MG Consultancy delivers an independent end-line evaluation rating the project a Qualified Success in one of Ethiopia’s most challenging operating environments.
MG Consultancy was commissioned by Christian Blind Mission (CBM) to conduct the final evaluation of its Community-Based Inclusive Development (CBID) project — “Improving the Lives of People with Disabilities through Community-Based Inclusive Development.” Funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by partners Bright Future Initiative (BFI) and Cheshire Foundation Action for Inclusion (CFAI), the project ran from September 2022 to February 2026 across six districts in East Gojjam and South Gondar zones.
Our evaluation team applied a mixed-method, OECD-DAC-aligned approach, combining a household survey of 296 respondents, 83 key informant interviews, 12 focus group discussions, and field observations at 28 facilities to assess the project against the criteria of relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability. Based on this evidence, MG Consultancy rated the project’s overall performance a Qualified Success, with benchmark achievements in its core sectors and clearly defined areas for improvement in future phases.
What Our Evaluation Found
The project reached 3,294 people directly — 62.8% women and 57.5% persons with disabilities — and more than 140,000 people indirectly through community-level awareness and systems change. Key results identified through our fieldwork and data analysis include:
- Health & Rehabilitation: 2,165 persons with disabilities received medical referrals to partner hospitals, 1,517 assistive devices were distributed, and 879 children received home-based rehabilitation. Two hospitals and two orthopedic workshops were equipped for lasting, locally sustained service delivery.
- Education: 120 teachers were trained in sign language and Braille, six Educational Resource Centers were established, and six schools were made physically accessible — contributing to a rise in enrollment of children with disabilities in inclusive education from 24% to 81%.
- Livelihoods & Economic Empowerment: 18 informal savings groups grew into 6 legally registered cooperatives with over 360 members, mobilizing ETB 1.85 million in savings and ETB 1.04 million in loans, with an 86.8% repayment rate.
- Social Inclusion: 95.8% of survey respondents reported reduced stigma toward persons with disabilities, following outreach that touched more than 132,000 community members through radio programs, documentaries, and campaigns.
- Governance & Empowerment: Eight Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) were legally registered and strengthened, and participation of persons with disabilities in local decision-making nearly tripled, from 32% to 89%.
Evaluating Performance Under Conflict Conditions
A key methodological challenge our team navigated was assessing performance within a fragile operating environment shaped by intermittent armed conflict in the Amhara Region, which intensified from mid-2023 onward. Our analysis distinguished between the project’s broader operating context and discrete periods of acute escalation, drawing on KII and survey evidence to show that implementation delays and coordination disruptions were concentrated in specific peak periods rather than continuous throughout the project. We found that implementing partners’ adaptive strategy — relying on trusted local staff and flexible field arrangements — allowed core services to continue with minimal interruption, a finding we consider instructive for future programming in similarly fragile contexts.
Assessment Against OECD-DAC Criteria
Our team rated the project highly relevant, coherent, effective, and efficient, with particular strength in how it embedded itself within existing government and community structures — hospitals, schools, cooperative offices, and traditional associations — rather than creating parallel systems. This design choice, in our assessment, materially strengthens the durability of the project’s gains beyond its lifecycle. We highlighted the Bright Future Initiative’s memorandum of understanding with Debre Markos Hospital, formalizing a monthly service quota for persons with disabilities through 2028, as a particularly replicable model.
Gaps We Identified for Future Programming
Our evaluation also surfaced a specific, addressable gap: while the project strengthened internal safeguarding and delivered strong results in health, education, and livelihoods, external protection systems in some government facilities — such as accessible complaint mechanisms in police and social affairs offices — fell outside the project’s original mandate and remain in need of attention. We also flagged the continued reliance of some OPDs on external funding as a sustainability risk requiring targeted transition planning.
Our Recommendations
Drawing on our findings, MG Consultancy’s evaluation offers CBM and future implementers in the region a set of practical, actionable recommendations, including:
- Conducting pre-implementation accessibility audits of all partner government facilities, not only project-targeted ones.
- Formalizing sustainability handover agreements with local government as a condition of final funding disbursement.
- Scaling the savings and loan cooperative model, which our evaluation found especially effective for economic empowerment.
- Aligning project planning and handover with government budget cycles to secure long-term institutional buy-in.
In Summary
This evaluation demonstrates MG Consultancy’s approach to rigorous, evidence-based assessment in complex and fragile operating environments — combining robust mixed-method data collection with practical, forward-looking recommendations that implementing organizations can act on. We are proud to have supported CBM in documenting the results of this project and in shaping the evidence base for its next phase of disability-inclusive programming in Ethiopia.
MG Consultancy — Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Contact: Mesganaw Getinet, Managing Director | misganaw@2mgconsultancy.com | www.2mgconsultancy.com