference facilities, and a cafeteria. Beyond the capital, CCRDA has established regional chapters in six of the twelve regions of the country, ensuring widespread localized support and coordination.

Membership Scope and Institutional Vision

Membership has grown to encompass more than 500 legally registered national and international CSOs. These member organizations actively engage in long-term development initiatives, policy advocacy, humanitarian response, and human rights activities across Ethiopia.

The consortium operates under a long-term vision aimed at fostering a poverty-free Ethiopia characterized by vibrant, capable civil society organizations and assured social justice for all citizens.

Global Impact Profile: Food for the Hungry

Food for the Hungry is a Christian humanitarian aid and global development organization that has designed, developed, and delivered community-focused solutions for more than 50 years. By serving nearly 10 million people across 18 countries, the organization provides families and communities with the agency and resources necessary to realize their full potential and flourish.

Holistic Development and Collaboration

The organization achieves lasting impact by collaborating directly with local leaders across multiple sectors. Together, they co-create customized solutions that build long-term resilience. This approach strengthens the mental, physical, and spiritual well-being of individuals, ensuring that communities are equipped to sustain their own growth and development.

Institutional Profile: Finn Church Aid (FCA)

Finn Church Aid (FCA) is Finland’s largest international aid organization, bringing more than 70 years of experience to the world’s most fragile contexts. As an independent foundation, FCA works alongside the most vulnerable populations regardless of religious beliefs, ethnic background, or political convictions, operating as a member of the ACT Alliance global network.

Historical Development

Founded in 1947, the organization originally coordinated post-World War II reconstruction aid coming into Finland from the United States and Sweden. By the 1960s, Finland transitioned from an aid recipient into a provider of international assistance, sparking decades of steady growth for the organization. Initially a component of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland’s international department, FCA established its independence as an autonomous foundation in 1995.

Vision, Mission, and Rights-Based Mandate

The foundational vision focuses on building resilient and just societies where every individual's right to peace, quality education, and a sustainable livelihood is completely fulfilled. Guided by the mission of Action for Human Dignity, the organization grounds its operational framework in human rights, international humanitarian law, and established international principles. This explicit rights-based approach actively promotes equality, non-discrimination, participatory inclusion, and transparency across all global programs.

Core Values

Unconditional Love for Neighbours

The organization promotes universal human rights, regards all human beings as equal, and builds deep trust with partners. Embracing diversity allows for meaningful connections between people of differing perspectives.

Unyielding Hope

A firm commitment to long-term collaborative consistency drives institutional goals forward. The organization actively celebrates progress and maintains momentum despite operational setbacks.

Courage

Working courageously for structural change means questioning established, ineffective practices and calling for the critical re-evaluation of unbalanced power dynamics wherever necessary.

Respect

Mutual respect guides interactions between personnel, differing belief systems, and recipient communities. This value demands high transparency, absolute cost-efficiency with resources, and continuous mutual learning.

Strategic Priorities and Advocacy

FCA works toward permanent systemic change by targeting three core thematic priorities within disaster-affected and fragile regions: the right to peace, the right to a sustainable livelihood, and the right to quality education. Lasting progress is achieved through persistent local cooperation, empowering individuals to secure their basic needs and build resilience against future vulnerabilities. This localized effort is reinforced by global, regional, and national advocacy designed to positively impact the decision-making systems affecting daily lives.

Foundation Profile: Menschen für Menschen

The Menschen für Menschen Foundation – Karlheinz Böhm’s Ethiopia Aid is a public foundation under civil law dedicated to international development and community support. The organization connects a dedicated management team in Germany with operational colleagues directly on the ground in Ethiopia to implement sustainable development initiatives.

Organizational Structure and Opportunities

The foundation operates through established structures and committees that oversee strategic planning and governance. Beyond internal management, the organization regularly offers career opportunities for individuals looking to join the team and contribute directly to its development mission in Africa and Europe.

Legal and Non-Profit Status

The foundation is officially registered with the Munich tax office under tax number 143/235/72144. Recognized for its commitment to tax-privileged development purposes, the organization holds official non-profit status under a corporation and trade tax exemption valid through June 4, 2029.

Technical Profile: BLESS Agri-Food Laboratory Services PLC

BLESS Agri-Food Laboratory Services PLC is an ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accredited laboratory established in 2011 through a joint venture between Ethiopian and French investors. The organization serves as a key focal conformity assessment body in the region, specializing in comprehensive testing, product certification, inspection, and training services for agri-food items.

Strategic Direction

Vision

The organization aims to be the region’s most trusted partner for the quality assurance of food, food-allied, and agricultural products.

Mission

The mission centers on exceeding customer expectations professionally by delivering timely, comprehensive, and reliable services across testing, inspection, certification, and training to support operations, supply chains, exports, and imports.

Core Objectives

The primary objective focuses on enabling the agrarian and business communities within the agro-processing chain to operate as highly competent dealers. Additionally, the laboratory works to fill the regional gap for efficient, reliable, and quality food testing facilities both within Ethiopia and across East Africa.

Creating Change for Good

Water for Good is a faith-based, non-profit organization committed to creating a future where no one dies from a preventable water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) related disease.

In partnership with local churches and leaders, the organization helps communities establish access to reliable water and critical sanitation and hygiene practices. This collaborative approach ensures sustainable change, empowers citizens, and builds healthy futures.

