The Scaling Conservation Agriculture-based Sustainable Intensification in Ethiopia (SCASI) project was designed to scale up/out CASI in selected districts of the major crop-producing regional states in Ethiopia by implementing appropriate climate-smart agriculture practices such as CASI to sustainably increase agricultural production and productivity under the changing climate and declining soil health conditions in the country. This requires promoting conservation agriculture-based sustainable crop and livestock production technologies and practices that improve food and nutrition security and increase income while conserving the natural resources base and reducing GHG emissions through enhanced capacity of implementers at different levels. The project targets four regional states where (i) major crops are grown, (ii) population density is high, (iii) a limited promotion of CASI is already ongoing and (iv) most districts overlap with SLMP watershed interventions.

The objective of the Review is to assess and document the performance of the Project and the extent to which the outputs and outcomes have been achieved, determining coherence, efficiency, and effectiveness. The review will assess success factors and constraints, capture lessons learnt and document new knowledge and important topics for further enquiry, action, lobbying and/or influence. It will also review and assess the findings and recommendations of the Project Progress Reports.

For more than 40 years the Development Fund (DF) has collaborated with local communities and civil society organizations in developing countries to improve food production and income generation of highly vulnerable and marginalized rural communities. DF’s vision is a sustainable and just world with freedom from hunger, poverty, and marginalization. Hundreds of thousands of small-scale farming households have received DF support to develop resilient livelihoods and eliminate hunger, malnutrition, and poverty in their communities.

DF has stood steadfast in the forefront among development organizations promoting the empowerment of marginalized rural communities, pro-poor policies, and appropriate solutions, particularly through approaches such as crop diversification, model-farmer, climate adaptive villages (CAVs), affordable climate adaptive agriculture techniques, community seed banks, small-scale irrigation and mechanization, local natural resource management, microcredits and capacity building of civil society and grassroots organization. DF mobilizes the assets of small-scale farmers to ensure local contribution, involvement, and ownership, which is key to sustainable, resilient, and equitable development.