Strategic Focus and Local Partnerships

The organization prioritizes long-term sustainability by establishing dependable clean water sources and implementing essential sanitation and hygiene practices that protect public health. Instead of working in isolation, Water for Good collaborates directly with local churches and community leaders to drive success from within the community itself.

Sustainable Global Impact

The ultimate goal of these initiatives is to eliminate preventable WASH-related illnesses entirely, allowing communities to thrive. By equipping community members to manage and maintain their own resources, the organization builds infrastructure designed to last, leading to empowered citizens and lasting regional development.

Giving Cash Directly to People Living in Poverty

GiveDirectly is a nonprofit that lets donors send money directly to the world's poorest households. By shifting funding directly into the hands of individuals, we aim to accelerate the end of extreme poverty globally.

Performance and Delivery (Last 12 Months)

Key Metrics Tracker

| Category | 12-Month Total | Recent Monthly Highlights | | --- | --- | --- | | Recipients Paid | 421,726 people | 20,976 recipients reached in April | | Dollars Delivered | $173,017,021 | $18,918,472 delivered in April$16,792,426 delivered in February | | Donations Received | 221,904 donations | 12,207 donations received in April19,000 donations received in October |

Historical Impact & Operations

Since 2009, we have delivered over $1 billion in cash directly into the hands of more than 2 million people living in poverty.

Current Operational Footprint

We maintain active operations in seven countries across Africa and North America:

• Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
• Kenya
• Malawi
• Mozambique
• Rwanda
• Uganda
• United States

Why Direct Cash Transfers Make Sense

Shifting Power to the Individual

Traditional aid often decides for people what they need, when they need it, and how they should use it. While well-intentioned, this approach can be disempowering. Giving cash shifts power to the person living in poverty, recognizing they are the experts in their own lives and granting them the dignity to choose for themselves.

Data-Driven Outcomes

Dozens of studies confirm that recipients spend cash aid in highly impactful, creative ways.

• Immediate Use: Money is commonly spent on medicine, livestock (cows, goats, chickens), school fees, solar panels, tin roofs, irrigation, motortaxis, and seeding new business ventures.
• Long-Term Growth: Years later, these initial investments raise baseline incomes, significantly lower malnutrition rates, and expand local economies by up to 2.5 times the original amount given.
• Debunking Myths: The data consistently demonstrates that recipients do not work less or spend funds on alcohol. Furthermore, outcomes show that men utilize and invest the cash just as effectively as women.

Our Shared Goal

Today, 817 million people globally live on less than $3 per day. Cash transfers are a proven, scalable method to accelerate their escape from poverty. Supported by individual donors, foundations, businesses, and institutions, our programs aim to demonstrate a clear path toward ending extreme poverty within our lifetimes.

Empowering Change Through Technical Excellence

Since our launch in 2010, SoCha has grown, developed, and specialized. While our scope has expanded globally, our core vision, mission, and values remain at the center of everything we do.

Our Core Identity

Our Vision

Global equality of opportunity where everyone can participate to realize their full potential.

Our Mission

To empower change through high-quality and cost-effective analytical and project management services.

Values & Ways of Working

• Have open dialogues We include a wide range of perspectives, people, and ideas in our work to foster improvement and innovation.
• Make informed decisions We work to understand new, alternative, and potential pathways and approaches for success so we can make decisions with confidence.
• Manage complexity We recognize the world is complex but that approaches and solutions can be simple—we embrace as much complexity as needed but no more.
• Keep discovering We seek out and test innovative ideas that help empower individual, organizational, and societal growth and change.
• Use resources efficiently We work to use any resources in the best possible way for the greatest return and support our clients to do the same.

Technical Excellence that Empowers Change

SoCha helps clients generate evidence and insight with solutions that employ rigorous, state-of-the-art mixed methods to assess progress, manage effectively, and maximize future impact.

Innovation in Action

• Predictive Performance Modelling: A custom approach to help clients model and manage change and complexity in their local development environments.
• Secure Data Platform: A custom-built platform designed to facilitate safer data collection in non-permissive environments.

Our Global Footprint

SoCha’s global structure and well-established networks allow us to respond to requests in a wide range of places and settings.

Track Record by the Numbers

| Indicator | Impact Metric | | --- | --- | | Assignments Completed | 1,100+ evaluations, assessments, third-party monitoring visits, and learning initiatives | | Global Experience | 47 countries with active experience | | Company Registrations | 11 countries with current registration | | Personnel Mobilized | 250+ local and international experts delivering technical assistance across Africa and Asia |

Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung (HRNS)

Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung (HRNS) was founded in 2005 by Michael R. Neumann and his family, building on their deep history of working side-by-side with smallholder coffee farmer families as green coffee traders. HRNS is named after its founder’s father, Hanns R. Neumann.

Building upon the work of Embden, Drishaus & Epping Consulting since 1991, the aim of HRNS has always been to empower smallholder families and strengthen their ability to independently achieve better livelihoods through the implementation of projects.

Core Objectives

The objectives of the foundation are:

• Livelihood improvement in tropical rural environments
• Youth support
• Protecting nature and the environment

Governance and Structure

HRNS operates as an independent non-profit with a Board of Trustees (BoT) whose independence is key in developing and guiding the work. The members of the BoT are a group of renowned experts in their respective fields forming together a broad range of expertise.

Empowering Families for the Future

We equip youth and caregivers with real-world tools to foster:

• Clarity
• Confidence
• Deeper family bonds that last.